Council of Undergraduate Research features USciences CUR Festival:
"Five in Five: How One University’s Quick Thinking Led to a Successful Virtual Experience"
On March 8-12, 2021, come celebrate with the USciences CUR (Center for Undergraduate Research) undergraduate research and scholarship across all disciplines at USciences! The Annual CUR Undergraduate Research Festival showcases undergraduate research, scholarly achievement, and creative work through several virtual events:
(1) Images of Research and Scholarship Online Exhibit-Competition
(2) USURF Recognition Ceremony (by invitation only)
(3) Humanities Panel Discussion
(4) Alumni Career Panel
(5) 9th Undergraduate Research Symposium (Group Panel Presentations)
10:00 AM Images of Research & Scholarship Virtual Exhibit Opens on CUR Facebook
Dayna Smerina "Viral Fly Brains"
David Broytman "Growing Microtubules in Human Astrocyte"
Victoria Reed "Hungry Brain Cancer Cells"
Cevannah Coleman "Altering vesicular related activity in fruit flies"
Daphne van der Molen and Sapna Patel "Life Cycle of Dictyostelium Cells"
Kartik Bhakta and Pedro Ramos "Mutant Cells vs Wild Type Cells"
2:00-3:00 PM: USURF student awardees, faculty mentors, and USURF Benefactor Marvin Samson were honored in this by-invitation-only Recognition Event.
12:30-2 PM: "Virtue and Vice, Good and Evil in Ancient Greece and Rome". Faculty Organizer/Moderator: Prof. Clifford Robinson.
Heena Joshi (Biomedical Sciences), "Lucretius' De Rerum Natura: Curing Anxieties by Addressing the Principles of Fear, Death and Religion"
Alexandra Catalano (Psychology; Humanities Minor), "Lucretius and Death Anxiety"
Isaac Hoskins (Microbiology, Med. Humanities), "Classical Philosophy as a Lived and Social Experience in Galen’s On the Errors and Affections of the Soul”
Pengfei Li (PharmD; Humanities Minor), "Two Tyrants Corrupted by Socrates? A Comparison between Alcibiades and Critias in Xenophon’s Writings"
Keshav Patel (Medical Humanities), "Lapiths and the Centaurs: An Analysis of Emotion in Ancient Greek Artwork"
2-3 PM: "Informed by Experience: The Impact of Origins and Influences". Faculty Organizer/Moderator: Prof. Christine Flanagan
Cindy Hong (Neuroscience, Humanities Minor), "The Spark"
Regan Asay (PharmD), "Experiential Learning, Reflective Writing, and Educational Outcomes: Creating a Novel Assessment Tool"
Megan McGowan (Medical Humanities/Biology), "Malignant Bias"
Corinne Chaplin (Medical Humanities/Biology), "An Intellectual History of the American Constitution"
6:00-7:30 PM Open to all USciences community. Four distinguished and well-established alumni who did undergrad research at USciences discussed how their undergraduate research provided enabling experiences and helped them prepare for work after graduation. Student Facilitator: Ed McLaughlin (Physics Class of 2021). Speakers:
Alana McGill (PharmD Class of 2003), Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs -Global Labeling at Merck
Corena Grant (B.S. Pharm-Tox Class of 2014), Postdoctoral Researcher, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Raymond Gonzalez (B.S. (2000), M.S. (2002), PhD (2012) Pharm-Tox Class of 2012), Executive Director, Investigative Toxicology, Merck
Brian Geist (BS, PhD, Pharm-Tox), Associate Scientific Director, Janssen R&D, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson.
1:00-3:00PM Open to all USciences community. About 127 students and faculty participated in the Virtual Research Symposium as undergraduates presented their research at a level pitched to a broad, multi-disciplinary audience. Two Zoom Panels (1 and 2) were held in parallel sessions in two Zoom Rooms. Students present in succession in the order shown below followed by a Question and Answer Period.
Juliana Restrepo "Effects of Redox Balance Effects on ALA-PpIX Fluorescence"
Borna Markusic "Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Oncogenic BRAF Mutations"
Julie Nguyen "Elucidating the molecular mechanisms of CRAFR391W in the MAPK pathway"
Kyleigh Hricak "Capturing the Experiences of Families With Autistic Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Kunjal Dhanju "Contributions of Parental Stress to Children’s Early Numeracy Skills and Literacy"
Keeran Ramanathan "Quantum Measurements on Multi-gap Superconductors"
Pallavi Kawatra "Investigating Neuroprotective Properties of Fraction 4, Originating from Achillea Millefolium using an Induced In Vitro Parkinson’s Model"
Nazifa Promi "The Effect of Strictinin, a ROR1 inhibitor, in Prostate Cancer Migration and Inhibition"
Salma Maher "Role of ROR1 in Aggressive Prostate Cancers"
Abigail White "Investigation of Inflammatory Factors in UCMS-Exposed Male and Female Mice Displaying Depression-like Behaviors"
Sharon Pantano "Design of an in vitro fed state small intestine digestion model and fluorescence-mediated detection of phenylalanine in this model"
Steven Simpkins "Reconstructing the Dynamical System’s Coefficients from Time Series"
Ryan Creamer "Study of Synchronization of Chaotic Systems Using Matlab Simulink"
Divya Pillai "Clustering Personality Types Using Questionnaire Data:
Sadhana Sankar "An Evaluation of the Effects of Cognitive and Motor Activities On Post-Stroke Individuals"
Aditi Basu "Identification of the Responses to Biosynthetic Gold Nanoparticles in Arabidopsis thaliana"
Angelica Patel "MCAK activity on non-centrosomal microtubules regulates FA size"
David Broytman "Effects of HIV-1 Tat on Astrocyte Microtubule Dynamics"
Cindy Hong "Functional Assessment and Amyloid Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease"
Nikki Schnoke "Post Error Increase in Accuracy in an Attention Network Test "
Subhadra Thampi " Investigating the effects of the COVID pandemic on changes in the lifestyle of autistic individuals and their parents"
Thomas Webster "Synthesis of novel borono-nucleoside analogs as HIV reverse transcriptase inhibitors"
Aubrey Schall "Investigating the Non-Structural Protein 1 of Influenza A (NS1A) Effector Domain Dimer Interface"
Jessica McKay "Investigation of Structure Based Binding Affinity of the PCP Site of the NMDA Receptor"
Pengfei Li "Beyond Utilitarianism: On Georges Bataille’s Sacred Expenditure"
5:00-6:00PM Open to all USciences community. Awards and recognition were given to student presenters. The audience was treated to a video slideshow showcasing undergraduate research events at USciences over the last year.
2021 Popular Choice Award for Images of Research & Scholarship: Kartik Bhakta (Biomedical Sciences) and Pedro Ramos (Biomedical Sciences) for "Mutant Cells vs Wild Type Cells"
2021 Misher Festival Award/CUR Prize for Best Research Presentation in Humanities :
First Prize: Isaac Hoskins (Microbiology, Med. Humanities) for "Classical Philosophy as a Lived and Social Experience in Galen’s On the Errors and Affections of the Soul”
Honorable Mentions: Keshav Patel (Medical Humanities), "Lapiths and the Centaurs: An Analysis of Emotion in Ancient Greek Artwork" and Megan McGowan (Medical Humanities/Biology) for "Malignant Bias"
2021 Research Presentation Awards: The following Research Symposium Student presenters will receive cash awards for their outstanding research presentations:
Juliana Restrepo, Borna Markusic, Julie Nguyen, Kyleigh Hricak, Kunjal Dhanju, Keeran Ramanathan, Pallavi Kawatra, Nazifa Promi, Salma Maher, Abigail White, Sharon Pantano, Steven Simpkins, Ryan Creamer, Divya Pillai, Sadhana Sankar, Aditi Basu, Angelica Patel, David Broytman, Cindy Hong, Nikki Schnoke , Subhadra Thampi, Thomas Webster, Aubrey Schall, Jessica McKay, and Pengfei Li
CUR Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/cur.usciences/
CUR Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/usciences.cur.90
Note: Please remember that these events will be public events and that public disclosure of an invention may result in the loss of patentability. If you believe that your abstract/poster discloses a potential invention, please contact j.jasmin@usciences.edu or visit the Office of Technology Management (OTM) community page.