Students Receive Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Awards
Northeastern University is proud to announce that the Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Awards will support 28 student-initiated projects during Fall 2016. Recipients of the awards span Northeastern’s colleges and represent a wide range of disciplines.
Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor Awards offer financial and academic support to Northeastern students seeking to conduct original projects of their own design. The goal of the program is to encourage students representing a wide range of majors and disciplines to carry out both early and advanced independent research and creative endeavors under the mentorship of Northeastern faculty members. The awards represent a substantial commitment of university resources to the involvement of undergraduates in Northeastern’s flourishing and groundbreaking research efforts.
We feature here descriptions of several of these projects from a variety of colleges, and below we include a list of all recipients. Projects supported by the Fall 2016 awards include:
Crossing Borders/Cruzando Fronteras
Pablo Hernandez Basulto, CAMD ’18
Advised by Antonio Ocampo Guzman, Associate Professor of Theatre
Hernandez Basulto plans to write and produce a play in both Spanish and English on structural injustice in Mexico in order to encourage in audiences a sense of shared responsibility and to inspire action. This piece of theater will be presented on Northeastern’s campus as well as at other venues.
The Paragraph 175 Project
Kara Morgan, CSSH ’17
Advised by Natalie Bormann, Associate Teaching Professor of Political Science
Through this project, Morgan seeks to capture the present day roles of two memorials to the homosexual victims of the Nazi regime persecuted under Paragraph 175 of the penal code through a booklet of 175 photographs of visitors to these sites in Amsterdam and Berlin. The booklet of photographs will begin with a description of the historical context of the use of Paragraph 175 and the processes that led to the installation of these memorials. These monuments and the commemoration efforts for homosexual victims are among the most contested and controversial efforts to recognize victimhood under the Nazi regime.
Robotic Lobster Antennae Mimic Exploratory Sensory Behavior
Jaimie Spahr, COS ’17
Advised by Joseph Ayers, Professor of Biology
Lobsters and lamprey are canonical models for neural circuits due to the capability to reproducibly identify neurons. Biomimetic robots are used to simulate, analyze, and reproduce marine invertebrate motor behavior. Building upon the capabilities of current robots, this project hopes to explore the lobster’s neural network functionality and implement code to replicate antennae behavior.
MWT Scanner Prototype for Breast Cancer Imaging
Matthew Tivnan, COE ’17; Carl Verch, COE ’19
Advised by Carey Rappaport, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tivnan and Verch’s project aims to build a prototype scanner for using Microwave Tomography (MWT), an advanced imaging technology, to improve image quality in breast cancer detection scans. Using MWT, hidden objects can be reconstructed without exposure to radiation.
MWT also offers improved material discrimination, providing not only the location of an unknown object, but also what it is composed of. A functional MWT scanner would allow for the testing and validation of the models currently in use.
Pathological or Healthy? The Correlates of Orthorexia Nervosa Among University Students
Mika White, Bouvé ’18
Advised by Rachel Rodgers, Associate Professor of Psychology
The goal of White’s project is to bridge a critical gap in the literature regarding vulnerability factors for Orthorexia Nervosa. This eating disorder is characterized by anxiety around attaining a “perfect diet.” While it is not yet recognized as an official eating disorder, it displays considerable symptom overlap with pathological disorders including Anorexia Nervosa, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and anxiety disorders. White will gather quantitative data from a large sample of Northeastern undergraduate students and conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with a subset of students in order to identify the characteristics of individuals most at risk.
Gulliver Prototype Development and Deployment
Claire Williams, COS ’19
Advised by Slava Epstein, Distinguished Professor of Biology
How to culture previously uncultured microbial species is a question that has eluded microbiologists for many years. This problem has been partially solved by the development of in situ cultivation methods, which take advantage of the growth of these microbial species in their natural environments. The goal of this project is to to expand upon the advantages of in situ cultivation techniques already developed to access the uncultured majority of microbial species.
Complete List of Recipients:
Ultrasound Stimulation for Peripheral Nerve Repair
Emily Ashbolt, COS ’17; Marissa Puzan, COE ’18; Dan Ventre, COE ’18,
Advised by Abigail Koppes, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
The Impacts of Living Learning Machine Configuration on Nitrogen and Phosphorous Concentration of Wastewater for Reuse
Lindsey Carver, COE ’17
Advised by Annalisa Onnis-Hayden, Post-Doctoral Research Associate of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Elucidating Barriers to Pharmacy Leadership Development
Kelly Chia, Bouvé ’18
Advised by Margarita DiVall, Clinical Professor of Pharmacy and Health Systems Sciences
Injectable thermogelling cisplatin loaded hydrogels for cervical cancer treatment
Bryce Delgado, COS ’18
Advised by Srinivas Sridhar, Distinguished Professor of Physics
Differential tRNAser Expression Regulates SinR Translation Rate During Biofilm Formation in Bacillus subtilis
Grace Di Cecco, COS ’17
Advised by Yunrong Chai, Assistant Professor of Biology
Entrainment of the fetal circadian clock in mice
Aria Elahi, COS ’17
Advised by Fred Davis, Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs
Sulfonated Polyether Ether Ketone on expanded Polyether Ether Ketone Membranes for Fuel Cell Applications
Emily Frampton, COS ’17
Advised by Eugene Smotkin, Professor of Chemistry
Domain 1 Mutations in the β-clamp
Suraya Foster, COS ’20
Advised by Penny Beuning, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Using a genetic screen to find regulators of the recA gene in the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii
Brittany Gudanowski, COS ’19
Advised by Veronica Godoy-Carter, Associate Professor of Biology
Crossing Borders/Cruzando Fronteras
Pablo Hernandez Basulto, CAMD ’18
Advised by Antonio Ocampo Guzman, Associate Professor of Theatre
Seafloor profiles of dissolved oxygen, pH and community metabolism, as a function of vegetation across tropical and temperate substrates
Ann Hulver, COS ’16
Advised by Mark Patterson, Professor of Biology
Offstage Boston
Anna Jekel, CAMD ’18
Advised by Scott Edmiston, Professor of Theatre
Determination of Novel DNA Repair Genes in Escherichia coli
Christopher Joshi, COS ’18
Advised by Penny Beuning, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Investigations of non Noble metal Catalysts at high pH membrane
Mukunda Kaushik, COE ’19
Advised by Sanjeev Mukerjee, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Motor Imagery based Brain-Computer Interface for Mobile Device Interaction
Gerald LaMountain, COE ’17; Yufeng Wang, COE ’17; Yinyin Ye, COE ’17; Henry Yan, COE ’17
Advised by Deniz Erdogmus, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Application of Dual-Syringe 3D Spraying Technology for Multi-Cellular Cartilage Tissue Engineering
Theodore Lutkus, COE ’20
Advised by Adam Ekenseair, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
The Paragraph 175 Project
Kara Morgan, CSSH ’17
Advised by Natalie Bormann, Associate Teaching Professor of Political Science
Local Delivery of an Anti-Inflammatory Drug via Thermoresponsive Hydrogels for Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Charles Paglione, COE ’20
Advised by Adam Ekenseair, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
Smart polymer nanoparticles for biofilm targeting
Karina Smolyar, COE ’18
Advised by Thomas Webster, Professor of Chemical Engineering
Robotic Lobster Antennae Mimic Exploratory Sensory Behavior
Jaimie Spahr, COS ’17
Advised by Joseph Ayers, Professor of Biology
Lifespan and Stress Resistance in Mutant Caenorhabditis elegans
Julian Stanley, COS ’20
Advised by Javier Apfeld, Assistant Professor of Biology
Probing the Genetics of Extreme Longevity in C. elegans
Hannah Tam, COS, ’19
Advised by Javier Apfeld, Assistant Professor of Biology
MWT Scanner Prototype for Breast Cancer Imaging
Matthew Tivnan, COE ’17; Carl Verch, COE ’19
Advised by Carey Rappaport, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Matching Students to Schools
Aja Watkins, CSSH ’18
Advised by Rory Smead, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Pathological or Healthy? The Correlates of Orthorexia Nervosa Among University Students
Mika White, Bouvé ’18
Advised by Rachel Rodgers, Associate Professor of Psychology
Gulliver Prototype Development and Deployment
Claire Williams, COS ’19
Advised by Slava Epstein, Distinguished Professor of Biology
Histone Acetylation as a Mechanism of Trans-generational Immune Priming in Manduca sexta, an Insect Model Organism
Stephen Winston, COS ’19
Advised by Wendy Smith, Arts + Sciences Distinguished Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Chair
The Protective Effect of Zinc Supplementation on the Antioxidant Glutathione (GSH) Status in the Offspring of Mice by Cesarean Delivery
Celine Zhong, Bouvé ’18
Advised by Jonghan Kim, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences
More information on funding for undergraduate research, including a database of previous recipients, can be found here.