Fall 2024

In September 2024, the Office of Undergraduate Research announced 203 SURF Awards for the fall semester. Congratulations to all those who received awards! 

Architecture & Urban Planning (School of) 

Arts (Peck School of the)

• Abigail Knueppel, Lia Smith and Katherine Speltz working with Maria Gillespie, “Choreographing Translation: The Radical Play of Moving Between Tongues”
• Janiya Carter, Sabrina Lina Conchi, Rebecca Kimbro, Jason McCullum and Brooke Allison Parkinson working with Maria Gillespie, “Choreographing Translation: The Radical Play of Moving Between Tongues”
• Nora Imhoff working with Adam Hawk, “Digital Technologies in Traditional Craft: Blacksmithing”
• Elizabeth Lappano working with Ralph Janes, “Neuro-Divergence in the Performing Arts”
• Elise Leonard working with Tiffany Kadani, “Anatomy of Ballet Database”
• Arts (Peck School of the)
• Georgia Didier and Emanuel Zander working with Sean Kafer, “The Brady Street Neighborhood Historical Project”
• Kimberly Reese working with Sean Kafer, “The Bridge Project”
• Samuel Schoonover working with Sean Kafer, “Lasting Connections: The Service of Dr. Finlayson to a Community”
• Grace Prchal working with Sean Kafer, “Green Homes Wisconsin”
• Sophie Rickert and Abigail Tran working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich, “Divergent Fates”
• Dakota Galkowski working with Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Unveiling Posthuman Presence: Investigating Identity Shifts in XR Realms”
• Jaaron Langford working with Jessica Meuninck Ganger, “Marking Connections: Care at the Intersection of Art and Science”
• Annie Jones working with Joseph Mougel, “Sidney Woods: A Speculative Environment”
• Ang Van Den Eeden working with Geryn Roche, “Glaze Research Assistant”
• Isabella Brundage and Eli Drews working with Gillian Rodger, “The Music of Tony Pastor”
• Greta Craemer-Meihsner, Sydney Seebach, and Ava Schultz working with Nathaniel Stern, “Generation to Generation: Conversing With Kindred Technologies”
• Lilly Carrillo working with Nathaniel Stern, “Autism Brilliance Lab for Entrepreneurship”
• Sarah Johnson working with Michael Ware, “3D Printing with Colored Porcelain”
• Cole Lehto working with Glenn Williams, “Vel Phillips Plaza Art Project”

Biomedical Sciences & Health Care Administration (School of)

• Erica Warner working with Elizabeth Liedhegner, “Visualization of Transfected SCP-2 in HEK Cells”
• Yara Haddad working with Troy Skwor, “Identifying Antibiotic Resistance Genes Among Resistant Bacteria”
• Kassy Ross working with Troy Skwor, “Determining the Impact of Wastewater on Environmental Levels of Antimicrobial Resistance”

Education (School of)

• Hannah Somers and Erynn Spanbauer working with Christopher Lawson, “Teaching Kids About Vile Creatures: Fostering Children’s Ethic of Care for Undesirable Creatures”
• Rivka Comrov working with Dante Salto, “Crossing Borders to Connect Routes: Higher Education, Immigration, and the Pandemic in the Midwest”

Engineering & Applied Science (College of)

• Samuel Judd and Jessica Martinez working with Satya Aditya Akundi, “Assessing Pain Points in the Adoption of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Manufacturing Industries”
• Daehyeon Kim and Leo Park working with Ryoichi Amano, “Energy Analysis for Industrial Assessment Center (WM-IAC)”
• Rogelio Noriega Joseph working with Ryoichi Amano, “Energy Project”
• Gourilakshmi Neerajkumar working with Brian Armstrong, “Development and Execution of a Test Plan for the Computer Instruction Tool LC3 Visualization”
• Liam Stephens working with Robert Cuzner, “Development of Energy Storage System and EMI Filter Design Tools Using Machine Learning Based Surrogate Models”
• Nathanael Sovitzky working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Modeling of Cancer Tissue for Quantification of Cancer Malignancy”
• Setayesh Abiazi Shalmani working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Using Machine Learning to Predict Hemodynamics in Aneurysm”
• David Loeza working with Joseph Hamann, “Artificial Intelligence Enabled Quality Improvement in Discrete Goods Manufacturing”
• Daniela Alejandra Gutierrez Centeno working with Joseph Hamann, “Development of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality-Based Control Platform for Industrial Robots”
• William Zickler working with Joseph Hamann, “Advancement of Augmented and Virtual Reality Solutioning for Manufacturing Maintenance Operations”
• Ding Yang Lin working with Nikolai Kouklin, “Electrical and Optical Characterization of ZPH Films Grown Hydrothermally”
• Landon Faris working with Chiu Law, “Tuning of Cellulose Nanocrystal Elastomer”
• Matthew Sember working with Chiu Law, “Optimization of Cellulose Nanocrystal/Iron Elastomer”
• Evan Wells working with Chiu Law, “Optical Vortex Metrology with White Light Source”
• Adam Kovacs working with Chiu Law, “Control of Micro-Actuators Based on Smart Metamaterials”
• Georges Hussussian working with Xiaoli Ma, “An Investigation into Scaling in Nanofiltration Membranes”
• Elijah Cephus working with William Musinski, “Characterization of High Temperature Oxidation of Nickel Superalloys”
• Jake Siong working with Anthony Nguyen, “Investigation of Musculoskeletal Joint Health”
• Mikayla McWilliams working with Priyatha Premnath, “Immunostaining of Bone Slices”
• Aaron Brandner working with Priyatha Premnath, “Transition of Chondrocytes to Osteoblasts”
• Samantha Kono working with Priyatha Premnath, “Biomaterials to Treat Osteosarcoma”
• Madisyn Adelman working with Jacob Rammer, “Measurement of Physiological Parameters in Manual Wheelchair Users during the 6-Minute Push Test”
• Janelle Schulz working with Jacob Rammer, “Motion Capture-Based Biomechanical Assessment of Racket Sports”
• Kiearra Hawkins working with Jacob Rammer, “Assessment of Injury Risk Biomechanics in Racket Sports”
• Daniela Alejandra Gutierrez Centeno working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Low-Cost Surface Alloying of Yellow Brass to Improve Corrosion Resistance in Chlorine and Chloramine-Rich Environments”
• Luke Wilson working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Al-Ce-Graphite Composites for Room Temperature and Elevated Temperature Industrial Applications”
• Mohith Kumar Sathish Kumar working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “The Characterization of Magnesium Metal Foams for Bone Regrowth”
• Daehyeon Kim working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Electro-Healing of Self-Healing Metal Matrix Composites”
• Anna Lutz and Owen Schneider working with Daniel Schlitz, “Smart Metamaterial”
• Je Nong Lin working with Shuaiqi Shen, “Profiling Energy Consumption of Deep Neural Networks on Embedded Computing Systems”
• Je Nong Lin working with Tom Shi, “Build Rc-Car From Joystick Control to Computer Control Through WiFi”
• Yi Wen Su working with Tom Shi, “Build Rc-Car From Joystick Control to Computer Control Through WiFi”
• Aydian Regan working with Konstantin Sobolev, “CO2 Reduction in Concrete”
• Hayden Danielowicz working with Habib Tabatabai, “Evaluation of Metal Fatigue Using Survival Analysis”
• Cole Tauscher working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Comparison of Head Position and Center of Pressure Data for the Sensory Organization Test”
• Zach Fornero working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Remote Guidance for Factory Machine Repair and Maintenance”
• Jagger Vicente working with Zhen Zeng, “The AI-Enabled Manufacturing Execution System”

Freshwater Sciences (School of)

• Stephen Scannell working with Michael Carvan, “3D Printed Plastics: Laboratory Fish Behavioral Assessment for Developmental Toxicity”
• John DeTuncq working with Russell Cuhel, “Physical and Meteorological Forcing of Milwaukee Harbor Ecological Conditions Prior to AOC Dredging”
• Chloe 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 on Agricultural Nanomaterials on Nontarget Algae”
• Kade Barkas working with Sergey Kravtsov, “Are the Hurricane and Severe Weather Seasons in the Southeast United States Increasingly Overlapping?”
• Benjamin Gallion working with Sandra Mclellan, “The Role of Chemotaxis in Microbial Metabolism in Wastewater Systems”
• Tessa Kooij working with Ryan Newton, “Comparative Genome Analysis to Characterize Local Freshwater Bacteria”

Letters & Science (College of)

• Shaun Harrington working with Alexander Arnold, “Synthesis of Novel Diazepine Derivatives Using a Palladium Catalyzed Amination Reaction”
• Tyler Haasch working with Alexander Arnold, “Evaluation of New Diazepines Using Pre-clinical in Vivo Studies”
• Salvador Prado working with Nancy Bird-Soto, “Navigating Latine Cultural Identities”
• Raquel Quevedo working with Rachel Bloom-Pojar, “Bilingual User Experience Research with Cuentos de Confianza”
• Sidhe O’Naughton and Sophia Taavao working with Caitlin Bowman, “Human Neuroscience of Healthy Cognitive Aging”
• Gwyn Parker, Javier Perez, Oli Pierce and Justin West working with Rachel Ida Buff, “The Gangster Buffs of Charleston: Migrants as Refugees and Settlers”
• Sarah McGoveran working with Alita Burmeister, “Investigating the Evolutionary Interactions Between Escherichia coli and Bacteriophage U136B Using Electron Microscopy”
• Chloe Skinner working with Alita Burmeister, “Understanding the Phage Selection and the Evolution in Mucoid Mutants of Escherichia coli”
• Allyson Ruffino working with Alita Burmeister, “Understanding the Evolution of Phage Resistance in Escherichia coli”
• Kamila Gutierrez working with Esther Chan, “Atheist and Religious Social Media Influencers”
• Camille King, Alexander Mbise, Paige Pimentel and Olliver Plank working with Dyanna Czeck, “Geochemistry of the Pulo do Lobo Metasedimentary Rocks Along the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
• Andrew Truitt working with Dyanna Czeck, “Geometries of Small-Scale Boudin Structures Related to the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
• Grace Reynders working with Madhusudan Dey, “Characterization of Yeast Genes that Perturb the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) Signaling”
• Ava Wolcott working with Richard Edwards, “Investigating Ancient Cuisine”
• Nora Fitak, Rachel Stewart and Elsie Touchstone working with Shannon Freire, “Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery (MCPFC) Project”
• Julia Chrupek working with Karyn Frick, “Determining the Extent to Which 17beta-Estradiol Regulates Training-Induced Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Activity at Hippocampal Synapses”
• Elise Haluska working with Karyn Frick, “Establish a Role for Proteasome Activity in 17beta-Estradiol Induced Facilitation of Dendritic Spine Density in the Dorsal Hippocampus of Ovariectomized Female Mice”
• Cesar Morales Saldana working with Karyn Frick, “Distribution of Estrogen Receptors on Hippocampal Interneurons in Mice”
• Alexander Freeman working with David Frick, “Role of RNA in NAD Binding to Nudix Enzymes”
• Daniel Reddin working with Polymnia Georgiou, “Estrogenic Regulation of Histone Acetylation and Its Impact on Oxytocin Expression”
• Harper Mosesson working with Polymnia Georgiou, “The Role Gene Methylation In The Development Of Depression”
• Geramiah Drew working with Polymnia Georgiou, “Mechanisms underlying adolescent depression”
• Greg Schliesmann working with Daniel Gervini, “Constructing Interpretable Machine-Learning Algorithms from Black Boxes”
• Cameron Lee working with Daniel Gervini, “Characteristics of Medically-Attended Respiratory Infections in High-Risk Adults”
• Isabelle Chartier working with Robert Graziano, “Gentlemen Adventurers: The Revelation of Troy, Ancient Silurian Reefs and Our Milwaukee Treasure”
• Shannon Mcconahy working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Understanding the Role of myh9b in Zebrafish Sensory Systems”
• Dejiah Julien working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Zebrafish as a Research Model to Understand Development and Disease”
• Milan Stojilovic working with Deborah Hannula, “Eye-Tracking Investigations of Memory”
• Theodore Koss working with Pamela Harris, “On Maximal Coefficients of Kohnert Polynomials”
• Reyna Delikat, Carly Gumieny Noelle Wallisch and Margaret Yost working with Jean Hudson, “Preparation and Imaging of Vertebrate Skeletal Elements for Osteological Reference Collections”
• Kelly Otto working with John Isbell, “Atlas of Sedimentary and Deformation Structures Contained in Glacigenic and Sediment Gravity Flow Deposits”
• Ross Brandolino working with John Isbell, “Deposition and Deformation During Emplacement of the Warnimont Glaciotectonite During Wisconsinan Advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheets, Cudahy, Wisconsin”
• Jack Grummer working with Min Gyu Kim, “Domain Dynamics and Hidden Spin Reorientation in Fe1-xCoxSn Single Crystal”
• Madison McBride working with Christine Larson, “Neurobiological Predictors of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder”
• Matthew Forman working with Han Joo Lee, “Examining Eeg Variables as a Predictor of Ocd-Relevant Symptom Index”
• Eloise Lee working with Han Joo Lee, “Examining Various Psychosocial Stressors and Stress Reactions Among Student Nurses”
• Tierel Hood-Nellum working with Krista Lisdahl, “Are Stressed Youth More Likely to Socially Isolate?”
• Joshua Roesel working with Krista Lisdahl, “Social Factors in Adolescent Cannabis Use Patterns”
• Cassandra Viveros working with Krista Lisdahl, “The Impact of Neighborhood Factors on Depression and Anxiety in the ABCD Study”
• Sabrina Arassi working with Krista Lisdahl, “The Effects of ADHD Symptoms and Medication Use on Anxiety, Depression, and Other Internal Symptoms”
• Dakota Gordon working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Differential Processing of Social Information by Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortices.”
• Erik Collins working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Tagging Engram Neurons to Identify Their Identity and Examine Their Necessity and Sufficiency in Social Recognition Memory”
• Jonathan Sargent working with Victoria Mccoy, “Pinch Force in Extinct Scorpions”
• Angelo Ricco working with Lindsay McHenry, “Paleolake Mineralogy and Tephrostratigraphy of Paleolake Olbalbal, Tanzania”
• Rebekah Fowler working with Lindsay McHenry, “Characterizing Clay Minerals and Mars Analog Paleolake Deposits”
• Megan Church working with Marcellus Merritt, “Leisure: Relax and Unwind the Stress”
• Sydney Baumert Tappy working with Marcellus Merritt, “Leisure: Relax and Unwind the Stress”
• Sofia Bendeck working with Shama Mirza, “Analytical Methods to Identify Proteins and Lipids in Human Glioblastoma”
• Kierstyn Folgers working with James Moyer, “Creating and Analyzing 3D Reconstructions of Neurons in the Brain”
• Ava Luedtke working with Jessica Nelson, “Oral Histories of Nursing”
• Caine Kandler working with Sophia Norenberg, “Underwood Creek Research Project”
• Rowan Grider working with David Pacifico, “Ground Stone Analysis in the Middle Sechín River Valley, Peru”
• Cameron Pace working with Charles Paradis, “Python-based Workflow to Model Vadose Zone Flow and Transport”
• Joshua Matthews and Inaara McCray working with Sara Pashak, “Supreme Court Justices Appearances’ and Legitimacy”
• Julia Jakusz working with Xiaohua Peng, “In Vivo Efficacy and Safety of Combination Therapy”
• Jatin Pandey working with Xiaohua Peng, “In Vivo Efficacy and Safety of Novel Combination Therapy of Vitamin C and Ros-Activated Prodrugs”
• Adam Rasmussen working with Xiaohua Peng, “Photochemical Reactivity of Small Aromatic Bifunctional Compounds Towards DNA”
• Julian Whelan working with Ionel Popa, “Development of Antibody-Based Targeted Therapies for Breast Cancer”
• Emma Henkhaus and Cassandra Rice working with Anne Pycha, “Who killed Philip Sparkman? Murder, linguistics, and California”
• Jocelyn Muelver and Gabrielle Sweeney working with Aragorn Quinn, “Mapping the Shinsengumi”
• Leila Goodrum working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Hybrid Mating Signals in Enchenopa Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)”
• Maddison Wienke working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Hybrid Mate Preference Functions in Enchenopa Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)”
• Mackenzie Dasek working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Memory of the Web and Prey Capture Performance in Frontinella Bowl and Doily Spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae)”
• Ashe Barbian working with Arjun Saha, “Design and Optimization of Potential Drug Candidates for MLL-AF9 Leukemia using Computational Biophysics.”
• Victoria Gonzales, Kam Rabon and JaQuan Williams working with Ermitte Saint Jacques, “Living for the City: The Black Middle Class in Milwaukee”
• Carly Gumieny working with Mark Schwartz, “Phenological Observations in Downer Woods”
• Mason Novak and Kahler Paulson working with Arijit Sen, “Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School”
• Hidayah Osman working with Arijit Sen, “Refugee Foodways in Milwaukee”
• Genevieve Dwyer working with Sooho Song, “Analysis of Korean as a High- Context Language”
• Preston Ruh working with Glenn Starr, “Cognitive Control and Context Sensitivity in Scalar Implicature Derivation”
• Tavi Veraldi working with Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, “Archiving in the Film Studies Media Collection”
• Eric Walker working with Megan Thornton, “Analysis History and Reintegration of Sampled Archaeological Collections”
• Emma McCutchin working with Megan Thornton, “History of UWM Involvement at the Cahokia Mound Center”
• Irina Petrenko working with An-Phu Tran, “Exploring the Role of TMEM175 Gene in Parkinson’s Disease”

Nursing (School of)

Ryan Babich and Ivan Martin working with Joshua Gwon, “Evaluation of REVIVE: Rural Vaping Free Intervention for Young Adults via Text Messaging”

Public Health (Joseph J. Zilber School of)

• Sydney Bohman, Kylie Degner, Maxwell Sharkey and Ashlyn Thome working with Phoenix Do, “Using Natural Language Processing to Extract Social Determinants of Health Information From Clinical Notes of Patients Diagnosed With Opioid Use Disorder: Towards a Holistic Approach for Opioid Treatment”
• Joyli Kamau working with Paul Florsheim, “A Mixed Method Study of Community Outreach Efforts to Reduce Risk for Child Maltreatment”
• Allison Schmitz working with Scott Strath, “Impact of Carbon-Plated Shoes on Running Economy”

Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology (School of)

• Paige Ewen working with Sabine Heuer, “Norms for Nonword Repetition in Young Adults”
• Faith Williams working with Shelley Lund, “Development of Standardized Case Studies to Evaluate Clinical Decision-Making in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Assessment”
• Emma Barnett, Mckenzie Michalski and Catie Powell working with Barbara Pauloski, “The Impact of Progressive Chin Tuck Against Resistance (CTAR) on Oral Tongue Strength and Cross-Sectional Area of the Submental Muscles”

Social Welfare (Helen Bader School of)

• Darby Fleming working with Tina Freiburger, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Deleterious Consequences of Pretrial Detention: A Multimethod Examination”
• Katharine Vetuschi working with Danielle Romain Dagenhardt, “Examining Case Processing Disparities in Milwaukee County Courts” Kya Blanks, Lisbeth Lopez Cordero and Katherine Fisher working with Andrew Steward, “A Longitudinal Study of the Aging Together Anti-Ageism Peer Support Program”