Graduate Research Symposium

Past Winners

2024 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners 

Category: Arts & Humanities

Mark-Elliot Finley
Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Beowulf- Rowling’s Beowulfian Analogs and Inversions
Major Professor: Nicole Discenza 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: English

Lisa Shorts
Title: An Archive in Peril: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Archive as a Case Study
Major Professor: Davide Tanasi 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: History

Category: Physical Sciences & Engineering

Wilarachchige D C Bhagya Gunatilleke
Title: Elucidating Thermal Properties of Chalcogenide Superionic Conductors for Applications in Solid-State Batteries
Major Professor: George Nolas 
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Sunhye Kim
Title: Identifying Causes of Water Chemistry Changes at Springs in an Eogenetic Karst Aquifer
Major Professor: Patricia Spellman
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Concentration: Geosciences

Category: Health and Life Sciences

Dmitri Brunelle
Title: Neural Correlates of Temporal Processing Improve Following Treatment with Aldosterone: A Behavioral and Neurophysiological Approach​
Major Professor: Joe Walton
College: Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Omotayo Olabisi
Title: Cholesterol Conspiracy: Macrophages as Secret Allies of Prostate Cancer Cells
Major Professor: Brian Ruffell
College: Morsani College of Medicine 
Program: Immunology

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (including Education)

Cassidy Doyle
Title: Correlates of Super Aging in Two Population-Based Samples of Hispanic Older Adults
Major Professors: Kathy Black and Brent Small
College: Behavioral and Community Sciences 
Program: Aging Studies

Kaley Liang
Title: Companionship as Medicine: Enhancing Older Adult Well-Being through Intergenerational Telephone Communication
Major Professor: Jennifer O’Brien
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: Psychology


People's Choice Awards (audience selection)

Category: Arts & Humanities

Daria Zavodskaia
Title: How do Metaphors of Time Speak for the Differences between Russians and Americans and What Translational Difficulties it Causes?
Major Professor: Keith Berry
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: History

Category: Health and Life Sciences

Dewan Tahsin
Title: Testing a Zero-Inflated Dichotomous Logistic Bayesian Regression Model and a Land Cover at Topological Supervised-Classification for Prioritizing Asthma Related Covariables at the State Level
Major Professor: Jean Paul Tanner
College: Public Health
Program: Epidemiology

Category: Physical Sciences & Engineering

Erica Fancher
Title: Geochemical and Textural Investigations of Pyroclastic Products from the June 3rd 2018 Eruption of Volcan de Fuego, Guatemala
Major Professor: James Leahy
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (including Education)

Celine Davis
Title: Cognition in Crisis: Unravelling the Link Between COVID-19 and Cognitive-Linguistic Impairments
Major Professor: Nathan Maxfield
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Communication Sciences and Disorders

2023 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners 

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: Digital Preservation of Fading Memories: Virtualization and Online Dissemination of the WWII-era Japanese American Detention Camp Amache (Granada, Colorado)
Presenter: Kylie Dillinger
Major Professor: Davide Tanasi 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: History

Title: Milton’s Farting Clown- Medieval Satanic Influences in Paradise Lost
Presenter: Mark-Elliot Finley
Major Professor: Emily Jones 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: English

Category: Health & Life Sciences

Title: Angiogenesis: A Tragedy of Commons
Presenter: Ranjini Bhattacharya
Major Professor: Joel Brown 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: Cancer Biology

Title: Assessing Platelet-Leukocyte Interactions in Malaria
Presenter: Sushantti Rupesh
Major Professor: Iset Vera 
College: Morsani College of Medicine 
Program: Internal Medicine 

Category: Physical Sciences & Engineering

Title: Aquifer Water Chemistry Variability and Continuous Monitoring Sensor Comparison
Presenter: Mahnoor Kamal
Major Professor: Patricia Spellman 
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Title: Larvacean Abundance and Distribution in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico using the SIPPER Camera Imaging System
Presenter: Carlyn Scott
Major Professor: Kendra Daly 
College: College of Marine Science 
Concentration: Biological Oceanography

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)

Title: Guilt in the Golden Years: Examining the Effects of Defendant Age, Victim Age and Age Stereotype in a Mock Murder Trial
Presenter: Elizabeth Sykes
Major Professor: Christine Ruva 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: Psychology

Title: Subjective Opacity Theory: Exploring the Ontological Gap Between The Mind and World as a Psychological Experience
Presenter: Roger Young
Major Professor: Jennifer Bosson 
College: College of Arts and Sciences 
Program: Psychology


People’s Choice Awards (audience selection)

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: Rediscovering an Ancient Greek city in Sicily: Multi-sensorial Remote Sensing of Heloros
Presenter: Ryan Hom
Major Professor: Davide Tanasi
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: History

Category: Health & Life Sciences

Title: Allee Effect Strength Varies across Allee Mechanisms, But Not Taxonomic Groups
Presenter: Eva Muir
Major Professor: Andrew Kramer
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Integrative Biology 

Category: Physical Sciences and Engineering

Title: Reproductive Trends of Male Atlantic Spotted Dolphins
Presenter: Tara Pederson
Major Professor: Michelle Green
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Integrative Biology 

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)

Title: The Future is Female: Our Need to Research Treatments for Female Sex Offenders & Implications for Social Workers
Presenter: Emma Stevenson
Major Professor: Erin McKinley
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
School: Social Work

2022 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners 

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: The Invisible Worshipers of Ybor City: Afro-Caribbean Religious Practices in the Early 20th Century
Presenter: Jonathan Rodriguez
Major Professor: Diane Wallman
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Anthropology

Title: The Friendship Train: Peas, Politics and Propaganda
Presenter: Scott Miller
Major Professor: Julia Irwin
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: History

Category: Engineering

Title: When Is a Drilled Shaft Mass Concrete?
Presenter: Amanda Lewis
Major Professor: Gray Mullins
College: College of Engineering
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Title: Human-Spacesuit Interaction of the Foot During EVA
Presenter: Niraliben Patel
Major Professor: Stephanie Carey
College: College of Engineering
Program: Medical Engineering

Category: Health & Life Sciences

Title: Head Orienting Behaviors during Simultaneous Speech Detection and Localization
Presenter: Angkana Lertpoompunya
Major Professor: David A. Eddins
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Title: MMP-2 Facilitates Prostate Cancer Entry Into and Exit From Dormancy
Presenter: Mostafa Nasr
Major Professor: Conor Lynch
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Category: Physical Life Sciences & Mathematics

Title: Influence of Hydrologic Connectivity on the Natural Flow Regime of Archetypal Wetland Complexes
Presenter: Leanne Stepchinski
Major Professor: Mark Rains
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Title: Finding Food Deserts and Food Swamps in Florida
Presenter: Andrea Gann
Major Professor: Philip van Beynen
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Environmental Science and Policy

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)

Title: Bilingual Needs in Telehealth:  SLP Perspectives and Considerations
Presenter: Nataly Innamorato
Major Professor: Howard Goldstein
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Title: Escaping the Nest: How Anxiety-Driven Overprotective Parenting of Emerging Adults Relates to Challenges in College Adjustment in Typically and Atypically Developing Populations
Presenter: Gabriella Ulloa
Major Professor: Wendy Rote
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Psychology

People’s Choice Awards (Audience Selection)

Category: Social & Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)

Title: The Differences Between Special Education Services in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States
Presenter: Mohammed Alqahtani
Major Professor: Ann Cranston-Gingras
College: College of Education
Program: Curriculum & Instruction: Special Education

Title: The Development of Interpersonal Skills Through Narratives and Technology (DISTNT) Program for High-Performing, Transition-Age Youth with Level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder
Presenter: Callie Hill
Major Professor: Chih-Chin Chou
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Child & Family Studies

Category: Health & Life Sciences

Title: Epigenetic Silencing of SLC17A7 Promotes Osteosarcoma Growth and Metastasis
Presenter: Niveditha Nerlakanti
Major Professor: Conor Lynch
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

 

2021 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners 

Category: Arts and Humanities

Title: Labor-Based Grading Contracts and Instructor Feedback
Presenter: Kara Larson
Major Professor: Lisa Meloncon
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: English

Category: Engineering

Title: Deploying Neural Network IP in an Adversarial Environment
Presenter: Brooks Olney
Major Professor: Robert Karam
College: College of Engineering
Program: Computer Science and Engineering

Title: Optimizing Pressure Retarded Osmosis Spacer Geometries: An Experimental and Numerical Study
Presenter: Joshua Benjamin
Co-Major Professors: Mauricio Arias and Qiong Zhang
College: College of Engineering
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Category: Health and Life Sciences

Title: Identification of Novel Genes Contributing to Spatial Regulation of Surface Protein A in Staphylococcus Aureus
Presenter: Salvatore Scaffidi
Major Professor: Wenqi Yu
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology, & Molecular Biology

Title: Community Health Programming Gone Online: Participant Experiences Transitioning to a Virtual Service Model in the Wake of COVID-19
Presenter: Veronica Howell
Major Professor: Dr. Jaime Corvin
College: College of Public Health
Program: Global Health

Title: Hyperoxia-induced Cardiac Pathophysiology in Type-1 Diabetic Mice Model.
Presenter: Katarina Bojkovic
Major Professor: Siva Panguluri
College: Morsani College of Medicine
Program: Pharmaceutical Sciences

Category: Physical Life Sciences and Mathematics

Title: Headwater Wetlands or Headwater Streams? Hydrologic Connectivity and Flow Generation from California Vernal Pool Wetlands to Downstream Waters
Presenter: Leanne Stepchinski
Major Professor: Mark Rains
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Title: Characterizing Long-Term Hydrological Changes in Impaired Depressional Wetlands (Tampa Bay Region, FL)
Presenter: Jessica Balerna
Major Professor: David Lewis
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Integrative Biology

Category: Social and Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)

Title: The Effect of Sound Generator Treatment on Cortical Plasticity
Presenter: Sarah Bochat
Major Professor: David Eddins
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Title: Will Social Marketing Get the Lead (Pb) Out: Evaluation Findings from an Interdisciplinary Pb Mitigation Project in Madagascar
Presenter: Adaline Buerck
Co-Major Professors: James R. Mihelcic and Mahmooda Khaliq Pasha
College: College of Engineering
Program: Civil & Environmental Engineering

People’s Choice Awards (Audience Selection)

Category: Social and Behavioral Sciences (Including Education)
Title: Muslims Under the Rainbow: Five Aspects of Reconciling Islamic Faith with Queer Identity
Presenter: Sabeehah Ravat
Major Professor: Michelle Hughes Miller
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Women and Gender Studies

Category: Health and Life Sciences
Title: Impact of Fibroblast Mediated Stromal Protection on Evolution of Resistance to Targeted Therapies In ALK+ Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Presenter: Bina Desai
Major Professor: Andriy Marusyk
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Category: Engineering
Title: Assessment of Low-Cost Adsorbents for Siloxane Removal from Landfill Gas.
Presenter: Rarosue Amaraibi
Co-Major Professors: John Kuhn and Babu Joseph
College: College of Engineering
Program: Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering

2019 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts and Humanities

Title: The Confederate Triumvirate: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis in Myth and Memory
Presenter: Aaron Lewis
Major Professor: K. Stephen Prince
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: History

Title: Widow Narratives on Film and in Memoirs: Exploring Formula Stories of Grief and Loss of Older Women after the Death of a Spouse
Presenter: Jennifer Bender
Major Professor: Lori Roscoe
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Communication

Category: Engineering

Title: Low-Loss 3D Printed Suspended Crossover Interconnects using Laser Machining
Presenter: Omer Firat
Major Professor: Jing Wang
College: College of Engineering
Program: Electrical Engineering

Title: Hardware Construction for Error Detection of Number-Theoretic Transform Utilized in Secure Post- Quantum Cryptographic Architectures
Presenter: Ausmita Sarker
(Co-)Major Professor: Mehran Mozaffari Kermani
College: College of Engineering
Program: Computer Science and Engineering

Category: Health and Life Sciences

Title: Tackling Insecticide Resistance: Structural and Kinetic Characterization of Arylalkylamine N- Acyltransferase from Tribolium Castaneum
Presenter: Brian O'Flynn
Major Professor: David Merkler
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Chemistry

Title: A Window to Ischemic Stroke: Stem Cells Rescue Mitochondrial Dysfunction in MCAO-Induced Retinal Ischemia
Presenter: Hung Nguyen
(Co-)Major Professor: Cesar V. Borlongan
College: Morsani College of Medicine
Program: Pharmacology and Physiology

Category: Physical Life Sciences and Mathematics

Title: Tunable Band Gap Coupling in 2D Heterostructures Based on Ternary Alloys of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides
Presenter: Florence Nugera
(Co-)Major Professor: Humberto  R. Gutierrez
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Title: Petase: Characterization of a Plastic Degrading Enzyme
Presenter: Fiona Kearns
(Co-)Major Professor: H. Lee Woodcock
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Chemistry

Category: Social and Behavioral Sciences

Title: Functional Analysis and Behavioral Contrast: Problem Behavior Outside of Session
Presenter: Karie John
(Co-)Major Professor: Sarah Bloom
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Applied Behavior Analysis

Title: Using Social Network Analysis to Visualize and Measure Curricular Networks of Middle and High School Students
Presenter: Geoffrey West
(Co-)Major Professor: Jennifer Wolgemuth
College: College of Education
Program: Department of Educational and Psychological Studies

Honorable Mentions

Category: Engineering
Title: Integrating Wearable Sensing, Machine Learning and Smart-Phone Apps to Design a Secondary Prevention Program for Women with Heart Disease
Presenter: Arup Kanti Dey
Major Professor: Sriram Chellappan
College: College of Engineering
Program: Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Category: Health and Life Sciences
Title: Novel Approaches for the Cultivation of Marine Microbes with the Metabolic Capacity for Antibacterial Activity
Presenter: Sarah Kennedy
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Category: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Title: Development of a Food Retail Store Environment Observation Tool Comparison Matrix: Implications for Future Nutrition Research
Presenter: Sharonda Lovett
Major Professor: Heewon L. Gray
College: College of Public Health
Program: Community and Family Health

2018 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts and Humanities

Title: Playing Gender: Essentialist Stereotypes for Instruments Prescribe Instrument Selection for 5th Grade Students
Presenter: Patrick Cooper
Major Professor: C. Victor Fung
College: College of the Arts
Program: School of Music

Category: Behavioral and Social Sciences

Title: Treatment Outcomes of Justice-Involved CSEC Victims: Youth Strengths as Mediators
Presenter: Monica Landers
Major Professor: Ojmarrh Mitchell
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Criminology

Title: Stable Isotope Analysis of the Diet of Romans and Langobards in the Veneto from Late Antiquity to the Medieval Period
Presenter: Ashley Maxwell
Major Professor: Robert H. Tykot
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Applied Anthropology

Category: Biological and Chemical Sciences

Title: Predictive Databases, Computational Peptide Sequencing, and Secondary Metabolite Identification from a New Antarctic Pseudovibrio Species
Presenter: Nicole Avalon
Major Professor: Bill J. Baker
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Chemistry

Title: Lipidated α/α-AA Heterogeneous Peptides as Antimicrobial Agents
Presenter: Sylvia Singh
Major Professor: Jianfeng Cai
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Chemistry

Category: Education

Title: Investigating Elementary Students' Social Functioning Using a Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health
Presenter: Nicolas David Smith
Major Professor: Shannon M. Suldo
College: College of Education
Program: Educational and Psychological Studies

Category: Engineering

Title: Architectural Support for Mitigating Buffer-Overflow Software Attack
Presenter: Love Kumar Sah
Major Professor: Srinivas Katkoori
College: College of Engineering
Program: Computer Science and Engineering

Title: Design and Development of a Wrist-Hand Orthosis for Individuals with a Spinal Cord Injury
Presenter: Amber Gatto
Major Professor: Stephanie Carey
College: College of Engineering
Program: Mechanical Engineering

Category: Health Sciences

Title: Computational Modeling of Macrophage Polarization Dynamics in Skeletal Malignancies: An Integrated In Silico and In Vivo Approach
Presenter: Chen Hao Lo
Major Professor: Conor C Lynch
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Title: The In Vitro Role of BMI1 in Acute Lung Injury
Presenter: Helena Hernandez-Cuervo
Major Professor: Narasaiah Kolliputi
College: Morsani College of Medicine
Molecular Medicine: Molecular Medicine

Category: Natural and Physical Sciences

Title: Antarctica in Hot Water: Employing A Suite of Archives and Techniques to Understand the Melting Continent Past
Presenter: Theresa King
Major Professor: Brad Rosenheim
College: College of Marine Science
Program: Geological Oceanography

Title: A Case Study of Volcanic Lightning at Sakurajima Volcano, Japan and iIts Potential Use as an Indicator of Volcanic Ash Parameters
Presenter: Cassandra Smith
Major Professor: Stephen R. McNutt
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geology

2017 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts and Humanities

Title: The Evolution of Little Red Riding Hood
Presenter: Sophia Boules
Major Professor: Christine McCall Probes
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: French, World Languages

Category: Behavioral and Social Sciences

Title: The Social Influence of Grandmothers on Breastfeeding Duration
Presenter: Alexis Barr
(Co-)Major Professor(s): Ellen Daley and Karen Perrin
College: College of Public Health
Program: Community and Family Health

Category: Behavioral and Social Sciences
Title: HIV Health Literacy in a Pediatric Infectious Disease Clinic: Preliminary Analysis
Presenter: Courtney Lynn
Major Professor: Kathy Bradley-Klug
College: College of Education
Program: Educational and Psychological Studies

Category: Biological and Chemical Sciences

Title: Combinatorial Libraries as a Tool to Discover Antibacterial and Anti- Resistant Agents Targeting Multi- Drug Resistant Pathogens
Presenter: Renee Fleeman
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Title: Unlocking Cryptic Metabolic Pathways in Actinobacteria via Environmental and Epigenetic Modification
Presenter: Haider Manzer
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Title: Stepwise Identification of Virulence-Related sRNAs in Staphylococcus Aureus
Presenter: Andy Weiss
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Category: Education

Title: Self-Determination during School-to-Adulthood Transition in Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder across American and Chinese Cultures
Presenter: Gary Yu Hin Lam
(Major Professor: Linda Raffaele Mendez
College: College of Education
Program: Psychological and Educational Studies

Title: Monitoring and Fostering Students' Happiness: Universal Screening for Life Satisfaction in an Elementary School
Presenter: Emily Wingate
Major Professor: Shannon Suldo
College: College of Education
Program: Educational and Psychological Studies

Category: Engineering

Title: Solid-State Supercapacitors Based on Gel Electrolyte as an Alternative to Liquid Electrolyte
Presenter: Belqasem Aljafari
Major Professor: Arash Takshi
College: College of Engineering
Program: Electrical Engineering

Title: Pathogen Removal in a Novel Onsite Wastewater Treatment System
Presenter: Michelle Henderson
Major Professor: Sarina Ergas
College: College of Engineering
Program: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Title: Charge Dependent Inactivation of E. Coli Using Cold Atmospheric Helium Plasma
Presenter: Alex Otten
Major Professor: Andrew Hoff
College: College of Engineering
Program: Electrical Engineering

Category: Health Sciences

Title: Mechanisms of Treatment-Induced Drug Resistance in Lung Cancer
Presenter: Mark Howell
Major Professor: Subhra Mohapatra
College: Morsani College of Medicine
Program: Molecular Medicine

Title: Activation of PTEN Lipid Phosphatase Function in Lung Cancer
Presenter: Emily Palumbo
Major Professor: Vrushank Dave
College: Morsani College of Medicine
Program: Cancer Biology

Category: Natural and Physical Sciences

Title: Analyzing Optical Imaging of Ca2+ Signals Via TIRF Microscopy: the Limits on Resolution Due to Chemical Rates and Depth of Channels
Presenter: Patrick Toglia
Major Professor: Ghanim Ullah
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Title: Almost Only Counts in Horse Shoes and Clumped Isotopes: An Improved Understanding of the Effect of Pressure Baseline on Reconstructions of Temperature from the Geologic Past
Presenter: Ryan Venturelli
Major Professor: Brad Rosenheim
College: College of Marine Science
Program: Geological Oceanography

2016 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: Music Ensemble Participation: Personality Traits and Musical Experience
Author(s): Tracy Torrance, Jennifer Bugos
Major Professor: Jennifer Bugos
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Music Education

Category: Behavioral Sciences

Title: Influence of Pharmacological Manipulations of NMDA and Cholinergic Receptors on Working versus Reference Memory in a Dual Component Odor Span Task
Author(s): Savannah Dalrymple, David MacQueen, David J. Drobes
Major Professor: David Diamond
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Psychology

Title: Evaluating Public Posting, Goal Setting, and Rewards to Increase Physical Activity during School Recess
Author(s): Bryon Miller, Diego A. Valbuena, Heather M. Zerger, Raymond G. Miltenberger
Major Professor: Raymond Miltenberger
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Applied Behavior Analysis

Category: Education

Title: Effective Literacy Interventions for At-Risk Readers: A Literature Review
Author: Lesley Noel
Major Professor: Jenifer Schneider
College: College of Education
Program: Literacy Studies

Title: Use of A Game-Based Educational App for Improving Fraction Skills of Students with MLD
Author: Orhan Simsek
Major Professor: David Allsopp
College: College of Education
Program: Special Education

Category: Engineering

Title: Mobile Manipulator Dual-trajectory Control
Author(s): Mustafa Mashali, Redwan Alqasemi, Rajiv Dubey
Major Professor: Rajiv Dubey
College: College of Engineering
Program: Mechanical Engineering

Title: Nutrient Removal and Energy Recovery from Digester Effluent Using a Microbial Fuel Cell
Author(s): Kevin Orner, Jeffrey Cunningham
Major Professor: Jeffrey Cunningham
College: College of Engineering
Program: Environmental Engineering

Category: Health

Title: Towards the Complete Small RNome of Acinetobacter Baumannii
Author(s): Andy Weiss, William Broach
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Microbiology

Title: Severe Maternal Morbidity in Florida
Author(s): Lindsay Womack, Humberto López Castillo, Yuri Sebastião, Linda Detman
(Co-)Major Professor(s): Kathleen O'Rourke, William Sappenfield
College: College of Public Health
Program: Epidemiology

Category: Natural & Physical Sciences

Title: Lava Flow Hazard Assessment for the Idaho National Laboratory
Author(s): Elisabeth Gallant, Charles Connor, Paul Wetmore, Laura Connor, Jacob Richardson
Major Professor: Charles Connor
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Title: Search for Drug Targets and Possible Treatments for Toxoplasmosis
Author(s): Jeanine Yacoub, Travis Bland, James Leahy, Michael White, James Leahy
Major Professor: James Leahy
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Chemistry

2015 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: The Truth About Ybor: Jose Yglesias and His Literature of Place
Author(s): Megan Mandell, Haili Alcorn, Michael Stowe, Neal Fischer
Major Professor: Laura Runge
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: English

Category: Education

Title: Self-Directed Learning Expanding The Inquiring Mind
Author: Kristeen Bulluck
Major Professor: William Young
College: College of Education
Program: Adult Education

Category: Engineering

Title: Modulation of the BK Ion Channel as a Potential Treatment for Tinnitus
Author(s): Andrea Lowe, Samantha Cresoe, Joseph Walton
Major Professor: Joseph Walton
College: College of Engineering
Program: Biomedical Engineering

Category: Health

Title: Synthetic Combinatorial Libraries as a Tool for the Discovery of Novel Antibacterial Agents Against the ESKAPE Pathogens
Author: Renee Fleeman
Major Professor: Lindsey Shaw
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology & Molecular Biology

Title: Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analysis of the Human Parasite Brugia Malayi on Stimulating the Ecdysone Receptor with Ligand 20-Hydroxyecdysone
Author(s): Amruta Mhashilkar, Thomas Unnasch, Rays Jiang
Major Professor: Thomas R. Unnasch
College: College of Public Health
Program: Global Health

Title: Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative Indicator System (FPQC IS): What's the Status of Florida's Perinatal Health?
Author(s): Lindsay Womack, Humberto López Castillo, Linda Detman, William Sappenfield
Major Professor: Elizabeth Aranda
College: College of Public Health
Program: Epidemiology

Title: Slingshot-Cofilin Activation Mediates Mitochondrial and Synaptic Dysfunction in Alzheimer's Disease
Author(s): JungA Alexa Woo, Xingyu Zhao, Hirah Khan, Courtney Penn, Xingmin Wang, Aurelie Joly-Amado
Major Professor: David Kang
College: College of Medical Sciences
Program: Neuroscience/Molecular Medicine

Category: Natural and Physical Sciences

Title: Terrestrial Phosphides and Implications for the Origin of Life
Author(s): Kristyn Rodzinyak, Lyle Garong, Nikita La Cruz, Matthew Pasek
Major Professor: Matthew Pasek
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Geosciences

Title: Enhancing Harmonic Generation using Nonlinear Metamaterials
Author(s): Sinhara Silva, Jiangfeng Zhou
Major Professor: Jiangfeng Zhou
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Title: Palynology and Stratigraphic Analysis of the Terrestrial Pre-glacial Environment, Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica
Author(s): Catherine Smith, Eugene Domack
Major Professor: Eugene Domack
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Category: Social Sciences

Title: Determinants and Prevention of Low Birth Weight in sub-Saharan Africa: The Effects of Bed Net Distribution
Author(s): Joseph Coleman, Olga Petrova, Gabriel Picone
Major Professor: Gabriel Picone
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Economics

Title: The Landscape Legacies of Sugar at Betty's Hope Plantation, Antigua, West Indies
Author: Suzanna Pratt
Major Professor: E. Christian Wells
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Anthropology

2014 Annual Graduate Research Symposium Winners

Category: Arts & Humanities

Title: Painting the Land
Author: Briana Phelps
Major Professor: Elisabeth Condon
College: College of The Arts
Program: Studio Art

Title: Caught Looking- Cracking the Shell to Stadiums and the Urban Mix
Author(s): Nina Reali, Mark Weston
Major Professor: Mark Weston
College: College of The Arts
Program: Architecture

Category: Behavioral Sciences

Title: Midlife Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Dementia over 43 Years of Follow Up: A Population-based Study from the Swedish Twin Registry
Author(s): Elizabeth Handing, Ross Andel, Pavla Kadlecova, Margaret Gatz, Nancy Pedersen
Major Professor: Ross Andel
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Aging Studies

Title: Utilizing TAGteach to Enhance Proficiency in Specified Dance Movements
Author(s): Mallory Quinn, Raymond G. Miltenberger, Victoria Foge
Major Professor: Raymond G. Miltenberger
College: College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Program: Child & Family Studies

Category: Education

Title: Towards a More Student-Centered Approach: Photo-elicitation in English as a Second Language Adult Education
Author(s): Julie Dell-Jones, Andrea Lypka
Major Professor: Wei Zhu
College: College of Education
Program: Education

Title: Kindles in the Classroom: A Survey of Teachers' Perceptions of a Mandated Technology Initiative
Author(s): Erin Margarella, Matthew U. Blankenship
Major Professor: Danielle Dennis
College: College of Education
Program: Childhood Education & Literacy Studies

Category: Engineering

Title: Heat Transfer Improvement in IR-transparent Phase Change Materials using Absorptive Nanoparticle Additives for Thermal Energy Storage
Author(s): Abhinav Bhardwaj, Philip D Myers, Jr., D. Yogi Goswami, Elias Stefanakos
Major Professor: Yogi D. Goswami
College: College of Engineering
Program: CHBME

Title: Self Assembly Kinetics of Microscale Components: An Energy Based Model
Author(s): Jose Carballo, Yohana Consuegra-Reyes, Nathan B. Crane
Major Professor: Nathan Crane
College: College of Engineering
Program: Mechanical Engineering

Category: Health

Title: Characterization of the Neuropathological Consequences of Plac1 Ablation in the Developing Mouse Embryo
Author(s): Jacob Bourgeois, Xiaoyuan Kong, Juan Fuentes, Raymond Harbison, Giffe Johnson, Gary Martinez, Jose Rey, Marcia Gordon, Michael Fant
Major Professor: Michael Fant
College: College of Public Health
Program: Toxicology

Title: Immunotoxicity Evaluation and Mechanistic Studies of Graphene Quantum Dots
Author(s): Yiru Qin, Shufeng Zhou
Major Professor: Shufeng Zhou
College: College of Medicine
Program: Molecular Medicine

Category: Natural Science

Title: 5-Fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine Induces Molecular Chaperones and Protects Against Protein Aggregation in an HSF-1-Dependent Manner in Caenorhabditis Elegans
Author(s): Jessica Brunquell, Philip Bowers, Sandy D. Westerheide
Major Professor: Sandy Westerheide
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Cell Biology, Microbiology & Molecular Biology

Title: Bistable Nonlinear Metamaterials
Author(s): Sinhara Silva, Jiangfeng Zhou
Major Professor: Jiangfeng Zhou
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Physics

Title: Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Miltefosine Resistance in Leishmania Donovani
Author(s): Brian Vesely, Dennis E Kyle
Major Professor: Dennis E Kyle
College: College of Public Health
Program: Global Health

Category: Social Science

Title: Re(defining) Muslim Women: The Adaptation Strategies of Female Muslim International Students at American Universities
Author: Amber Gregory
Major Professor: Elizabeth Aranda
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Sociology

Title: Why We Play: Exploring MMORPG Gamer Experiences
Author: Theresa Woods
Major Professor: Scott Liu
College: College of Arts and Sciences
Program: Mass Communication