Friday morning poster session

As the only UK university at NCUR this year (again), UCLan were representing at this poster session as 3 of our clever were students presenting their undergraduate research. Seems like I was there at the right time to snap up some American students interested in our students' work. Research knows no bounds!

First we have Natalie and her undergraduate Law research 'The effects of imprisonment on urban communities'. With an early start - 8:30 am at the ballroom, all of our students were doing great and the jet lag wasn't too harsh on anybody either from what I heard!

We also had 2 maths students presenting in this slot. First out of the 2 mathematicians is Craig with his research ' Properties of null points in 3D divergence-free and general vector fields'. And he said no-one would be interested!

Last of our lovely students presenting poster in this session is Salma with her maths undergraduate research 'Analytical modelling of the acoustics of transmission line loudspeakers'. I must have been there at the right time, just as our Salma was getting quizzed by a student at the conference and giving a very good explanation of her work. We then decided to take him under our wing and he became our 'stray' American for the rest of the conference!

 

Brewskis - best place on 25th street ?

After we had filled our tums in Slackwater, we decided - as encourage by our other Elder who also had a huge contribution to this trip (thanks!) - to integrate ourselves into this conference and mix with the students. To students, when the conference has finished for the day and there is a famous strip of places to go, this equals BAR! 

Enter Brewskis. A place many of the group would frequent after our evening meal during the Ogden trip. A lovely lively place to talk to American people and students about life here and undergraduate research. I'm not going to lie, the English accent was an excellent conversation starter and we all had common ground with NCUR. 

The UCLan group travelled around in clusters so no-one was ever alone and we usually had a kindred spirit who wanted to do/see/eat something similar to ourselves!

Group meal at Slackwater...good pizza

As our hotel only served breakfast, I say only, it was still a fine breakfast, and we get fed at the conference every lunch time. So, we only need to search for food every evening. Tonight we visited Slackwater, recommended by a singer who was performing on campus at the university. 

The pizzas were super yummy although no-one was allowed the 'Cardiac arrest' pizza according to our Elder...the amazing organiser who made the trip possible :D. Fair enough as she'd already had one trip to emergency during the NCUR trip! No biggy though, we're all well now, must have been the altitude.

Funny thing -

Table Guest: Can we order 2 of your special beers please?

Waiter : Sorry sir its illegal for me to serve you 2 alcoholic drinks at once

Table Guests: Ha ha ha good one waiter, I didn't think it was that bad in Utah

Waiter: No seriously, it really is. I'll get one for you and one for your friend though...

Table Guests: Wow, now that IS something. Cheers Mister Waiter Man ;) x

Trip to Walmart!

A key part of American culture, we couldn't go home without a quick 7 block walk to Walmart and pick ourselves up some of those lucky Lucky Charms...yum yum. At about 4 times the cost in England as there are here in Utah, its just such a shame I don't have more room in my suitcase!

Yet here in beautiful Ogden even a walk to Walmart can present you with awe inspiring views of the mountains and the weather couldn't be faulted. Rather like a British summer!

Important things - lunch, gift shop and enjoying the scenery

After the poster sessions the whole troop had some free time to catch the last talks throughout the university campus. The university campus gift shop was a riot as they're so sport orientated. Couldn't help myself with the foam hands!

Being a scientist, I decided to watch some complicated sounding talks which surprisingly no-one wanted to accompany me to. Some of the group went back to the hotel, others relaxed on the campus and a few of us attended the dance performance 'Coil'. 

We all thought it was a provocative show and appreciated the difference in this presentation to that of the posters and talks.

Thursday afternoon poster session

Another poster session in which our UCLan students were involved happened around lunchtime in the ballroom at Weber State University.

First up is Lizzy McWilliams with her research of 'The Cheetah's Wheelchair Sports Club -Transforming negative attitudes'. More from Miss McWilliams to come soon!

In another poster session later in the day was UCLan's Loren Abell presenting her research of 'Selection and socialization of loneliness in childhood: Modelling homophily of loneliness over time using an actor-partner interdependence model'.

Students were required to stay in front of their posters for the entire session, which meant that they wouldn't necessarily get to look around that session, but they wouldn't be busy for the rest of the day and could attend other talks or wander around!

 

Thursday morning speaking presentations

Straight after the poster sessions, and sometimes during, were the speaking presentations. Our Kate Sheals was presenting her psychology research of 'An empirical comparison of the Health belief model and the Theory of planned behaviour: predicting binge drinking behaviour'.

Once at the correct room and building, Kate uploaded her presentation and waited for her allotted presentation time.

Thursday morning poster session

We had one student presenting in the very first event for NCUR 2012. The poster which started at 8:30 am involved Kate Herold presenting her poster for the psychology research topic 'The value of hair for facial composite recognition'.

More from Kate herself later...

Thursday morning at NCUR

Its the first full day at NCUR in Weber State University, Ogden and a few of our UCLan bunch are presenting their research via poster or speaking presentations.

The Cheesecake Factory...Bazinga

In City Creek we were excited to see The Cheesecake factory and decided to stay out and have an evening meal there. After a '45 min wait' that actually took about 1hr and a half we were allowed to sit in this brand new and bustling restaurant.

With a fair few veggies in the group, there was a good selection for everyone to eat, so it should have been a hit overall. However, a few teething problems like cold food, unusual flavours and this American thing of clearing plates before the entire table had finished eating really detracted from the experience.

On the plus side, their homemade lemonade was ridiculously yummy and the cheesecake was good. Overall I think everyone had a good night out, then we caught the tram and train back to the hotel.

Shopping in City Creek

Less than a week old, this shiny new shopping centre in Salt Lake City had lots to offer us UCLan folk. But as it was around lunchtime, we needed food, and we happy to discover a food court smack bang in the middle of the complex. There was a global array of foods and as I was in America I decided to go for Chicken Teryaki...yum yum. Plus it was one of the only meals I could see that hadn't been supersized.

Once replenished, my group made our way to Macy's to have a good look around. Then made our way using the City Creek map to Tiffanys, Forever 21, Sephora and some other great shops to spend our dollars in!

Getting the tram to Temple Square

Once off the Front Runner we had to catch a tram into the city centre, stopping at Temple Square. This took about another 20 mins and we were soon in awe of Temple itself.

After arranging a meeting time back at the temple, we split into groups and went whichever way we fancied...personally, I was on the hunt for Tiffanys!

Yes that is a triple decker train!

The Front Runner was a crazy site. At first it looked like a double decker train until we saw the other level in the middle... The tickets were pretty cheap to Salt Lake City, $9.50 each or $13.00 for a group of 4 travelling together.

Everyone got to see some of the country as we passed through Utah and many different stops, even getting excited when we saw a crazy golf course...because we hadn't seen one in Utah before...

Time travelling gave all of us time to get to know each other as many of us had been strewn together through NCUR. We all got on great and always found someone with a similar interest or plan for the trip whether it be finding the best bar in a neo-prohibition state (more about that later), checking out the shops or looking around the museums.

It took about an hour to get to Salt Lake City Central where we then had to catch the tram into the city centre.

Arriving at Union Station

At the famous Union Station we were met by some disused trains which had a very grand presence. These trains are were huge and luckily we were allowed to climb on them and have some lovely photos :D. There were many old trains around the site as decorative pieces but we were going to be travelling to Salt lake City on the Front Runner.. 

Making our way to Union Station

Its a beautiful day and as NCUR doesn't officially start until tomorrow, we all decided to have a nice stroll to Union Station a few blocks away. The crossings took a bit of getting used to, only walking when the man lit up and you heard the chirping noises! As aposed to walking whenever there was no traffic...no jay walking here please.

The pavements on the way were slightly treacherous and tripped quite a few of us up...we knew that for next time though. All around Ogden were banners and advertisement for Weber State College where NCUR is being held this year and their sports team the Wild Cats.