The Pulse

When Gabriella Bellissimo rst heard that she could travel to Ireland to perform research as a part of her graduate degree, she jumped at the chance. "I was one of the rst people from my program to study abroad," says Bellissimo, a 2012 CMU graduate with a major in health tness. "It was an amazing experience and I learned things I would not have learned in the classroom." Bellissimo performed research at the University of Limerick for ten weeks in the fall of 2013. She worked with Brian Carson, a member of the Physical Education and Sport Sciences department at the university. Together, they looked at how much a person who is obese can increase their ability to burn energy after one exercise session. The participants in the study would have their ability to burn energy measured and then would perform a cardio workout. After the workout, the participants would again be measured for how much energy they were burning, so researchers could compare the two measurements. "If the ability to burn energy is increased after only one workout session, I think it's a great motivational tool for people who are obese," Bellissimo said. "All they have to do is workout once and they can become healthier." While at the University of Limerick, Bellissimo helped with the pilot work. Pilot work involves pretesting how research is gathered to troubleshoot any problems before the o cial study begins. "Pilot work can be really frustrating," Bellissimo said. "Sometimes I even had to run the tests on myself to make sure that everything would run smoothly." Due to her experience learning how to run the study, Bellissimo is working to start the same study on CMU's Mount Pleasant campus. Scientists often duplicate studies in order to verify their ndings. If a repeated study has the same results as the original study, the ndings are taken more seriously. "It's been very hard to get the study rolling," Bellissimo said. "A study that is easy to set up in Ireland can be hard to set up here. But I know it's going to be rewarding in the end." Bellisimo still communicates with the researchers in Ireland. They trade ideas back and forth that have helped her to set up her research. "I can't wait to compare my ndings with the ndings of Carson in Ireland," Bellisimo said. "It will be fascinating." Exercise science grad student brings Irish research study to CMU The Irish Connection Gabriella Bellissimo and Brian Carson By Jacob French

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