SUU Partners with UNLV for Annual Research Collaboration
Published: September 20, 2024 | Author: Jacob Carr | Read Time: 3 minutes
Cedar City, UTAH–
The Department of Kinesiology and Outdoor Recreation (KOR) at Southern Utah University (SUU) recently participated in a research collaboration with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This collaboration is an annual event involving faculty and students from both universities. This year’s data collection took place from Sept. 7 through Sept. 14.
This annual research collaboration began in 2013 with former SUU professor Mark DeBeliso and UNLV’s Dr. James Navalta. In the years since, this event has become a staple of SUU’s exercise science program, with students and faculty alike benefiting from the opportunities it offers.
“As someone who does many research projects yearly with graduate and undergraduate students, the sheer impact from the UNLV/SUU research collaboration annually in terms of students attending conferences and networking in their discipline is second to none,” said Dr. Marcus Cowley, one of the coordinators of this year’s research. “With SUU's mission of being a dynamic teaching and learning community that engages students in experiential education, these collaboration days are second to none for that experience for our students.”
This year’s research included three separate studies. The first, led by professor of exercise science Dr. Julie Taylor and professor of outdoor recreation Kelly Goonan, focused on physiological differences between hiking with trekking poles and hiking without. The second, led by Dr. Jeff Cowley and Dr. Marcus Lawrence, both professors of exercise science at SUU, examined the accuracy of fitness watches and similar products during weightlifting. The third, also led by Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Cowley in collaboration with Dr. Lijie Zhou of SUU’s Communication department, compared the physiological response to completing a walk on a virtual reality (VR) treadmill and the same walk completed outdoors.
The VR study conducted with Dr. Zhou was notable for its utilization of SUU’s state-of-the- art Visual Communications lab. Dr. Zhou was specifically asked to help due to his expertise in virtual reality.
“The Visual Communications Research Lab is growing from a basic screen-based eye tracker system to a comprehensive lab with advanced visual communication technology and up-to-date eye tracking and virtual reality devices,” said Dr. Zhou. “This collaboration is a unique opportunity to demonstrate what this lab is capable of to [UNLV] and also show the expertises and research abilities from the researchers at SUU.”
While all of the studies conducted are things of interest to both the researchers involved and the larger academic communities, the primary focus is conducting research that students can be involved in.
“We want to do some meaningful projects where students can help with the data collection and analysis, and hopefully present some of the work at a conference,” said Dr. Cowley. “It also helps our department and university be recognized in professional circles because we are sending our students out to these conferences.”
“Since Fall 2020 when I joined this collaboration, we have had 2 peer-reviewed publications, 6 national, 18 regional, and 13 local conference presentations, typically with a UNLV or SUU student as the first author presenter at the conference(s),” added Dr. Lawrence. “So again, the sheer impact on our students is second to none, so we prioritize this collaboration and value it for our students.”
Learn more about SUU’s department of Kinesiology and Outdoor Recreation and the research that has been conducted.
Tags: College of Health Sciences Outdoor Recreation Student Outdoors FacStaff Prospective Students Athletic Training Academic
Contact Information:
Nikki Koontz
435-586-5400
nikkikoontz@suu.edu