From Space Tech to Diagnosing Disease, See 4 Examples of Experiential Learning Happening at BYU

During his inauguration as the president of Brigham Young University, President C. Shane Reese outlined seven initiatives to help BYU become the university that prophets have foretold — an endeavor he called “becoming BYU.”

The first two of these initiatives are to “strengthen the student experience” and “focus on undergraduate teaching.”

As the only university within the Church Educational System that provides graduate and doctoral degrees — and invests in research initiatives — why the focus on undergraduate teaching? What role do graduate programs and research play in “becoming BYU”?

Turns out they are all tightly interwoven, impacting both the faculty and student experience. In addressing BYU faculty and staff during a University Conference in 2021, President Reese quoted former BYU President Jeffrey R. Holland, who now serves as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who said BYU should aspire “to become the finest undergraduate university on the face of the planet.”

To do so, “we have to be a lot smarter and a lot better than we are now,” President Holland said. “For the purposes of an absolutely unequaled liberal arts general and religious education, we have to have teachers who investigate and integrate and know something, who are ambitious about godly growth — what Joseph Smith would call ‘enlargement.’ We have to have teachers who are growing in precisely the same manner we expect students to grow — and that means significant scholarship.”

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In a question-and-answer with BYU News, President Reese explained that retaining a focus on undergraduate teaching is “not an abandonment of our research mission. It’s just ensuring that our research mission does not drive the educational experience.”

Many universities comparable in size to BYU are driven toward a research-first mentality, he said, where classes are taught by graduate students so faculty can focus on research.

At BYU, however, teaching is, and will continue to be, emphasized. “Everything we do at BYU begins and ends with our students in mind,” President Reese said during a University Conference in 2024.

An important part of strengthening the student experience is facilitating inspiring, experiential learning opportunities for each student, he continued.

In his 2021 University Conference address, President Reese, who was then BYU academic vice president, explained that “the gold standard for inspiring learning is when a faculty member and a student or a group of students are jointly engaged in a research endeavor. Walking through the portal of discovery together allows for the type of discovery and inquiry that may also happen at other institutions, but research mentoring at BYU also allows students to see how a faculty member increases understanding of her or his academic discipline and simultaneously strives to increase her or his faith in the Savior. This process of discovery and our razorlike focus on students as we pursue the research endeavors are critical components of our unique mission at BYU.”

What does that look like? Here are four recent examples that show the “gold standard” experiential learning, mentorship and scholarship taking place at BYU.

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Origami-Inspired Space Tech

Utilizing the Japanese art form of origami, researchers in BYU’s Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group have designed antennas and telescopes to be utilized by NASA and the U.S. Air Force.

This design is “the most complex system we’ve ever done,” said BYU professor Spencer Magleby in a video produced by BYU.

In the same video, Katie Varela, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, said, “It’s just so fun to be able to see something going from a paper to space.”

In origami, artists transform a flat sheet of paper into a sculpture or structure using intricate folds. By applying the same principles to an antenna or telescope, researchers were able to make it compact for transport — which means NASA or the Air Force can fit a lot more equipment in a space launch — while also being strained, kind of like a spring, and ready to unfurl.

On Earth, when something is opened, gravity can help pull it down flat. That doesn’t work in the zero gravity of space. So the BYU team designed special hinges and utilized magnets to make sure the antenna stays in a stable position once it’s been deployed.

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The antenna and telescope prototypes are being finalized to present to NASA and the U.S. Air Force, according to a BYU News release.

Varela called the group of researchers — which has included several professors, postdoctoral researchers, students and engineers from other universities — collaborative, inclusive and supportive.

“There’s no shame in saying something that sounds silly. I also really love that there are so many women engineers. … Everyone is supportive of family and things like that. It’s a great environment to learn in and feel like I would be prepared to go work in the real world,” Varela told BYU News.

For Magleby, the antenna was not the only product from their research and collaboration. “To me the product is the students and the learning that they’ve been able to accomplish and the ways that they’ve been able to stretch their own thinking,” he said.

Detecting Disease Through Tears

Tears can be an indicator of an individual’s emotional well-being — whether they are happy or sad, excited or in pain. Turns out they can also reveal a lot about a person’s physical well-being.

The presence of certain proteins in biofluids, such as tears or saliva, can indicate health issues happening in the body. But there are different kinds of tears, according to a BYU News release.

For example, the tears that are produced from slicing an onion are going to be different from ones shed from stubbing a toe. Basal tears, which naturally keep the eyes moist, are especially valuable for detecting both ocular diseases like glaucoma and systemic diseases such as Alzheimer’s and breast cancer.

The problem is that traditional tear collection methods have been invasive, painful or mainly produce reflex tears, which do not contain the proteins needed to detect disease and can even dilute indicator proteins associated with potential disease.

A study published in Clinical Proteomics (“proteomics” meaning the large-scale study of proteins) by BYU biochemistry professor Kenneth Christensen and graduate student Robert Roden explores a novel technique for collecting proteins from basal tears using soft contact lenses.

Why is that a big deal? “How many people could be helped if doctors could catch diseases before symptoms develop?” Roden explained in a BYU News release. “With this new lens method, we could potentially screen for a range of health issues from analyzing tears.”

The contact lens method utilizes soft, hydrogel-based lenses that comfortably collect proteins without eye irritation. Initial tests indicated these lenses effectively absorbed a comparable range of proteins as conventional methods with minimal discomfort. This method also allows patients to collect their own tear samples, potentially transforming routine health screenings.

“This project is very powerful in its scope,” Roden said. “Any disease that your blood touches has the potential to show up in your tears. Hopefully this sampling can turn into a routine screening.”

Roden told BYU News he was grateful to study at a place where rigorous science is taught alongside faith. “Biochemistry is a witness of our Creator,” Roden said. “Our very molecules declare that the Lord governs all life. Some people say that science and religion are contradictory, but I cannot find anything further from the truth. The fingerprint of God is everywhere in science.”

World War II Shrapnel Studied by Geologists

Exactly 80 years after Allied forces during World War II began the invasion of Normandy to liberate France and Western Europe from Nazi occupation, geologist researchers at BYU stood on the same beaches to see what shrapnel was still left behind.

“One of the big focus areas of geology is human interaction with natural systems,” BYU professor of geology Sam Hudson explained in a BYU News release. “It’s really important to see how long man-made materials like shrapnel remain in a natural setting.”

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Some 160,000 Allied troops — from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Norway — landed on a 50-mile stretch of Normandy on the morning of June 6, 1944. By June 11, 1944, the beachheads were secured, and 326,000 Allied troops had crossed into Normandy with 100,000 tons of military equipment, according to the United States Department of Defense website.

In their research 80 years later, in June 2024, Hudson and other geologists collected sand and sediment samples at the five landing sites along the Normandy coastline. They then used magnets to separate metallic shrapnel fragments from the sand. Not surprisingly, the highest concentration was found at Omaha Beach, which experienced the most intense combat. About 1% of the beach is still composed of shrapnel.

Hudson and his student researchers are using the shrapnel as tracers to study coastal processes. By analyzing where the fragments are found, they can measure how much sediment has built up over 80 years and track how it has shifted across the beach.

This past June, Hudson and six BYU students returned to Normandy for more samples. Experiencing the interaction of history and geology was “really exciting,” said student Liv Tatum. “It’s especially interesting to see how societal events like World War II are still affecting the land itself.”

These kind of opportunities facilitate learning that can’t be gained in a classroom. “When you are actually there on the beach, you realize the shrapnel samples aren’t just test tubes in a lab,” commented student Kassi Ramirez. “There are stories and real people behind every sample we analyze. You can’t understand that by just reading a textbook.”

Hydroponics Yields Year-Round Crop

The organization runs completely on donations. In the summer and fall, during Utah’s harvest season, fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful, but through the winter, they can be hard to come by.

To address this problem, BYU professor Matt Arrington and a group of students designed and built a hydroponics greenhouse to provide produce in the cold months.

Hydroponics is the process of growing plants without soil — in this case, in a water solution. A hydroponic system allows for efficient production of crops in a small space. The 20-by-40-foot indoor farm can produce 400 pounds of produce every three months, reports a BYU News release.

In a video produced by BYU, Arrington explained that the installed lights produce 16-hour days, 365 days a year, which yields a consistent harvest every 14 to 21 days. The indoor system also conserves water and time and reduces disease and pests.

“It was really neat to see the amount of fresh vegetables and also the color … and just how fast they grow,” said Kenneth Larsen, the coalition’s food manager and chef. “That was a big shocker for me [to see that] this stuff can grow superfast and produce quite a bit, which makes it a nice blessing for me.”

BYU student Jack Windsor said he is grateful for the opportunity to both learn skills and serve the community through the hydroponics project.

“As a BYU student, getting the opportunity to design a farm for people in need in my own community really feels like the fulfillment of the BYU motto [‘Enter to learn, go forth to serve’],” Windsor said. “Going forth to serve doesn’t necessarily mean I’m leaving and going somewhere else but stepping outside the boundaries of campus and providing something that people need.”