A focus on hands-on learning and peer communication made a recent conference in experimental economics “incredibly useful” for ISU grad student Tushi Baul.

The five-day conference was sponsored by IFREE - the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics. IFREE was founded by 2002 Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, awarded the prize in economics for his contributions to the relatively new discipline of experimental economics.

Baul, a PhD student in experimental economics, was one of 24 students from the United States, Europe, and Australia selected to participate at Chapman University in California.

Experimental economics uses experiments with human subjects to see how they respond to different economic incentives created in the lab. Experiments can be used to test both behavioral models and standard models that rely on rationality. Baul is currently studying under Associate Professor Tanya Rosenblat.

While Baul is in the planning stages of her own experiments, she and other conference participants gained a new perspective when they served as test subjects at the conference.

“It helped us to see how others design their experiments, set the conditions, and also to see how subjects act," she says. She also got a chance to learn how researchers are using new technology, adding such things as virtual elements to their experiments.

Baul says that most conferences she’s attended have involved listening to presentations. In an emerging discipline with a focus on experiments, the hands-on opportunities and direct interaction with peers was more helpful. "Interacting with fellow students, I came across new research avenues," she says.

Learn more about IFREE at http://www.ifreeweb.org, Connect with Baul at baultushi@gmail.com

• Annual business meeting and research conference on Biotechnology, Bioenergy, and Global Food Security
• March 25-26, 2011 in Berkeley, CA.
• 1 to 2 page abstracts due by February 18th; submit to George Frisvold, frisvold@ag.arizona.edu