Undergraduate Research Symposium Winner Archive

2024

Arts, Humanities, Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences

First
"Perceptions of the Police: An Exploration of Demographics, Prior Exposures, and Beliefs about Surveillance in Everyday Life Among College Students"
Student Presenters: Matthew Cascioli
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Parker

Second
"The Effect of Parenting Style on Academic Performance"
Student Presenter: Kelee Phan
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Parker

Information Literacy

First
"The Effect of Pornography Use on Gendered Attitudes and Sexual Behaviors"
Student Presenters: Miyeli Vazquez, Nathan Peter, Aidan Reimels
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Livert

Second
"Perceptions of the Police: An Exploration of Demographics, Prior Exposures, and Beliefs about Surveillance in Everyday Life Among College Students"
Student Presenter: Matthew Cascioli
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Parker

STEM

First
Investigating the Filtration Efficiency and Water Quality in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Area
Student Presenters: Alexander Kociuba
Faculty Mentor: Dr. McLaughlin

Second
Exploring Cognitive Maps as Higher Order Learning Activity to Assess Learning Calculus
Student Presenters: Mary Cloud Namy, Dany Dabboura, Daniela Carolina Fernandez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kiani

2023

Arts, Humanities, Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences

First
"Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Question of Ideological Framing of “Big Data” Research"
Student Presenters: Gianna Gomes
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Parker

Second
"Cross-Cultural Comparison of Ageist Attitudes "
Student Presenter: Angelina Roccamo
Faculty Mentor: David Livert

Information Literacy

First
"Cross-Cultural Comparison of Ageist Attitudes"
Student Presenter: Angelina Roccamo
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Livert

Second (Three-way tie)
"Adolescent Marijuana Use Analysis by Rurality and Region of the United States"
Student Presenter: Ihtraam M Siddiqui
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicole Ryerson

"Students’ Usage of Mathematical Applications and Websites and Perception of Plagiarism in Mathematics:
Student Presenter: Marjaan Khan and Esha Bains
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maryam Kiani

"Uncovering the Link Between Autism, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Socioeconomic Status: The Protective Influence of Family Resilience"
Student Presenter: Gianna Gomes
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Parker, Dr. Andjela Kaur, Teri Kistler

STEM

First
"Aquatic Health of the Danube Basin: Assessment of Select Areas within the Brăila Islands, Romania"
Student Presenters: Samar Latefa, Jonathon Perez
Faculty Mentor: Jacqueline Mclaughlin

Second
"Students’ Usage of Mathematical Applications and Websites and Perception of Plagiarism in Mathematics"
Student Presenters: Marjaan Khan, Esha Bains,
Faculty Mentor: Maryam Kiani

2022

Arts
“Invasive Species: The Importance of Scientific Illustrations”
Student Presenters: 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: Dr. David Livert

Information Literacy
“Stress Effects on Memory for Social Content”
Student Presenters: Justin Lebon and Hannah Irwin
Faculty mentor: Dr. David Livert

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

2021

Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social & Behavioral Sciences

First
“Impact of stress on behaviors related to COVID-19 exposure and other health risks”
Student presenter: Mahnoor Malik
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson

Second
“What happens when we believe the conspiracies?: The relationship between conspiracy theories and COVID-19 attitudes”
Student presenter: Alejandra Pena
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson

Third
“Narcissism and alcohol use: a correlational study of archival neurophysiological data”
Student presneters: Chris Fiegel and Riley Koch
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson

Information Literacy

First
“Green thumbs on the red planet: geochemical processes applied to developing viable agriculture soil from martian regolith”
Student Presenters: 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 Presenter: Mahnoor Malik
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson

Third
“Narcissism and alcohol use: a correlational study of archival neurophysiological data”
Student Presenters:  Chris Fiegel and Riley Koch,
Faculty Mentor: Nicole Ryerson

STEM

Second
“Modeling the changes and differences in the rate of COVID infection”
Student Presener: Angelica Pirog
Faculty Mentor: Todd Retzlaff

Third
“Utilizing MATLAB to model solar cell output”
Student Presneters: Joshua Misiti and Boaz Mokaya
Faculty Mentor: Harold Scholz

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

Information Literacy

First

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