Thirty-two University of Rochester students recently presented their research at the 2011 Undergraduate Research Exposition on April 15th. The Expo included a speaker's symposium, poster fair, and awards ceremony. Awards were given to the top symposium and poster participants and were chosen by a panel of faculty judges.
The Undergraduate Research Exposition is a College-wide event that gives undergraduate students the opportunity to present the academic research they've conducted throughout the year. The Expo showcases the passion that both professors and students have for investigative, creative research.
The symposium allowed 12 students representing the four distinct disciplinary sections of the College: humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and engineering, to present their research topics and take questions from fellow students. The poster presentation fair then served as a venue for all presenters to showcase their findings to the College community. It was immediately followed by the awards ceremony, which included the presentation of the President's Prize, the Deans' Prizes and the Professors' Choice Awards.
The following Rochester students were awarded the President's Prize, given to the top four presentations from the four disciplinary areas of the Symposium:
- Meaghan DeWaters '12/T5, comparative literature major, The Pathological Believer: Atheism, Revelation, and Disease in Dostoevsky's The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov
- Mary Dzaugis '11, geology and math major, Paleoecology of the Ediacaran Fossil Tribrachidium: Ediacara Member, Rwansley Quartzite, South Australia
- Gerard Markham '13, psychology major, The Buffering Hypothesis from a New Direction: Perceived Availability of Support, Cortisol Diurnal Patterns, and Anxiety in Prenatal Low-Income Women
- Kelli Summers '11, biomedical engineering major, Mechanisms Underlying Collective Cell Migration in Vitro
The following students were presented with the Deans' Award, awarded to the eight other participants in the symposium:
- Benjamin Freedman '11 biomedical engineering major, What is Q-Angle really measuring? A novel alternative to predict patellar maltracking
- Daniel Gorman Jr. '14, history major, Give Us Courage: The Rhetoric of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Hyein Jeon '12, cell and development biology major, Effects of Localization of CD45 on Proximal T-Cell Signaling
- Sharese King '12, linguistics major, On the Interplay of Syntax and Pragmatics: Evidence from Representational NPs and Ellipsis
- Timmy Li '11, health and society major, Geriatric Emergency Department Patients' Interest in Preventive Health Services
- Nathaniel Lindsey '11/T5, alternative energy and sustainable engineering major, Continental Rifting Above a Mantle Superlume: Dffuse vs. Localized Plate Deformation in East Africa
- Andrew Pope '11, history major, Informal Injustice: The Confederate Attorneys General, 1861-1865
- Aaron Zakrzewski '11, mechanical engineering major, Natural Frequency of Bubbles within Rigid and Compliant Tubes
The following students were presented with the Professors' Choice Awards, given to four students participating in the Poster Presentation Fair:
- Serene Habayeb '11, brain and cognitive sciences major, with Jessica DeSanctis '11, psychology major, An Investigation of Mental State Attribution and Social Impairment in Children with Autism
- Jaclyn Lerea '11, biochemistry major, Incidence of Osteoarthritis in a High Fat Diet: Osteoarthritis in a Mouse Model
- Tim McCrossen '11, mechanical engineering major, A Structural Analysis of the Frigidarium of the Baths of Caracalla
- Hannah Watkins '11, biomedical engineering major, Novel Parthenolide Delivery System for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment
The following students were selected to present research at the poster fair:
- Elizabeth Baker '11, a geology major, will present her research paper titled Determining the Tectonic History of the Marcellus Formation Through Analysis of Fracture Populations
- Molly Boutin '11, biomedical engineering major, A Polymeric Delivery System to Induce Differentiation in hMSCs
- Jasmine Carvalho '11, biomedical engineering major, Investigations of Ultrasound Parameters to Promote Spatial Organization of Cells in Three-Dimensional Engineered Tissues
- Kyle Cron '11 , microbiology and chemistry major, The Critical Role of IFN-Gamma's Anti-Tumor Effects After Radiation Treatment
- Paul DelPrato '12, brain and cognitive sciences major, Semantic Distance Effects in Speech Production: Evidence From the Cyclic- Naming Paradigm
- Viabhav Kakkab '12/T5, biomedical engineering major, Experimental Implementation of Shear Wave Induced Phase Encoding Imaging
- Angela Ketterer '12, biomedical engineering major, Design and Implementation of a Behavioral Apparatus for Auditory Research in Birds
- Megan O'Connor '11, environmental science major, Hydrogeologic and Seismic Features of Sierra Negra and Cerro Azul Volcanoes and their Effects on Local Freshwater Resources
- Sneha Rath '12, molecular genetics major, CG3313, a Novel Gene, Regulates Growth and Apoptosis through the Insulin Signaling Pathway, Professor's Choice Award
- Jennifer Roach '11, economics major, Unemployment in Spain, a Comparative Analysis
- Brooke Schmeltz '12, psychology and American sign language major, A Survey of Implicit Attitudes Towards Mental Illness
- Katelynn Sharma '12, optical engineering major, Investigation of Forbes Polynomials for Aspheric Descriptions within a Mobile Phone Camera
- Amelia Stone '11, mathematics major, Polynomials of the Cayley Knot, Deans' Award
- Will Surdyka '12, chemical engineering major, Process Impacts on Brewing Chemistry
- Joseph Taran '10, microbiology and immunology, Unusual Evolutionary Conservation of a Divergent Monogenic Nonclassical MHC Class Ib Gene Lineage in Amphibians
- Andrew Younger '11, molecular genetics major, Detecting microRNAs Using a Synthetic Gene Circuit