Seventeen McCormick Students Win Undergraduate Research Grants
Seventeen McCormick students from six departments won $3,000 grants to perform independent research this summer.
Students had to apply to the Office of the Provost and the Undergraduate Research Grants Committee with a research proposal that could be conducted autonomously, under the supervision of an adviser, over eight weeks this summer.
Winners include:
Nick Anderson (chemical engineering), “Development of a Primary Mouse Ovarian Follicle in vitro Culture System” (Faculty adviser: Lonnie Shea, chemical and biological engineering)
Christina Burghard (biomedical engineering), “Synthesis of B-amino acid Oligomers in a Cell Free System” (Faculty adviser: Michael Jewett, chemical and biological engineering)
Rongrong Cheacharoen* (materials science and engineering, Physics), “Oxygen Vacancies Concentration: Controlling Electronic Transition Temperature in Vanadium Dioxide Nanowires” (Faculty adviser: Lincoln Lauhon, materials science and engineering)
Sarah Cohick (biomedical engineering), “Four Bar Lever System Terminal Device for the Developing World” (Faculty adviser: Jonathon Sensinger, physical medicine and rehabilitation)
Austin Culver (biomedical engineering), “Characterization of Downstream Targets of Foxc1 and Foxc2 Nuclear Transcription Factors during Vascular Endothelial Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells” (Faculty adviser: Tsutomu Kume, Department of Medicine, cardiology division)
Connor Eck (applied mathematics, English), “Phase Transitions in Long-Range Potts Models” (Faculty adviser: Erik Luijten, materials science and engineering/applied mathematics)
Nam Kim (biomedical engineering), “Incorporation of Hydroxylapatite Nanoparticles in Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) Bridges” (Faculty adviser: Lonnie Shea, chemical and biological engineering)
Mirasbek Kuterbekov (materials science and engineering), “Effect of Nanodiamonds on the Material Properties of 3D Collagen Hydrogels and Porous Scaffolds” (Faculty adviser: Ramille Shah, materials science and engineering)
Cheri Liu (biomedical engineering, Psychology), “Role of the TGF-beta Receptor-associated Protein, Smad Anchor for Receptor Activation (SARA), in Myofibroblast Transition of Fibroblasts” (Faculty adviser: Howard Schnaper, Department of Pediatrics)
Xudong Liu (electrical engineering), “Design and Implementation of Parallel Graph Algorithms on the GPU” (Faculty adviser: Hai Zhou, electrical engineering and computer science)
Ragan Pitner (biomedical engineering), “Initial Design and Characterization of a Novel Orthogonal Signaling Pathway in E. Coli” (Faculty adviser: Joshua Leonard, chemical and biological engineering)
Julia Simkowski (biomedical engineering), “A Quantitative Comparison of Variance in Movement of Children with Cerebral Palsy” (Faculty adviser: Citlali Lopez-Ortiz, physical medicine and rehabilitation)
Charlie Tsai* (chemical engineering), “Effect of Crystal Phase Composition and Morphological Properties on the Reductive and Oxidative Abilities of TiO2 Nanotubes under UV and Visible Light” (Faculty adviser: Kimberly Gray, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Kaleb Tsang (environmental engineering), “The Effect of Benthic Biofilms on the Transport of Microorganisms in Rivers” (Faculty adviser: Aaron Packman, civil and environmental engineering)
Aaron Tsui (biomedical engineering), “NO inhibition of Neointimal Hyperplasia via Differential Regulation of SOD-1” (Faculty adviser: Melina Kibbe, Department of Surgery, Vascular Surgery Division)
Monica Wei (biomedical engineering, psychology), “Biodistributional and Efficacy Analysis of Gemcitabine-conjugated Polymeric Micelles for Drug Delivery” (Faculty adviser: Matthew Grayson, electrical engineering and computer science)
YuanJia Zhu (biomedical engineering), “Understanding the Role of Cell Morphology in Partial Wave Spectroscopic Microscopy Output of Cellular Nanoarchitecture Alterations in Early Field Carcinogenesis” (Faculty adviser: Vadim Backman, biomedical engineering)
(* indicates URG-ISEN award recipient)