This past Friday, March 24, students from across the university and region came together to share their cutting-edge research at the Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Symposium (URSS). The student participants represented a wide array of scientific and engineering disciplines from across departments and highlight the diversity of research areas being explored. Attendees were able to speak with the students conducting the research, ask them questions about their projects, and learn more about undergraduate research and scholarship.
The day’s events included a panel discussion about how undergraduate research can create opportunities, two poster sessions, and a networking social. The Pavlis Honors College also collaborated with the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC) and the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) to include their student in this year’s symposium.
A big congratulations to all of our student participants, the extremely impressive research projects made for a difficult day for our judges. Special congratulations to all of our award winners:
First Place –
- Leah Harazin and Nathan Ostlund: “Stability of Terephthalate Degrading Microbial Consortia for Plastic Upcycling”
Second Place –
- Haley Marchese: “Sympathetic Activity to the Heart is Increased in a Mouse Model of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy”
Third Place –
- Grace Gonzalez – “The Gut Microbiome of Fish and Its Relevance to Antimicrobial Resistance”
Audience Choice –
- Katherine Rauscher: “Learning from Aviation to Improve the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles”
Excellence in Presentation –
- Matt Kouba: “Low-Cost CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet Development Boards”
- Henry Summers: “Investigation of a novel zinc-based alloy for bioabsorbable vascular stent applications”
Excellence in Research Content –
- Kristoffer Larsen: “A Grad-CAM interpretable deep learning multi-input transfer learning model integrating SPECT MPI polar maps with clinical and derived topological variables for Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Decision Support”
- Kristin King: “Assessing Feasibility of Using Artificial Intelligence in Computational Hemodynamic Analysis for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms”
Excellence in Design and Format –
- Katie Bershing: “Moth Community Distribution Across Varying Silvicultural Treatments Post 5 years harvesting”
Thank you to all of our sponsors, student presenters, faculty mentors, judges, and panelists. We are proud to be able to highlight our amazing undergraduate students and celebrate all of their outstanding work.
