Letter from the Editors

The Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) Journal was created to highlight the research achievements of UCSB undergraduate students. It has been a pleasure to work on the fourth edition of the journal. We were delighted to collaborate with all the authors who submitted their projects after receiving a number of fascinating and amazing submissions.

The articles in this journal highlight the outstanding research and creative projects accomplished by UCSB undergraduate students. We received 22 submissions from the departments of Chemistry, Biology, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Sociology, Communication, Statistics and Applied Probability, English, and Writing. These submissions highlight how students at UCSB dedicate and demonstrate their knowledge towards their research. As the editor, we worked with these amazing authors on their individually unique projects, ensuring the best understandability for a general audience. We assisted in editing their work for content, style, and grammar to ensure the papers were ready for publication. Thank you so much to the authors for your hard work and dedication into putting this together.

We want to express our immense pride in exceptional accomplishments of our fellow peers who put in tremendous effort on their research projects. It has been a pleasure to work with these amazing authors who were accepted for this edition.

Sincerely,

Viviana Bustamante

Melanie Wu

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

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