The Pioneer

The Pioneer is the Texas Undergraduate Research Journal’s bi-weekly op-ed. Written and edited by the URJ staff, The Pioneer highlights research from a wide range of disciplines, with a focus on undergraduate experiences.

Strait Talk – The Strait of Malacca

February 23, 2018 texasurj 0

Linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Strait of Malacca is a definite contender for the most important strait in the world. It’s exceptional how the world’s major economies are reliant on a tiny stretch of water to transport their inputs and outputs.

A Decentralized Internet

February 19, 2018 texasurj 1

On August 17, 2017, in a swift surge of horrific wind, rain, and fury, Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas, devastating the Gulf Coast with a torrential downpour of nearly twenty-seven trillion gallons of water and knocking out a wide swath of internet infrastructure. It was in this destruction, however, that an alternative appeared that might be able to minimize the problems caused by damaged internet infrastructure in future natural disasters: consider mesh networks.

The Emergence of American Wotagei

January 31, 2018 texasurj 0

The Japanese entertainment industry is vastly different from the entertainment industry in America. Idol groups such as AKB48, Morning Musume, and Momiro Clover Z consist of girls trained to exert a kawaii, or cute, aesthetic and function as role models for the young people that support them.

Quali-tea Boba: An Inside Look Into The Boba Experience

December 26, 2017 texasurj 0

With about 83% of American adults consuming it annually, coffee has become a major aspect of the American way of life, being consumed for study, caffeination, and relaxation. But this staple is facing competition from a curiously unique, highly customizable, and increasingly popular drink from Taiwan – boba tea.

Toys Make Us

December 20, 2017 texasurj 0

For children, playing is so much more than just a way to pass the time–it is vital to their social, intellectual, and emotional development. The toys they play with greatly aid in this early development, but they can also implement gender stereotypes and negatively affect brain development.

Which language do you think in? All of them.

October 27, 2017 texasurj 0

Enter any public setting here in South-Central Texas and one may witness a unique phenomenon of language interaction: a speaker starts a sentence in English and finishes in Spanish. “Es que, I sometimes talk así.”

Cracking Open Geosciences with Jesse Gu

October 13, 2017 texasurj 0

Jesse Gu is a second-year geology major in the Jackson School of Geosciences. Jesse has worked as an undergraduate research assistant in several labs since arriving on campus. He has also been actively involved with the Undergraduate Geological Society and Engineering Chamber Orchestra.

Research In Engineering Part 2: The Thermal Façade Lab

December 13, 2016 texasurj 0

The Thermal Façade Labs at the University of Texas at Austin are two outdoor facilities that allow UT professors, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers to conduct groundbreaking research on facades, window systems, and the thermal dynamics of buildings.