IDEA Students Featured at Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research

April 20, 2016

On Tuesday, April 18th, UNC students and faculty gathered at Frank Porter Graham Student Union for the Seventeenth Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research. The purpose of this event, hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), is to recognize and share the accomplishments of Carolina’s undergraduates.

This year, Increasing Diversity and Enhancing Academia (IDEA) undergraduate student Francesca Peay featured a poster titled The Effect of Dune Height on Beachfront Property Values. Using a comprehensive list of property sales records from the Onslow County Tax Administration, Peay’s research explores if and how the value of beachfront property is influenced by dune height and the trade-off between view and storm protection in North Topsail Beach, North Carolina. She believes that the results of this study will yield important information about the benefit of dunes and their relationship to beachfront property prices. IDEA undergraduates Phoebe Castleblanco, Jacob Dixon, Jonathan Garrick, and Joseph Townsend were also featured in poster and panel presentations. Learn more about the IDEA program.