In May 2024, the Office of Undergraduate Research announced 150 SURF Awards for the spring semester. Congratulations to all those who received awards!
Architecture & Urban Planning (School of)
Sigurds Kakulis working with Stefania Palmyra Geraki, “Affordable Milwaukee: Adapting and Inventing Local Housing Typologies”
Tyler Lonadier working with Stefania Palmyra Geraki, “Evaluating the Effects of Architectural Interventions on Student Mental Health”
Oliver Nath working with Mark Keane, “www.next.cc K-12 Design Education Website”
Jennie Crandall working with Lindsey Krug, “Supreme Privacy, No. 30: An Investigation into the Spatial and Architectural Legacies of a Constitutional Right to Privacy as Outlined in the State Constitution of Wisconsin”
Alexia Bunge and Logan Flint working with Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, “Reimagining Assembly Spaces for Face-To-Face Democracies”
Charles Waechter working with Nicholas Rummler, “Imaging Generation and Manipulation”
Samuel Bensemann and Gavyn Wilson working with Samantha Schuermann, “The Home Management House: Cycles of Collective Care”
Allison Wehner working with James Wasley, “Creating In-Depth Case Studies of Green Building Data-Base Projects in Preparation for Faculty Sabbatical Research in Germany”
Spencer Smolen working with Carolyn Esswein, “Green and Healthy Schoolyards: Expanded Concepts and Community Engagement”
Arts (Peck School of the)
Justin Laabs and Cole Lehto working with Adam Hawk, “Digital Technologies in Traditional Craft”
Pavonis Giron working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich, “Divergent Fates: Tree Intuiting Chair Paper, Remembering Tree, That Imagined Being a Chair”
Anthony Zelazoski working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich, “Divergent Fates”
Dakota Galkowski and Drew Talo working with Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Unveiling Posthuman Presence: Investigating Identity Shifts in Extended Reality Realms”
Ang Van Den Eeden working with Geryn Roche, “Undergraduate Ceramic Glaze Research”
Collin Chesak, Ambrose Schulte, Sydney Seebach and working with Nathaniel Stern, “Generation to Generation: Mother Computer”
Sarah Johnson working with Michael Ware, “3D Printing in Colored Porcelain”
Cole Lehto working with Glenn Williams, “Vel R. Phillips Plaza Art Project”
Georgia Didier and Emanuel Zander working with Sean Kafer, “The Brady Street Neighborhood Historical Project”
Aral Nen working with Sean Kafer, “Unity, Progress, and Activism in Milwaukee’s Urban Neighborhoods”
Samuel Schoonover working with Sean Kafer, “Lasting Connections: The Service of Dr. Finlayson to a Community”
Biomedical Sciences & Health Care Administration (School of)
Erica Warner working with Elizabeth Liedhegner, “Development of Tools to Track Sterol Carrier Protein 2 in Cells”
Business (Sheldon B. Lubar School of)
Selina Chhantyal working with Colleen Boland, “Auditing Standard Setting: Sources Of Information, Economic Cycle, And Politics”
Brandon Harbison working with Veena Brown, “The Observer Effect and Individual Tax Reporting Aggressiveness”
Education (School of)
Rivka Comrov working with Dante Salto, “Crossing Borders to Connect Routes: Higher Education, Immigration, and the Pandemic in the Midwest”
Learning about Positive and Negative Behaviors Impact Our Moral Concern for Animals”
Sidney May working with Ashley Schmidt, “Revisions to K-5 State Mathematics Standards”
Engineering & Applied Science (College of)
Hilda Abdellatif and Se Jin Lee working with Qingsu Cheng, “Pilot Study for Developing Novel Bioactive Hydrogels for Burn Injury”
Mohith Kumar Sathish Kumar working with Qingsu Cheng, “Optimization of Microneedles for Skin Cancer Treatment”
Nathanael Sovitzky working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Drug Penetration through Tumor Tissue”
Ashlyn Terasaki working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Developing Vasculature in Microfluidic Device”
Hannah Vincent working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Cancer Malignancy Quantification”
Aaron Brandner working with Priyatha Premnath, “Terfenol-D Polymer Composite in Biomedical Applications”
Devin DuCharme working with Priyatha Premnath, “Drug Delivery System for Bone Healing”
Samantha Kono working with Priyatha Premnath, “Contouring Microct Images of Bone Fractures from Previously Collected Data”
Mikayla McWilliams working with Priyatha Premnath, “Protocol Development for Immunofluorescence”
Emlyn Swardenski working with Priyatha Premnath, “Contouring for MicroCT Images Taken for Mice Treated with UC2288”
Madisyn Adelman working with Jacob Rammer, “Correlation of Physiological Parameters in Manual Wheelchair Users during the 6-Minute Push Test”
Kiearra Hawkins working with Jacob Rammer, “Feasibility of Automated Coaching Technology to Assess Injury Risk & Biomechanics in Racket Sports”
Janelle Schulz working with Jacob Rammer, “Whole-Body Biomechanical Assessment of Racket Sports with Motion Capture”
Anna Lutz working with Rani El Hajjar, “Multiscale Experimental and Analytical Approach for Amplification of Smart Metamaterial Behavior”
Je Nong Lin working with Tom Shi, “Build RC-Car from Joystick Control to Computer Control through WiFi”
Alec Brookens working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Virtual Reality Guided Walking User Study”
Yen Lin Chang and Jia Cian Chen working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Developing Novel Gamification Methods for a VR-Based Balance Assessment”
Jonathan Leston working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Exploring Stereoscopic Digital Zooming with Pass-Through Augmented Reality”
Je Nong Lin working with Shuaiqi Shen, “Profiling Energy Consumption of Deep Neural Networks on Embedded Computing Systems”
David Loeza working with Joseph Hamann, “Connected Systems Institute – Advanced Manufacturing Use Case Research”
William Zickler working with Joseph Hamann, “Connected Systems Institute – Advanced Manufacturing AR/VR Use Case Research”
Luke Wilson working with Benjamin Church, “Structure-Properties of Aluminum-Cerium Alloy at Elevated Temperatures”
Ding Yang Lin working with Nikolai Kouklin, “Synthesis and Opto-electronic Property Study of Zinc Phosphate Hydrate Films”
Alec Buhler working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Understanding Properties and Applications of Aluminum Cerium Alloys with Change in Solidification through Different Casting Techniques”
Daniela Alejandra Gutierrez Centeno and Carol Martinez working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Surface Alloying and Characterization of Brass”
Sara Huerta working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Synthesis and Characterization of Aluminum Cerium Alloys and Composites”
Ali Seyed Mohammadi working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Electro-Healing of Self-Healing Metal Matrix Composites”
Khushi Sharma working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Application of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Techniques in Manufacturing Metal Matrix Composites”
Sania Tariq working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Development of a Machine Learning Model to Predict the Damage Condition Before and After Healing of SMA-Reinforced Self-Healing Metal Matrix Composites”
Jagger Vicente working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Using Machine Learning Models to Predict Mechanical Properties of Aluminum-Graphene Compounds”
John Pembroke working with Ryoichi Amano, “Solid Rocket Motor Research”
Allie Wesle working with William Musinski, “Development of Tensile Testing of Fractured Murine Bone”
Lakyn Graves working with Anthony Nguyen, “Upper Extremity Biomechanics in Manual Wheelchair User Populations”
Owen Schneider working with Deyang Qu, “”Energizing the Future”: Mechanical Insights on the Production of Lithium-Ion Batteries”
Islam Awad working with Nathaniel Stern, “Cybernaturals”
Freshwater Sciences (School of)
Stephen Scannell working with Michael Carvan, “Laboratory Fish Behavioral Assessment for Environmental Toxicology”
John DeTuncq working with Russell Cuhel, “Physical Water Structure Protects Fish Spawning Sites in Milwaukee Harbor”
Willow Williams working with Dong Fang Deng, “Examining the Influence of Gender on the Nutritional Requirements and Environmental Stress Resilience of Yellow Perch”
Britta McKinnon working with Rebecca Klaper, “Impacts of Nanoparticles on Algae Phenotypes”
Tessa Kooij working with Ryan Newton, “Microcystis Genotype Diversity in Milwaukee and Beyond”
General Studies (College of)
Logan Pichler working with Dylan Bennett, “Heroism in the American Habitus: How Politicians Use Veneration of Military Veterans in Elections in the United States”
Letters & Science (College of)
Victoria Gonzales, Kam Rabon and Tavi Veraldi working with Ermitte Saint Jacques, “Living for the City: The Black Middle Class in Milwaukee”
Rachel Stewart and Elsie Touchstone working with Shannon Freire, “Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) Project”
Olivia Bogie, Reyna Delikat, Carly Gumieny, Katherine O’Donnell, Noelle Wallisch, Sarah Wawrzyniakowski and Margaret Yost working with Jean Hudson, “Preparation of Vertebrate Skeletons for Osteological Reference Collections”
Ireoluwa Adams and Quinn Cepican working with John Berges, “Understanding a Lake Michigan Invader: Determining Body Composition of Hemimyis Under Different Environmental Conditions”
Chloe Skinner and Harleen Tewatia working with Alita Burmeister, “Understanding the Phage Selection and the Evolution in Mucoid Mutants of Escherichia coli”
Grace Reynders working with Madhusudan Dey, “Understanding the Role of Transcription Factor Rlm1 in Protein Homeostasis within Endoplasmic Reticulum”
Shannon Mcconahy working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Genotyping Zebrafish Adults and Embryos”
Emma Xiong working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Testing Novel Methods to Examine Biomechanical Forces during Brain Morphogenesis”
Maja Malbasic working with An-Phu Tran, “Unraveling the Role of Rab-Gtpases in LRRK2-Induced Neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s Disease”
Jonathan Vitas working with M Mahmun Hossain, “Preparation of Building Blocks for the Synthesis of Tryprostatin Analogs”
Sofia Bendeck working with Shama Mirza, “Identification of New Therapeutic Targets in Human Glioblastoma”
William Neuberger working with Arsenio Andrew Pacheco, “Optimized Purification of Cytochrome C Nitrite Reductase Variants”
Joseph Parlier working with Arsenio Andrew Pacheco, “Conformational Gating in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Truncated Hemoglobin N”
Adam Rasmussen working with Xiaohua Peng, “Photo-Activated Dna Alkylating Agents as Potential Anticancer Drugs”
Allison Getty working with Arjun Saha, “Evaluating the Performance of Protein-Protein Docking Algorithms on a Dataset of 100 Protein-Protein Interaction Systems to Develop Antibodies for Unmet Diseases.”
Haridhra Radhakrishnan working with Anjana Mudambi, “Understanding Caste and Casteism Among American-Born Desis”
Kiersten Gonzalez working with Erin Parcell, “Marginalized Family Communication”
Karyssa Lowe and Landen Sawejka working with Lucas Youngvorst, “Coding Support Seeking Strategies”
Raquel Quevedo working with Rachel Bloom-Pojar, “Bilingual User Experience Research with Cuentos de Confianza”
Genevieve Dwyer working with Sooho Song, “Analysis of Korean as a High- Context Language”
Jonathan Sargent working with Victoria Mccoy, “Ecomorphology of an Extinct Giant Scorpion”
Angelo Ricco working with Lindsay McHenry, “Paleolake Olbalbal- Using Mineralogy to Reconstruct a Late Pleistocene Volcanic and Lake Record”
Christopher Vician working with Lindsay McHenry, “The Mineralogy of an East African Lake Margin as an Analog for Jezero Crater, Mars”
Chikashi Fendt, Gabrielle Sweeney and Saiyuk Thao working with Aragorn Quinn, “Multi-Media Shinsengumi Project”
Dane Frieburg working with Rachel Ida Buff, “Lost in the Red Scare: Stories of Connected Struggle”
Kate Jakubowski working with Amanda Seligman, “History of Genius”
Peter Schnier working with Xin Yu, “Patterns of Ancestral Burial in Imperial China: A Digital Humanities Project”
Theodore Koss working with Pamela Harris, “Representation Theory of the Symmetric Group”
Andrew Ly working with Dexuan Xie, “A Web Server for Computing pKa Values of a Protein by Size-Modified Poisson-Boltzmann Models”
Ben Lorenz working with David Kaplan, “Studying Pulsars in the Variables and Slow Transients Survey”
Nicholas Nelson working with David Kaplan, “Relating the X-ray Absorption to the Dispersion Measure of Pulsars”
Jack Grummer working with Min Gyu Kim, “Hysteretic Behavior of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1-xCoxSn Single Crystal”
Se Jin Lee working with Ionel Popa, “Developing Macroscopic Models to Characterize Protein-Based Materials”
Joshua Matthews and Inaara McCray working with Sara Benesh, “Supreme Court Justices’ Appearances and Legitimacy”
Sophia Taavao working with Caitlin Bowman, “Human Neuroscience of Healthy Cognitive Aging”
Hailey Beaty working with Karyn Frick, “The Role Aromatase Activity in a Mouse Model of Object Memory Formation”
Elise Haluska working with Karyn Frick, “Determining the Extent to Which 17BETA-Estradiol Regulates Training-Induced Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Activity at Hippocampal Synapses”
Vivian Jones working with Karyn Frick, “Development of EGX358, an ER-beta Agonist to Treat Alzheimer’s disease and Menopause-Related Memory Loss & Hot Flashes”
Geramiah Drew working with Polymnia Georgiou, “Hormonal Regulation of Adolescent Depression Through Histone Acetylation”
Harper Mosesson working with Polymnia Georgiou, “The Role of Histone Acetylation in Adolescent Depression”
Daniel Reddin working with Polymnia Georgiou, “Effects of Oxytocin in Social Reward Processing”
Maddie Mcbride working with Christine Larson, “Neurobiological Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”
Lydia Fox working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Social Information Processing in the Superficial Layers of the Entorhinal Cortex”
Dakota Gordon working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Social Cognition in a Mouse Model of Schizophrenia Predisposition”
Obadah Hamad working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Neural Mechanisms of Social Memory in a Schizophrenia Mouse Model”
Anna Knight working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Differential Processing of Social Information by Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortices”
Anamarie Casper working with Neal Morton, “Learning and Inference of Meaningful Associations”
Kierstyn Folgers working with James Moyer, “Creating and Analyzing 3D Reconstructions of Neurons in the Brain”
Tomas Vasquez working with Gabriela Nagy, “Exploring Culturally Tailored Clinical Assessment Strategies for Enhancing Engagement and Retention of Latin American Immigrants in a Randomized Clinical Trial: The Cultivating Resilience Intervention”
Kamila Gutierrez and Maria Jensen working with Esther Chan, “Atheist and Religious Social Media Influencers”
Ivan Martin working with Joshua Gwon, “E-Cigarette Cessation for Young Adults in Rural Areas”
Khaled Al Siksik working with Murad Taani, “Multi-Level Intervention to Reduce Sedentary Behavior Among Older Adults in Assisted Living”
Joyli Kamau working with Paul Florsheim, “From the Community Back to the Community: The Mental Healthcare Workforce Pipeline Project”
Social Welfare (Helen Bader School of)
Katharine Vetuschi working with Danielle Romain Dagenhardt, “Case Processing During COVID-19 – Examining Dismissals and Sentencing”
Lexy Lunger working with Jane Hereth, “Using the Life History Calendar to Examine Young Transgender Women’s Trajectories of Violence, Mental Health, and Protective Processes”
Kelly Prather working with Andrew Steward, “A Pilot and Quasi-Experimental Study of the Aging Together Anti-ageism Peer Support Program”