Day Two Winners: Student Scholar Sympsosium

The Student Scholar Symposium, part of UCF’s 20th Annual Student Research Week, continued March 26 in the Pegasus Ballroom with hundreds of research posters during Sessions 4–6. Judges evaluated presentations throughout the day, selecting winners in each session.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the faculty judges who participated in the symposium. Your guidance and expertise made the event possible. Congratulations to every student who presented this week, especially over the last two days. Your creativity and dedication are shaping the future of research at UCF.

Winners are listed below, recognizing graduate and undergraduate students for their outstanding research projects.

Session 4

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Arjun Bellur, Which factors dictate ethical AI adoption among business professionals? How does adoption relate to developing innovative business and academic solutions? 
Mentor: Dr. Eric Litton (Department of Integrated Business)

Brooklyn Bolkosky, OUT in the Boonies – Small Town, Big Love
Mentor: Professor Betsy Kalin (Nicholson School Of Communication and Media)

Sarah Brunelli, Testing the Functional Interaction of the Chlamydia effector CpoS with other Chlamydia Inclusion Proteins using a Drosophila in vivo model
Mentor: Dr. George Aranjuez (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Eren Durham, Analyzing Temporal-Based Machine Learning of Prosthetic Control in Presence of Dynamic Movement 
Mentor: Dr. Mohsen Rakhshan (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

William Fausnaugh, Shed happens: A comparative survey of Snake Fungal Disease across the varied habitats of Central Florida 
Mentor: Dr. Matthew Atkinson (Department of Biology)

Cai Li Franckewich, The Implicit Perceptions of Asian American Adoptees and their Clinical Implications 
Mentor: Dr. Valerie Sims (Department of Psychology)         

Natasha Irani, Unequal Recovery: Sex Differences in Muscle Strength and Functional Capacity Post-ACL Reconstruction  
Mentor: Dr. Meredith Chaput (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)         

Stephanie Lievano, Assessing Sample Storage Protocols for HAB Metabarcoding
Mentor: Dr. Michelle Gaither (Department of Biology)

Ivana Marrero, Mechanical Evaluation of Humeral Bone Properties in Wild-Type and DRD4 Knockout Mice   
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Kean (College of Medicine)

Micah Palin, Construction of an Ultrafast XUV/Soft-X-ray Transient-Absorption Spectrometer
Mentor: Dr. Li Fang (Department of Physics)           

Olivia Young, Individual Differences in Personality Traits and Anthropomorphic Tendencies
Mentor: Dr. Valerie Sims (Department of Psychology)         

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                                            

Karilyn Brudzinski, Voice Masculinization Therapy: Examining the Therapeutic Approaches, Acoustic Outcomes, and Impact on Vocal Health in Transgender Men and Non-binary Individuals
Mentor: Dr. Victoria McKenna (School of Communication Sciences and Disorders)

Jennifer Chambers, Does Nordic Hamstring Exercise Strength Associate With Hop And Agility Performance After ACL Reconstruction? 
Mentor: Dr. Grant Norte (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Md Asif Ishrak Sarder, DDQN-Driven Adaptive and Covert Neighbor Discovery for Directional Aerial Networks
Mentor: Dr. Murat Yuksel (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Fatemeh Karami, High-Contrast Multiplexing on Multimode Interferometers for Nonlinear Integrated Photonic  
Mentor: Dr. Sasan Fathpour (College of Optics and Photonics)

Kworweinski Lafontant, Agreement Between Bioimpedance Body Composition Estimates at 50kHz Versus Characteristic Frequency Among Young Adults 
Mentor: Dr. David Fukuda (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Christina Pastrana and Alexia Luna, Healthcare Providers’ Personal and Professional Dance Experience Can Relate to Barriers to Providing Dance-Specific Care 
Mentor: Dr. L. Colby Mangum (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Daniel Poulson, The role of dendritic cell – specific LMAN1 in cockroach extract induced asthma
Mentor: Dr. Justine Tigno-Aranjuez (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Nilver Tovar Ospina, Tangible and Intangible Impacts of Flooding in Miami-Dade County: An Ethnographic Approach  
Mentor: Dr. John Walker (Department of Anthropology)

Aisa Uchimura, Working Title: Luminary
Mentor: Dr. JoAnne Adams (School of Visual Arts and Design)

Calvin VanWormer, Implementation and Evaluation of CHIRP: Enabling Scalable and Dynamic Peer-to-Peer Communication in IoT Networks
Mentor: Mike Borowczak (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

People’s Choice Winners

Johanne Hunt, Nicholas Groves, Giles Cherkaoui, Gabriel Silva, Katherine Manzelli, Giavanna Harrington, Jacob McLean, and Avery Johnson, Shards in the System: Tracing Basalt Through the Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) 
Mentor: Dr. Linda Walters (Department of Biology)

Luis Munoz, Leticia Pinheiro, and Hugo Vien, From Enrollment to Engagement: Using Student Development Theory to Strengthen First-Year Experience Programs
Mentor: Dr. Amanda Wilkerson (Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education)       

Session 5                                    

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Daniela Florez, Consequences of Workplace Violence Among Certified Nursing Assistants: Examining Associations and Mediation Models of Adverse Outcomes
Mentor: Dr. Clint Bowers (Department of Psychology)

Avril Elmer, Lean Blow-Off of Ammonia-Hydrogen Flames at Gas Turbine Conditions Using a Toroidal Jet-Stirred Reactor
Mentor: Dr. Subith Vasu (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Maya Eusebio, TEXELS: A Programmable Textile Interface for Replicating Textures
Mentor: Dr. Joseph Laviola (Computer Science)      

David Levy, Live-cell imaging of the interaction between RIP2 and XIAP  
Mentor: Dr. Justine T. Tigno-Aranjuez (College of Medicine)

Jonah Lynne, Polarization On Campus: How Social Media Shapes College Students’ Opinions on the Israel Hamas War
Mentor: Dr. Jonathan Matusitz (Nicholson School Of Communication and Media)

Cinthya Pena, Hospitality Through a Neurodiversity Lens: Understanding Autistic Family Travel Experiences
Mentor: Dr. Heejung (Cheyenne) Ro (Rosen College of Hospitality Management)

Abigail Ralph, A Comparative Analysis of Public Transit Performance and Policy Between Florida’s Major Metropolitan Areas
Mentor: Dr. Meiqing Li (School of Public Administration)

Lucas Rivera, Amphiphilic Engineering of CT20p Enables Micellar Self-Assembly
Mentor: Dr. Lorraine Leon (Materials Science and Engineering)

Juliette Rodrigue, Unraveling the Immunological and Physiological Consequences of Pathogenic Infection on Invasive Cuban Treefrogs, Osteopilus Septentrionalis, Hosts in Central Florida 
Mentor: Dr. Matthew S Atkinson (Department of Biology)

Sabrina Romero, The Use of Telehealth-Delivered Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy for Managing Gastrointestinal Health
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Cassisi (Department of Psychology)

Connor Sankey, Investigating the Therapeutic Potential of Restoring Gut Metabolites in a Huntington Disease Mouse Model
Mentor: Dr. Amber L. Southwell (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Raiya Shaw, Gender Portrayals of Intimate Partner Violence and Suicide in Guyana 
Mentor: Dr. Alison Cares (Department of Sociology)           

Kevin Zou, Association Between Race/Ethnicity and Sleep Duration Among Floridian College Students
Mentor: Dr. Julia N. Soulakova (Department of Population Health Sciences)

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                                    

John Kristoffer Andres, In Situ Impacts of Modified Clay on Karenia brevis Cell Concentrations, Water Quality, and Microbial Communities
Mentor: Dr. Michelle Gaither (Department of Biology)

Sudipto Baul, An attention-based deep learning framework for 3D gene expression prediction of tissue sections 
Mentor: Dr. Wei Zhang (Computer Science)

Lillie del Real, Can guided heuristics improve deepfake detection? 
Mentor: Dr. Mark B. Neider (Department of Psychology)

Martuza Ferdous, Touching History Without Changing It: A Steamboat Willie Case Study
Mentor: Professor Sercan Sengun (Nicholson School of Communication and Media)

Siavash Gitifar, From Ocean to Prosthetics: Mantis Shrimp-Inspired Ankle Foot Prosthesis
Mentor: Dr. Hwan Choi (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Yingzi Kong, Designing for Teacher Agency: A Generative AI Agent for Game-Based Language Learning   
Mentor: Dr. Emily Johnson (Department of English)

Colby Kopf, LGBTQ+ First-Time-In-College-Student Experiences in the First Year 
Mentor: Dr. Kim Anderson (School of Social Work)

Andres Larraza, Ultrasonic Melt Shearing for Synthesis of a Novel Metal Matrix Nano-Composite for Bone Healing Applications
Mentor: Dr. Mehdi Razavi (College of Medicine)

Esteban Patino Marin, Critical State Behavior of Granular Materials From Direct Shear, Simple Shear, and True Triaxial Discrete Element Simulations 
Mentor: Dr. Luis Arboleda-Monsalve (Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering)        

People’s Choice Winners                                

Anjanette Diaz, How can organizations detect and manage Dark Triad traits in the recruitment process to safeguard team dynamics and outcomes? 
Mentor: Dr. Jim Gallo (Department of Integrated Business)

Martuza Ferdous, Touching History Without Changing It: A Steamboat Willie Case Study
Mentor: Professor Sercan Sengun (Nicholson School of Communication and Media)

Session 6

Undergraduate Judges’ Choice Winners

Anamaria Acevedo Diaz, Of Men and Intimacy: A Study of Men’s Perceptions of Emotional and Physical Intimacy in Friendships and Romantic Relationships
Mentor: Dr. Steven Berman (Department of Psychology)

Fatima Alziyad, Ethical Boundaries in Life-Sustaining Technologies: ECMO and the Meaning of Life
Mentor: Dr. Christy Flanagan-Feddon (Department of Philosophy)

Ossyris Bury, Preliminary Mission Architecture for Small Satellite Rendezvous with Asteroid 2024 YR4 
Mentor: Dr. Paula Do Vale Pereira (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Amanda Chee-Awai, Learning, Engagement, and Motivation in Flipped Upper-Level Chemistry: Perspectives of Students with Disabilities
Mentor: Dr. Tamra Legron-Rodriguez (Department of Chemistry)

Krish Ghosalkar, Comparison of Visual Outcomes between ICG and BBG Dyes Used in Macular Hole Surgery
Mentor: Dr. Gokul N. Kumar (College of Medicine)

Andrew Hansen and Henry Wong, Pediatric Prosthesis Training Using Electromyography-Based Interaction: “Magical” Themed Experiences 
Mentor: Dr. Albert Manero (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Kavleen Kaur, Inflammation mediated (TNF-alpha and IL-6) atrophy and fibrosis in anti-cancer drug induced muscle toxicity
Mentor: Dr. Dinender K Singla (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Jackson Kudarauskas, Evaluating Compensation-Related Utilization Neural Circuits Hypothesis: A Paradigm Shift in Recovery from Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction
Mentors: Dr. Meredith Chaput, Dr. Matt Stock, Dr. Grant Norte (School of Kinesiology and Physical Therapy)

Sofia Marasco, Type of Trauma Endorsement and Engagement in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)
Mentor: Dr. Kimberley Gryglewicz (School of Social Work)

Lee Nguyen, Shelling Out Fewer Plastics: Effects of Algal Feed on Differential Microplastic Ingestion and Egestion in Aquacultured Eastern Oysters
Mentor: Dr. Linda Walters (Department of Biology)

Youssef Saidi, Wade Cornell, Lucas Velasco, and Oleg Tkalenko, Modeling Thin-Film Interference Using a 4×4 Scattering-Matrix Formalism
Mentor: Dr. Michael N. Leuenberger (Department of Physics)

Christopher Simpson, Scalable Environmental Sensing for Human Activity and Emission Modeling in Digital Twin Frameworks
Mentors: Dr. Soheil Sabri, Dr. Azadeh Vosoughi, and Dr. Haofei Yu (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

Mariam Touil, How AI-driven performance feedback shapes employee motivation, engagement, fairness perceptions, and ethical and psychological impacts on trust and team safety
Mentor: Dr. Gordon Henry (Department of Integrated Business)

Graduate Judges’ Choice Winners                                   

Heba Alrefaey, Methylglyoxal modulates immunometabolic reprogramming in macrophages during Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis infection via NRF2/HO-1 axis and restores oxidative mitochondrial respiration
Mentor: Dr. Saleh Naser (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Hannah Ambrosius, Rapid, Non-Disruptive Isolation and Size Analysis of Exosome Relevant to Cancer and Neurodegenerative Disease
Mentor: Dr. Qun Huo (Department of Chemistry)

Debasmita Banerjee, Quantum Checkerboards: Engineering Multimode Correlations in Frequency Combs 
Mentor: Dr. Yannick Salamin (College of Optics and Photonics)     

Faraz Madanchi, Identifying the Most Critical Performance Attributes for Modern Supply Chain Success
Mentor: Dr. Thomas O’Neal (Industrial Engineering and Management Systems)

Mya Osborne, The Art of Storytelling: Empathy in its Most Basic Form
Mentor: Professor Shannon Lindsey (School of Visual Arts and Design)

Karthika Ramasamy, Pedestrian Path and Behavior Detection Project 
Mentor: Dr. Meiqing Li (School of Public Administration)

Xin Zhao, When (In)Congruence Hurts or Helps: Attachment Style Fit in Supervisor–Subordinate Dyads
Mentor: Dr. Shannon Taylor (Department of Management)  

People’s Choice Winners

Mariam Touil, How AI-driven performance feedback shapes employee motivation, engagement, fairness perceptions, and ethical and psychological impacts on trust and team safety
Mentor: Dr. Gordon Henry (Department of Integrated Business)

Kenyari Gil, Emotional Support Friends: Creating Social Impact through Art and Polite Humor
Mentor: Professor Jason Burrell (School of Visual Arts and Design)

Mark your calendars: Next year’s Student Research Week will take place March 29–April 2, 2027.