On April 12, the Tinkham Veale University Center held the seventh Choose Ohio First poster conference.

Student research projects from a consortium of Ohio colleges were displayed for individuals to see and to be judged. The colleges included Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University (CSU), Kent State University, Youngstown State University and Cuyahoga Community College.

The conferences displayed a total of 105 posters from 300 students on research they had done throughout the year.

The posters were judged by a panel, and the winners were presented with a scholarship. The scholarship is granted to students who are Ohio residents that study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

“It’s a good way for students to get recognition for their research,” said Chris Butler, director of Undergraduate Studies and professor in the Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. “Posters come from a wide variety of fields and research.”

One such poster came from Nicholas White, a student at CSU. He did a demonstration on how people can get information from phones in an area. It worked when phones would search for Internet connection and relinquish a lot of information about the person. It was a distributed tracking and profile service.

“The point is to show how vulnerable people are,” said White. “Any institution with the right technology can find information about you from your phone. The scary thing is there is no legislation to prevent this from happening.”

The poster conference also provided an area for collaboration between students of various schools.

“I was able to collaborate and meet someone from another school and network with them,” said White. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them.”