Inspiration Dissemination

Trigger warning: some topics discussed include homelessness and brief mention of abuse. Grad Inspire is a special event months in the making, where six Oregon State University graduate students share their personal stories of failure, perseverance, and triumph through life. This episode was originally recorded on March 2nd 2020 in the Memorial Union Ballroom hosted by the Graduate School with donations from Block 15 making the event a huge success. Every Inspiration Dissemination host helped mentor presenters for this event. Presenter order: Ashley Ellenson, Winston Kennedy, Meredith Jacobson, Shauna Otto, Samuel Burns, and Barbara Spiecker. We are deeply grateful to the presenters who were incredibly brave to showcase their stories for all of use to learn from. We hope you join us next year!

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they account for more than 10 percent of all carbon trapped in the sea. In a world and time where we are producing more carbon than we should be and can manage, making sure that seagrasses are healthy and abundant is extremely pertinent. Winni Wang is one such seagrass scientist working to understand the biology of seagrasses and what threatens them.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Somewhere, in a local government meeting, an idea is proposed, a policy brief is written, some voting occurs, paperwork is pushed around, money is allocated, and a new highway is built.

In the same region, some bighorn sheep are off trekking in search of their favorite grasses to eat. They come upon a road they can’t cross that wasn’t there before. The sheep stay put and eat the same old grass they were already eating. When policymakers decided to build this road, it’s unclear whether they considered the consequences of this type of habitat fragmentation on the tiny ecosystems of bacteria that live inside of each bighorn sheep. More importantly, whether they knew their decision might lead to unforeseen consequences for bighorn population health.

We take for granted how intertwined policy and science really are.

Claire Couch is a 5th year PhD candidate in the department of Integrative Biology, studying wildlife disease ecology, but she’s also the president of a new Science and Policy Club at Oregon State University. Claire wants to help scientists make their work relevant, but she hasn’t been doing it all alone. There are currently a few other club officers, and as Claire writes her dissertation, she’s looking to pass on club leadership. In the future, she hopes to see the club become more engaged with the non-OSU community members around us, host bigger events in collaboration with other groups on campus, and start up a mentoring program in which club members would be mentored by policy professionals. Listen now to learn more about this policy club and Claire’s research. Hosted by Heather Forsythe and Chelsea Behymer.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Linus Stoltz is a graduate student in the Marine Resource Management Master’s Program. Only in his second term, Linus is already diving in to a project that means a lot to Oregon coastal communities. More and more instances of crab fishermen pulling up their gear full of dead crabs prompted them to reach out to scientists for help. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists and researchers at Oregon State University have been working together since 2002 to try and find answers. While we are beginning to understand the bigger picture of the oceanographic conditions that result in hypoxia, Linus explains that we don’t have any models that predict this ‘wave’ on a finer scale. He describes the ocean as patchy, where conditions just a thousand yards away from where a fisherman may have set his or her pots may be completely different. The ultimate goal of his research is to be able to predict these conditions and inform management decisions such as seasonal and/or spatial closures. For Linus, this project represents one of just about any marine science topic he’s excited to be involved in. In this episode of Inspiration Dissemination, you’ll learn more about Linus’s journey from SCUBA diving in a cold lake in Ohio as a ten-year old to working as an underwater technician monitoring artificial reefs off the coast of North Carolina to researching hypoxia on the Oregon Coast. Hosted by Heather Forsythe and Chelsea Behymer.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Robots don’t all look like R2-D2. In fact, some robots aren’t hard or made of metal at all. Some are soft and pliable, and they’re the kind that Nick Bira, 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Robotics, is working on. A soft robot can mold into the shape that you need it to. Soft robots are also being used in the medical field. After all, you don’t want some hard, klanky thing poking around inside of you and possibly causing damage. Nick is also embedding iron particles, which are magnetically soft, into silicone rubber, which is a soft elastic material, to make a material that is soft and hyper elastic and when brought close to an ordinary magnet, will stick to it. However, this is only step 1. Nick is interested in creating magnetic fields within the robot rather than it only working if there is a big, hard magnet nearby. One core goal of soft robotics is to have them function on their own without needing some hard object nearby to ‘support’ it. Tune in to learn how he plans to achieve this! Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Kayla Delventhal.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

For graduate teaching assistant Alex Szarabajko, being part of the team teaching the 3,000-plus students who take Lifetime Fitness for Health (HHS 231) every term is not just a job. “It’s the last time students are able to learn about physical activity, nutrition and mental health before adulthood, ” says Alex. That course also tied for 1st place from undergraduate voting of all classes at OSU. Alex started work on her doctorate in Kinesiology at Oregon State University in 2018 after completing master’s degrees in General Psychology and in Exercise and Sport Science at Eastern Kentucky University. As a researcher in the field of sport psychology, Alex works to understand the reasons that people pursue their fitness goals and engage in healthy behavior. Alex's outro music is reproduced by Rachel Vick with her permission: Rachel Vick - Heart Logic. Hosted by Daniel Watkins and Adrian Gallo.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Sofiya Yusova is a microbiology graduate student focusing on the impact of climate change on C. shasta, a parasite that infects salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. We talk with Sofiya about the lifecycle of C. shasta, and how knowledge of the lifecycle can give state and tribal organizations tools to help ensure the survival of salmon as they travel from alpine rivers to the Pacific ocean.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Our guest is Winston Kennedy, a 3rd year PhD student in the Kinesiology program and Adaptive Physical Activity option, has been a practicing Physical Therapist since 2015. Over time, he noticed his patients with mobility limitations were trying to perform their rehabilitation exercises at home but they received inadequate support or guidance from other medical personnel because the gym or their personal home was not conducive to these physical exercises. Winston also noticed that physical mobility limitations can also impact someone’s mental health, and as a PT his patients would have greater success if both the physical and mental hurdles were considered. It’s these barriers to successful rehabilitation programs that Winston is examining in his research project with the aim of making physical therapy more inclusive to any patient who could benefit. Winston is also a Grad Inspire keynote on March 3rd, be sure to mark your calendars! Hosted by Kayla Delventhal and Adrian Gallo.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Amine Gaizi is a masters student working on a degree in Electronics and Embedded systems. As an exchange student from France, Amine is studying in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering within the College of Engineering here at OSU. In this episode, we talk about about Amine’s journey to OSU, including his work with robots in Germany, how the French school system is organized, and about the excitement of being an international student experience.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Nathan Justus studies the robotics of biological motion. He is part of a team that is using robotics as a creative tool to tackle an issue relevant to the grape industry - that more than 700 black widow spiders end up in consumer's grapes every year. For his Master’s project Nathan worked on developing a new method of measuring the frequency of the web vibrations when two black widows speak to eachother. This information will then be used to develop a method of getting spiders to evacuate their webs without the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides. In this episode, we also discuss Nathan's future research on autonomous underwater robots and his past work experience for NASA's Johnson Space Center. This episode is hosted by Kayla Delventhal and Lillian Padgitt-Cobb.

Please find us on social media!

Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID

facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/

Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/

Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm

Host University: oregonstate.edu

This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.