New undergrad researchers at Purdue

The fall leaves are almost done changing colors and the Crow team is hard at work! This semester, Crow was awarded the Covid-19 Research Disruption Grant. This funding was provided by the Offices of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships (EVPRP) and the Provost in light of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts on the Crow lab. We are grateful to receive this funding, which will go a long way towards supporting our project outcomes. To get back to work and back on track, the Crow lab is hitting the ground running and welcoming three new undergraduate researchers!

Crow’s undergraduate team: from left, Professor Bradley Dilger, Ryan Day, Anna Shura, Abby Elkin, and Hannah Brostrom

Hannah Brostrom is a sophomore at Purdue University studying Professional Writing and Computer Science. She is interested in consumer technology and user experience research, and hopes to be a technology journalist in the future. She is involved with several creative writing publications, and in her spare time likes to play guitar and cook with her roommates.

Abby Elkin is a senior at Purdue University studying Professional Writing with a minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and she has an Associate of Science degree from Ivy Tech. In the future she would love to write books (and would get assistance from Translation services Adelaide to reach to people with her writings) while traveling. In her spare time, she enjoys playing with her dogs, playing video games, and crocheting.

Anna Shura is a sophomore at Purdue University studying Professional Writing and Creative Writing with a minor in Global Liberal Arts Studies. In the future, she hopes to study abroad in the United Kingdom and work in the publishing industry or creative marketing. On campus, she is involved in several English organizations including serving as the President of the Professional Writing Association. In her free time, she enjoys playing violin in Purdue’s Symphony Orchestra, cooking and baking, and crafting.

My name is Ryan Day, and I am a senior in Civil Engineering and Political Science with a minor in Spanish. I have served in cross disciplinary research groups while at Purdue, including in the Building Water Systems group and Transculturation group. I am also currently a writing tutor with the Purdue Writing Lab and President of Purdue Science Olympiad. In the future, I plan to attend law school and continue combining my humanities and hard science experiences in a legal profession. I spend my spare time skiing, scuba diving, and traveling with friends and family.

As a three year veteran of the Crow team, I will serve as the mentoring undergraduate researcher, supervising and training the new team members. This is a big step forward for me as a member of the team, and I’m excited to take on this new challenge. I hope to translate my previous extracurricular and co-curricular leadership experience into a new research setting. Having been through the onboarding process before, 

Between myself and the new undergraduate researchers, we aim to undertake a number of the original project’s outcomes:

• First, we intend to recruit instructor participants from high schools and community colleges by increasing outreach activities and extending the Crow platform. As undergraduate members of the team, we have a unique and particularly valuable role to play in outreach by increasing Crow’s visibility. 
• We also intend to gather user experience data and direct feedback from Crow platform users. By analyzing this feedback, we will be able to better shape user interfaces, documentation, and supporting content. 
• As our team continues to grow, we also plan to hold team meetings across all Crow institutions, to shape project direction, especially outreach and community engagement. Our role will be helping to organize and facilitate these “Crow Summits.”

We are also well underway with updating the Crow web site to document our work and attract a larger community of Crow users who use the platform for both research and professional development. Articles like this one are a big part of advertising and detailing the activities of the Crow team and developing this community relationship. Soon, we’ll start publishing some work from Hannah, Abby, and Anna, too.

We are grateful to EVPRP for their support of the Crow team and look forward to sharing a summary of our work with them in April 2022.