Black excellence in STEM: Student researchers gain valuable lab experience at Laurier

Feb. 21, 2025

Funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) program enables talented, hardworking students to learn from mentors in their respective STEM fields. During 16-week internships, students gain real-world work experience and potentially kickstart a path toward future graduate studies.

In recognition of Black History Month, Wilfrid Laurier University is highlighting the stories of five students who participated in the USRA program in 2024. Below, they describe their experiences and the positive impacts they hope to make through their research.

Pamela Ehinlaiye is a third-year Psychology student. During her USRA term in Professor Jeffery Jones’ lab, Ehinlaiye studied how children use the sound of their own voice to adjust their speech. Participants would produce simple vowel sounds while playing a computer game, and the research team used audio technology to shift the pitch of participant’s voices up and down as they spoke. Ehinlaiye measured how the children modified their speaking voice based on pitch changes to their auditory feedback.

“By measuring how they adjust their speech under these conditions, we can better understand why some children have more difficulty maintaining consistent speech patterns than others,” says Ehinlaiye. “These insights could lead to new approaches for helping children with speech disorders.”

Ehinlaiye’s USRA experience provided her with new ideas and future avenues to pursue research.

“I got to see the inner workings of a lab and watch graduate students conduct their research,” she says. “I would like to use my knowledge from this project to work toward a master’s degree in Psychology.”

Amaan Leacock is a fourth-year Biology student who worked alongside Assistant Professor Frances Stewart in her WILD Lab. Stewart’s team set up camera “traps” in the boreal forests of northern Ontario to collect images of mesocarnivores – animals that eat 30 to 70 per cent meat. Specifically, they hoped to capture red fox and the American marten.

Mesocarnivores help shape the structure of northern ecosystems through prey population regulation, food chain dynamics and seed dispersal, which improves biodiversity. The boreal forests of northern Ontario are some of the last intact ecosystems in the world but are threatened by ongoing resource extraction and climate change.

Leacock processed camera trap images, created exploratory maps and figures, developed research questions and testable hypotheses, and participated in lab activities. Studying the resource use and spatial overlap of mesocarnivores is essential for guiding informed conservation management in northern Ontario.

“I used the USRA term to get a head start on my undergraduate thesis,” says Leacock. “My preliminary data shows interesting results. There is spatial avoidance between red fox and marten, as they are rarely seen in the same camera traps. I hope my research can uncover occupancy patterns in this area.”

Leacock was recently awarded another USRA, so he will continue his work during summer 2025. He hopes to have his thesis published in an academic journal.

Sigrid Nortmann is a fourth-year Honours Health Sciences student minoring in Psychology and Biology. During her USRA experience with Jones, Nortmann studied how neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorder, affect communication, and how communication deficits could serve as early diagnostic markers.

During the research study, participants produced vowel sounds into a microphone while receiving real-time auditory feedback to see how they used their voice to adjust their speech. Nortmann assisted with hearing assessments, sensory preference questionnaires and vocal exercises to establish baseline speech patterns in healthy individuals. 

“My interest is rooted in personal experience, as my father had Lewy body dementia,” says Nortmann. “Understanding how normal communication patterns differ from those affected by these disorders creates opportunities for earlier intervention and improved patient outcomes.”

Nortmann’s USRA experience reinforced her passion for advancing health care through innovative diagnostic methods. She hopes to pursue graduate studies to further explore health-care systems and medical treatments that can improve accessibility and patient care.

Chibueze Nkemka is a fourth-year Health Sciences student. With the support of Associate Professor Ketan Shankardass, he studied how communities in Los Angeles responded to the death of musician Nipsey Hussle, a local rapper who was murdered in 2019. As an avid hip-hop fan, Nkemka has always been inspired by Hussle.

“He had connections to street life, but was able to escape the cycle to become a successful rapper and entrepreneur,” says Nkemka. “He proved that you don't have to let your upbringing define who you become.”

Based on his own feelings about Hussle’s passing, Nkemka was interested in exploring parasocial relationships, which occur when someone feels that they have a close connection to a celebrity or fictional character who does not reciprocate their feelings.

Nkemka was surprised to find that certain Los Angeles neighbourhoods appeared to express more negative emotions over Hussle’s passing than others. He found that people who lived close to Hussle were significantly more sensitive to news of the rapper’s passing, even if the residents did not know him personally.

Nkemka hopes his detailed findings enhance understanding of parasocial relationships and how people express their emotions. He is graduating from Laurier in April 2025 and plans to pursue a master’s degree in Epidemiology and Public Health.

Savanna Spencer is a third-year Science student. Her research, alongside Associate Professor Tristan Long, investigated the effects of nutrition on the behaviour, physiology and reproductive success of fruit flies. Humans and fruit flies share similar genetics, making them a good model for exploration.

“The contribution of fruit flies to genetics and biomedical research is significant, and I found it fascinating how such a small organism has had such a big impact on science,” Spencer explains. “I hope my research contributes to a better understanding of how early-life nutritional stress affects behaviour, as well as metabolic and neurological disorders.”

In addition to conducting her own research, Spencer assisted a master’s student with a project that studied the effects of blue light exposure on fruit flies. Artificial blue light is a ubiquitous feature of modern life due to the widespread use of LED devices. Understanding the potential long-term health effects of this exposure is difficult in humans, but its meaningful exploration in fruit flies can be used as a blueprint to improve human health.

“Understanding how environmental factors influence biological systems helps build a foundation for studying human health and disease,” says Spencer, who hopes to pursue a medical career following graduation.

With support from Laurier’s Office of Research Services, Spencer was able to attend the Canadian Black Scientists Network’s BE-STEMM 2024 conference in Ottawa, where she was able to engage with leading and rising Black scholars.