Nearly 100 projects will be displayed at today’s Undergraduate Research Symposium in Memorial Union, showcasing some of the thousands of research and service projects UW-Madison students complete every year.

Some projects on display will be posters describing the oral histories of women during World War II and the efforts of a local service-learning group to develop workshops that promote positive body image among middle-school aged girls. One student will give a dramatic reading from his fictional work addressing issues of race and identity.

The contest was open to all UW undergraduates, as long as the project demonstrated “original and creative thought/action on the part of the student applicant.”

One work shown will be a suture needle that is sharp only when in use. Students Briar Duffy, Angela Heppner, Elizabeth Nee and Jeff Phillips came up with the plan as part of their biomedical engineering senior design project. They were hoping to alleviate some of the concern health care providers have about coming into contact with patients’ bodily fluids.

The goal, Duffy said, was to find a way to deactivate the tip of the needle when it was not being used to stitch wounds, thus minimizing the time the needle is sharp and the potential for injury.

While a needle similar to what the group hoped to design had already been patented, the product had never been developed commercially. They decided to design a marketable device, encountering challenges along the way.

“At every step, the students encounter a new hurdle,” said Mitch Tyler, biomedical engineering researcher and the team’s mentor. “I am continually astonished at how resourceful they are.”

The team worked on the device for two semesters and is now hoping to get it patented through the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
“I never really thought of myself as an inventor before,” Duffy said.

The Symposium will also include a faculty panel of professors discussing “Creativity in the Discipline.”

The only prizes handed out will be certificates, given to all participants by interim dean of the graduate school Martin Cadwallader.

Robert Skloot, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the process is prize enough.

“Doing research provides a crucial dimension for students whose intellectual journey must include a practical as well as theoretical basis,” he said. “It creates an environment of collaboration, often in partnership with faculty and staff; it enhances critical thinking, and it allows expansion of the creative spirit that all of us possess.”

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Graduate School and the Morgridge Center for Public Service.