Faculty Guide: John Wilson

Department: Food Science and Human Nutrition

Project Details: We are looking for five students to help with market studies and product development for the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. We will be brainstorming product ideas, conducting consumer surveys, and working in the food lab to develop products that will be tested for acceptability.

Requirements: Students who wish to participate must be passionate about food, be comfortable following clear directions, and have strong people skills.

Number of Students on the Team: 5

Faculty Guide: Dr. Charlene Van Buiten 

Department: Food Science and Human Nutrition

Project Details: The fermentation process of sourdough bread affects many qualities of the final product, including factors such as taste, texture and appearance. This project will examine the interactions between sourdough starter cultures and time on the appearance of the breads they are used to make. We hypothesize that greater breakdown of protein in bread over the course of fermentation will enhance the crust color of the baked goods. The students participating in this project will be responsible for baking bread samples and carrying out basic analyses to measure color. They will also be guided through the chemical analyses used to determine protein breakdown.

Requirements: None

Number of Students on the Team: 2

Faculty Guide: Dr. Sarah Johnson

Department: Food Science and Human Nutrition

Project Details: The primary goal of our research program is to integrate multiple disciplines including nutrition, food, agricultural, and biomedical sciences to perform translational research studies. The lab:

• Identifies foods, particularly those rich in polyphenols such as flavonoids, that exert functional effects on human physiology and health;
• Critically examines the clinical efficacy of nutrition and food-related interventions, namely polyphenol-rich functional foods, to improve vascular function and reduce cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk factors in high-risk aging human populations;
• Evaluates underlying mechanisms by which nutrition and food-related interventions induce clinical responses;
• Explores the bidirectional relationship between nutrition and food-related interventions and food systems as they relate to human health and sustainability; and Inform evidence-based practice and dietary recommendations.

A population of particular interest is postmenopausal women, as the physiological changes that occur throughout the menopausal transition and postmenopausal period accelerate the development and progression chronic diseases and conditions, particularly vascular dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.

Requirements: The enthusiasm to learn.

Number of Students on the Team: 3

Faculty Guide: Dr. Lauren Shomaker

Collaborators: Kimberly Padilla, Abby Neiser, Megan Moran, and Steffi Joslin

Department: Human Development and Family Studies

Project Details: We have a number of research projects related to mental health interventions in at-risk adolescents. These projects test programs like mindfulness-based training and cognitive-behavioral therapy, as well as interventions like interpersonal psychotherapy. We primarily work with teenagers who have some symptoms of stress, anxiety, and/or depression. We are studying how treating mental health in teenagers could contribute to reducing racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and geographic health disparities in preventable chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. In some of our projects, we combine mental health programming with healthy lifestyle programs, like nutrition education, physical activity, and cooking classes. Some of our programs also are inclusive of families, meaning the whole family is invited to participate, whereas other interventions just involve teenagers in the sessions. Our studies take place in Fort Collins, Aurora/Denver, Southwest Colorado, and more. Some interventions are run at university settings, other interventions take place online (e.g., a virtual group), and others are delivered within the community (e.g., a recreation or community center, church, etc.). Our projects are led by multidisciplinary teams, meaning students and scientists with expertise in public health, psychology, social work, food science, health and exercise science, endocrinology, statistics, qualitative methods, and more.

Requirements:

• Students must be willing to complete human subjects protection training as part of their work on our projects, but they do not have to complete this in advance
• Some experience working with adolescents and families is preferred
• An interest in adolescents, mental health, community health, and/or prevention of diabetes or heart disease

Number of Students on the Team: 2

Faculty Guide: Dr. Rachel Graham Lucas-Thompson

Collaborators: Brock Rigbsy

Department: Human Development and Family Studies

Project Details: High-quality family relationships are an important predictor of better health. Many studies rely on family members’ reports of their relationships, but we can learn a lot about family relationships by observing them. Participants in this project will learn how to observationally assess family interactions for both constructive and destructive behaviors, learn about research methods (e.g., reliability and validity), and have the opportunity to participate in dissemination of this research (e.g., posters at academic conferences). They will work on a team of other students and faculty, and have the opportunity to observe parent-child interactions and romantic relationship interactions. Depending on each student’s unique interests, students can also get involved in the study of the links between these observed behaviors and health outcomes. Health outcomes we study include healthy eating (e.g., food choices in food selection tasks), mental health, and stress physiology (i.e., the ways our bodies respond to stressful experiences).

Requirements: None

Number of Students on the Team: 3

Faculty Guide: Dr. Josiane Broussard

Collaborators: Sophie Seward, Catherine Lowry, and Grissy Sime Mora

Department: Health and Exercise Science

Project Details: The Sleep and Metabolism Lab is interested in the role of sleep and circadian regulation in metabolic and cardiovascular homeostasis. Specifically, we study how sleep and circadian disruption impair whole body and tissue-specific function, and whether improving the timing of behaviors such as sleep, exercise and eating can improve health and reduce disease risk.

Requirements: None; the lab provides all required training.

Number of Students on the Team: 2

Faculty Guide: Dr. Chris Bell

Collaborators: Taylor Ewell, and Matt Bomar

Department: Health and Exercise Science

Project Details: Physiology is the process by which we learn how our insides work. Exercise physiology involves learning how our insides work while we’re exercising, but also using exercise to learn how our insides work. Consider a car; you’ll learn more about a car by taking it for a drive than by studying it while it’s parked. In the same way, you’ll learn more about the stuff inside exercisers when they are exercising than when they are watching TV. In our lab, we use a variety of different approaches, including exercise, to learn more about how our insides work, and what we can do to make them work better. This may be in the context of sport and exercise performance, but it may also apply to common diseases, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Requirements: The students must be academically curious and have excellent interpersonal skills.

Number of Students on the Team: 2

Faculty Guide: Dr. Mahmoud Shakorui

Collaborators: Mohammad Teymouri, Waseem Abbas, and Ojo Friday

Department: Construction Management

Project Details: The final proposed product in this project is a new class of concrete masonry units (CMU) with a lower environmental footprint and embodied CO2 content. We will manufacture and test 8″ ×8″ ×16″ masonry units commonly used in the foundation walls to support framed construction, exposed interior and exterior walls for buildings, and freestanding landscape walls and retaining walls. Conventional CMUs are made with cement, which is highly energy-intensive and significantly contributes to CO2 emissions and global warming. In addition, conventional CMUs have low tensile and flexural strength, causing them to crack and break easily under tension. The novel idea behind this proposal is to leverage local waste resources to replace a portion of cement in CMUs with an alternative material that requires less processing energy, releases less CO2 to the atmosphere, and can contribute to an increased tensile strength of CMUs. In this regard, we will use corn stover, the waste part of the corn plant, including its leaves and stalk, which can be found in abundance in Eastern Colorado and the Midwestern United States. Corn stover will be transformed to corn stover ash (CSA) through an engineered process developed previously by PI Shakouri and added to the mixture used for making CMUs. In a preliminary study, we found that substituting 20% of cement by CSA can significantly increase the long-term strength and durability of concrete. Similarly, dispersed pretreated corn fibers can be added to CMUs to limit cracks due to drying shrinkage and increase the units’ tensile strength.

Requirements: 

• Being reliable
• Show curiosity
• Team player

Number of Students on the Team: 3