Session 1 Lineup for URCA 2020

Along with opening remarks from CAS Dean Dawn Weber, the 2020 URCA Symposium opens at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Apr. 15 with a diverse lineup including presentations about music history, poetry, website design and adolescent psychology. Every session through 3:15 p.m. promises to be as intriguing and inspiring. The first session includes the following presentations:

• Emily Ebert's Entartete Musik: Jazz and Survival in Nazi Germany 
• Paul Dyczkowski's Speak to the Rushing Water: I Am – Reflections in Poems 
• Branden Barber, Brennen Nalley, Jacob Garry, Kyle Ackert and Renee Lucas' Interactive Chaos Automata Website 
• Dr. David Werner's The (Not So) Good, Bad, and Ugly: Adolescent Alcohol Exposure

Turpin to Make Three URCA Presentations

Senior Chemistry major Corey Turpin will be setting a record at the 2018 URCA Symposium that will be hard for others to beat. Not only will he be presenting at his third URCA Symposium, but he will be involved in three different presentations this year.

Corey will begin his 2018 URCA at the first session of the event at 9 a.m. as he performs the lead role of Nika Magadoff in a scene from the opera "The Consul" by Gian Carlo Menotti. His character is a magician trying to obtain a Visa from the Consulate. He attempts to impress the secretary by performing magic tricks and hypnotizing the rest of the people waiting in the room into believing they are at a ball. He only succeeds in creating chaos and frightening the secretary.

His second presentation is at the first poster session at 11:45 a.m. in the Alumni Room and is titled "Investigation of Imidazole Based Drugs and Phosphazene Drug Delivery Systems." The goal of this research was to utilize inorganic systems as drug delivery molecules, specifically phosphazenes. The research began to synthesize a benzimidazole based core with propanol group substituted in the C2 position (for attachment to the ring) and two methylnapthyl groups (to increase lipophilicity) at the N1 and N3 positions. Results from these studies have been characterized via nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared pectroscopy, and mass spectrometry.

Corey's final presentation at the 2 p.m. oral session in the Faculty Room is titled "Investigation of the Supramolecular Chemistry of Calixarenes and Calixarene-Core Star Polymers." His research has focused on the self-organization of calixarene-core star blockcopolymers into larger aggregates and complexation of silver by a calixarene. In the first part of the project, a calixarene initiator was used in a three-step synthesis to make a four-armed amphiphilic star block copolymer that has hydrophobic polylactide (PLA) blocks attached to hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) blocks. In the second part of the project, attempts were made to complex silver using the previously mentioned calixarene initiator. In summary, the projects described utilize supramolecular chemistry in designing new, potentially useful biomaterials.

Be sure to follow Corey through his day at URCA along with many other talented students at the 9th Annual URCA Symposium.

Music Quartet Demonstrates Performance without a Conductor

At the 2 p.m. URCA session in the Trustees Room, Chanel Bluntschly, Michael Byndas, Joshua Thompson and Jason Wolf (Environmental Science, Actuarial Science, Music Education and Geology majors, respectively) will explain and demonstrate through a music quartet performance the communication skills needed to perform without a conductor. 

With Dr. Thomas Reed as their faculty sponsor, the students play as a saxophone quartet without a conductor and must take on the responsibilities of changes in tempo, stops and starts, volume, and every other aspect of a piece. As the players move with each other, listening to the other musician’s parts, a circuit is completed which allows music to be made. To help demonstrate the skills that their ensemble has developed, there will an explanation of techniques to watch for followed by a presentation of a few excerpts to illustrate these skills.

Music Education Major Opens 2016 URCA

Junior music education major Jaylynn Buchmelter (sponsored by Dr. Christina Fuhrmann, Professor of Music) will be the first oral presenter for the 2016 URCA Symposium on April 12 at 9 a.m. in the John C. Myers Convocation Center. Below is a synopsis of her abstract which is published in the URCA program.

Jaylynn's presentation titled "Acceptance of Fate in Franz Schubert's Winterreise (1827-1828)" will focus on particular songs in this song cycle which are poems by Wilhelm Müller set to music by Schubert. In the series of songs, the protagonist (the wanderer) embarks on a long journey resulting in an acceptance of his own destiny. Winterreise's wanderer moves toward his destiny throughout the cycle by relinquishing old ways of thinking and feeling, becoming self-aware, and finally embracing his fate. Jaylynn will explain how this work conveys the wanderer's discovery of and acceptance of his destiny. She will also analyze musical devices used by Schubert to represent the wanderer's internal and external journey toward his destiny.