04/29/2021
By Julie Chen and Julie Nash

After nearly a month of activities where students shared their important research and scholarly work, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Student Research and Community Engagement Symposium below. We encourage everyone to watch the Awards Ceremony webinar where we celebrated all of the students, faculty, community leaders, family and friends who helped make the competition another special event.

This year, we had a wonderful turnout with more that 150 student participants from across all colleges, 22,000 views for the video submissions and hundreds in attendance at the live finalist presentations and awards ceremony. We would like to thank all of the judges which included industry partners, alumni, and university leadership and staff who took the time to offer valuable feedback and encouragement to the students.

We are always impressed by the hard work, skill and talent of our students, and this year was no exception. Thank you again to all those who joined us, and we hope to see everyone at the Student Symposium next year!

2021 Student Symposium Winners

YouTube videos for the winners are linked below.

College of Education

Graduate Winner
Siffat Ara Sharmin, Research and Evaluation in Education
Faculty Advisor: Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier
Project Title: Predicting job satisfaction in higher education by examining faculty perceived research support

Fan Favorite
Julia Giaimo, Elementary Education and Moderate Disabilities
Faculty Advisor: Vanessa Laureano
Project Title: Working with Jumpstart as a PA

College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Undergraduate Winner
Jack Blake, Psychology
Faculty Advisor: Rocío Rosales
Project Title: Picture-Based Communication for Learners of Various Ages, Abilities, and Cultures

Graduate Winner
Melissa Pope, Applied Psychology & Prevention Science
Faculty Advisor: Joseph Gonzales
Project Title: The Association of Sexual Consent and Rape Myth Acceptance

Fan Favorite
Tugba Metinyurt, Applied Psychology and Prevention Science
Faculty Advisor: Michelle Haynes-Baratz, Meg Bond, Yun Ling Li
Project Title: Bystander Training for Faculty: A Promising Approach to Tackling Gender Microaggressions in the Academy

Francis College of Engineering

Undergraduate Winners
Emily Doherty, Biomedical Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Yi-Ning Wu
Project Title: Mental Workload during Matching Task in Human-Robot Teams

Darren Lim, Civil Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Jianqiang Wei
Project Title: Integration of Corn-Derived Polylactic Acid and 3D Printing in Developing Sustainable Self-Healing Concrete

Graduate Winner
SaiLavanyaa Sundar, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology
Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Moore
Project Title: Using novel small molecules to alter cardiac muscle contractility at the in vitro scale

Fan Favorite
Akanksha Patel, Plastics Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Margaret Sobkowicz-Kline
Project Title: Depolymerization Kinetics of Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate During Melt Mixing

Kennedy College of Sciences

Undergraduate Winner
Marcelo Costa, Biology
Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Fish
Project Title: SATB2 Syndrome Disease Mechanisms and Potential Therapies

Graduate Winner
Alexandra Collias, Biology
Faculty Advisor: Natalie Steinel
Project Title: Immune suppression of the threespine stickleback G. aculeatus by the cestode parasite S. solidus

Fan Favorite
Team: Garima Jain, Computer Science; Eliane Sandra Motchoffo, Computer Science
Faculty Advisor: Fred Martin
Project Title: Inclusive CS Education

Manning School of Business

Undergraduate Winners
Team: Madeline Roop, Business Administration; Drasti Patel, Business Administration; Nikhila Gubbala, Business Administration
Faculty Advisor: Asil Oztekin
Project Title: What is the Key to Happiness? A Multiple Linear Regression Model and Analysis

Graduate Winner
Soomi Jang, Finance
Faculty Advisor: Tunde Kovacs
Project Title: Intellectual Property Rights and Employee Stock Option Compensation: Evidence from Court of Appeals Federal Circuit Ruling in 2008

Fan Favorite
Team: Mansi Thakkar, Finance and Analytics and Operations Management; Jessica Stevens, Accounting; Lauren Foley, Finance and Marketing; Isabelle Frost, Business Administration
Faculty Advisor: Asil Oztekin
Project Title: The Truth About World Happiness in 3 Minutes

Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences

Undergraduate Winners
Team: Quentin Proulx, Exercise Science; Megan Duong, Exercise Science; Julia Hill, Exercise Science; Thomas Sherriff, Physical Therapy; Stephanie Amico, Public Health
Faculty Advisor: David Cornell
Project Title: Reliability of Heart Rate Recovery Metrics: A Review of the Literature

Graduate Winners
Team: Liam Fouhy, Public Health and Epidemiology; Samantha Daily-Malysa, Public Health; Kyle Fahey; Nutritional Sciences
Faculty Advisors: David Cornell, Sabrina Noel, Katherine Tucker
Project Title: Development of linguistically and culturally tailored materials to assist with in-home data collection among Caribbean Hispanic adults

Fan Favorite
Joan Kamata, Nursing Practice
Faculty Advisor: Margaret Knight
Project Title: Diabetes Management through Health Coaching in Patients with Serious Mental Illness