BECT Symposium highlights SC State faculty-student research findings
Topics included intersection safety, highway work zone safety, vehicle-human interaction, prostate cancer, food insecurity, and more.
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — From mapping precise road centerlines to advancing speech recovery for stroke survivors, research at South Carolina State University addresses urgent, real-world challenges showcased Tuesday during the university’s third annual Faculty-Student Research Symposium.
SC State’s Institute for Business, Environment, Communications & Transportation (BECT) sponsored the symposium in the university’s Engineering & Computer Science Complex to demonstrate the collaborative research projects taking place between students and faculty members.
“We actually started the first year by giving faculty-student research grants to allow them to conduct the research. Each year it’s grown. I think we’ve got more students this year than we’ve had since we started, and I’m very glad about that,” said Dr. Barbara Adams, BECT’s executive director.
“We have about 40-plus research projects that are being presented here today. In some cases, they’re individual projects, but a large portion of them are a collaboration between the faculty and students,” Adams said. “They may not be presenting them today together as faculty-student teams, but for the students who are presenting today, they had a faculty mentor who worked with them in presenting their research.”
Adams said any student or faculty member on campus, regardless of their discipline, can participate in research.
“I’m hoping that this will engage people to move out of their particular area and find somebody in a different area that may have a similar idea and to collaborate with each other -- that we will get more students,” she said.
Topics at the symposium included intersection safety, highway work zone safety, vehicle-human interaction, prostate cancer, using machine learning to predict food insecurity, and more.
Students enjoy challenges, curiosity of conducting research
She also has a strong foundation in evidence-based practices, assessment, and intervention, and she is passionate about applying her clinical knowledge to improve individuals’ quality of life.
Her research proposal focused on transcranial magnetic stimulation and aphasia using Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS). It is a non-invasive brain stimulation therapy originally intended for the treatment of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder; however, further uses, such as treatment for chronic aphasia (long-term language impairment), are being investigated.
“If you lose your language after a stroke, how can you get it back? I’m really excited, especially because research is currently showing that after a cerebrovascular incident (CVI), about 25 to almost 30 percent of the population will end up with chronic aphasia,” Huskey-Fox said.
“That’s like a big chunk of the population that’s losing their language and getting to a point where they’re not able to recover it. So that’s kind of where rTMS comes in…. So people are regaining language and keeping it after RTMS,” she said.
Huskey-Fox continued, “I’m looking specifically at CVIs, but things like traumatic brain injuries and cancer also lead to language loss, and this could be effective for all of them. Additionally, it’s incredibly safe.”
She said events like the symposium are important.
“I think it’s really interesting not only to see what everyone else is doing, and that’s sort of across disciplines. I also think it’s a way for us to communicate with other people who are interested in research and create this community that can help propel the research forward,” she said.
“Research is expensive. I think creating a community where we can share ideas and share resources is really important because you can’t often get something like this done by yourself. It also inspires other questions for other people,” Huskey-Fox said.
Accurate highway planning and traffic
Afolabi works as a graduate research assistant at SC State. His current research focuses on road detection and road centerline extraction using geospatial and computer vision methods to support improved planning and analysis.
“I worked with Dr. Judith Mwakalonge and Dr. Gurcan Comert, I learned a lot of things. There were a lot of challenges,” he said.
The next phase of his research will be to improve the continuity of centerline extraction at intersections, ramps and complex road networks.
Afolabi said having events like the symposium is significant.
“You find out what we’re working on and what we can improve. We’re learning things, and we can share ideas,” he said.
Ocean sand and concrete
The title of her research project was “Utilization of Ocean Sand in Concrete for Coastal and Agricultural Infrastructure in South Carolina.
“It’s important to me because I want to go into structural engineering. I want to get my master’s in it. A lot of structural engineering involves concrete,” Kelly said.
“We found that up to 20 percent of ocean sand is very sustainable in concrete production in the end. That’ll definitely help. Ocean sand is easily accessible, and you don’t have to dig for it. We’re not destroying the environment, and it doesn’t cost much to get it,” she said.
Kelly said this year’s research symposium was the first one she had attended.
“I think it’s really important because it just shows research isn’t exactly what people think it is. A lot of people think it’s just mixing chemicals and stuff,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot more research that can be catered to each person in their major. It’s not just working on a science experiment.”
Kelly said her instructors have played a vital role in her learning experience.
“I can’t speak for the whole school, but in the engineering department specifically, the professors really care. They don’t want you to just float through school. They want you to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it,” she said.
“They want you to succeed not only in the classroom, but in life,” Kelly said.
SC State fulfilling R2 mission
SC State has achieved designation as a Research 2 (R2) institution, meaning it spends at least $5 million on research and awards at least 20 research doctorates annually.
SC State exceeded both criteria in 2023, devoting $7.8 million to research and awarding 25 doctoral degrees. The designation qualifies the university for more grants and sponsored programs.
“We just recently hired a director of undergraduate research, and I think that’s one of the purposes of that because we’re becoming the R2 university. Our mission has to include more research than we would have done in the past,” Adams said.