Student Scholar Symposium: Day One Winners

The Student Scholar Symposium, UCF’s premier research showcase, runs March 25–26 in the Pegasus Ballroom. Day One featured hundreds of research posters across three sessions, with judges evaluating presentations and awarding scholarships at the end of the day.

What started as two small research events has grown into a university-wide tradition. Today, Student Research Week brings together more than 1,000 student presenters and over 200 faculty mentors who serve as judges and contributors. It celebrates the curiosity, creativity, and innovation that shape the student experience every day.

By the end of Day Two, students will have showcased 851 research and creative scholarship projects, including 340 graduate and 511 undergraduate presentations. More than $45,000 in scholarships will be awarded over the two-day event.

Day One winners are listed below by session. 

Session One

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Susana El Souki El Assal, Corruption, Economic Hardships, and Political Rivalries in 1930’s Turkey
Mentor: Dr. Hakan Ozoglu (Department of History)

Hannah DeGraw, Disturbances to Diseases: Determining the infection dynamics of Mycoplasma Infections in the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) population at UCF
Mentor: Dr. Matthew Atkinson (Department of Biology)

Simran Dillip, Transcriptional Responses of Lactobacillus and Human Epithelial Cells to Bile Stress 
Mentor: Dr. Claudia Andl (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Sanika Rudraraju, Purification and Functional Analysis of Membrane Serine Proteases: The Prostasin-Matriptase Cascade
Mentor: Dr. Li-Mei Chen (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Eugenio Diaz, Real-Time Classification of Neuromorphically Encoded Tactile Data with Spiking Neural Networks 
Mentor: Dr. Mohsen Rakhshan (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Faith Tovrea, Examination of Orange County Environmental Waters Using Microbial Source Tracking
Mentor: Dr. Melanie J. Beazley (Department of Chemistry)

Camila Perez-Aponte and Zuriel Corporan, Utilizing Ecological Momentary Assessment to Explore the Physical Activity Intention-Behavior Gap Among Postpartum Women
Mentor: Dr. A’Naja Newsome (Department of Health Sciences)

Radhika Venkatesan, From Risk to Opportunity: The Paradoxical Link Between Alcohol Use and Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Older U.S. Adults 
Mentor: Dr. Karina Villalba (Department of Population Health Sciences)

Rami Falhi and Harrinsson Santos, Design and Control of a Compact Rotating-Beam Prosthetic Foot for On-Demand Stiffness Tuning
Mentor: Dr. Hwan Choi (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Eric Segrest, Concurrently monitoring ultrafast surface and gas-phase dynamics in solid–gas interfacial reactions
Mentor: Dr. Mihai E Vaida (Department of Physics)

Daniela Martinez, A Hispanic Generational View on Mental Health
Mentor: Dr. Valerie Sims (Department of Psychology)

Bianca Jaramillo, Effects of Interdisciplinary Training on Visuo-Cognitive Playmaking Abilities of Athletes in Rugby
Mentor: Dr. Valerie Sims (Department of Psychology)

Ann Mary Thomas, Social Determinants of Health and Cardiovascular Disparities Among South Asian Americans: A Systematic Review 
Mentor: Dr. Xiaochuan Wang (School of Social Work)

Jordan Lipner, The Evolving Polarization in Attitudes Toward Environmental Spending:A Two-Level Hierarchical Analysis, 1973-2025 
Mentor: Dr. Richard Plate (School of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                        

Desiree Flores-Molina, Gaining Voice, Creating Opportunity: Self-Efficacy Sources among Multilingual Students in U.S. College Public Speaking Classrooms
Mentor: Dr. Ann Miller (Nicholson School Of Communication and Media)

Tina Tran, D-STVG: Discontinuous Spatio-Temporal Video Grounding for Multi-View Longitudinal Mammography via Narrative Supervision 
Mentor: Dr. Pegah Khosravi (College of Medicine)

Bassam Nasir, Automated LiDAR-Based Assessment of Coastal Morphological Change Following Hurricane Ian
Mentor: Dr. Weiwei Zhan (Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering)

Matt Counts, Z-TOP: A Self-Assembling Peptide for Micellar Transport and Delivery
Mentor: Dr. Lorraine Leon (Materials Science and Engineering)

Claudia Da Silveira, The 3D Navier–Stokes Millennium Problem: A Guided Research Program and New Estimates 
Dr. Carlos Borges (Department of Mathematics)

Chitra Banarjee, Fall risk appraisal predicts changes in sensor-derived gait metrics 
Mentor: Dr. Ladda Thiamwong (College of Nursing)

Antonio Martinez Margolles, Thermal Response Functions and Second Sound in Graphene
Mentor: Dr. Patrick K. Schelling (Department of Physics)

Alennys Taveras Seda, Perceptions of ReNEW and ACTT: Evaluating Participant Insights on Substance Use Treatment and Reentry Preparation in Jail 
Mentors: Dr. Jill Viglione and Dr. Michael Caudy (Department of Criminal Justice)

People’s Choice Award

Hannah DeGraw, Disturbances to Diseases: Determining the infection dynamics of Mycoplasma Infections in the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) population at UCF 
Mentor: Dr. Matthew Atkinson (Department of Biology)

Juliet Espinal, Diaphragmatic Breathing Training to Improve Estimated VO2 Max in Young Vocal and Theatrical Performers
Mentors: Dr. David Fukuda and Dr. Jeffery Stout (Kinesiology)

Session Two                    

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Amelia Bitting, George Bellows’ Boxing Paintings: From the Underworld to the Spotlight 
Mentor: Dr. Keri Watson (School of Visual Arts and Design)

Abbey Shields, Prey availability as an indicator for semi-aquatic snakes and ecosystem health
Mentor: Dr. Joshua R. King (Department of Biology)

Grace Easterling, Flavin-Dependent NAD+ Regeneration Links Riboflavin Transport to Glycolytic Fitness in Borrelia burgdorferi  
Mentor: Dr. Mollie W. Jewett (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Thomas Tibbetts, Dominating Hadwiger’s Conjecture for 2K2-Free Graphs 
Mentor: Dr. Zi-Xia Song (Department of Mathematics)

Ricky Lin, Effect of Sapropterin Dihydrochloride on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms for Individuals With Phenylketonuria: A Systematic Review  
Mentor: Dr. Eunkyung Lee (Department of Health Sciences)

Sofia Zapatier, Prevention of Pneumothoraces with the Use of an Electromagnetic Device During Feeding Tube Insertion
Mentor: Dr. Annette Bourgault, (College of Nursing)

Michael Freeland, Consistent Automated Segmentation of DENSE MRI using a Seeded Growth Algorithm
Mentor: Dr. Luigi E. Perotti (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Brayden Herzberg, Exploration of Nozzle Design’s Influence on Plume Surface Interactions
Mentor: Dr. Adrienne Dove (Department of Physics)

Gianna Southwick, Hemispheric Lateralization: A Comparative Analysis of Left and Right Brain Activation Patterns 
Mentors: Dr. Ancuta Margondai and Dr. Mustapha Mouloua (Department of Psychology)

Weronika Wolkowska and Macy Drewry, Mood and Consumption: The Relationship Between Affective States and Purchasing Behavior 
Dr. Cindy Von Ahlefeldt (Department of Psychology)

Erin Engel, What are all the on-going current space enterprise efforts and how might they impact Central Florida and the global community?  
Mentors, Dr. David R. Penn and Dr. Shelley Maccini (Department of Integrated Business)

Ana Pons, Who Makes the Jury? Demographics and Decision-Making the Jury Process
Mentors: Dr. Jennifer Peck (Department of Criminal Justice)

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                   

Diamond Williams and Adonis Rogers, The Cycle of AAVE in Social Media: A Counterstory for Cultural Exchange
Mentor: Dr. Joel Bergholtz (Department of Writing and Rhetoric)

Lily Giardino  Use of Oral Nicotine Pouches Negatively Impacts Oral Epithelium Health
Mentor: Claudia Andl (College of Medicine)

Tahoora Ateeq, Disease states in membraneless organelles: an investigation using a peptide-based polyelectrolyte complex model
Mentor: Dr. Lorraine Leon (Materials Science and Engineering)

Minh Tran, Atmospheric Oxidation Elevates Cloud Activation of Biomass‑Burning Phenolic Aerosol
Mentor: Denisia Popolan-Vaida (Department of Chemistry)

Matthew Shanosky, Investigating the Viability of Using Corticomuscular Coherence for Clinical Applications
Mentor: Dr. Helen J. Huang (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Utkarsha Patil, Educational Background and Job Performance of Kitchen Staff in Hospitality Operations
Mentor: Dr. Heejung Ro (Department of Hospitality Services)

Hong Ngoc Nguyen and Midori Yamazaki, Exploring Frontline Ambidexterity in Robot Restaurants: Balancing Efficiency, Human Touch, and Cultural Variations
Mentor: Dr. Valeriya Shapoval (Rosen College of Hospitality Management)

Kassadi Smith, States’ Quest for Cyber Power 
Mentor: Dr. Jacopo A. Baggio (School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs)

People’s Choice  Winners                 

Erin Engel, What are all the on-going current space enterprise efforts and how might they impact Central Florida and the global community? 
Mentors, Dr. David R. Penn and Dr. Shelley Maccini (Department of Integrated Business)

Medhavi Radadiya, Simple and Complex Reaction Tasks for Dynamic Upper Body Pressing
Mentor: Dr. David H. Fukuda (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Session Three                          

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Sophie Bennett and Arina Nemati, Evaluating the Effects of Multiplayer Interactions on Social Connectivity and Engagement in a Gamified EMG Training Environment 
Mentor: Dr. Albert Manero (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Emma Quade, Pawsing for Concern: Detection of Microplastics in the Reproductive Tissues of Feral and Domestic Felines
Mentor: Dr. Linda Walters (Department of Biology)

Jasra Elahi, Ultrasound-Responsive Nanobubble–Mediated siRNA Delivery for Targeted Inhibition of Osteoporotic Bone Loss 
Mentor: Dr. Mehdi Razavi (College of Medicine)

Joshua Taggart, Robust AlN MEMS Resonators for High Temperature Space Environments
Mentor: Dr. Jaesung Lee (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Sam Wolfe, Immediate Pain Response to Yoga Nidra Versus Body Scan Meditation in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain 
Mentor: Dr. Abigail Anderson (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Taylor Moler, The Association Between Pain Sensitivity and Low Energy Availability, Sleep, Mental Health, and Stress in Female Endurance Athletes
Mentors: Dr. Carey Rothschild, Dr. Abigail Anderson, and Dr.  Kristen Schellhase (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Nathan Chamberlain, From Ship to Shore: The Impact of Sailor Resistance on the Anti-Vietnam War Movement 
Mentor: Dr. Barbara Gannon (Department of History)

Calista Humphreys, Gabriela Cereijo, Enrico Miguel Apacible, and Mateo Martinez, Behind the Scenes or in the Spotlight? Role Centrality in Team Decisions  
Mentor: Dr. Shawn Burke (School of Modeling, Simulation and Training)

Matthew McGovern and Nathan McGovern, Simulating Age-Related Change with Internal Representations in Decision Making Using an Instance Based Framework  
Mentor: Dr. Nicole Lighthall (Department of Psychology)

Jasmine Coronado, Exploring the Relationship Between Social Cohesion and Social-Emotional AI Usage  
Mentor: Dr. Michael Loree (Department of Sociology)

Daniel Sebastien, Student Feedback on their Experience using Electronic Shared Notebooks in a Large Enrollment General Chemistry Course 
Mentor: Dr. Nichole Lapeyrouse (Department of Chemistry)

John Ilemsky, Using a Multi-Site Haptic System to Evaluate the Usability of a Real-Time Feedback System in Upper Limb Prostheses
Mentor: Dr. Albert Manero (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                   

John Halloran-Lancaster and Sebastian Garcia, Podcasting History and Memory: The Memory of Negro Fort Podcast as a Case Study 
Mentor: Dr. Barbara Gannon (Department of History)

Jonatas de Mendonca Rolando, BMP-7 Attenuates Ponatinib-Induced Myotoxicity via NF-κB-Mediated Necroptosis Inhibition
Mentor: Dr. Dinender Singla (College of Medicine)

Precious Nwaorgu and Olamide Osigbemeh, Score-Guided Synthetic Experience Replay for Stable Off-Policy Reinforcement Learning        
Mentor: Dr. Chinwendu Enyioha (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Abdulmajeed Alghamdi, Game-Theoretic Obfuscation of Wi-Fi MAC-Layer Traffic Against IoT Device Fingerprinting Attacks 
Mentor: Dr. Cliff Zou (Computer Science)

Jeremy Wydra, Sufficient Strength vs Symmetry After ACL Reconstruction: It’s Complicated
Mentor: Dr. Meredith Chaput (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Jillian Weathington, Planting Knowledge, Growing Health: Improving Health Behaviors through Urban Gardening 
Mentor: Dr. Shanté Jeune (Department of Health Sciences)

Yiting Wang, Si(B)CN/BNNT Coating on CMC towards High Thermal Shock and Thermal Cycling Performance for Hydrogen Combustion
Mentor: Dr. Jihua Gou (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Bryan Demosthene, How molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and MoS2 binding peptide modulates actin assembly kinetics and NIH-3T3 fibroblast cell morphology and spreading 
Mentor: Dr. Ellen Hyeran Kang, Department of Physics

Seva Reilly, Perspectives of onprofits: Assessing impact and needs among nonprofit participants in capacity building workshops    
Mentor: Dr. Andrew Sullivan (School of Public Administration)

Kyle Fuller, A Vendor-Ready Data Quality Framework for Reliable Healthcare Analytics 
Mentors: Dr. Amanda Walden and Dr. Michelle Crozier (School of Global Health Management and Informatics)

People’s Choice                         

Isabella Ramunno, Personal branding research explores how LinkedIn profile features and behaviors predict perceived executive presence and recruiter outreach among business graduates
Mentor: Professor Alfred Whiffen (Department of Integrated Business)

Yiting Wang, Si(B)CN/BNNT Coating on CMC towards High Thermal Shock and Thermal Cycling Performance for Hydrogen Combustion
Mentor: Dr. Jihua Gou (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

The full list of winners will be available on the Student Research Week website at the conclusion of the week.

This event was hosted by the College of Graduate Studies, Graduate Student Life, and the Office of Undergraduate Research to celebrate student research.