More than 200 UH undergraduate students presented their research at the 2016 Undergraduate Research Day held at the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion on October 13.

Once upon a time you got your best action and science fiction fix from the movies.

“2001: A Space Odyssey” showed us how pedestrian structures on the moon might seem; Walt Disney brought us tiny robots called microbots in “Big Hero 6”; Robert Zemeckis convinced us we wouldn’t need roads when he created Marty McFly’s hoverboard in “Back to the Future II”; and, “The Fast and The Furious” showed us what it would be like to fly like the wind while staying on track.

Deep within a UH computer, models being built by Theocharis Baxevanis, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, just may cause a sea change in the aerospace industry. The hydro-mechanical system actuator, like an on/off switch, that controls the wing flaps (you see them coming up as a plane is landing) could be replaced with a new solid-state actuator made of a new High Temperature Shape Memory Alloy (HTSMA) that is lighter and more cost efficient.

Deep within your body there exists donut-shaped objects – many of them, in fact. No, these donuts aren’t from the box of Shipley’s that mysteriously disappeared, despite the fact your diet had just started. These particular donuts are the membranes of the nuclear envelope, which surround and protect the cell’s nucleus, where the all-important genetic material, or DNA, is stored.