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Ekta Chugh ’19, a biology and accounting major who hopes to become a cardiothoracic surgeon, recently discussed some of the findings of her research project made possible through the R.I. Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. (Photo courtesy of RI EPSCoR)

Six Bryant students spent their summer immersed in projects ranging from studying nanoparticles that can cause brain tumors to exploring microbial communities in estuaries as part of the Rhode Island Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. This experience conducting methodical and intensified research breeds a deeper involvement in the science, and allows students to delve into expansive research projects.

“This is truly graduate-level research” that not many undergraduates get to experience, says Associate Professor of Science and Technology Christopher Reid, Ph.D.

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At RISD Illustration major Yuko Okabe 17 IL has learned that being a good illustrator is not just about developing and expressing your own voice, it’s about reaching out and communicating with others. As a summer Maharam STEAM Fellow, she’s using her character development talents to reach kids at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) who are dealing with mental health issues such as anxiety and hyperactivity.

“Children respond to stories,” Okabe points out. “The project I’m working on uses storytelling to help psychotherapists and other caregivers communicate with kids and teach them different skills related to executive function and other cognitive behaviors.”

Okabe has teamed up with game developers at Neuro’motion, a startup that works closely with clinicians in BCH’s Department of Psychiatry, to contribute to a biofeedback game for children aged 6–12 that helps them regulate intense emotions via therapeutic coping skills. When young players follow the game’s narrative, their heartrates are monitored as they face increasingly difficult challenges. They can see how high their heartrate is rising by looking at a gauge on the screen and can only move up to the next level by staying calm enough to keep their heartrate below a certain number.

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NEWPORT, R.I. (Aug. 23, 2016) – Dr. Sami Nassim, director of multicultural programs and retention at Salve Regina University, has published an article, “A Holistic Approach to Helping Minority Students Succeed in College.” His work appears on Rhode Island’s College & University Research Collaborative website at http://www.collaborativeri.org/research/.

“One of the most important challenges in higher education is to close the achievement gap between racial majority and minority students,” Nassim writes. “At non-profit private four-year institutions, the share of white students who graduate within either four or six years is at least 10 percentage points higher than the share of minority students. In Rhode Island, the disparity in graduation rates between white and minority students is even larger.”

Nassim focused his study on research and programs developed at Salve Regina with the hope that the information garnered may hold lessons for other institutions interested in increasing minority student retention and for policy makers seeking to improve the educational attainment and economic status of minorities in the state.

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Rhode Island’s two accredited public health entities — the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Brown University School of Public Health — launched a new academic partnership.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and the Brown University School of Public Health have launched a new academic partnership aimed at building healthy communities and creating a hub of public health research and innovation in Rhode Island. This alliance makes RIDOH an “academic health department” or a teaching health department — the public health equivalent of “teaching hospital” affiliations that formalize the relationship between medical schools and hospitals.

Both institutions have received formal accreditations in the past year. The School of Public Health, which launched in 2013, earned accreditation in June by the Council on Education for Public Health, to join with RIDOH, which was accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board in November 2015, to become the state’s public health-accredited entities.

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