In September, 2019 the Office of Undergraduate Research announced 191 SURF Awards for the Fall Semester and Academic Year. Congratulations to all!

School of Architecture & Urban Planning

  • Maysam Abdeljaber working with Arijit Sen: “Climates of Inequality: Environmental Racism and Housing”
  • Marlee Barnes working with Michael Jefferson: “Artificial Conventions: Design Research and Exhibition”
  • Armand Gamboa working with Arijit Sen: “Climates of Inequality: Grassroots Food Justice in Sherman park and Washington Park, Milwaukee”
  • Lukas Guillien and Joseph Halmo working with Ryoichi Amano: “Gas Turbine Research”
  • Lena Jensen working with Arijit Sen: “This is Milwaukee: A public history project on Democracy and Citizenship”
  • Lintaro Kajiwara and Ryan King working with James Wasley: “Reimagining Water: Linking Sustainable Urban Water Systems in the Great Lakes Basin”
  • Michael Mspowley working with Ryoichi Amano: “Aerodynamics of Turbines”
  • Ryan Ott working with Ryoichi Amano: “Solid Fuel Booster Rocket Motor”
  • Preston Pape working with Gabriela Bustos Lopez: “Ubiquitious Digital Design: Vertebral connection for a parametric house and virtual interactive visualization as a manual”
  • Maxwell Rodencal working with Alexander Timmer: “Thermal Delight in the Anthropocene”

Peck School of the Arts

  • Lisdon Brannon working with Yevgenia Kaganovich: “Diverging Fates: Tree Intuiting Chair: Graft”
  • Seth Calafiore and Hannah Rydberg working with Jennifer Plevin: “docUWM- Object Lessons Documentary Film Project”
  • Jessica Carpenter working with Christopher Willey: “Immersive Media Lab: Information Security withing Immersion”
  • Luke Daniels working with Sheila Feay-Shaw: “Music Beyond the Canon: Underrepresented Voices in Music Performance Practice”
  • Anna Emerson working with Christopher Willey: “Immersive Media Lab: Spatializing Audio Compositions in Virtual Reality”
  • Samuel Fick and Simone Safian working with Jennifer Plevin: “docUWM- LGBT+ Wisconsin History Documentary Film Project”
  • Sophia Geho working with Amanda Schoofs: “Vox Femina- Artists Respond to #metoo”
  • Ava Hager working with Glenn Williams: “Bottle Tree”
  • Sophia Hermann working with Yevgenia Kaganovich: “Diverging Fates: Paper Remembering Tree”
  • Rose Horky, Victoria Isaac, Ida Lucchesi, Breannah Palubiski, and Sara Silvis working with Daniel Burkholder: “Development of a Dance Improvisation Performance Practice and Pedagogical Approach”
  • Ashley Hohnstein working with Stephen White: “Beta Testing Theatrical Lighting System Network Equipment, Software, and Computer Protocols”
  • Nia Keranova working with John Stropes: “The Role of the Blue River Cafe in the Development of Finger-Style Guitar in Southeast Wisconsin”
  • Samuel Kotrba working with Christopher Willey: “Immersive Media Lab: UX and Identity withing Immersion”
  • Hunter Louis working with Jessica Meuninck Ganger: “Milwaukee, Mentors, & Making: A study of community through traditional craft practices, innovation, and collaborative research”
  • Lilly Luft working with Yevgenia Kaganovich: “Diverging Fates: Tree Intuiting Chair: Fractal”
  • Lori Martello working with Alvaro Rios: “50 Years of RHC”
  • Ryan O’Connor working with Christopher Willey: “Immersive Media Lab: Glitch within Immersion”
  • Joshua Passon, Nathaniel Stewart, and Mary Widener working with Nathaniel Stern: “The World After Us: Imaging techno-aesthetic futures”
  • Madeline Prokop, Alexandra Seager, and Lyndsay Sorg working with Simone Linhares Ferro: “Sherman Park- Social Justice Throught Embodied Research- Public Scholarship in Dance”

Lubar School of Business

  • Anne-Lise Sehi working with Veena Brown: “Is There a Market for ‘Bad Authors?’ Evidence from the PCAOB Non-U.S. Disciplinary Orders”

College of Engineering & Applied Science

  • Adedamola Adeniyi working with Mahsa Dabaghmeshin: “Role of Vascular Wall Stiffness in Progression of Cardiovascular Diseases”
  • Mohammed Alomar working with Mohammad Rahman: “Development of an Intelligent EMG Based Control for Robotic Assistive Devices”
  • Eisa Al yaqoub working with Yongjin Sung: “Mouse Physical Phantoms for X-ray Phase-Contrast Imaging”
  • Lukumon Arewa working with Rani El Hajjar: “Structural and electronic health monitoring composite system”
  • Tyler Betker and Mitchell Dua working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Self Healing metal Matrix Composites”
  • Ian Buck working with Adel Nasiri: “High Frequency Medium Voltage Transformer for Future Electrical Grid”
  • Kaley Camber working with Kevin Renken: “Analysis of Radon Gas Transport Properties of Residential Concrete Mixtures”
  • Ismael Coello working with Benjamin Church: “Study of the effect of temperature, time, and environment in decoking procedures”
  • Michael Coey working with Kevin Renken: “Thermal Analysis of Industrial-Type Plate-Fin Compact Heat Exchanger Design Prototypes”
  • Haley Collins and Lisa Collins working with Mohammad Rahman: “Autonomous Mobile Robots Navigation”
  • Anthony De Leo and Mitchell Murray working with Mohammad Rahman: “Analysis of Human EEG and EMG Activities during Upper Extremity Movement for Healthy Individuals”
  • Samia El-Meanawy working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Synthesis and Characterization of Al-Graphene Nano-Composites
  • Daniel Gomez Cazares working with Xiaoli Ma: “Polymer-Based Nanocomposite Membranes for Water Treatment”
  • Miguel Jaimes working with Xiaoli Ma: “Nanoporous Adsorbents for Water Treatment”
  • Kamaljeet Kaur working with Mohammad Rahman: “Development of a Wheelchair Mounted Exoskeleton Robot (WMER)”
  • Yugg Suresh Kolhe working with Konstantin Sobolev: Intelligent Concrete Structures: State Detection and Monitoring”
  • Sean Kramer working with Ilya Avdeev: “Digital twin for connected manufacturing systems”
  • Joseph Lentz working with Robert Cuzner: “Integration of advanced energy delivery system into future electric ship platform”
  • William Lindahl working with Veysi Malkoc: “Micropatterning 316L Stainless Steel Stent Surface to Enhance Endothelial Cell Migration”
  • Maisey Michelz working with Wilkistar Otieno: “Data-Driven Value Proposition of the Need for Wood Pallets and Cardboard Packages”
  • Nicholas Montez working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Synthesize and Characterize Metal Matrix Nano-Composites with Graphene as a Reinforcement”
  • Isaac Ngui working with Mohammad Rahman: “Lidar Based Autonomous Navigation of a Team of Mobile Robots”
  • Danielle O’Hagen-Kennedy working with Matthew Petering: “Searching for a Gerrymandering Antidote: Mathematical models and heuristic algorithms for constructing fair political districts”
  • Alexander Olson working with Chiu Law: “Sensing with Magnetostrictive Filaments”
  • Daniel Patel working with Ramin Pashaie: “Development of a Multi-Spectral Brain Imaging Platform”
  • John Quinn working with Mahsa Dabaghmeshin: “The impact of hemodynamics in localization of cardiovascular diseases”
  • Matthew Rohr working with Ramin Pashaie: “Development of a Laser Spackle Contract Imaging to Perform Brain Angiography”
  • Skyler Sandlin working with Nikolai Kouklin: “Vapor and Ald-based Synthesis of Core-shell ZnO-TiO2 Nanorods”
  • Samantha Schwartz working with Mahsa Dabaghmeshin: “Sudy of blood flow through human vasculature”
  • Perry Spott working with Tarek Elgammal: “Aerodynamics and Aerospace Project”
  • Leah Stewart working with Yin Wang: “Geo-derived materials for the removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances”
  • Nathan Swanson working with Chiu Law: “Magnetostrictive Layered Cellulose Nanofibril Composites for Multi-Functioning Sensing”
  • Hannah Ullberg working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Synthesis and Characterization of Syntactic Foams”
  • Izabelle Villafuerte working with Konstantin Sobolev: “Superhydrophobic and Photocatalytic Coatings”
  • Ryan Williamson working with Rani El Hajjar: “High Power Flexible Polymer Composite Energy Harvesting System”
  • Jake Wolski working with Hathibelagal Roshan: “Characterization of Steel Foam in Low Alloy Steels”
  • Philip Yoo working with Woo Jin Chang: “Fabrication of the microfluidic dielectrophoresis device and separation of the nanomolecules from cell culture”

School of Education

  • Maria Ortiz working with Candance Doerr-Stevens: “Multiliteracies, Languages, and Cultures Resource Library Project”

College of Health Sciences

  • Peyton Bendis working with Brooke Slavens: “Biomechanical Characterization of Able-Bodied and Wheelchair Lacrosse Players Performing the Overhead Throw”Jared Bonack working with Alyssa Schnorenberg: “Three-Dimensional Thoracohumeral Joint Kinematics of the Injured and Non-Injured Shoulder Before and After a Rotator Cuff Repair”
  • Akanksha Dasari working with Wendy Huddleston: “Crowding and saccade precision”
  • Erica Haven working with Bhagwant Sindhu: “Impact of Various Psychological Factors on Rehabilitation Outcomes among People with Lumbar Disorders”
  • Autumn Jensen working with Bhagwant Sindhu: “A Feasibility Study of Using Headspace for Mindfulness among Indibiduals Undergoing Surgical Repair of the Rotator Cuff”
  • Samantha Kohnle working with Alyssa Schnorenberg: “Muscle Activation Patterns of Injured and Non-Injured Shoulders in Individuals with a Rotator Cuff Tear”
  • Dayna LeClair working with Jennifer Earl-Boehm: “Does gait retraining improve symptoms and biomechanics in runners with patellofemoral pain?”
  • Ashley Quisler working with Janis Eells: “Effect of 670 nm Photobiomodulation on Retinal Function and Energy Metabolism in Aging Mice”
  • Mackenzie Peters working with Sabine Heuer: “How to Motivate Future Healthcare Professionals to Work with Persons with Dementia”
  • Jennifer Sheridan working with Troy Skwor: “Molecular characterization of antibiotic resistant E. coli strains from wastewater.
  • Melissa Stec working with Brooke Slavens: “Plantar Pressure Assessment During Gait in Children with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome”

School of Freshwater Science

  • Louis Chapman working with Marcia Silva: “Evaluation and improvement of electrochemical sensor for detection of phosphate in stormwater”
  • Abraham Gonzalez working with Ryan Newton: “Quantifying Swer Bacteria Particle Association in Sewer-Derived River Plumes”
  • Basil Hable working with Marcia Silva: “Development of a novel porous material for removal of ammonia from water”
  • Kevin Hicks working with Marcia Silva: “Differentiation of live and dead cells of environmental Escherichia coli using Digital Inline Holographic Microscopy”
  • Andrew Thompson working with Marcia Silva: “Differentiation of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and E. coli 0111:B4 using Digital Inline Holographic Microscopy”

College of Letters & Science

  • Nour Abuomar working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla: “Testing for Transitive Mate Preferences in Enchenop Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)
  • Andrea Bishop working with Celeste Campos-Castillo: “Effects of Social Media on Body Dissatisfaction”
  • Taylor Beecher working with Ryan Shorey: “Alcohol, Minority Stress, and Intimate Partner Violence: Temporal and prospective associations in sexual minority young adults”
  • Athena Bell working with Prasenjit Gupasarma: “Active Radiation Shielding Materials to Protect Human Habitats during Interplanetary Space Travel”
  • Andrew Beszhak working with Alan Schwabacher: “Hydroxyarginine Synthesis”
  • Anna Biegaj working with Hyejin Yoon: “the Impacts of Environmental Education on School-Aged children in Milwaukee and the Metro Area”
  • Maria Brondino, Elizabeth George, and Amber Joshway working with Paru Shah: “Here to Stay: Intersectional Analysis of Immigrant Legislators Policy”
  • Katalina Cha working with W Hobart Davies: “Effects of Parent’s Adverse Childhood Events on Parenting and Child Outcomes”
  • Dominic Daley working with Alan Schwabacher: “Improved Chemosensors for Metal Ion Measurement”
  • Jose De La O Arechiga working with Krista Lisdahl: “E-Cigarettes and Vaping Use and the Effects on Aerobic Fitness in Adolescents and Young Adults”
  • Benjamin Delebreau working with Ionel Popa: “The Mechanical Stability of Protein L Mutants”
  • Jonathan Doria working with Peter Hinow: “Modeling of disruption of glucose metabolism in breast cancer patients”
  • Olivia Dye working with Karyn Frick: “Interactions between APOr genotype and 17-beta estradiol on hippocampal protein expression in an EFAD muse model of Alzheimer’s disease”
  • Marie Enderle working with Bonita Klein-Tasman: “Social Functioning in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1”
  • Travis Fichtenbauer working with Joseph Swiggum: “Why Pulsars Die: Confirming and characterizing the behavior of 18 new ‘Nullers'”
  • Ruthanne Fiore working with James Moyer: “Mechanisms of Neuroprotection from Ischemia by Calcium Binding Proteins”
  • Meredith Frank working with Sonia Bardy: “Protein stability and interactions between ParP and the adaptor CheW in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.”
  • Margarita Garcia-Rojas and Paul Newcomb working with Rachel Buff: “Uncovering Radical Milwaukee”
  • Sanjna Girdhar working with Ionel Popa: “Design and Testing of Fluorescent Probes for Antibody Binding”
  • Yael Greenberg, Brittany Larson, and Eric Wendt working with Rodney Swain: “An Investigation in the Role of Astrocytes and Neurons in Motor-Skill Learning”
  • Britany Gunderson and Hugo Ljungbaeck working with Tami Williams: “Orphaned Films in the Digital Age: Archiving, preserving, and exhibiting non-theatrical works”
  • Gabriel Heller de Messer working with Filipe Alberto: “Cross amplification of microsatellite marker between kelp species and hybrid confirmation”
  • Alex Henderson working with Filipe Alberto: “Giant kelp gametophyte tolerance to a warmer ocean; is there differential adaptation to heat tolerance across different regions”
  • Dulce Hernandez- Blanchard working with Dyanna Czeck: “Using magnetic fabric measurements to quantify mineral fabric intensity along the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
  • Olivia Hernandez working with Gregory Carter: “The History of Star Wars Fans and Racial Perceptions”
  • Lauren Janikow working with Rachel Bloom-Pojar: “Communication across Contexts: Mapping Linguistic Diversity with UWM Graduate Students”
  • Jocelynn Jarvis working with Krista Lisdahl: “Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Perceived Stress of Adolescents”
  • Chantel Jenrette working with Filipe Alberto: “The role of genetic rescue in the restoration of Bull Kelp in the Puget Sound”
  • Erika Johansen working with Jorg Woehl: “Investigating the electric double layer using single particle localization microscopy”
  • Amber Joshway working with Itziar Lazkano: “Innovation and its Impact on Climate Change”
  • Anna Kaminski and Giorgio Sarro working with Clark Evans: “A Climatology of Atmospheric Rivers in the Northeaster United States”
  • Haley Kempf working with Victoria McCoy: “Investigating the Function of Elaborate Spiny Ornamentation in Trilobites”
  • Nathan Kohls working with Johann Strickler: “Image Recognition Applications in Biological Sciences”
  • Amberly Krause and Sofia Mattson working with Christine Larson: “Cognition-Emotion Interactions in Anxiety”
  • Janet Langunez-Garcia working with Christine Larson: “Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control in Racial Bias”
  • Lexie Lanphere working with Joseph H. Aldstadt: “Development of a Novel Method for the Analysis of Amphetamines in Forensic Samples by Liquid-Liquid Extraction and NMR Spectroscopy”
  • Carnita Lincoln working with Karyn Frick: “The Role of Nucleus Reuniens in Object Recognition and Object Placement Memory Consolidation”
  • Abigail Lynch working with James Harris: “Understanding Milwaukee’s Housing Crisis: Housing Policy, Advocacy, and New Developments.”
  • Connor Lynch working with W Hobart Davies: “Sleep Health”
  • Alexander Moxon working with Paul Roebber: “Simulating Self-Assembly of Tornado Storm Chasers Using Agent-Based Modeling”
  • Ciera Oglesby working with James Moyer: “3D Reconstructions and Morphological Analyses of Different Classes of Neurons in Rat Hippocampus”
  • Aleia Olson working with James Moyer: “Sex Differences and Brain Mechanisms of Learning and Memory”
  • Elle Paveglio working with W Hobart Davies: “Parent-Provider Communication in the Pediatric Critical Care Environment”
  • Trevor Pederson working with Peter Hinow: “Modeling of ultrasound-mediated drug delivery to the brain and application to Parkinson’s Disease”
  • Marisa Roch working with Joseph Swiggum: “Geodetic Precession of Pulsar B1913+16”
  • Riley Rockford working with David Pacifico: “Casma Hinterland Archaeological Project Remote Sensing Survey”
  • Aimee Roekle working with Jae Yung Song: “Comparison of the Acoustic and Articulatory Characteristics of Korean and English Vowels”
  • Autumn Routson working with Lindsay McHenry: “Icelandic Hydrothermal Environments: Analog for Early Mars”
  • Fitore Rrahmani working with Johann Strickler: “Observing the Landscape of Daphinia’s Vertical and Horizontal Swimming Patterns”
  • Valerie Rubalcava working with Dyanna Czeck: “A microstructural analysis of metabasites from the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
  • Emily Ruder working with Mai Phillips: “Sustainable Agroforestry Charcoal Production in Maiuni Village, Makueni county, Kenya”
  • Sophia Salas working with Bonita Klein-Tasman: “Neural Correlates of Attention in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type 1”
  • Sara Saleh working with Gyaneshwar Prasad: “Understanding and Enhancing Colonization of Rice by Rhizobium IRBG74”
  • Brandon Selbig working with Jonathan Kahl: “A Wind Gust Forecasting System for the United States”
  • Dante Serrano working with Nicholas Silvaggi: “Mechanistic studies of Streptomyces wadayamensis MppP”
  • Sana Shakir working with Adam Greenburg: “The Spatial Resolution of Shifts of Visual Attention”
  • Marina Slawinski working with Ionel Popa: “Reinforcing Protein-Based Hydrogels with Metal Ions”
  • Alicia Smallwood working with Lindsay McHenry: “Pleistocene Climate Change Recorded in the Lake Minerals of Paleolake Olduvai, Tanzania”
  • Rob Steger working with Raymond Fleming: “Cardiovascular Reactivity in Runners”
  • Omar Suarez Sacramento working with Kevin Thom: “Mexico-U.S. Migration Dynamics”
  • Ryan Thiede working with Karyn Frick: “Effects of β-Selective Estrogen Receptor Agonists in a Mouse Model of Menopausal Symptoms”
  • Tori Tran working with Sandra Pucci: “The Impact of Discursive Representations of Immigration in a Post Truth Era”
  • Ashley Trapp working with David Osmon: “Explicit and Implicit Aspects of Dietary Behavior”
  • Erin VandenBosch working with Adam Greenburg: “Effects of Chemotherapy on Visual and Auditory Attention”
  • Nathan Wagner working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla: “Social Plasticity and Signal Divergence in Enchenopa Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)
  • Calleigh Wondra working with Joseph Walzer: “Encyclopedia of Milwaukee”
  • Danielle Zube working with Bonita Klein-Tasman: “Development of Treatment for Anxiety and Fears in Young Children with Williams Syndrome”

College of Nursing

  • Luz Areli Contreras working with Heidi Luft: “Relationships and Resiliency among Youth in the Dominican Republic”
  • Ryan De La Torre working with Sandra Millon-Underwood: “Behavioral Activation for Latinos With Depression: United Community Center – University of Wisconsin Milwaukee College of Nursing Undergraduate Research Collaborative
  • Jihye Heo working with Joshua Gwon: “Attention to e-cigarette cues among young adults”
  • MaryJo Kanelos and Alexandra Van Fleet working with Kaboni Gondwe: “Emotional Responses and Mother-Infant Interactions of Malawian Mothers with Preterm and Full-term Infants”
  • Kim Phan working with Teresa Johnson: “Impact of pre-pregnancy BMI and pregnancy weight gain on maternal-infant pregnancy, birth, and infant outcomes”

Zilber School of Public Health

  • Nicole Carlson working with Ellen Velie: “Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Self-Reported Childhood Body Size”
  • Ashley Lopez working with Lance Weinhardt: “Transgender Youth Health Promotion Research”

College of General Studies, UW-Milwaukee at Waukesha

  • Trent Sanborn working with Michael Pauers: “Gene Expression in Cichlid Fishes Raised in Calm and Turbulent Conditions”