Students celebrate research at QEP Undergraduate Research and Making Exposition

About 70 students gathered in the lobby of Genome Science Building on Friday to present their research at the QEP  Undergraduate Research and Making Exposition. 

The QEP, or Quality Enhancement Plan, is a necessary part of maintaining the University’s accreditation from the Southern Association of the Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and UNC uses the theme of Creating Scientists: Learning by Connecting, Doing and Making. 

Junior Will Blanks participated in the exposition because he completed a project on ATP and wanted to share his work. Using a 3D printer, Blanks created a model of ATP synthase and learned a lot about the academics and printing process. 

“I learned a lot about laser cutting. I learned a lot about biochemistry and, on top of that, I also learned about makerspace,” Blanks said. 

QEP is a five-year initiative and advocates for experiential learning. At this event, students were able to present their makerspace projects from Be a Maker or their research from course-based undergraduate research. 

QEP director and professor of biology Kelly Hogan said the QEP is part of the University’s accreditation process and that this exposition gives students a means to present research and complete the learning cycle. 

“For me, it’s a celebration of the innovative ways that students are approaching learning in a lot of their courses now and really stressing that students are not just learning about science and research, but more broadly how to do it and to get involved and to see that it’s iterative, that it’s messy, that failure is part of it," Hogan said. "But the rewards are what we see today, which is that students have discovered something novel, and they’ve made novel objects."

Additionally, Hogan said this event was a celebration of research and not many students get this type of opportunity in a class. 

“We really want them to see that what they’re doing is authentic and meaningful and to feel really proud of what they’ve done," she said. "They’ve accomplished a lot and we don’t think that you get to always do that in a course."

Senior Austin Southard-Smith said his research started in a chemistry class and that he wanted to participate in order to learn presenting techniques first-hand. 

“We hoped to gain experience in terms of learning how to talk about stuff with other people who maybe aren’t as well versed in certain aspects of science and trying to explain stuff,” Southard-Smith said. 

Junior Kristin Olson said participating in this event can assist students in higher levels of learning, while also helping them plan for future academic endeavors.

“I think these classes are a great introduction in gaining research experience here at UNC," Olson said. "That way when we’re older and in higher levels of education, here we are able to get deeper in to what we want."

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