Thoughtful research: undergraduates research and portray the workings of the human brain, presenting their work on a national stage.

• Position: RESEARCH NORTH CAROLINA: UNC ASHEVILLE

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Powerful undergraduate research has found its place in western North Carolina, with UNC Asheville, the state's designated public liberal arts institution and home to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, offering opportunities for hands-on discoveries across the arts and sciences. More than 60% of students complete original research or creative projects by the time they graduate, and they take that experience from the classrooms to their careers; some students also gain publication credentials before graduate school.

> Laser focus

The undergraduate research program at UNC Asheville offers first-hand knowledge in a variety of fields, all guided by expert faculty who let the students take the lead--students such as Robyn Lewis, who has an irresistible enthusiasm for research. On campus, she's part of a continuum of students engaged in physics experiments using a student-built infrared carbon-dioxide laser to produce a form of carbon, called graphene, on polyimide film. Large-scale production of graphene is currently difficult and cost-prohibitive, but as an exceptionally strong and conductive material, it has the potential to be useful in bioengineering and energy storage, among other fields.

"Not only do we have a good physics department, but we have a physics department that has really cool stuff, and we're doing really neat experiments," Lewis says. "Being able to form graphene would just be the first step in a lot of potential research."

Further testing can help determine the value and variations in electronic capability, but the results are already apparent. Lewis presented her research at NCUR, along with 4,000 scholars from across the nation who convened at UNC Asheville for the 30th anniversary meeting.

> The science of the brain

Psychology student Elliot Nauert, who focused his research on the effectiveness (or rather, ineffectiveness) of cognitive "brain-training" games, such as the popular Lumosity program, also shared his findings at NCUR.

Nauert worked for two years on his research, comparing participants who engaged in game-based cognitive training activities three to five times a week for six weeks, including programs offered by cognitive-training developers.

"We wanted to look specifically at Lumosity, since that's the most popular one," Nauert says, "and then also compare it to doing things like Sudoku or crosswords regularly."

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Nauert and his faculty mentor Patrick...