Over 120 research projects were on display in the Duke Ellington Ballroom on Wednesday as part of Undergraduate Research and Artistry Day.

The fair marked the second time Engaged Learning has sponsored the event, which gives undergraduate students the opportunity to showcase their research work.

“It’s important to show students doing incredible research,” said Rachel Tripodi, graduate assistant for Engaged Learning. “Students were excited to showcase their work.”

Lindsey Myers, office associate for Engaged Learning, said the research process will help students in their academic future.

“It will help them get into grad school,” she said. “It will also help them develop a good relationship with their professors.”

Tripodi said most people assume only graduate students perform intensive research, but it can be valuable experience for undergraduates as well.

Senior psychology major Tracy Tittelbach, who had a project in the showcase, agreed undergraduate research is important.

“You get to be exposed to it without being told to go out on your own,” she said.

Tittelbach’s project researched how sadomasochistic fantasies and behavior will affect attitudes towards sadomasochism in men and women.

She defined sadomasochism as “the deliberate use of physical and/or psychological pain to produce sexual arousal.”

Tittelbach and her faculty mentor Brad Sagarin, associate professor of psychology, hypothesized that men would endorse sadomasochistic behavior and fantasies more than women, and thus males would have a stronger attitude toward it.

Tittelbach used an online survey of 502 undergraduate students to assess their feelings on sadomasochism. Tittlelbach was surprised to find that females reported more sadomasochistic behaviors than males. The correlation between sadomasochistic behavior and fantasies and attitude towards it was stronger in males as hypothesized.

Tittelbach said she chose the topic because some may consider it taboo.

“It’s an understudied area,” she said. “College students are OK with this behavior now.”

While some students remained at NIU to conduct their research, others traveled abroad.

Senior anthropology major Eleanor Fritz traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to study religion in the small Asian country.

Fritz and Emily Kruse, senior contract southeast Asian studies major, stayed in Cambodia for six weeks studying how Buddhism changed post-Khmer Rouge rule.

From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge (the Communist Party in Cambodia) banned Buddhism in the country.

After the Khmer Rouge fell, Buddhism returned to the forefront, but has since been influenced by Hinduism and Animism, Kruse said.

“It’s always evolving, it’s always changing,” she said.

Kruse said it is hard to quantify how exactly the religion has changed, but said she heard something in Cambodia she believes applies.

“It’s not Buddhism that’s changed; it’s the people,” she said.

Projects could be entered into two categories: science, technology, engineering, and math; or social science, health, humanities, and arts.

After being reviewed by judges, entrants had the possibility of winning up to $200 for a first place prize.