June 23, 2023 // 12:00 PM CST>
Winners of the 2023 Design a Shelf competition showcased their research creatively and in a visually engaging fashion. The winners are Norma Lilia Ruiz Cruz, Debra Worley, Tiffany Legg, and Alene Basmadjian.
The Design a Shelf competition allows University of Oklahoma graduate students to showcase their research and/or creative activity in a visual and written form. The student relies on chosen objects and accompanying labels to illustrate their work. The winner's work is displayed in the Bizzell Memorial Library. Four winners receive a $500 award each.
Norman Lilia Ruiz Cruz is working on a Master's in Business Administration. Her display, Patterns and Coding, focuses on an automated budget tool that calculates federal and state taxes based on user input. Cruz crochets in her free time to disengage from the pressure of graduate school. Her crochet skills are highlighted in her display. She accompanied the budget tool with crochet objects to highlight the similarities between the two processes. Both processes — object-oriented programming and following crochet patterns — include instructions with a common language that tells the agent — computer and human — what to do to create something or automate a process. Cruz's concept compellingly fuses research with everyday life.
Debra Worley is working on a PhD in Educational Leadership. Their display, the Evolution of Distance Learning, examines past examples of distance learning with technological innovations. In previous years, distance learning has taken the form of correspondence courses and broadcast learning. The offering of online classes began with the launch of the Internet in 1983. Worley's research reminds viewers of the historical precedents to our recent pandemic-related pivot to distance learning and lessons we can learn from the past.
Tiffany Legg is working on a PhD in Geology. Legg's display, Inorganic Carbon in the Critical Zone, illustrates how research around soil inorganic carbon has recently evolved. Once thought to cycle primarily on geologic time scales, preliminary evidence suggests that soil inorganic carbon may be susceptible to short-term shifts in precipitation regime. Legg's display shelf shows how this has ignited research into the link between precipitation volume and timing and changes in soil inorganic carbon storage during anthropogenic climate change across temporal scales.
Alene Basmadjian is working on a Master's in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Basmadjian's display, Degenerative Design in Additive Manufacturing for Lightweight Structures, explores the generative design, which allows for AI and cloud services to create new designs and iterations of objects while limiting material, reducing costs in manufacturing, and allowing previously unimaginable design ideas to exist.
Design a Shelf contest accepts entries starting in Spring 2024. This is an excellent opportunity for students to highlight graduate education's contribution to society's national and global future.
Graduate students interested in submitting a proposal for the competition should consider a display title, how they would present their research or activity on a shelf in the library, and how they would describe their items. The successful display will promote the student's research through a selection of items that communicate the topic in a visually appealing presentation.
Contact Francesca Giani with any questions.
Story written by Francesca Giani.
