University of Idaho fashion major Ariana Tobe said avant-garde fashion means using unconventional materials and designs to create everyday garments – that, she said, was her goal when she made a dress out of sombreros.
“I think it”s important in the fashion industry to know all aspects of fashion, no matter what specific career goal you have in the industry,” Tobe said.
Tobe”s project won the first place prize for undergraduate presentations in the Innovation Showcase last week, hosted by the College of Graduate Studies.
Jerry McMurtry, interim dean of the College of Graduate Studies, said the innovation showcase has been held annually for the past six years and is the only event on campus that brings together all the colleges and programs to award students for their research. McMurtry said enterprising students had the opportunity to win between $200 and $500.
He said the thing that makes the showcase unique is that students from all disciplines can come together and present projects on one day. McMurtry said the judges come from faculty and through this showcase they get to see the breadth and depth of the research that goes on at the university.
“The innovation showcase is one part of our month of innovation which included the TedX talks, the three-minute thesis competition, the Innovation Showcase, the Engineering Expo, the Business Plan Competition, so the month of April really is a month of innovation and recognition at the University of Idaho,” McMurtry said.
Kassie Smith won the graduate creative and artistic activities category for her project “Corporeal Female.” Smith, who plans to graduate in May with a Master of Fine Arts degree, said “Corporeal Female” is her thesis work. She said the project is a series of elaborate vases and pots with designs inspired by human physiology, with a particular focus upon female physiology.
Smith said that the human body is a subject which often brings discomfort in our culture and as a result people often try to mentally disassociate themselves from their bodies.
She said one series of ceramics utilize designs alluding to human physiology, both male and female, mostly genital imagery. Another series uses imagery inspired by the folds, dimples, rolls and orifices of the human body. Smith said the designs are abstracted, rather than anatomically correct, but all draw inspiration from the human form.
“Basically there”s a few different series and they all explore different experiences of occupying the human body,” Smith said.
Smith said her works are currently on display at the Prichard Art Gallery.
Ezekiel Adekanmbi won the graduate disciplinary research category for his project “Erythrocytic clarification for early disease detection.”
Adekanmbi said tick-borne diseases can become a problem for blood donation centers because of the lack of symptoms and the time it takes to screen for the disease, which leads to a high risk of contamination.
“It becomes a problem when somebody has a disease and does not know they have the disease,” he said.
Adekanmbi said with his project, he has worked to design a microchip that tests human blood for common tick-borne disease Babesiosis within one minute. Adekanmbi said the method that is used now, while effective, takes two to three weeks. He said the next step in the project will be to distribute the disease-screening device to developing countries worldwide.
Derek Reagan won the graduate interdisciplinary research category with his project “Task Modality Effects of Spanish Learners” Interlanguage Pragmatic Development.”
Reagan said his project involved finding the best way to teach pragmatics in the Spanish language. Reagan said pragmatics are the linguistic skills beyond merely knowing what words mean, like “cultural routines” of what to say depending on context.
Reagan said his project aimed to find the best way to teach these cultural routines in a foreign language at UI.
“It was really great to see what people are doing across disciplines here on campus,” Reagan said.
Ryan Locke can be reached at [email protected]