The Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) are meant to stimulate a student's interest in research in the natural sciences and engineering. Students work closely together with eligible FASS faculty that can supervise their research. The awards are also meant to encourage students to undertake graduate studies and pursue a research career in these fields.
I am a fourth year Cognitive Science student. I am thrilled to be working on a content analysis of bilingualism questionnaires this summer, as I believe this project has meaningful implications to provide necessary clarification for bilingualism research. I expect that throughout my completion of this project I will improve my writing proficiency, statistical analysis skills, knowledge translation abilities, and will learn a new content analysis methodology.
Supervisor: Dr. John Anderson
Through the NSERC-URSA award I am combining my interest of machine learning and neurodegenerative disorders to create models using artificial intelligence to automatically detect Parkinson’s through mPower data. Using the dataset, I will be able to use movement patterns from people to see if various algorithms are able to detect early-onset Parkinson’s, a verified case of Parkinson’s, or no Parkinson’s detection. Parkinson’s disease affects many people worldwide and there are still many unknowns associated with it. With this award, I am looking to gain critical research experience and provide new insights on the symptoms and development of Parkinson’s, while using machine learning.
Supervisor: Dr. Alex Kelly