Volume 1, Issue 3 (2023)

Letter From The Editors

Dear Reader,

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you the third issue of the University of Louisville’s multidisciplinary undergraduate research journal, The Cardinal Edge (TCE). TCE aims to promote a platform for undergraduate students to showcase their invaluable contributions to research and engage in meaningful academic discussions with peers and faculty in their field.

The pages of this issue feature extensive research on topics ranging from weight initialization in neural networks to the use of flowers in Japanese literature. This issue of TCE also features three spotlight articles detailing the science of learning, understanding health disparities, and the politics of water quality, each featuring interviews from experts in their field. We are also proud to announce TCE’s Best Papers of 2022-23 in Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities. Each of these papers provides novel insight into contemporary societal and global issues: difficulties in higher education, racially restrictive covenants in modern society, and analyses of social change in the sixties.

During this publication cycle, TCE increased our staff by thirteen first-year members and worked with over fifty graduate student and faculty reviewers, whose insight and expertise continue to serve as the foundation of our journal. Partnering with the Center for Engaged Learning, we have established a supplemental issue to the journal, which will feature abstracts from university research symposiums. TCE has hosted faculty panels detailing the variety of research being conducted at the University of Louisville. We increased the global readership of the journal, and articles published in our journal have been cited by major news outlets such as CNN and Vox. We are also proud to have been awarded the Student Organization of the Year Award by the University of Louisville.

We would like to express our gratitude to our faculty advisors, Drs. Mark Running, Shira Rabin, Brian Robinson, and Pamela Thomas, for their guidance and advice. We are also grateful to Dr. Paul DeMarco, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, for sponsorship and support. We thank ThinkIR, UofL’s Institutional Repository, for providing an accessible platform for undergraduate students to submit and showcase their research. We are grateful to the researchers and reviewers, for the time, effort, and rigor they invested into these articles. Finally, we thank you, the reader, for your faith in TCE to relay the research endeavors conducted by undergraduate students and provide a space for new ideas and innovation at the University of Louisville.

In my time as the Executive Editor in Chief of TCE, I have continued to be amazed by the commitment and dedication of our journal staff. I extend my immense gratitude to my fellow editors-in-chief, managing editors, and cohort team members for their diligence and efforts. I look forward to The Cardinal Edge’s continued cultivation of an undergraduate research community at the University of Louisville.

Happy reading,

Gopika Gopan
Executive Editor-in-Chief

Anna Simpson
Outreach Chief Editor

Abigail Stanger
Review Chief Editor

Aamira Shah
Spotlight Chief Editor

Lisa Pham
Design Chief Editor