2022
STEM
“Investigation of Support Options Not Included in Transverse Beam Loading Simulation”
student presenters, Tobey Field, Ethan Davies and Fouad Awwad; faculty mentor, Tracey Carbonetto.
Arts
“Invasive Species: The Importance of Scientific Illustrations”
student presenter, Delilah Jabbour; faculty mentor, Elizabeth Flaherty.
Humanities, Business and Social & Behavioral Sciences
“Let’s Talk About Sex Work”
student presenters, Hannah Irwin, Drew Bartos, Fernando Gaton Bido, Hailee Foster and Makayla Wilkins; faculty mentor, David Livert.
Excellence in Information Literacy
“Stress Effects on Memory for Social Content”
student presenters, Justin Lebon and Hannah Irwin; faculty mentor, Livert.
2021
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social & Behavioral Sciences
First
“Impact of stress on behaviors related to COVID-19 exposure and other health risks”
Student: Mahnoor Malik
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson
Second
“What happens when we believe the conspiracies?: The relationship between conspiracy theories and COVID-19 attitudes”
Student: Alejandra Pena
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson
Third
“Narcissism and alcohol use: a correlational study of archival neurophysiological data”
Students: Chris Fiegel and Riley Koch
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson
STEM
First
“Green thumbs on the red planet: geochemical processes applied to developing viable agriculture soil from martian regolith”
Students: Francis Kuklis and Abigayle Ward
Faculty Mentors: Daniel Jackson and Karen Kackley
Second
“Modeling the changes and differences in the rate of COVID infection”
Student: Angelica Pirog
Faculty Mentor: Todd Retzlaff
Third
“Utilizing MATLAB to model solar cell output”
Students: Joshua Misiti and Boaz Mokaya
Faculty Mentor: Harold Scholz
EXCELLENCE IN INFORMATION LITERACY
First
“Green thumbs on the red planet: geochemical processes applied to developing viable agriculture soil from martian regolith”
Students: Francis Kuklis and Abigayle Ward
Faculty Mentors: Daniel Jackson and Karen Kackley
Second
“Impact of stress on behaviors related to COVID-19 exposure and other health risks”
Student: Mahnoor Malik
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson
Third
“Narcissism and alcohol use: a correlational study of archival neurophysiological data”
Students: Chris Fiegel and Riley Koch,
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson
2019
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social & Behavioral Sciences
First
“The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students”
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
“Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare"
Students: Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas
Third
"Examination of Fast Food Advertisement: A Focus on the Obesity Epidemic and Medical Costs in the United States"
Student: Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas
STEM
First - tie
“CPU Utilization of Programming Paradigms in Multiple Languages”
Student: Leo Liang
Faculty Mentor: Richard Martin
Second
“Impacts of Scenedesmus obliquus and Neritina reclivata on Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis"
Students: Abby Ward, Dayana Delgado, & Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen Kackley
Third - tie
“Engineering Mechanics of Connecting Rods”
Students: Chad Schaeffer & Christopher Trapp
Faculty Mentor: Tracey Carbonetto
Third - tie
“Mobile Battery Consumption of Various Programming Paradigms ”
Students: Angelo Sesma & Brian Tang
Faculty Mentor: Richard Martin
University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award: Excellence in Information Literacy
First
“The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students”
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
"Examination of Fast Food Advertisement: A Focus on the Obesity Epidemic and Medical Costs in the United States"
Student: Rana Moawad
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas
Third
“Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare”
Students: Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Anita Yuskauskas
2018
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences
First
“Prescription Drug Use and Secondary Exposure among College Students: A Focus on Gender and Social Class”
Students: Amanda Borges, Kirsten Mears
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker
Second
“Women in the 21st Century”
Student: Kristen Abdouche
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nichola Gutgold
Third
“United Airlines in Shambles”
Student: Kristen Abdouche
Faculty Mentor: Beth Michalec
STEM
First Place - tie
“Power of Rotor Blade versus Centroid Position”
Student: Connor Haney
Faculty Mentor: Tracey Carbonetto
First Place - tie
“The Potential of Coating Polyurethane with ‘Self-like’ Molecules to Reduce the Host Response to Implanted Medical Devices”
Student: Sheherbano Hussain, Zoha Babar, Jimmy Hadid
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin
Second Place
“Custom iPad Apps in IST"
Student: Jacqueline Tran
Faculty Mentor: Jeffery Stone
Third Place
“Variations in Airglow Temperature Influenced by the Increasing of CO2, Solar Cycle Variation and Geomagnetic Activity”
Student: Michael Vanyo
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tai-Yin Huang
Information Literacy
First
“The Potential of Coating Polyurethane with ‘Self-like’ Molecules to Reduce the Host Response to Implanted Medical Devices”
Students: Sheherbano Hussain, Zoha Babar, Jimmy Hadid
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin
Second
“Variations in Airglow Temperature Influenced by the Increasing of CO2, Solar Cycle Variation and Geomagnetic Activity”
Students: Michael Vanyo
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tai-Yin Huang
Third
“Power of Rotor Blade versus Centroid Position”
Student: Connor Haney
Faculty Mentor: Tracey Carbonetto
2017
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences
First
“Gender Conditioning Inadvertently Sets Women Several Steps behind Men When Negotiating Job Salary”
Student: Naseeba Saeed
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nichola Gutgold
Second
“Analysis of Social Media Posts in Severe Weather – Focus on Facebook & Twitter”
Student: Marie Tabshi
Faculty Mentor: Drew Anderson
Third
“Big Box Stores, Hyper-Branding, and Diversity in Children’s Books: An Application of Critical Race Theory”
Students: Devon Cunningham, Reema Kaskas
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker
STEM
First
“The Effects of Collagen – Substrate on the Expression and Co-expression of a-Smooth Muscle Actin and Myosin Light Chain Kinase”
Students: Paige Allen, Daniel Wright, Zunish Saqib, Nianja Carenard
Faculty Mentor: Kandiss Schrader
Second
“Expression and Localization of HDAC2 and Klf4 in A10 Cells”Mahbub Ali, Students: David Stevens, David Emrick, Paige Allen
Faculty Mentor: Kandiss Schrader
Third – tie
“Myocardin Expression in A10 Cells: Its Influence on a-Smooth Muscle Actin Expression and Cell Morphology”
Students: Joanna Haddad, Stephanie Shoemaker, Paige Allen
Faculty Mentor: Kandiss Schrader
Third – tie
“Compression Strength of Mechanically Worked PLA”
Students:James Morris, Hazim Ramzy, Matthew Mammen
Faculty Mentor: Tracey Carbonetto
2016
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences
First
"Quality of Life Behind Bars: Racialization in the 21st Century"
Student: Nicholas Pappas
Faculty mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker
Second (tie)
"Dyscalculia from Childhood to Adulthood"
Students: Kimberly Jeannette Hoogenboom and Nehemiah Nathan Myers
Faculty mentor: Maryam Kiani
Second (tie)
"Parental Investments and Relationship Stability Between Mothers and New Partners"
Students: Sherry D. Miller and Jennifer Kokinda
Faculty mentor: Raymond Petren
Honorable Mention
"Does Pornography Consumption Affect Attitudes towards Sex Workers or Prostitution?"
Student: Tashina Khabbaz
Faculty mentor: Dr. David Livert
STEM
First
“Dopamine's Actions on the Developing Vertebrate Four-Chambered Heart”
Students: Yeniffer Arguello and Joanna Haddad
Faculty mentor: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin
Second
"Crawling Locomotion in the Newborn Rat After Exposure to the Odor of Amniotic Fluid and Milk"
Student: Vyshnavi Nalluri
Faculty mentor: Valerie Mendez-Gallardo
Third
"3D Printed Computer-Controlled Rotation Optical Polarizer Mount"
Student: Maria Magabo
Faculty mentors: David Starling, Joseph Ranalli and Kenneth Dudeck
Honorable Mention
"The Effects of LED Lighting on the Growth of Chlorella vulgarus"
Students: Amanda Geis and William Sampson
Faculty mentors: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin and Dr. Tai-Yin Huang
2015
STEM
First
"Strengthening Connections: Intuitive Interfaces for Life Story Work in Elder Care"
Students: Mahdi Chaker, Michael Cimerola
Faculty Mentor: Marietta Scanlon
Second
"Chronotropic Effects of Elevated Doses of Ractopamine on the Developing Chicken Heart"
Students: Mit Patel, Munija Ramin, Manuel Colòn
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jacqueline S. McLaughlin
Third
"Titanium Anodizing Using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)"
Student: David Martnick
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hal Scholz
Arts and Humanities
First
"Many Children Left Behind, is Science for the Privileged Only? A Statistical Analysis of Science Program Participation by Demographic Variables"
Student: Samely Gonzalez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker
Second
"Cross-Cultural Analysis of Self-Control"
Student: Brandon C. Fisher
Faculty Mentor: P. J. Behrens
Third place
"Measure of Self-Control for PSU Students"
Student: Ashley Fardella
Faculty Mentor: P.J. Behrens
2014
Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences
First
"Childhood Obesity in Reading, Pennsylvania: Local and Comparative International Perspectives"
Students: JB Durishin, Grace Leman, Samantha Lutz, Jenny Nawa, Aneliese Townsend (presenter)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Livert
Second
"Do College Students’ Attitudes Reflect and/or Help Level America’s Growing Divide? A Psychological Study of ‘Hope’ Among Public University Students"
Student: MiguelAngel Tsiounis
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker
STEM
First
"Direct and Indirect Effects of Pseudoephedrine on the Intrinsic Conduction System of the Embryonic Chicken Heart"
Students: Fatima Afzal and Samely Gonzalez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin
Second
"Anodizer for the Arts"
Students: George Evangelou and Matthew Giamber
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hal Scholz
2013
Arts and Humanities
First
"Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Costs – Post Obamacare"
Student: Karim M. Badre
Faculty mentors: Dr. Jacqueline S. McLaughlin and Robert T. Wolfe
Second
"American Traditions, Holidays and Activities"
Student: Angelica DeLucia
Faculty mentors: Xenia Hadjioannou and Marisa Hockman
Third
"Colombia: What You Don't Know"
Students: Diana Cabezas and Juliana Vergara
Faculty Mentor: Ana B. Figueroa-Coddou
STEM
First
"Gamma Globin Expression in Human K562 Leukemic Cell Line"
Students: Patrick D. Hullihen, Digisha R. Patel, Jessica A. Raad and Anthony J. Toczek
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Jacqueline S. McLaughlin and Melissa S. Coyle
Second
"FPGA Controlled Vehicle"
Student: Austin Crain
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hal Scholz
Third
"Effects of Infill Solidity and Deposition Temperature on Tensile Properties of 3-D Printed ABS models"
Students: Joseph Masiewicz and Richard Mastrorilli
Faculty Mentor: Marietta Scanlon