Undergraduate students Luis Herran and Valentina Dargam presented their projects at the 2018 Conference for Undergraduate Research at FIU (CURFIU). The conference is a university-wide showcase open to FIU students from any major to show off their work. We are proud to announce that both Luis and Valentina presented outstanding research that earned awards at CURFIU!

<img class="size-medium wp-image-7465 alignright" style="color: #333333; font-style: normal;" src="https://bme.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unknown-1-768x576.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />Luis presented his poster on “Evoked Referred Sensations through surface electrical stimulation of the median nerve”. This study focuses on experimenting different stimulation waveform parameters and their effects on the modality and location of the referred sensations. Mono-polar stimulation is used to stimulate the median nerve on able-bodied participants on the area of the wrist to avoid motor recruitment. The pilot study served to test the effectiveness of the system and protocol, and concentrates on the effect of 3 different pulse frequencies.

<img class="size-medium wp-image-7466 alignleft" style="color: #333333; font-style: normal;" src="https://bme.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unknown-2-768x576.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />Valentina presented her poster and gave an oral presentation on "Executive Functioning in Bilinguals, Monolinguals and Heritage Language Speakers with Limited Proficiency: An fNIRS Study". This study, first of its kind, aims to explore the potential for a bilingual edge in executive functioning with heritage speakers, who may have limited proficiency in their second language but understand it.

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Congratulations to Luis and Valentina on their hard work and accomplishments!

The awards ceremony will take place on April 21st at FIU’s main campus.

For more information, visit <a href="http://researchconference.fiu.edu/">http://researchconference.fiu.edu/</a>.