USF St. Petersburg psychology student William Nicks can tell you what you’re thinking about by studying blood flow in your brain.
Anthropology student Elizabeth Southard spent the last two summers studying the social structure of the Gamo people in Ethiopia.
Both students presented their studies at the Student Research Colloquium on Sept. 18 in the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library.
Nicks, a graduate student studying psychology, shared his findings on the uses of near-infrared spectroscopy technologies. When he began research, Nicks came across a machine in a lab no one in the department knew how to use. This machine would come to be the very thing he would do his presentation on.
“I spent the better part of a year analyzing quite literally thousands upon thousands of case studies, articles, books, various reading and instruction manuals,” Nicks said. “I’ve made myself extremely knowledgeable about this field in the last year.”
The machine “uses frequencies of light to determine where the blood is going in your brain.
The blood goes where you’re thinking,” he said.
“It’s kind of sad that I only have 10 to 15 minutes to present because I really can talk for probably three hours.”
Southard’s presentation detailed her trips to Ethiopia over two summers. She participated in an ethnoarchaeological research project on the Gamo people in southwestern Ethiopia. USFSP anthropology professors John and Kathy Arthur, researchers of the Gamo people, asked Southard to participate.
The purpose of the trip was to trace the development of the Gamo caste system, a social stratification system that members of a community are born into, from how it started to how it functions today. This required conducting interviews with Gamo elders, traveling to different excavation sites through harsh terrain, digging at sites and caring for, and analyzing, the findings.
Southard saw this as an opportunity for her to practice public speaking, receive experience in the field and network with other archaeologists.
The student research colloquiums, hosted by library dean Carol Hixson, are part of an effort to highlight student-faculty collaborations. The Sept. 18 colloquium was the first in a series to be held the third Wednesday of every month. Each presentation is followed by a Q-and-A session with the presenting student.
