Buffalo State EXPO
Announcing…
The Buffalo State Expo
October 28, 2023
10am – 1pm
SAMC doors open at 9:30
Calling all area high school students! Join us as we Showcase the Research, Scholarship and Creative Work done at Buffalo State University. Free and open to all.
Parking is free on Saturday.

Science and Mathematics Complex (SAMC)

Information / Sign-up Table
SAMC Atrium
9:30am – 1:00pm
Admissions Information Table
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
Center for China Studies Table
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
The Center for China Studies (CCS) was incepted at Buffalo State University in Fall of 2000. It has been the only Center of this type in the SUNY system. The mission of the Center for China Studies at Buffalo State University is to promote and coordinate research, scholarly exchanges, academic programs, and economic development with China. Center activities will advance the intellectual, personal, and professional growth of students, faculty, staff, and the general community in Western New York by providing an international perspective regarding China in the context of an ever-changing and diverse world. The Center’s goal is to provide Buffalo State and the Western New York community with enriched opportunities for cultural, academic, and economic development by facilitating collaborative programs in China.
Nano Center Display
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
With the tremendous impact of the world of “nano” already in flux and with much more to occur in the present decade, it is imperative that a holistic approach be taken to tackle this disruptive space–in understanding not only the science and engineering of a given technology, but assessing the economic viability of such a technology, and judging the ethical, legal, and social implications of it as well. This is exactly the vision of the Center for Integrated Studies in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology on Buffalo State University campus.
The presentation will focus on seminal research just published titled ‘An Integrated Assessment of Next Generation PV Technologies’. This success milestone had brought together students and faculty across disparate disciplines including Mathematics, Data Science, Engineering Technology and Chemistry.”
Rags to Bags: Impacting the Environment
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
We will be transforming and re-purposing donated clothing into reusable, renewable cloth bags as environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic/paper bags! These up-cycled, t-shirt tote bags will be provided to clients at Provisions 139 and Milligan’s food pantries to support food security efforts on the West Side and at Buffalo State.
Learn about the Upcoming Solar Eclipse!
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
Meet the Regional Science Olympiad Coordinator
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
Interested in learning what it takes to start a team? New to the Olympiad and want to chance to chat. The Buffalo-Niagara Regional coordinator will be on hand to answer your Science O questions.
Visit with the Anthropology Department
SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 1:00pm
Geologic Mapping in Action
Meet in SAMC Atrium
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
Find out how to geologists make maps! Learn about maps and their components. Find out how to use a compass and to measure distances using pace. Meet at the sign near the Information Table in the SAMC Atrium.
Tour the Greenhouse
Meet in SAMC Atrium
Tours will start at 10:30am and 11:30am
Greenhouse open house. Peek inside the Buffalo State Greenhouse for a guided tour of the tropical, desert, and temperate plant descriptions. Tours will start at 10:30 and 11:30. Meet at the sign near the Information Table in the SAMC Atrium.
Shining a Light on Forensic Chemistry
SAMC 101
10:00am – 1:00pm – rolling entry
See demonstrations of how light can be used to illuminate/identify evidence as well as assist in chemical analysis.
Stream Quality Testing – Hands-on and Interactive
SAMC 103
10:00am – 10:50am
12:00pm – 12:50pm
Sign-up required. Limited to 12 per session
Working in groups you will be given a sample of stream water and asked to determine the overall health of the stream. You will do this by conducting several water quality tests and comparing your test results with established stream health standards for the parameters tested. Taken together, you will provide an overall assessment of the stream’s health based on the groups tests results.
Hominin Fossils and Human Evolution
SAMC 106
10:00am – 1:00pm – rolling entry
Join professors and students from the Anthropology Department in hands-on activities relating to hominin fossils and human evolution. There will be activities on bipedalism, cranial capacity, ecological niche, and locomotion.
Converting Excel Table Data to Digital Maps – GI Science (GIS) for Everyone
SAMC 115
10:30am – 10:50am
11:30am – 11:50am
12:30pm – 12:50pm
Large datasets collected in our society or from fieldworks are normally saved in Excel spreadsheets. Many of these datasets contain Geo-Markers that we can convert to digital maps for further analyses. This is a show and tell to convert these types of datasets into digital maps in GIS environment. Then, many of digital and spatial analyses can be built on top of this type of conversions.
A New Look at History: “Stories from the Archives”
SAMC 151
10:00 – 11:00am (one session only!)
History research projects rarely go according to plan. Archives suddenly close, files are declared off limits, documents go missing, and chance discoveries lead to new directions. Join members of the History and SSE department for a panel discussion of how history actually gets written.
What Did T. rex Taste Like? Introduction to Cladistics
SAMC 151
11:00am – 11:50am
12:00pm – 12:50pm
Interested in how paleontologists work out the relationships between extinct groups? Learn about cladistics, a method of hypothesizing evolutionary trees based on the characteristics of organisms. We will use this approach to try and determine what T. rex might taste like!
Six Long-term Stock Market Indicators and Why They Stopped Working or Maybe Not!
SAMC 169
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
There are a number of Stock Market Indicators that investors have used for decades to decide whether to be in or out of the Market. Some have failed miserably, and some have not. Dr. Byrley will demonstrate the Buffet Indicator, the Shiller CAPE, the MACD, the Coppock Indicator, Price Relative to the 200-day Moving Average, and the Chicago Fed’s Financial Conditions Index.
The Science of Psychology – “Helping People” Through Research
SAMC 170
10:00am – 1:00pm
Most people think of Psychology as a just a “helping discipline”…….but Psychology has a long tradition of using science as the foundation of our education and applied practice. Over the years the knowledge gained from psychological science has been instrumental in helping understand people and the social world we live in. We invite you to join us for in-person discussions and demonstrations of psychological principles used in our courses and in research programs of our own faculty here at Buffalo State, in addition to a presentation of several short videos of historically impactful psychological studies.
Be a Disease Detective with Nutrition and Dietetics
SAMC 172
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
Can you identify deficiencies of vitamins and minerals? Visit our event to find out what a dietitian does and find out how you can shorten your path to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.
Conservation and Restoration of Art and Cultural Heritage Artifacts – STEAM at its Best
SAMC 173
10:00am – 1:00pm
The Garman Art Conservation Department educates and trains graduate students in the conservation and restoration of cultural, historical and artistic objects from local and national institutions, galleries, collectors and from individuals and families with precious heirlooms. This is where the object, the tangible material, is saved through conservation techniques, materials and technologies. This care and protection allow for the intangible of the object, the object’s story, to be well preserved into the future so that generations can learn, study and enjoy the past. The “art doctor” is in the house.
Cancelled Science Olympiad Construction Q/A
SAMC 176
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
Get answers to your questions about Air Trajectory, Flight, Optics, Robot Tour, Tower, and Wind Power. An expert will address materials and design for the construction.
Undiscovered Worlds: Exoplanets Intro and Update
SAMC Planetarium
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
Undiscovered Worlds: With advances in technology, thousands of planets have been found orbiting stars beyond our solar system. Learn about techniques and recent discoveries!
Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles
SAMC 201
Sign-up required: six maximum in each session
10:00 am to 11:15 am
11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Gold nanoparticles in a solution show a unique violet color different from the gold color that you observe from your parents’ gold ring. They consist of the same gold metallic atoms but why do they show different colors? In this lab session, we synthesize gold nanoparticles using the Turkevich method (reduction of gold ions using citrate) and characterize them using spectroscopic methods. We will learn more about the cause of the color of gold nanoparticles and their applications.
Experience STEM Teaching
SAMC 257, 259 and 260
12:00pm – 1:00pm (one session only !)
STEM Education Program highlights and demo lessons.
The Secret Life of Data: Mathematics in the Context of AI
SAMC 263
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
We will analyze data from public repositories using :
- the recently released Artificial Intelligence LLMs called chatGPT, claude2 and Bard
- basic mathematical concepts
- python in the cloud (Google Colab)
No experience necessary in AI, Math or python.
Fish Schooling Behavior Demonstration
SAMC 303
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
Safety in numbers? Easily find a mate? Collective senses to better find food? There are a great many explanations for why some fish band together in schools or shoals. This demonstration will share how we investigate this fascinating behavior in some local fishes, both native and invasive. We will explore a range of questions that can be addressed with a relatively simple laboratory set-up.
Fluorescent Microscopy Demonstration
SAMC 333
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm

Upton Hall
Exploring Science and Nature Together with Photography!
Upton Room 109 (Basement)
10:00am – 10:50am
11:00am – 11: 50am
12:00pm – 12: 50pm
Sign-up required. Limited to ## per session
Cyanotypes is an early photographic process invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel. It is a non-toxic, printing-out process that uses iron salts rather than the silver salts used in traditional analog photography. Buffalo EXPO participants will learn about this process while creating their very own cyanotypes using prepared kits with instructions resulting in the characteristic Prussian blue prints we see today. These prints will be available for them to take home at the end of the event.
This session uses organic material found around campus and in Delaware Park and will feature examples from English botanist Anna Atkins who used this process to illustrate her famous book Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotpe Impressions. Compliments the Science Olympiad Forestry event.
Fall 2023 Art & Design Student Exhibition
Upton Czurles-Nelson Gallery
10:00am – 1:00pm
This exhibition showcases 100 and 200 class-level student work from all concentrations in the Art & Design Department. Free and open to the public.
Basic Silver Soldering Demonstration
Upton Room 236
Sign-up required: 18 maximum in each session
10:10am – 11:00am
11:10am – 12:00pm
12:10pm – 1:00pm
Join in a demonstration on the basics of silver soldering brass and copper metals along with a brief discussion on the technical aspects of how these nonferrous metals (and alloys) interact when attached, and how this basic technique forms the basis for all future attempts at hand fabricating jewelry. Professor Stephen Saracino has taught Jewelry Making and 3D Design for 43 years at BSU. You can go to the following link to see his work which is fabricated in the same manner he will be demonstrating. (StephenSaracino.com)
Donald Savage Building
Stop by a Dress Rehearsal for our Upcoming Show
Flex Theater
10:30 am – 1pm
Watch, Learn, and Ask Questions About the Process of Staging a Production!

