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A swarm of students converged at the University of Delaware's Harker Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (ISE) Lab Thursday to participate in the Undergraduate Research and Service Celebratory Symposium, the culmination of 10 weeks of study and service.
With more than 400 students presenting details of their work, it was the largest gathering in the event's seven-year history. Students from more than 40 institutions participated. Their work spans the diverse intellectual domain at UD – from the arts to the social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, environment, health sciences, agriculture and natural resources, marine studies, education – and taps into the extensive expertise of many faculty mentors and external partners as well.
(Excerpt follows from ​UDaily article highlighting Joseph Gardner.)
Joseph Gardner, a junior fine arts major from Newark, Delaware, worked on a sculpture project – with ceramics and metalwork – that explored the desolation of post-nuclear Earth. As part of his study, he read much of physicist Herman Kahn's government report upon which Dr. Strangelove was based. His faculty mentor is Abigail Donovan, associate professor of art and design.
One of his pieces is a red, post-nuclear fire hydrant, with green slime oozing from it.
"You think about what a fire hydrant is – at its root it's a water supply," he said. "In a world that has seen devastation from nuclear explosions, there would be radiation-infected ponds, rivers. But with a tank underground, a fire hydrant could be your only chance of clean water – a necessity for human life."
