Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Penn State Lehigh Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium is held annually in the spring. This event affords Penn State Lehigh Valley students the opportunity to share their academic research projects with the Penn State Lehigh Valley community through the presentation of scholarly posters. 

Many project types will be presented during the Undergraduate Research Symposium. These will include independent research and research-based course projects, honors research projects, and traditional course-related projects that required significant research.

This year's symposium will take place during the week of April 6-10, 2020. Posters will be on display in Center Hall April 6-8. Poster judging will take place on April 9 from noon-2 p.m. in room 135. The awards luncheon for student presenters and faculty mentors will take place April 10 from 12:15-1:15 p.m. in room 135.

Registration is open and available online >>

Keynote Speaker

Each year, this event features a prominent speaker that is well-accomplished in their area of research. This year's keynote address will be given by Dr. Anita Yuskauskas, Coordinator of Health Policy and Administration.

The 2019 winning student research projects include:

Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social & Behavioral Sciences

First Place
“The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students” 
Erica Hughes, Isabella Hanna, Jermaine Jones, Amia Luu, Maria Mahfoud, Kelly McNally, Rebecca Senior, Nicole Stopper, Sean Mcginley, Brian Perch, Kerry Huzzard
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker

Second Place
“Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare"
Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas

Third Place
"Examination of Fast Food Advertisement: A Focus on the Obesity Epidemic and Medical Costs in the United States"
Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas

STEM

First Place - tie
“CPU Utilization of Programming Paradigms in Multiple Languages”
Leo Liang
Faculty Mentor: Richard Martin

Second Place
“Impacts of Scenedesmus obliquus and Neritina reclivata on Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis"
Abby Ward, Dayana Delgado, & Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen Kackley

Third Place - tie
“Engineering Mechanics of Connecting Rods” 
Chad Schaeffer & Christopher Trapp
Faculty Mentor: Tracey Carbonetto

Third Place - tie
“Mobile Battery Consumption of Various Programming Paradigms ”
Angelo Sesma & Brian Tang
Faculty Mentor: Richard Martin

University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award: Excellence in Information Literacy

First Place
“The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students”
Erica Hughes, Isabella Hanna, Jermaine Jones, Amia Luu, Maria Mahfoud, Kelly McNally, Rebecca Senior, Nicole Stopper, Sean Mcginley, Brian Perch, Kerry Huzzard
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker

Second Place
"Examination of Fast Food Advertisement: A Focus on the Obesity Epidemic and Medical Costs in the United States"
Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas

Third Place
“Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare”
Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas