UVI Research Day to Highlight Major Issues Affecting the V.I. Community

Research Day student project from previous event

The University of the Virgin Islands invites the public to the 8th Annual Research Day scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday, April 5, in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center on the St. Thomas Campus and in the Great Hall on the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix. Research Day provides UVI students, faculty and staff the opportunity to showcase their research, which highlights diverse topics that impact the community.

“This volume of active research attracts a large amount of grant funds that are of enormous value to UVI and the V.I. community,” said Frank Mills, vice provost for research and public service. “We try to accomplish this by exposing our residents to the University’s modern research on the marine and land environment, as well as to the myriad of local health, social and psychological research topics.”

Research Day will feature UVI student and faculty research with a variety of displays on community issues such as:
•Coral Reef Resilience
•Local Cyberspace Safety
•The Homeless and Mentally- ill
•Waste on the Island
•Post-hurricane Impacts

The posters featured on Research Day come from the various schools, colleges and centers at UVI, which include the Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, College of Science and Mathematics, Eastern Caribbean Center, School of Business and School of Education.

Showcasing her work on a previous Research Day at UVI

This year, Research Day will offer round-table discussions on both campuses on current social and development topics and feature many demonstrations. During the round-table discussions, the public is welcomed to dialogue with UVI researchers.

Round-table topics on St. Thomas will include:
•Physician Scientists – An Illustrious Career that Combines Research and Medicine
•Magical Realism and its Usage in “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and “Land of Love and Drowning”
•Mythical Realism in Derek Walcott’s “Ti-Jean and His Brothers” and “Dream on Monkey Mountain”

Round-table topics on St. Croix will include:
•Multiculturalism and Its Impact on our Cultural Identity: What is the Virgin Islands Culture?
•“We an Dem” and “Oneness” in Caribbean Music and Media
•Artificial Intelligence — Are You for Real?

Demonstrations:
•Virtual Reality in the Classroom: New Tools to Address 21st Century Educational Landscape
•Exploring the Ocean Using Virtual Reality
•Virtual Reality in Journalism
•Marvelous Mud: A Dig into How and Why We Sample Sediment in Coastal Habitats
•Marine debris in the USVI: Discover the Issue and Discuss Solutions
•The Sounds that Bats Make – What it Tells Us About Our Natural World
•Futures in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

Approximately 76 poster presentations will be presented at Research Day. Two UVI undergraduate students and two UVI faculty, one from the St. Thomas Campus and one from the Sheen Campus, will receive a $500 prize for the best poster presentation at Research Day.

“One of the highlights of this year’s (St. Thomas) event is the introduction of the concept of creative thinking aimed at our high schoolers,” said Mills. “Students will be thrilled by Dr. Timothy Faley, a distinguished professor in the School of Business, who will mount the principles of his now famous Hackathon to the introductory Hands-on Creative Problem-Solving experiment. Prizes will be awarded to every group that participates in this exciting student engagement,” he said.

Over 200 high school students between St. Thomas and St. Croix are anticipated to be in attendance.

For the first time at Research Day, attendees will have the opportunity to observe underwater habitats such as corals and mangroves using virtual reality technology. This year’s event will also see the return of the UVI Planetarium, which will allow attendees to explore and learn about the celestial objects such as stars, planets, comets and galaxies.

The public will also be provided the first empirical public response to the state of hurricane preparedness before and after “IrMaria.”

A publication featuring the abstracts and authors of current UVI research will be available.

Since 2012, the University’s annual Research Day has been providing the V.I. community the opportunity to learn of the various areas of studies in which students are undertaking research.

For more information about Research Day, contact the Public Relations Office at 693-1056 or pr@uvi.edu.