Congratulations to the category winners and runners-up from the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium held on Friday, July 26, in the Mountainlair Ballrooms.
Arts, Humanities & Design
- Winner: Zoe Davin, Junior, Department of History, Connecticut College. “Johnson's Broken Promise: Accessibility to Higher Education in Appalachia during the War on Poverty.” Mentors: Katy Ferrari, Ph.D. in history and program coordinator for the ASPIRE Office, and Cate Johnson, assistant director of the ASPIRE Office. Funded by Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
Biological & Biochemical Sciences
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Winner/Tie: Andrew Tiu, Sophomore, Department of Biochemistry, West Virginia University. "Modulating Neutrophil JAK/STAT Pathways: Impacts on Brain Anatomy in an Alzheimer's Disease Model." Mentor: Aminata Coulibaly, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Funded by the NINDS grant.
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Winner/Tie: Nathan Irvin, Senior, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University. "Identification of Nanobodies for Observation of Synapse Structure." Mentor: Moriah Katt, assistant professor. Funded by: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
Environmental & Agricultural Sciences
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Winner/Tie: Jillian Vance, Senior, Department of Biology, West Virginia University. "Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria of the Bioenergy Crop Miscanthus x giganteus." Mentor: Ember Morrissey, associate professor. Funded by: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
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Winner/Tie: John Jones, Senior, Department of Geology and Geography, West Virginia University. "The History and Dangers of an Underground Flooded Mine: Redstone Creek, Pennsylvania." Mentor: Lisa Lohr, teaching assistant professor of sustainability.
Health Science & Community Health
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Winner/Tie: Katrina Hernandez, Sophomore, Department of Biology, West Virginia University. “MitoNEET loss impacts motor and cognitive function differentially in male and female mice.” Mentor: Gina Wilson, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Funded by: NURO- Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Opportunity.
Winner/Tie: Samantha Antol, Senior, Department of Immunology and Medical Microbiology, West Virginia University. “The influence of androgen receptor signaling on male sex-bias in HNSCC.” Mentor: Jennifer Franko, assistant professor. Funded by: IMMB Summer Internship
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Runner-Up: Dara Althouse, Senior, Department of Neuroscience, West Virginia University. “Modeling Mechanisms of Long–Term Stroke Risk After Traumatic Brain Injury Using Fluorescent Microspheres.” Mentor: Zachary M. Weil, associate professor.
Physical Sciences, Engineering & Technology
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Winner: Samuel Sutler, Senior, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. “Automated Dynamics Data Post-Processing System for Tumbling Aerodynamic Body.” Mentor: Nathaniel Michek, graduate research assistant in aerospace engineering. Funded by: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
Runner-Up: Abbey Summers, Junior, Department of Mathematics, Baylor University, and Victor Norton, Senior, Mellon College of Science, Carnegie Mellon University. "Lewis Carroll's Triangle Problem on Lattices." Mentor: Robert Niichel. Funded by DCAA REU, Fairmont State University.
Runner-Up: Katie Sugg, Senior, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Robot Leg Test Bed Experiment and Strain Data Collection." Mentor: Nicholas Szczecinski, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. Funded by NSF REU - Robotics.
Runner-Up: Joseph Harrah, Senior, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University. “Metal-embedded Carbon Molecular Sieve Membranes for Sustainable Ammonia Production.” Mentor: Oishi Sanyal, assistant professor.
Runner-Up: Malcolm Henderson, Senior, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio Wesleyan University. “Comparative Data Analysis of the Dropouts Between Radiation Belt Electrons and Ring Current Protons”. Mentor: Weichao Tu, associate professor. Funded by NSF REU - Astrophysics.
Runner-Up: Camndon Reed, Sophomore, Department of Engineering, James Madison University, and Matthew Williams, Senior, Department of Computing and Engineering Technology, Pennsylvania Western University. "Safe and Efficient Autonomous Hiking Trail Navigation." Mentor: Yu Gu, professor in the WVU Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering . Funded by NSF REU - Robotics.
Social & Behavioral Sciences
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Winner: Colin Boyle, Senior, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University. "Physical Activity Coaching and Goal Setting in West Virginia Adults." Mentor: Kathryn Kestner, assistant professor of behavior analysis.
Runner-Up: Spencer Perkins, Junior, Department of Data Sciences, West Virginia University. “ConfliBERT: Conflict Based Language Models and Military Exercise Data.” Mentor: Vito D’Orazio, associate professor of political science and data sciences. Funded by: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE).
