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Twelve University of North Georgia (̨Íåswag) undergraduate students are participating in the Faculty Undergraduate Summer Engagement (FUSE) program, which provides the seven groups with research grants and programming focused on academic professionalization. A 13th student funded by an external grant is also participating in the FUSE summer workshops. The two-month program covers several disciplines, including biology and English.

"FUSE showcases ̨Íåswag’s most exciting, collaborative research from across the disciplines," Dr. Anastasia Lin, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs and director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, said. "Watching these student-faculty teams wrestle with hard questions, develop solutions, and share them with the wider group is truly a treat."

FUSE grant recipients are given a $4,000 faculty stipend and up to $500 for materials. Faculty are then able to hire a student researcher for eight weeks at 40 hours a week.

Dr. Robin O'Day, associate professor of cultural anthropology, is working with ̨Íåswag senior Lauren Bowman, who is pursuing a degree in film and digital media with a production concentration. Their collaboration, titled "Oral Histories of Enslaved Lifeways in the South Carolina Lowcountry," highlights the lives of African workers and their descendants and attempts to fill in some gaps in the region's cultural landscape.

"We feel very honored to be a part of something so important and deeply personal. Our limited time spent at the Delta this summer provided us with the opportunity to begin building relationships with the community and document the missing narratives," Bowman said.

Biology duo Taryn Tu, a junior from Americus, Georgia, and Sydney Griffith, a sophomore from Dacula, Georgia, are working under the mentorship of Dr. Nancy Dalman and Dr. James Leaphart studying the metals in oysters in Brunswick, Georgia.

The oysters are considered contaminated when compared to those of Sapelo Island. The pair are reviewing how contamination will affect oyster health and the developing oyster mariculture industry in Georgia in their project "Cracking the Shell on Eastern Oyster Heavy Metal Exposure and Effects.”

"I feel like I've learned and continue to learn so much about biology and research. The project we are working on is special to me as it is the first project I have been here for since it started," Griffith said.

Tu shared she started working with Dalman on oyster research last August and loved every minute of it.

"I am so fortunate to have the chance to gain experience conducting research, both in the field and in the lab," Tu said. "All of this is preparing us for the eventuality of presenting the results of our work at a conference and setting us up for success in future endeavors."

The other FUSE grant recipients were:

• Courtney Nutt and Tanner Lumpkin, supervised by Ralph Hale, assistant professor of psychological science, "An investigation of visual false memories in a virtual reality environment."
• Asa Conroy, Grey Nebel and Rebecca Egan, supervised by Melissa Schindler, assistant professor of English, "An entrepreneur's tale: The life of Miss Fanny Harrell, a north Georgia businesswoman."
• McKenna Coile, supervised by Alison Kanak, assistant professor of biology, "Functional and genetic characterization of novel bacteriophage KSKraber."
• Lillie Hayes and Atticus Tomcho, supervised by Jessy Patterson, biology lecturer, "An assessment of human impacts on mammal behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa."
• Chandler Davis, supervised by Johnny Yoon, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, "Visualization approach to study the shape effects on the dehydrogenation of LOHC."

In addition to the 7 funded FUSE teams, Mateo Valera, supervised by Greg Feiden and under a grant from Georgia Space Grant Consortium, is also participating in the FUSE programming this year for their project, “Characterizing the Metallicity Dependence of Wind Strengths for Wolf-Rayet Stars.”