MSU’s undergraduate researchers pursue big ideas
In her first semester at Michigan State University, Ashlin Stover was attending an organization fair on campus when she stumbled upon a table advertising the James Madison College Human Rights Data Science Lab. She immediately knew she found something special.
The lab stood out to Stover because it was a place for undergraduate students to contribute to real-world research and investigations.
She joined the lab that fall and began working with a team of students with a faculty advisor researching human rights abuses in migrant detention centers and human smuggling in Libya and the Central African Republic before moving onto an investigation into the extrajudicial killings that resulted from the war on drugs in the Philippines. Today, Stover is a junior studying international relations with minors in business and European studies and was recently named MSU’s first recipient of the Voyager Scholarship for Public Service. In her role as a leader in the Human Rights Data Science Lab, she mentors student researchers, oversees ongoing projects and helps translate findings into evidence-based reports that are used by organizations like the International Criminal Court.
“Research gives us a tangible connection to the real world,” Stover says. “And it allows students to engage with and learn from communities beyond their own — it gives me a way to serve communities worldwide.”
MSU’s distinction as an R1 research university extends to the undergraduate experience. Each semester, about one in four Spartan undergraduates participate in research through courses, lab opportunities or independent projects.
Research has shown that students who engage in undergraduate research develop enhanced analytical skills, improve oral and written communication abilities and are more likely to graduate.
At MSU, the Undergraduate Research Office strives to build research into the academic experience, with advisors and faculty helping students identify areas of interest while also connecting them with labs and mentors across campus.
Many pathways to research
“Participating in research is a high-impact practice,” says Brian Keas, director of undergraduate research in the Office of Undergraduate Education. “It’s this process that is not only reciting what you’ve learned in a classroom, but it’s also being able to think of new ideas. How do you approach those ideas? How do you put a project together?”
Keas and his team want to make it as easy as possible for students to find and participate in research projects around campus. That support includes the Pathway to Research Program, a mentor-guided, four-week experience that helps students explore research topics, connect with faculty mentors and prepare to apply for research roles.
The program is offered several times throughout the academic year — twice each fall and spring and once over the summer — and welcomes students from every college at MSU.
For projects without dedicated grants, the Undergraduate Research team helps secure funding so financial barriers don’t limit participation.
“We have dedicated funding from the Office of the Provost that has helped to support that and provide research opportunities for students,” Keas says.
Communicating why research matters
Beyond conducting research, students also learn how to present their work to the public at events like the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, or UURAF, and the Mid-Michigan Symposium for Undergraduate Research Experiences. Both events are opportunities for students to showcase their scholarship and creative activity to attendees numbering in the thousands.
The large, diverse crowd, Keas says, “provides students with the opportunity to practice their presentation and communication skills. How do they explain what they’re doing in a very specialized discipline or a creative activity to a wider audience?”
Sumaiya Imad, an undergraduate student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, was an award winner at UURAF in 2025 for her research examining how programs designed with input from survivors of human trafficking rather than for them, lead to better long-term outcomes in recovery, employment and social reintegration. Her work is supported by the Tomlanovich-Dimond Leadership Research Advancement Fund through the Women’s Leadership Institute in the College of Social Science.
Imad is a junior in the College of Social Science and the Honors College majoring in economics with a minor in social science quantitative data analytics. Prior to her current project, Imad started her own nonprofit to empower human trafficking survivors in her home country.
“It’s deeply meaningful to produce research that not only advances knowledge but also shapes programs and laws that protect vulnerable populations,” Imad says. “Being able to do that as an undergraduate with faculty mentorship and institutional support has been transformative.”
She credits her mentors — John Waller, an associate professor in the Department of History, and Heather McCauley, an associate professor of social work and co-director of SPARK Research for Social Change — for helping her connect academic inquiry to social action. And she’s proud to be doing work as an undergraduate that is having an impact across the globe. “Research at MSU has given me confidence in my voice and shown me that rigorous inquiry and compassion can coexist, and that evidence-based empathy can truly drive systemic change,” she says.
Student researchers, published authors
Undergraduate students at MSU not only conduct and present research, but they also collaborate to share that research and contribute to scholarly discourse.
In March 2025, the university’s first and only undergraduate-led research journal — the Student Papers in Academic Research Collaborative, or SPARC — published its first issue. The publication featured topics ranging from late diagnosis of autism and ADHD in adult women to the legacy of Buck v. Bell and forced sterilization.
SPARC also hosts a journal club that meets biweekly so students can connect and engage in intellectual discussions across a wide range of topics.
The SPARC team is led by editors in chief Jaini Gandhi, a junior majoring in neuroscience who works in the MOTRE Lab with Rajiv Ranganathan and the Zhang Lab Qingguang Zhang, and Nityaansh Parekh, a junior majoring in physics and advanced mathematics who works on high energy physics research with Joey Huston. The team is hard at work on the first issue of the second volume, which will publish in December.
A board of advisors made up of faculty and administrators across MSU serves as a vote of confidence in the student-led journal, vouching for the undergraduates who are the driving force behind the journal. The board includes, among others, Veona Cutinho and Om Nair, who were the co-founders of SPARC.
“What propels us is the fact that there’s so much that undergrads are capable of,” Parekh says. “SPARC is a testament to the work undergrads put in and is a symbol of research and human effort in making discoveries.”
Gandhi agrees, saying, “SPARC is something we’re incredibly proud of. Not just for what it publishes, but for what it represents: the idea that undergraduates can lead, create and redefine what scholarship looks like at MSU.”
Set for the stage
Ashley Romo came to MSU hoping to be an actor. But shortly after arriving on campus, the Detroit native discovered there were more ways to be involved with theater than stepping foot on stage. Today Romo, a junior in the College of Arts and Letters majoring in theater and philosophy with a minor in Chicano/Latino studies, is participating in multiple research projects in the arts — and she’s drawing on her philosophy learnings, as well.
A first-generation student, Romo is currently a dramaturge for a production of “Othello” at the Wharton Center. Dramaturgy is research into the theory and practice of dramatic literature. Romo’s research into Shakespeare’s “Othello” provides historical, cultural and textual context of the play to the cast, crew and director. The research is important, Romo says, but being able to communicate with the production team has been an important aspect of the research process, too.
Next, she plans to do a dramaturgical analysis of the costumes from “Zoot Suit.” Working with faculty members from both the theater and philosophy departments, Romo is excited to channel her interests into the project.
“At MSU,” Romo says, “I can go up to a professor with an idea for a research project — even if it seems far-fetched — and not only will a faculty member listen, they will do their best to help me flesh out that idea so that it is something worth digging deeper into. And then they encourage me as I explore more and more.”
Collaborating on cancer research
Benjamin Nketsiah spent the summer of 2024 working on a research project with Henry Ford Health to help identify genetic markers for triple-negative breast cancer. The experience was pivotal for Nketsiah, now a third-year Honors College student studying biochemistry and molecular biology with a minor in pharmacology and toxicology through the College of Natural Science.
After presenting his research at UURAF, he wanted to find scalable solutions. “Often, you do a research project,” Nketsiah says, “and it usually ends there. But I don’t want it to end there. I found out there is a unique patient group that suffers from this disease much more. So, what can we learn from that?”
Triple-negative breast cancer is more prevalent among women of West African ancestry, and Nketsiah, who is from Ghana, was inspired to move beyond research. Drawing on his findings, he founded She’s Strong, a nonprofit health care organization through which he and his team developed a mobile app dedicated to empowering women affected by breast cancer. The platform features an online risk assessment tool, connects users to local hospitals and provides educational resources and community support. It also includes an AI-powered patient care navigator that delivers personalized reminders for scheduled appointments and treatments, helping women stay actively engaged in their care journey.
“I know people from other schools that don’t have the undergraduate research program that we do,” Nketsiah says, “and I feel like I have an advantage having been able to build my research experience.”
Nketsiah is one of many MSU students who accelerates research that has real-world applications.
“A unique thing about research is that we are taking things from the classroom that is pure theory,” Nketsiah says, “but in the lab we’re actually extracting DNA — you are seeing the double helix, you are sequencing DNA and you’re also contributing to knowledge. It makes you feel like you’re part of the scientific process because we’re always consuming in the classroom, but in research, we are contributing to knowledge. And sometimes you’re doing the research and you’re thinking, this could be the foundation for a policy change.”
Researchers at MSU have been changemakers for generations, and Spartan undergraduates, often working alongside them, have access to opportunities that can be a springboard to careers or advanced degrees they may not have pursued otherwise. By engaging in research early, they’re building the skills and confidence to be part of the discovery engine of a research university and making life better for themselves and their communities along the way.