Go behind the scenes at Research and Discovery Fair

Three-photo collage of a a student working on a costume in a costume-production class; students at an archaeological dig; and a student looking at a water tank. — Admission to the Research and Discovery Fair is free, and the event counts for Campus Life Experience credit. (Photos — clockwise — by Megan May/UNC Research, Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill and Megan Mendenhall/UNC Research)

Undergraduate students can learn about potential research experiences and resources, observe and conduct experiments, and talk with researchers from many disciplines at the Research and Discovery Fair.

Part of University Research Week, the Oct. 23 fair will showcase over 25 UNC research labs, projects and resources from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union’s Great Hall. Admission is free for this Campus Life Experience event.

The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center will kick off the event with “Science on Stage” interactive experiments, then repeat the performance twice during the fair. The experiments will chill the room’s air with liquid nitrogen, launch rockets, deep-freeze objects and attempt to pop an unpoppable balloon with 900 nails.

Presentations include:

The Carolina Drone Lab, which uses drones and sensors to solve environmental and social challenges, will demonstrate how to fly different-sized drones.
Ronit Freeman, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ applied physical sciences department, and members of her lab team will help students create synthetic smart capsules that swim like fish and clean dirty reservoirs. After fabrication, the students will use microscopes to observe how the capsules move in water.
Students from the College’s dramatic art department’s MFA program in costume production will share how research helps with creating costumes, especially for shows depicting past eras. They will show a reproduction of an 1893 garment from the department’s vintage clothing collection and present on the use of digital patternmaking software.
Estuarine ecologist Joel Fodrie, director of the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, and aquatic ecologist Scott Gifford from the College’s Earth, marine and environmental sciences department will host a display of hands-on water sampling and fisheries-related items.
Research Labs of Archaeology staff will provide information on summer field sites.
Researchers from the Joint Applied Mathematics and Marine Sciences Fluids Lab will perform a 15-minute demonstration at noon to show how fluid stratification affects the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon and how oil plumes can be trapped sub-surface.
Staff from UNC University Libraries’ Southern Folklife Collection will talk with students about collecting, preserving and distributing music, art and culture related to the American South.
The Applied Engineering Laboratory, which builds prototypes of microtechnology–based systems, will operate Spot the Robot Dog.