Overview:
The Dean’s Office of the College of Arts and Science is pleased to sponsor the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Fund Video Contest. Students with research experience who have received an Independent Research, Team Research or FAST Grant are encouraged to produce and submit a video that documents their research experience.
The video may use any audio/visual multimedia (e.g. video, animation, slide show) but must have been created specifically for this contest. Using your own story as a lens, the best submissions will clearly and creatively articulate the undergraduate research experience in an engaging and thoughtful way.
Prizes:
- Grand Prize Winner will receive a $1,000 CAS Scholarship (per entry)
- Runner-up Winner will receive a $500 CAS Scholarship (per entry)
- Grand Prize and Runner-up videos will be featured on the CAS website
Eligibility and Submission Guidelines:
- Students are encouraged to present a holistic picture of their research process
- Video must not exceed 3 minutes in duration
- Only 1 video per person will be judged
- Videos should be well produced and well edited
- Video resolution should not exceed 720p
- Videos should include closed captioning
- Videos must not violate privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights
- All music must be used legally
- Create your own music, receive written permission from the artist or use music in the public domain
- Following the above rules, submissions may use video, still images, text and/or music to convey a clear and coherent message
- Videos should be emailed to Assistant Dean, Joel Ward (jsw298@nyu.edu)
Deadline:
- Friday, April 10, 2020
Judging:
- Top 5 submissions will be selected as finalists
- Grand Prize and Runner-Up will be selected by a jury of CAS faculty, students and staff
Past Winners:
- Fall 2019
- Grand-Prize ($1000 CAS scholarship): Divija Chopra, Neural Science. Divija was awarded a DURF Grant in November 2019 for the project, "Mental Health and Sociability: A Cross-Species Approach to Exploring Interventions for the Effects of Early-Life Adversity" which explores the efficacy of a peer-centered intervention to mitigate the negative health effects of a resource-scarce environment. Watch the video below to learn more!
- Runner-Up ($500 CAS scholarship): Michelle Sanders, Anthropology. Michelle was awarded a DURF Grant in November 2019 for the project, "Last Chance Tourism at the Great Barrier Reef: Colonialism and Amnesia in Degraded Landscapes" which studies the paradoxical narratives created through the interaction of tourism and climate change. Watch her video, "Adapting in Anthropology" to learn more about her research experience!
- Finalist: ZiQi Lin, Economics, Journalism. ZiQi was awarded a DURF Grant in November 2018 for the project, "The Myth of the Starving Artist: Affordability Crisis and Survival Strategies". Her project focuses on some of the new, innovative solutions artists in NYC are adopting (e.g., shared studio spaces, pop-up events, membership programs) to survive in the face of rising rents. Watch the video below to learn more!
- Spring 2018
- Grand-Prize ($1000 CAS scholarship): Mida Chu, Philosophy. Mida was awarded a DURF grant in November 2017 for the project, "Semantic Rules in Film" which explores the ways viewers understand film scenes made up of many different shots captured from several discrete and discontinuous shots. Watch their video below to learn more!
- Runner-Up ($500 CAS scholarship): Bourne Wang, Art History. Bourne was awarded a DURF grant in November 2017 for the project, "Shaped by Emerging Global Trade: Furniture and Social Life of Mercantile Aristocrats in Qing Dynasty Yangzhou" which examines the social, political, and ideological motivations behind the consumption and display of luxury goods and architectural features in the homes of Qing Dynasty merchants in Yangzhou. Watch their video below to learn more!
- Finalist: Madison McCartin, Anthropology. Madison was awarded a DURF grant in November 2017 for the project, "Experimental Analysis of Perforated Fox Teeth in the Gravettian" which looks at the symbolic use of fox teeth ornaments and the insights they can provide about the daily lives and symbolic beliefs of early humans in the Upper Paleolithic. Watch their video below to learn more!
- Finalist: Allie Neeson, Neural Science. Allie was awarded a DURF grant in November 2017 for the project, "Appetitive Control and its Modulation of Stress" which investigates the extent to which having and exercising control can help reduce stress related to threatening situations which could lead to treatment and interventions for anxiety related disorders. Watch their video below to learn more!
- Spring 2017
- Grand-Prize ($1000 CAS scholarship): Chloe Chan, Psychology. Chloe was awarded a DURF grant in November 2016 for her project, "Swipe Left on Disease: Sexual Decision Making in a Dating App Era." Her video explains how she developed and carried out a research project examining the possible connection between dating app usage, STI rates and dating behavior among 15–24 year-olds. Watch her video below to learn more!
- Runner-Up ($500 CAS scholarship): Gaby Tama, Cinema Studies, Journalism. Gaby was awarded a DURF grant in November 2016 for her project, "The Conservation of Time-Based Media Art." Her video details how her research interests in art conservation led to a project about the new and developing field of conserving art made with software and other digital media. Watch her video below to learn more!
- Finalist: Kanyon Iwami, Economics, and Darshan Mahabare, Biology. Kanyon and Darshan were awarded a DURF grant in November 2016 for their project about hygiene kit distribution and infection rates among children in India. Their project involved tracking whether access to hygiene kits positively affected children's school attendance rates. Watch their video below to learn more!
- Finalist: Alexander Kario, Urban Design and Architecture Studies. Alexander received a DURF grant in April 2016 for his project, "Making Sense of Naypyidaw". His video details his trip to Myanmar last January where he conducted fieldwork and studied the social, cultural and political reasons behind the urban design of Myanmar's new capital city. Watch his video below to learn more!
- Fall 2016
- Grand Prize: Sahaana Sundar, “Basu Lab.” Sahaana was awarded a DURF Grant in April 2016 for her research project in the Basu Lab at NYU Langone on the connections and interactions between the enthorhinal cortex and the hippocampus related to perception and memory. Check out her video below to learn more about what all that means!
- Runner-Up: Rina Plotkin, "American Policy-Making during the Iran-Iraq War." Rina was awarded a DURF Grant in April 2016. Her video explains how she's used declassified government documents, secondary literature and other primary sources to better understand how US policy developed behind the scenes. Check out her video below to learn more about Rina's project!
- Spring 2016
- Grand Prize: Katerina Patin, “Russia’s HIV Epidemic.” Katerina’s video is based on her project, “Rising Rates of HIV Infection in Russia” and documents her research trip to Russia where she interviewed practitioners and patients to learn more about the state of HIV in Russia. Watch her video below to learn more!
- Runner-Up: Shivam Jumani, “Decoding Manhattan Real Estate” Shivam’s video is based on his project, “A Study of the Prices and Determinants of Manhattan's Residential Rental Market,” and explains how searching for an apartment led to a research project that tries to answer the question on the mind of every New Yorker: What makes apartments so expensive?! Watch his video below to learn more!
- Fall 2015
- Grand Prize: Davis Saltonstall and Tessa Rosenberry, “Return Recycling.” Davis’ and Tessa’s video is based on their project, “Recycling Signage and Behavior Change,” and documents their research on the impact of signage on recycling behavior at NYU. Watch the video below to learn more about the positive impact their project has had on the NYU community!
- Grand-Prize ($1000 CAS scholarship): Divija Chopra, Neural Science. Divija was awarded a DURF Grant in November 2019 for the project, "Mental Health and Sociability: A Cross-Species Approach to Exploring Interventions for the Effects of Early-Life Adversity" which explores the efficacy of a peer-centered intervention to mitigate the negative health effects of a resource-scarce environment. Watch the video below to learn more!