More than 130 undergraduate students at UC Davis have been busy preparing their research projects for oral presentations to the faculty during the sixth annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Saturday, April 8. "Possibly no campus activity does as much to encourage undergraduates to participate in serious research across the curriculum or to develop close intellectual ties between students and faculty mentors," says Peter Dale, acting vice provost of academic programs and dean of undergraduate studies at UC Davis. "Students who take part in the conference get the kind of encouragement toward pursuing graduate work that one usually thinks of as available only at small and expensive liberal arts colleges. For faculty researchers, many of whom are at the forefront of their fields, it represents an opportunity to introduce bright, highly motivated students to the excitement of intellectual discovery." For one student, the objective of her project was to build a tandem bicycle that allowed a young boy with a disability to be able to learn to pedal and exercise his legs. Betty Ying Wu, a mechanical engineering major, developed a design that consists of two bicycle frames welded together so that the steering is controlled from the rear handlebars. She'll be presenting her material at 11:30 a.m. in Freeborn Hall. The conference begins at 9:10 a.m.