UWM’s annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, now in its 17th year, highlights the collaborative efforts of undergraduate students with faculty and staff across all schools and colleges at UWM. This year’s event, held April 25, featured presentations from 275 students, each mentored by one of over 145 faculty or research staff members.
Held on Friday, April 25, the symposium includes both oral and poster presentations, showcasing student research, creative work and the vital guidance of their mentors. Students from a wide range of disciplines present their findings through posters, performances and talks.
To ensure broad accessibility, judges – including faculty, graduate students, alumni and staff – are not informed of project topics in advance. This approach emphasizes students’ ability to clearly communicate their work to people outside of their fields.
Winners from event are:
Panther Edge Student Employment Award
(presented to a student who exemplifies the values of the Panther Edge through excellence in research and professional development)
Tierel Hood-Nellum
Graduate Student Mentorship Award
Madison Rittinger (Biological Sciences)
Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year
Sabine Heuer (Communication Sciences & Disorders)
Outstanding presentation
- Joyli Kamau: “A Public Health Approach to Preventing Child Maltreatment and Building Resilient Communities” (Public Health)
- Elijah Cephus: “Analysis of Oxidation Formation in Nickel Based Superalloys” (Materials Science & Engineering)
- Spencer Frey: “Biomechanical Assessment of the Tommy John Injury in Baseball Pitchers” (Biomedical Engineering)
- Mason Novak: “Community-Engaged Field Work at Walnut Hill Community Garden” (History)
- Noelle Wallisch: “Comparative Osteology of the Humerus and Femur of Wisconsin Foxes” (Anthropology)
- Tomás Hill: “Developing Culturally Responsive Research Tools: Assessing Semi-Structured Interview Guides for Native American Communities” (Psychology)
- Mikayla McWilliams: “Developing Protocol for Immunofluorescent Staining of Healing Murine Callus” (Biomedical Engineering)
- Montana Bruckner: “Effects of a Novel Estrogen Receptor Beta Agonist on Memory and Hot Flashes Related to Menopause” (Psychology)
- Julia Chrupek: “Examining 17β-Estradiol-Induced Regulation of Ubiquitin Proteasome System Activity in the Dorsal Hippocampus Following Object Training in Ovariectomized Female Mice” (Psychology)
- Allyson Ruffino: “Frequency of Mucoid Mutants with Phage and Antibiotic Selection” (Biological Sciences)
- Jena Choi: “Geological Process Drawings” (Geosciences)
- Cameron Lee: “Grip Strength and Percentage Change Over the Lifespan: NIH Toolbox” (Occupational Therapy)
- Leila Goodrum: “Implications for Speciation of Genetic Architecture Affecting Signal-Preference Variation in Plant-Feeding Insects” (Biological Sciences)
- Jack Grummer: “Investigating Antiferromagnetic Domains in Dirac Semimetal Fe1-xCoxSn with x = 0.03” (Physics)
- Maxwell Sharkey and Kylie Degner: “Natural Language Processing and Opioid Use Disorder: A Holistic Social Determinants of Health Approach” (Public Health)
- Lexy Lunger: “Navigating Help-Seeking: A Mixed Methods Examination of Barriers and Pathways to Transgender Women’s Help-Seeking and Attainment Following Interpersonal Victimization” (Social Work)
- Devin Grabowski: “Puerto Rican Bomba Music: Analyzing and Transcribing Drum and Vocal Elements” (Music)
- John De Tuncq: “Seasonally-Dependent Stratification of Temperature and Conductivity in the Milwaukee Harbor” (Freshwater Sciences)
- Nicholas Nelson and Nathan Theis: “The Correlation Between Hydrogen Column Density and Dispersion Measure Using Pulsars” (Physics)
- Parnian Vakili: “The Role of Midkine in Pancreatic Cancer Liver Metastasis” (Biology)
- Christopher Vician: “Volcanic and Alkaline Mineralogy of Lake Natron’s Margin: Analogues for Planetary Surface Processes” (Geosciences)
