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Now, it may sound like a puffed up version of class presentations, but according to the Dean of the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences, it's not just for show; it focuses on how these students can devise solutions to national issues and present new ideas. We met with some of these young researchers this morning and they discussed the extent of their research.

Vincent Palacio, Dean, UB Faculty of FMASS
"As the national university, it is our responsibility to do investigative work, research. To be able to answer questions of national significance. So, we have all of our students in the business program, before they graduate, they either have to do an internship or they do a thesis, which is a research. In the past we use to have thesis defense at the university where only the faculty members would listen to. When I came on as dean, I felt it was so rich that we should open it up for the entire country. So we decided to have this conference. Five years in going, the topics are very, exciting and interesting. We added the poster component so we have posters all around that you'll see."

Fredy Cus, Research on new Antibiotic from soil
"The reason for our research was to see if we can trigger a process in how to discover an antibiotic in our country. Because Belize, as you know, is unique due to its rich natural resources. What motivated us was our class lecturer during one of our class, because we did clinical microbiology, so he motivated us by 'can discovery of a new antibiotic happen in Belize?'."

Jonmarie Young, Research on new Antibiotic from soil
"It was just a preliminary research because we couldn't really conclude on anything much. So we basically just extracted soil from our very own back yards, so it was Belizean soil and we cultured it along with the escape pathogens of lococcus aureus. This escape pathogen is one of the harmful bacteria that is slowly becoming resistant to antibiotics. So we use our bacteria against this escape pathogen and our bacteria successfully inhibited the growth of this pathogen."

Estevan Ico, Researcher, Cruise Tourism in the South
"The topic, I did a study on the perceptions and attitudes of residents from southern Belize on this proposed cruise ship tourism plan that they have for Harvest Caye down in Placencia. My findings reveal that the residents are in the neutral position, yet geared towards looking at it in a positive way. Simply saying, the majority of the residents believe that they can get a lot from the proposed cruise tourism plan that they have for southern Belize."

The presenters consist of current UB students and alumni. Other topics presented today include women in entrepreneurship, drinking and driving among UB students and a study on academic dishonesty.