Undergraduate students demonstrate and explain their summer research projects in the atrium of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology.
Michael Mercier | UAH
Fifteen student research posters were selected for top honors in the Deans and Space Grant Award (UAH) at the Summer Community of Scholars (SCS) poster session on September 14 at the Shelby Center for Science and Technology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a part of the University of Alabama System.
“The quality and depth of research and creative scholarship this year is absolutely phenomenal,” said Dave Cook, Director of Undergraduate Research.
“The work of the students is impressive and we are extremely grateful for the mentoring of our faculty and research staff on these projects. Their willingness to work alongside students over the summer leads to some really exciting opportunities for everyone involved.”
Poster presentations by participants are available through the LOUIS Student Works Repository at the UAH Salmon Library.
“If you didn’t have a chance to attend the poster session, these online resources are extremely useful, especially if you want to see some project examples and learn how to get involved in undergraduate research as part of the summer program,” says Cook.
There were 36 SCS students who spent the summer working with faculty and research staff on innovative projects that covered a variety of disciplines from physics to animation and everything in between, he says.
The SCS consists of the Research or Creative Experience for Undergraduates and the Honors Capstone Research Summer Program. Its purpose is to support research or creative experiences for undergraduate students in all areas of study.
The overall vision of the program is to maintain a vibrant research culture and creative activities for students at UAH. Participants carry out activities within a research project or creative work.
Possible activities include laboratory experiments, musical compositions, field studies, clinical projects, technical experiments and projects, theoretical work, human behavior studies, writing projects and visual arts projects. Activities are complemented by professional development workshops throughout the summer.
Poster Winner:
University of Humanities and Social Sciences
- First place
- Ben Hornyak, Art: “Music Videos Done Backwards: Create Video to Shape Song”
- Mentor: Vinny Argentina
- Second place
- Sean Berry, Art: “The Jewish Experience in Huntsville”
- Mentor: Reagan Grimsley
- third place
- Alyssa Harmon, Psychology: “‘A Life of Ambiguity’: LGBTQIA Mixed Race Experiences with (In)Visibility”
- Mentor: Jennifer Sims
Alabama Space Grant Winner
- First place
- Christopher San Miguel, Biology: “Large Scale Overexpression and Purification of Taq DNA Polymerase in Escherichia Coli”
- Mentor: Josef Ng
- Second place
- Lily Compher, Electrical Engineering: “Development of a self-navigating robot for mapping disaster regions”
- Mentor: Naga Venkat Adurthi
- third place
- Audra Carver, Physics & Astronomy: “Using a Neural Network to Search for Isolated Hα Clouds in the Virgo Cluster”
- Mentor: Ming Sun
College for Engineers
- First place
- Hayden Hitt, Aerospace Engineering: “Mitigation of the Laminar Separation Bubble using Active Vortex Generators”
- Mentor: Konstantinos Kanistras
- Second place
- Cameron Clarke, Mechanical Engineering: “Creation and Development of an Obstacle Database for UAS Pathfinding”
- Mentor: Casey Calamaio
- third place
- David Tipton, Civil Engineering: “Numerical simulation of fire behavior of reinforced concrete flat slabs”
- Mentor: Elias Ali
College of Science
- First place
- Harrison Knox, Physics: “Polarization Switching in Gold Nanostructure Arrays”
- Mentor: Seyed Sadeghi
- Second place
- Layla Jeries, Biology-Chemistry: “Development of Methods for Testing Inhibition of E. coli Strains by Urinary Lactobacilli”
- Mentor: Tatyana Sysoeva
- third place
- Hayden Estes, Computer Science: “Large-Scale Algorithm-Based Fault Tolerance”
- Mentor: Joshua Booth
Honors College
- First place
- Lauren Richardson, Chemistry: “Assessing the Expression of Biochemical Mechanisms in Undergraduate Studies”
- Mentor: Sharifa Love-Rutledge
- Second place
- Eliana Carter, Earth System Science: “Characteristics of wet downburst wind events using MRMS radar products”
- Mentor: Lawrence Carey
- third place
- Mary K. Long, Mechanical Engineering: “A New Method of Initiating an Internal Short Circuit (ISC) of Lithium Ion Cells While Monitoring the ISC Current”
- Mentor: Guangsheng Zhang
