The public is invited to the University of the Virgin Islands' 8th Annual Research Day scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, April 5, in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center on the St. Thomas Campus and in the Great Hall on the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix. Research Day provides UVI students, faculty and staff the opportunity to showcase their research, which highlights diversetopics that impact the community.
“This volume of active research attracts a large amount of grant funds that are of enormous value to UVI and the VI community,” said Frank Mills, vice provost for Research and Public Service. “We try to accomplish this by exposing our residents to the University’s modern research on the marine and land environment, as well as to the myriad of local health, social and psychological research topics.”
Research Day will feature UVI student and faculty research with a variety of displays on community issues such as:
- Coral Reef Resilience
- Local Cyberspace Safety
- The Homeless and Mentally- ill
- Waste on the Island
- Post-hurricane Impacts
The posters featured on Research Day come from the various schools, colleges and centers at UVI to include the Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, College of Science and Mathematics, the Eastern Caribbean Center, School of Business and the School of Education. This year Research Day will offer round-table discussions on both campuses on current social and development topics and feature many demonstrations. During the round-table discussions, the public is welcomed to dialogue with UVI researchers.
Round-table topics on St. Thomas will include:
- Physician Scientists - An Illustrious Career that Combines Research and Medicine
- Magical Realism and its Usage in Their Eyes Were Watching God and Land of Love and Drowning
- Mythical Realism in Derek Walcott's “Ti-Jean and His Brothers” and “Dream on Monkey Mountain”
Round-table topics on St. Croix will include:
- Multiculturalism and Its Impact on our Cultural Identity: What is the Virgin Islands Culture?
- “We an Dem” and “Oneness” in Caribbean Music & Media
- Artificial Intelligence -- Are You For Real?
Demonstrations:
- Virtual Reality in the Classroom: New Tools to Address 21st Century Educational Landscape
- Exploring the Ocean Using Virtual Reality
- Virtual Reality in Journalism
- Marvelous Mud: A Dig into How and Why We Sample Sediment in Coastal Habitats
- Marine debris in the USVI: Discover the Issue and Discuss Solutions
- The Sounds that Bats Make - What it Tells Us About Our Natural World
- Futures in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Approximately 76 poster presentations will be presented at Research Day. Two UVI undergraduate students and two UVI faculty, one from the St. Thomas Campus and one from the Sheen Campus, will receive a $500 prize for the best poster presentation at Research Day.
“One of the highlights of this year’s (St Thomas) event is the introduction of the concept of creative thinking aimed at our high schoolers,” said Mills. “Students will be thrilled by Dr. Timothy Faley, a distinguished professor in the School of Business, who will mount the principles of his now famous Hackathon to the introductory Hands-on Creative Problem-Solving experiment. Prizes will be awarded to every group that participates in this exciting student engagement,” he said.
Over 200 high school students between St. Thomas and St. Croix are anticipated to be in attendance.
For the first time at Research Day, attendees will have the opportunity to observe underwater habitats such as corals and mangroves using virtual reality technology. Also, at this year's event, the public will also be provided the first empirical public response to the state of hurricane preparedness before and after ‘IrMaria’.
A publication featuring the abstracts and authors of current UVI research will be available. It can also be accessed by clicking this link: UVI Research Day 2019 abstract book
Since 2012, the University’s annual Research Day has been providing the general Virgin Islands community the opportunity to learn of the various areas of studies in which students are undertaking research.
For more information about Research Day,contact the Public Relations Office at (340) 693-1056 or pr@uvi.edu.