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A dozen University of North Georgia (̨Íåswag) undergraduate students have the opportunity to take part in projects funded by Faculty Undergraduate Summer Engagement (FUSE) research grants. The programs run from May 31-July 22 and cover a variety of academic disciplines.

"FUSE offers students the chance to participate in mentored undergraduate research projects that introduce them to the ins and outs of research, from project conception to implementation," Dr. Anastasia Lin, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs and director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, said. "Students expand their critical thinking and problem-solving skills by working alongside faculty through every step of the research process."

FUSE offers students the chance to participate in mentored undergraduate research projects that introduce them to the ins and outs of research, from project conception to implementation

Dr. Anastasia Lin

̨Íåswag assistant vice president of Academic Affairs and director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

"We're basically working to create a novel protocol for obtaining and isolating phage from the environment. This protocol uses less materials and takes less time than the current method," Oenick said.

The new protocol will be utilized in Honors Introduction to Biology and possibly other courses.

Amy Rodriguez and Hannah Fontenot, who are working under the guidance of Margi Flood, find themselves at Lake Lanier, investigating the possible presence of invasive zebra mussels, a small freshwater mussel originally native to the Baltic area.

"The mussels were introduced into the Great Lakes in the late 1980s. Big ships used the water for ballast which contained the mussels and released it into the Great Lakes. They have since been introduced into many freshwater systems in the U.S., including the Mississippi, Missouri, Colorado, and Tennessee rivers," Fontenot said.

The pair take weekly water samples from Forsyth, Gwinnett, and Hall county locations and test them for environmental DNA (eDNA), which are small DNA particles that are released by the mussel.

Zebra mussels cause crashes in the phytoplankton population because they eat all the phytoplankton, reducing its availability for native mussels and young fish, while also contributing to algal overgrowth (outbursts) which can release toxic byproducts outbursts, Fontenot said.

"They do a lot of ecological damage by competing for food with native species, and they also do a lot of economic damage because they clog water intake valves and surfaces they get on," Rodriguez said. "They're about the size of your pinky nail but number in the thousands."

Should the duo find evidence of zebra mussel presence, they will report their findings to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and may do follow-up studies.  

Other FUSE grant recipients were:

• Madison Waldrep and Georgia Burkhalter, supervised by Dr. Ryan Thompson, associate professor of mathematics, "Solving the Fornberg-Whitham equation, which models the evolution of shallow water waves."
• Katherine Earl and Jessica Howard, supervised by Dr. Dobrusia Bialonska and Dr. Paul Johnson, associate professors of biology, "Isolation of probiotic bacteria from goat milk production by local farmers."
• Victoria Hart and Ashlee Higgins, supervised by Dr. Kelly Cate, assistant professor of psychology, "Mate selection process used on online dating sites."
• Jordan Aethelric and Kirstie Carson, supervised by Dr. Robin O'Day, associate professor of anthropology, "Japanese disaster narratives in translation."
• Tyler Goodwyn, supervised by Dr. John Dewey, associate professor of psychology, "Role of spatial attention in shaping the sense of agency."