Multidisciplinary collaboration was showcased at the Student Activities Center Ballrooms during the 2025 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URECA) Celebration and Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Symposium on April 30. The event featured 222 student research posters and 24 multi-semester VIP projects from various fields, including humanities, social sciences, engineering, health sciences, and natural sciences.
Karen Kernan, director of programs for research and creative activity, expressed her enthusiasm for the URECA event: “There are so many things I love about the URECA event — the curiosity and enthusiasm, the interactions between students, faculty and staff, the whole range of projects from anesthesiology to women’s studies.” She emphasized that each poster tells a story of curiosity and creativity.
The symposium covered topics ranging from linguistics to biomedical engineering. Leanne Demay, manager of the VIP program in the Career Center, remarked on its significance: “It’s a great opportunity for students to showcase all of the hard work they’ve been doing throughout the semester.”
Mei Lin (Ete) Chan-Lo from the Department of Biomedical Engineering highlighted one aspect of VIP projects: “One of the highlights of the VIP team experience is that students can work with people from different majors and class years.”
Among these projects was Go Baby Go, which adapts ride-on toy cars for children with disabilities. Aayan Rahman explained their modifications: “We take these cars and modify them to help kids transition toward using a wheelchair.” Another project called Carnival Game aimed at physical therapy. Diana Pinto described it as an interactive tool turning rehab into something visual.
The URECA project Visualizing Attention in BERT Models examined how transformer models interpret language. Jung Soo Shin noted: “We’re showing how machines ‘pay attention’ to different words when processing a sentence.” Chen Zhu added their goal was to help others understand machine learning processes.
Ronald George presented his historical project on John Dickinson. He stated: “I had never heard of John Dickinson — no one talks about him,” highlighting Dickinson's influence in early American politics.
Beth Squire reported on these student achievements showcasing innovation across disciplines.