In September, 2020 the Office of Undergraduate Research announced 195 SURF Awards for the Fall Semester and Academic Year. Congratulations to all!

School of Architecture & Urban Planning

  • Yasmeen Amer, Emma Bittner, and Liam Kolstad working with Sarah Aziz: “Interior Landscape Residency”
  • Seth Duellman and Natalie Kuehl working with Sarah Aziz: “MOOCH Series”
  • Destiny Brady working with Lindsey Krug: “Bodies [to be] Built: studying the agency of bodies in architecture (publication/exhibition research)”
  • Benjamin Zerrien working with Lindsey Krug: “Archival & Exhibition Research: Bodies [to be] Built (A study of the agency of bodies in architecture)”
  • Nicholas Geffers, Steven Hoernemann, and Nicole Reinders working with Brian Schermer: “Measuring Discoverability in Buildings Through Visibility Graph Analysis”
  • Koami Amegnran working with Arijit Sen: “Taking Back Our Worlds: Conversations During Times of Social Distancing”
  • Gabriela Ramos working with Arijit Sen: “Mobile Design Box Retrofit: Architectural Visualization of Oral Histories”
  • William Bowman working with Alexander Timmer: “Digital Gallery: Exhibition of Visual Arts in the Age of COVID 19”
  • Corwin Hoefling working with Alexander Timmer: “Architectural Form and Timber Waste Utilization: Phase Three”
  • Tess Richards working with Alexander Timmer: “Mobile Design Box Retrofit: Architectural Visualization of Oral Histories”
  • Samantha Brusky working with James Wasley: “Milwaukee as a Carbon Neutral City”
  • Annabelle Fritz working with James Wasley: “District Scale Wastewater Treatment Strategies for Milwaukee: An Assessment of Alternative Technologies and Their Spatial Distribution
  • Patrick Finucane, Steven Rasmussen and Tayor Romanyk working with Trudy Watt: ” Know Thyself”
  • Isabel Castro working with Mo Zell: “Mobile Design Box Retrofit: Architectural Visualization of Oral Histories”
  • Roe Draus, Maxwell Hunt, Courtney Hoffeller and Taylor Lovick working with Mo Zell: “Re-Envisioning Architectural Education for a Post-Pandemic World: Phase 2”

Peck School of the Arts

  • Richard Wilkerson working with Emily Berens: “Immersive Media Lab Research – R&D Immersive Experience Development”
  • Paula Lovo working with Portia Cobb: “Milwaukee Gun Violence Project”
  • Cuauhtli Ramirez Castro, Victoria Isaac and Ida Lucchesi working with Maria Gillespie: “Parts of the Whole – The Body is Home”
  • Kailee Evans working with Rebecca Holderness: “2Ft. Design and Data: Supporting Neighborhood Revitalization”
  • Nkaujoua Xiong working with Dean Kafer: “Children of Incarcerated Parents”
  • Lisdon Brannon working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich: “Divergent Fates: Tree Intuiting Chair: graft, year 2”
  • Sophia Hermann working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich: “Divergent Fates: Paper Remembering Tree”
  • Zoe Glise, Madeline Prokop, Alexandra Seager and Lyndsay Sorg working with Simone Linhare Ferro: “Milwaukee Through Embodied Research”
  • Elijah Hill, McKenzie Johnson, and Theresa Schmechel working with Robin Mello: “Discovering the Sixth Register: Storytelling as an ASL Interpretation Skill Set”
  • Hunter Louis working with Jessica Meuninck Ganger: “Confluence: Community, Collaboration, and Water Justice”
  • Cassidy Mayhall working with Alvaro Rios: “Dramaturgical Research for Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui”
  • Casey Phipps and Mary Widener working with Nathaniel Stern: “Art of the Eschaton: Beyond our Technological Age”
  • Meghan Berger, Hope Glassel and Peter Green working with Nathaniel Stern: “Leverage: Taking Anti-Racist Action in this Moment”
  • Ashely Hohnstein working with Stephen White: “Sophisticated Open Sound Control (OSC) Made Simple”
  • Anna Emerson, Heavenly Johnson, Bryan Stoffel working with Christopher Willey” Immersive Media Lab Research”
  • Candice Booker and Ava Hager working with Glenn Williams: ” Bottle Tree”

Lubar School of Business

  • Gabrielle Schwartz working with John Huck: “OTC Illiquidity”
  • Annika Gogan and Jessica Rudolph working with Laura Swenson: “The Future of International Accounting in the United States”

College of Engineering & Applied Science

  • Ryan Donald working with Ryoichi Amano: “Industrial Assessment for Wisconsin Manufacturing Plants”
  • Ryan Ott working with Ryoichi Amano: “Solid Rocket Motor Study”
  • Zachary Breider working with Benjamin Church: “Spheroidization Kinetics of Eutectoid Steels”
  • Davan Siegfried working with Benjamin Church: “Correlation of Oxide Layer and Coking Resistance of AFA Alloys”
  • Joseph Lentz working with Robert Cuzner: “Extreme Power Conversion: Taking Full Advantage of Wide Band Gap Power Semiconductors in Variable Speed Drives”
  • Skyler Schwartz working with Robert Cuzner: “Bridging the Gap between Basic and Applied Dielectrics Research for Medium Voltage DC Systems”
  • C.K. Wolfe working with Robert Cuzner: “Development of Integrated Electromagnetics Interference Characterization and Test Platform”
  • Eisa Mohammed Y Al Yaqoub working with Mahsa Dabagh: “Machine Learning and Mechanistic Models of Cancer Metastasis”
  • John Quinn working with Mahsa Dabagh: “Modeling of Cancer Cells”
  • Annelise Tucker working with Mahsa Dabagh: “Does Hypertension Promote Cancer Metastasis?”
  • Luke Arewa working with Rani El Hajjar: “Filler Characterization of Dieelectric Elastomer Fibers”
  • Ryan Williamson working with Rani El Hajjar: “Tunable Dielectric Elastomer Fiber”
  • Alexander Olson working with Chiu Law: “Elastomers with Embedded Conductive Layers”
  • Sebastian Spencer working with Chiu Law: ” Enhancing the Conductivity of Elastomers with Conductive Fillers”
  • Farah Masri working with Veysi Malkoc: “Developing a Virtual Reality Based Art Making Experience For Mental Health Problems”
  • Madison Schillinger working with Veysi Malkoc: “Depression Detection from Acoustic Features of Speech”
  • McKaela Schmelzer working with Veysi Malkoc: “Effect of Speech Noise Reduction on Classification Accuracy for Emotion Recognition”
  • Zachary Jankowski working with Adel Nasiri: “Automation of Li-Ion Battery Testing and Modeling”
  • Kate Jankowski working with Xiao Qin: “Effective Use of Narratives in the Crash Report to Enhance Crash Analysis”
  • Anthony De Leo working with Mohammad Rahman: “Kinematics and EMG Analysis of Human Upper Extremity Motion “
  • Raunak Khaitan working with Mohammad Rahman: “Real-Time Mobility Assistance for the Legally Blind”
  • Mitchell Murray working with Mohammad Rahman: “Teaching Nonverbal Gesture Communication To Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Through The Usage Of Modeling With The Nao Robot”
  • Raga Madhuri Podugu working with Jacob Rammer: “Assessment of Community Mobility in Children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta using a Novel Mobile Application”
  • Tyler Betker working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Critical Analysis of Self-Healing Materials and Components”
  • Thomas Brzozowski working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Casting of Magnesium Foam for Bone Regrowth”
  • Samia El-Meanawy working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Infiltration of Mixture of Coarse Nickel Powder and Graphene by Molten Aluminum to Form Metal Graphene Composites”
  • Andrew Rohlwing working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Investigation of the Metallic Bond between A206 and an Aluminum Metal Matrix Composite Produced through a Compound Casting Design”
  • Hannah Ullberg working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Cast Metal Foams for Biomedical Applications”
  • Colin Valensa working with Pradeep Rohatgi: “Comparative Analysis of AISI 8630 Steel Foam Mechanical Properties Through Experimental and Simulated Tests”
  • Rosalba Huerta working with Konstantin Sobolev: “Magneto-Rheological Cementitious Ink in 3D Concrete Printing”
  • Mark Nosonovsky working with Konstantin Sobolev: ” The Use of Portland Cement in Hybrid Asphalt Concrete “
  • Corey Schmidt working with Konstantin Sobolev: “The Use of Portland Cement in Hybrid Asphalt Concrete”
  • Gabriel Stern working with Konstantin Sobolev: “Magneto-Rheological Cementitious Ink in 3D Concrete Printing”
  • Bryn Glennon working with Habib Tabatabai: ” A New Approach to Resist Destructive Effects of Windstorms on Buildings”

School of Freshwater Science

  • Ryan Roekle working with Russell Cuhel: “Watershed to Lake Michigan – COVID Bounceback Effects on SW Lake Michigan Water Chemistry”
  • Jacob Braun working with Dong Fang Deng: “Optimization of Culture Conditions for Yellow Perch Larvae Production”
  • Emma Kraco working with Dong Fang Deng: “Potential of Alfalfa Protein as a Replacement of Fish Meal in Feed for Atlantic Salmon”
  • Liberty Ansorge working with Laodong Guo: “Dynamics of Dissolved Organic Matter in Response to Algal Blooms in a Eutrophic Lagoon”
  • Seungyong Park working with Laodong Guo: “Assessing Nanoplastic Production during Photochemical Degradation using Fluorescence Spectroscopy”
  • Elizabeth Ulrich working with John Janssen: “Fish Attraction and Activity Related to Submerged Aquatic Plant Planters: The Habitat Hotels Project”

College of Health Sciences

  • Peyton Bendis working with Stephen Cobb: “Precision of Multi-Segment Foot Model Anatomical Landmark Identification”
  • Chloe Glubka working with Stephen Cobb: “Lower Extremity Kinematics and Neuromuscular Muscle Function during Walking and Transition Step Negotiation in Middle Age Adults with Persistent Ankle”
  • Ashley Quisler working with Janis Eells: “The Effect of 670nm Photobiomodulaiton on Retinal Function and Energy Metabolism in Aging Mice”
  • John Poppe working with Alyssa Schnorenberg: “Biomechanical Analyses of the Upper Extremity”
  • Autumn Jensen working with Bhagwant Sindhu: “A Feasibility Study of Using Headspace for Mindfulness Among Individuals Undergoing Surgical Repair of the Rotator Cuff”
  • Brandon Schultz working with Troy Skwor: “Determining the Effect of Sub-Inhibitory Concentrations of Antibiotics on Mutation Rates among Aeromonas Species”
  • Brooke Follansbee and Megan Sullivan working with Roger Smith: “Coding and Validation of AccessTools Taxonomy for People with Disabilities Utilizing AccessPlace”
  • Kelly McGavock working with Nathan Spaeth: “Assessing the Validity of AccessPlace Ratings among People with Sensory, Cognitive, and Physical Disabilities”
  • Megan Vosberg working with Nathan Spaeth:  “Testing the validity and functionality of Community Engagement Event Toolkit in Pilot Communities “

College of Letters & Science

  • Nathaniel Tennies working with Filipe Alberto: “Species Distribution Modelling of the Bull Kelp”
  • Taylor Wilcox working with Alexander Arnold: “Screening of New Compounds for Their Ability to Reduce Nitric Oxide Production by Microglia”
  • Victoria Isaac working with Marcus Britton: “Arts Education and Racial Disparities in Student Educational Outcomes: Evidence from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009”
  • Eli Frank, Claire James, Agnes Lopez Flores, Bronwen Risse-Connolly and Pilar Sharp working with Rachel Buff: “Archiving the Protests”
  • Michael Vazquez working with Rachel Buff: “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA): A Survey of the Current and Historical Legal Climate”
  • Andrea Bishop and Diana Illencik working with Celeste Campos-Castillo: “Experiencing the COVID-19 Pandemic on Social Media”
  • Connor Lynch working with W Hobart Davies:  “Parent-Child Mealtime Interactions”
  • Elle Paveglio working with W Hobart Davies: “Expanding Dimensions of Psychological Safety”
  • Natalie Meyers working with Dawn Erb: “The Milwaukee Urban Observatory”
  • McKenna Anderson working with Karyn Frick: “Estradiol Regulation of Extracellular Matrix Molecules in the Dorsal Hippocampus of Female Mice “
  • Carnita Lincoln working with Karyn Frick: “The Role of the Nucleus Reuniens, Prefrontal Cortex, and Hippocampus in a Mouse Model of Object Memory Formation”
  • Ryan Thiede working with Karyn Frick: “The Role of Astrocytes in Hippocampal Memory Consolidation”
  • Mohammad Khokhar working with Adam Greenberg: “Neural Correlates of Daily Fluctuations in Attentional Control”
  • Kenneth Schilleman  working with Brendan Healy: “On the Geometry and Topology of Exponential Spindles”
  • Benjamin Delebreau working with Peter Hinow: “Modeling of Ultrasound-Mediated Drug Delivery to the Brain and Application to Parkinson’s Disease”
  • August Kaiser working with Jonathan Kahl: “Meteorological analysis of acid rain in Veracruz, Mexico”
  • Brando Selbig working with Jonathan Kahl: “Forecasting Peak Wind Gusts Created by Specific Weather Phenomena”
  • Dao Wang working with Jonathan Kahl: “Atmospheric Transport Associated with Acid Rain in La Mancha, Veracruz”
  • Sophia Salas working with Bonita Klein-Tasman: “Effectiveness of Teleheath PEERS for Adolescents with NF1”
  • Jonathan Santiago working with Christine Larson: “Neural Bases of Working Memory for Fear Conditioned Stimuli”
  • Natalie Wilcox working with Krista Lisdahl: “Impact of Cannabis and Alcohol Co-Use on Health Behavior in Youth”
  • Klaudia Rixman working with Karolina May-Chu: “Mapping Literary Spaces: German-Polish Borderlands in Literature and Culture after 1989”
  • Autumn Routson working with Victoria Mccoy: “Fluorescent Fossil Horseshoe Crabs”
  • Julien Phifer working with Marcellus Merritt: “How Self-Selected Leisure Activities Affect Daily Blood Pressure and Moods”
  • Ashley Mainville working with Emily Middleton: “Experimental Comparison of Discovery Damage caused to Bone in Forensic Contexts”
  • Abigail Ambrose, Cassie Kinney, Elizabeth Papandria, and Grace Mussell working with David Pacifico: “Hostile Terrain 94/ Hostile Terrain Milwaukee”
  • Daniel Collison working with Ionel Popa: “Measuring the Unfolding of Fluorescently Labeled Proteins Inside Tissue-Like Materials”
  • Kimberly Dood working with Ionel Popa: “Engineering of a Protein L Variant for Covalent Binding to Antibodies”
  • Marina Slawinski working with Ionel Popa: “Shape-Morphing Protein-Based Materials with Self-Healing Properties”
  • Faith LeMay working with Jason Puskar: “Portraits of Pandemics: Photographing Americans Through a Century of Infectious Disease”
  • Tori Tran working with Anne Pycha: “How Face Masks Affect Our Ability to Understand Speech”
  • Antonio Acevedo with Valerica Raicu: “Membrane Receptor Complexes as Novel Drug Targets”
  • Jewel Lo working with Sarah Riforgiate: “Residence Hall Assistants Organizational Socialization: Negotiating Working and Living in the Same Space”
  • Vladislav Melnikov working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla: Social Plasticity in Mating Signals and Mate Preferences as a Cause of Reproductive Isolation”
  • Audrey Schlais working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla: “Problem Solving Abilities in Orb-Web Spiders”
  • Alexander Moxon working with Paul Roebber: “Using Agent-based Modeling to Investigate the Emergent Properties of Storm Chasers”
  • Meghan Bitterlin working with Paul Robber: “Innovative Weather – Pavement Temperatures”
  • Sierra Hansen working with Paul Roebber: “Innovative Weather – Winter Precipitation Phase”
  • Larsen Birdsong working with Alan Schwabacher: “Chemical Synthesis for Enzymatic Investigations”
  • Seresa McDowell working with Alan Schwabacher: “Beta Sheet Initiators as Inhibitors”
  • Casey Schmidt working with Richard Stockbridge: “Stochastic Integration using Poisson Processes with Application to Infectious Disease Modeling”
  • Ronita Dua working with Johann Strickler: “Symmetry Recognition by Coral Reef Fish”
  • Alicja Czyz, Brittany Larson, Elpiniki Tianis, and Yael Greenberg working with Rodney Swain: “Behavioral, Neural, and Astrocytic Plasticity”
  • Sparrow Roch working with Joseph Swiggum: “Geodetic Precession of Pulsar B1913+16”
  • Mitchell Thorner working with Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
  • Alina Frais, Alyssa English, Edie Redwine, and Xeng Vang working with Chia Vang: “Best Approaches to Recruitment and Retention of Historically Underrepresented Students: UWM’s Experience”
  • Jack Dalton Brandt working with Tami Williams: ” Archives for Social Change: Moving Images in Times of Unrest, Past and Present”
  • Alondra Garcia, Mia Palmer, and Samantha Xiong working with Lia Wolock: “Imagining South Asian America: Media Activism, Immigration, and Race in the Digital Age”
  • Max Rock working with Changshan Wu: “Examining the Effects of Beaver Dams on Urban Flooding in Milwaukee River Watershed”
  • Markia Silverman-Rodriguez working with Zengwany Xu: “Crime and Racial Segregation in Chicago Since 2000”

College of Nursing

  • Logan Guo working with Jennifer Doering: “Research to Support a Culture of Inclusion and Equity in the College of Nursing”
  • Nilijah Moore working with Julie Ellis: “Reducing Health Disparities in African American Women 50+”
  • Alexander Van Fleet working with Kaboni Gondwe: “The Effects of Perinatal Distress on Preterm Birth Biomarkers and Their Impact on Length of Gestational Age at Birth”
  • Peyton Bendis and Alex Nelson working with Joshua Gwon: “Modification of E-Cigarette use Behavior Among Young Adults: A Transdisciplinary Approach”
  • Niyokwizera Anna working with Teresa Johnson: “Racial Disparities and Impact on Pregnancy, Birth, and Infant Outcomes”
  • Kim Phan working with Teresa Johnson: “Using Data and Technology to Improve Pregnancy, Birth, and Infant Outcomes”
  • Megan Waage working with Peninnah Kako: “Self-Management of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Literature Review”
  • Luz Areli Contreras and Julio Mejia working with Heidi Luft: “Relationships and Resiliency among Youth in the Dominican Republic”
  • Emma Luhring working with Heidi Luft: “Development of Cultural Humility Among Nursing Students to Reduce the Negative Impact of Bias on Healthcare Quality”
  • Brittany Ochoa-Nordstrum working with Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu: “Tracking our Truth: Providing Access to Advocacy Driven Medical Forensic Care “

Zilber School of Public Health

  • Bree Gonzalez working with Paul Florsheim: “Public Health Research on Mental Health Services for Disadvantaged Families”
  • Hannah Zelms working with Paul Florsheim: “Public Health Research on Parenting Support for Disadvantaged Families”
  • Nicole Carlson and Anamarie Leduc working with Ellen Velie: “Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Self-Reported Childhood Body Size”

Helen Bader School of Social Welfare

  • Michael Levandoski working with James Topitzes: “Trauma Responsitve Smart Reentry Program”

Global Water Center

  • Kevin Hicks working with Marcia Silva: “Developing and Testing a Sensor for Detection of Phosphate in Water”
  • Ramprasad Karanam with Marcia Silva: “Sensor for Detection of Perfluorinated Chemicals in Water”
  • Manav Sunilkumar Menon with Marcia Silva: “Developing a Programmable Microfluidics Lab-On-A-Chip (LOC) Platform”
  • Cameron Wizner with Marcia Silva: “Sensor for Detection of Virus using Holographic Imaging and Deep Neural Networks (DNN)”

Golda Meir Library – Digital Collections and Initiatives

  • Christopher Chavez working with Ann Hanlon: “Roberto Hernández Center Community History and Digital Collection Project”