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Research Day submissions open until Feb. 26

Kyle+Slazyk+%28left%29%2C+the+presidential+award+undergraduate+student+and+Matthew%0AKalies%2C+the+dean%E2%80%99s+award+undergraduate+student+in+the+2015+research+day+at+FGCU.+%28Special+to+Eagle+News%29
Kyle Slazyk (left), the presidential award undergraduate student and Matthew Kalies, the dean’s award undergraduate student in the 2015 research day at FGCU. (Special to Eagle News)

On Friday, April 8, hundreds of students, professors and FGCU staff members will crowd into Alico Arena — but not for a sporting event. The crowd will arrive in the morning to set up, present and view scholarly research at FGCU Research Day.
Lou Kirk, the FGCU director for Research and Sponsored Programs, said 220 students and 10 faculty members presented posters or oral presentations at last year’s event.
“I like that the students get a chance to show what they’ve accomplished,” Kirk said about the event. “When they answer questions, they shine. We give them the opportunity to show what they learned from their courses.”
After students set up their projects, they will have the chance to answer questions from a panel of experts.
“The Research Team has experts from the colleges, people who know the subject,” Kirk said. Those experts will select a winning project from each college, along with a Dean’s Award and Presidential Award winner.
One student who is planning to present at Research Day 2016 is junior Chris Gonzalez. Gonzalez, along with five other students and Professor Peter Reuter, has been studying the ratio of female index and ring fingers for a little less than a year.
“We want to see if those measurements show which sport you’d be better at,” Gonzalez said. The group’s hypothesis is that women with ring fingers that are longer than their index fingers will perform better at sports involving gripping, such as softball, than women who have the opposite ratio.
The project they will present at Research Day will focus on 100 female sports club and Division I athletes at FGCU. Gonzalez said he is looking forward to teaching the audience about digit ratios, because it is a relatively new science.
“We’re excited to show off all the work we’ve put into the project,” Gonzalez said. To present work at Research Day students must have their projects approved by a faculty member, and fill out and send the submission form by 5 p.m. Feb. 26. The submission form and research guidelines can be found on the FGCU Office of Research and Graduate Studies homepage.

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