Graduate Research Excellence
The Fifteenth Annual Graduate Research Forum took place Tuesday to a packed house of graduate students showcasing their original research and creative projects in oral and poster presentations.
Nearly 260 students and 125 faculty judges participated in the event and over $17,000 in awards were presented for Best in Category presentations. For a first time this year, a Participant’s Choice Poster Presentation Award was awarded by poster presenter’s to Robert Sharp in Biomedical Sciences PhD. Sharp received a goody bag and two tickets to the Mayim Bialak presentation during the UCF Celebrates the Arts.
Congratulations to the following students who were granted awards for their outstanding presentations in each of the categories as follows.
Oral Presentations
Business Administration and Hospitality Management, Education, Fine Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences
- First Place Doctoral Atalie Ashley West
- Second Place Doctoral Jennifer Scheurich
Business Administration and Hospitality Management, Education, Fine Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences
- First Place Master’s Rachel Pittaluga
Engineering, Computer Science, Modeling and Simulation, Health and Life Sciences, Mathematics, Optics, and Physical Sciences
- First Place Doctoral Omar Ahmed
- Second Place Doctoral Nathaniel Roddenberry
Engineering, Computer Science, Modeling and Simulation, Health and Life Sciences, Mathematics, Optics, and Physical Sciences
- First Place Master’s Aleksandra Krawczyk

Poster Presentations
Fine Arts and Humanities, Education
- First Place Doctoral Jillian Schreffler
- Second Place Doctoral Ken Matthews
- First Place Master’s Carys O’Neill
Health and Life Sciences
- First Place Doctoral Ziyang Huang
- Second Place Doctoral Nileshi Saraf
- First Place Master’s Ryan Girts
Social Sciences and Business
- First Place Doctoral Rosanna Scott
- Second Place Doctoral Ashley Connors
- First Place Master’s Kelly Merrill, Jr.
- Second Place Master’s Angelica Costa
Engineering
- First Place Doctoral Aadithya Jeyaranjan
- Second Place Doctoral Supriya Koul
Mathematics, Optics, and Physical Sciences
- First Place Doctoral Hao Chen
- Second Place Doctoral Ryan Challener
Engineering, Mathematics, Optics, and Physical Sciences
- First Place Master’s Stephanie Armas
For more information about the Graduate Research Forum and to see a list of the student’s abstracts, please visit the Graduate Research Forum page.
If you participated in the Forum and would like to receive the comments the judges made of your poster and presentation, please stop by the Graduate Student Center in Colbourn Hall, Suite 146 and ask for them at the front desk.
If you have any questions about the UCF Graduate Research Forum, email researchweek@ucf.edu.
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