ISU students had a chance to show off their individual and group research projects at the state’s 7th annual “Research at the Capitol” event in Des Moines. 

Students from University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa also made the guest list in presenting their projects ranging from political to scientific.

Robert Kirby, director of the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates, offered a few words of inspiration to the 24 undergraduates present.

“It really is recognizable, the important role you are all going to play in the future. You’re going to go on to become doctors, lawyers, nurses, pharmacists,” Kirby said. “You are going to be the workers of this state and the surrounding states for the next 40 to 50 years to come. You are the future of our state.”

Elliott Smith, executive director of the Iowa Business Council and the feature speaker for the event, outlined the importance of the research done by undergraduate students. 

The Iowa Business Council is comprised of 20 of the largest companies in Iowa, the presidents of the three universities and the Iowa Banker’s Association.

“What you’re doing today, what you’re showcasing, and what your future is aiming for is not only important to the large companies I represent but the small and mid-sized companies of the state,” Smith said. “It took Edison 10,000 tries to create the light bulb, had he given up on the 8,000th try, we’d still be using candles today.” 

Brock Pope, senior in genetics, presented his project, “Understanding Gene Expression Networks in Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells.”

“I’m really interested in genetics and biology. I’ve always been interested in doing research, I’ve been doing it for about a year now, and I saw the opportunity to present here, and so I just thought it’d be a good opportunity,” Pope said.

Matt Monaco, senior in hotel, restaurant and institution management, began his research project, “Experiences of Students Suffering from Food Allergies with College and University Dining” to help dining services on campus provide a safer dining experience to students.

“[Food allergies] have increased by about 18 percent in recent years,” Monaco said. “It’s interesting material and something [ISU assistant professor Lakshman] Rajagopal was working on, and so this is just kind of an extension of something he’s already done.”

Sawyer Baker, senior in political science, hosted a political project, titled “Recent Leadership Trends in the Iowa General Assembly: A Gendered Analysis” that received some interesting feedback. 

“A male legislator walked up to me, and we were almost getting into a little bit of a debate about it,” Baker said. “I expected some political debate to happen over this poster, so it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary.”

For information on how to submit a research project for next year’s “Research at the Capitol,” people are encouraged to contact the University Honors Program.