Every Spring, the college celebrates its student-scientists at the Undergraduate Research Forum. More than 350 students give posters and oral presentations describing their research.
The best and most innovative poster presentations are recognized with awards judged and sponsored by the university, faculty, alumni and industry.
Undergraduate Research Forum Awards 2022
This year we recognized a total of 23 awards in 12 Research Categories.
1. CNS Award for Excellence in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Valentina Tardugno Poleo
Title: Identifying z~3 Active Galactic Nuclei from the HETDEX Survey Using Machine Learning
2. CNS Award for Excellence in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Emily Wade
Title: Searching for hypervelocity stars in the Milky Way via the HETDEX survey
3. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Karen Zhang
Title: Evaluation of Non-target Metal Ion Interference on the Performance of theLi⁺ DNAzyme Sensor.
4. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Caitlin Currie
Title: Investigating the Effect of Heat Shock Proteins on Heat Resistance and Growth of Texas Grape Vines
5. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Yoonseo Choi
Title: Investigating the Role of Heat Shock Proteins in Texas Grapevines
6. CNS Award for Excellence in Chemistry
Fisher, Nickolas
Title: Evaluating Algal Triacylglycerols for Biofuel Development using Ultraviolet Photodissociation Mass Spectrometry
7. CNS Award for Excellence in Chemistry
Avery Carlson, Mihir Patade, Neha Patil, Megan Tran, Nagaharini Venkoba Rao, Salomea Giorgberidze
Title: Fluorescent Organic Dyes and Their Role in Photopolymerization
8. CNS Award for Excellence in Computer Science and Computer Engineering
Alekhya Kuchimanchi, Hanaa Siddiqui, Ruchi Bhalani
Title: Tail Wagging the Dog: Perceptions of Canine vs Non-Canine Behavior in a Quadruped Robot
9. CNS Award for Excellence in Human Development, Family Sciences and Psychology
Minerva Ramirez
Title: Resting state functional connectivity brain networks of bilingual and
monolingual infants
10.Thermo- Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology
Paige Durant
Title: Genetic Basis of Leaf Tensile Resistance in Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
11.CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology
Serenity Lozano-Cole, Garcia Laysha
Title: Housing Density and its Effects on Individual Sociability and Anxiety responses in Gambusia affinis fish
12.CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology
Caroline Chessher
Title: The Conservation Implications of Phylogeography in a Threatened Salamander Species (Eurycea tonkawae)
13.CNS Award for Excellence in Math
Shankar Padmanabhan
Title: Enumerating the Fullerene Isomers
14.Thermo-Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Uebele, Allison
Title: The Impact of DNA-DNA Base Pairing on CRISPR-Cas12a Target Specificity
15. CNS Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Anna Bardenhagen
Title: Hedgehog signaling is reduced at the initiation sites of foregut-derived
organs
16.CNS Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Shilpa Rumalla
Title: Deciphering PIWIL3's Targets and Functions during Uncontrolled Cancer Cell
Growth
17.CNS Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Ren Smith, Eleanor Irion, Megan Trinh
Title: NSF Bee Edge: Symbiont-Mediated RNAi in Bee Species to Investigate the
Bee Genome
18.CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience
Tommy Liu
Title: Synaptic culprits underlying cognitive decline in the aged brain
19.CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience
Adrian Boehnke, Merrick Garner
Title: Sex differences in the cognitive relationships underlying risky decision
making
20.CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience
Samantha Jackson
Title: Quantification of movement patterns in two mouse models of Dravet
syndrome
21.CNS Award for Excellence in Physics
Rithvik Ramesh
Title: Enhancing Second-Order Optical Nonlinearity through the Bandgap
Engineering of Asymmetric Coupled Quantum Wells
22.CNS Award for Excellence in Public Health and Nutrition
Maggie Kappel
Title: The Role of IL-10 in Obesity-Induced T-Cell Polarization in the Prostate Tumor
Microenvironment
23.CNS Award for Excellence in Statistics, Data Science and Computational Biology
Lokesh Pugalenthi, Jensen Richardson, Wenxuan Jiang, Harish Srinivasan, Himanshu Reddy
Title: Characterizing Multiple Myeloma Cell Lines
