Spring 2025

In January 2025 the Office of Undergraduate Research announced 201 SURF Awards for the spring semester. Congratulations to all those who received awards! 

Architecture & Urban Planning (School of)

Dominic Cuomo working with Gabriela Bustos Lopez, “Immersive Technologies Methodologies for Interactive XR Environments”
Spencer Smolen working with Carolyn Esswein, “Green and Healthy Schools”
Sigurds Kakulis working with Stefania Palmyra Geraki, “Housing Milwaukee: Graft as Densification”
Tyler Lonadier working with Stefania Palmyra Geraki, “Evaluating the Effects of Architectural Interventions on Student Mental Health”
Benjamin Padilla, Tan Doruk Saral and Norah Vogt working with Iris Xiaoxue Ma, “Multispecies Playground: 3D-Printed Wild Clay in Non-Human-Centric Design”
Morgan Greene working with Adam Thibodeaux, “Documenting Queer Histories: 1100 E Kane”
Erik Grey and Cody Kremer working with Alexander Timmer, “Color, Pattern, Texture: Exploring the Possibilities of Tooling Castable Resin”

Arts (Peck School of the)

Megan Holzhauer working with Daniel Burkholder, “Improvisation Perspectives Through the act/re/act podcast”
Sabrina Conchi, Rebecca Kimbro, Brooke Allison Parkinson, Lia Smith and Katherine Speltz working with Maria Gillespie, “Choreographing Translation: The Radical Play of Moving Between Tongues”
Jason McCullum working with Maria Gillespie, “CARE: Illuminating Milwaukee’s Queer and Trans Communities”
Nora Imhoff working with Adam Hawk, “Digital Technologies in Traditional Craft: Blacksmithing”
Elizabeth Lappano working with Ralph Janes, “Neurodivergent Artists in the Performing Artists – Pathways to Success”
Elise Leonard working with Tiffany Kadani, “Building Ballet Technique: A Database for Safer Training Methods”
Amina Slimane and Antone Washington working with Sean Kafer, “Mother-Young Child Separation”
Kimberly Reese working with Sean Kafer, “Mother-Young Child Separation”
Jacob Solis working with Sean Kafer, “Green Homes Wisconsin”
Islam Awad, Darien Carbine, Dakota Galkowski, Madyson Hollister and Stephen Merrills working with Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Unveiling Posthuman Presence: Investigating Identity Shifts in XR Realms”
Abigail McBee and Sophia Roth working with Sheri Pannell, “DAMES AT SEA, a Student and Faculty Musical Theatre Collaboration”
Lilly Carrillo working with Nathaniel Stern, “The Autism Brilliance Lab for Entrepreneurship”
Greta Craemer-Meihsner, Ava Schultz, Sydney Seebach and Cody Witt working with Nathaniel Stern, “Generation to Generation: Conversing With Kindred Technologies”
Blaise Beesch working with Matthew Vivirito, “Watreous Gallery Art Project”
Sarah Johnson working with Michael Ware, “3D Printing in Colored Porcelain”
Rhea Raje working with Lilly Warren, “Uncoiled Production”
Devin Grabowski working with Alex Wier, “Puerto Rican Bomba Music: Analyzing and Transcribing Drum and Vocal Elements”

Biomedical Sciences & Health Care Administration (School of)

Alex Chamberlin working with Elizabeth Liedhegner, “Diabetic Retinopathy in a Dish: Muller Cells, High Glucose, and 670nm light”

Business (Sheldon B. Lubar School of)

Dylan Raikes working with Laura Swenson, “Non-GAAP Financial Reporting by Master Limited Partnerships”

Education (School of)

Hannah Somers and Erynn Spanbauer working with Chris Lawson, “Terrible, Vile Creatures: How Children Adopt an Ethic of Care toward Animals They Do Not Like”
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)

Pao Chang working with Woo Jin Chang, “Fabrication and Testing of the Water Quality Monitoring Sensor”
Peyton O’Kelly working with Benjamin Church, “Strain Hardening in Metal Forming – Mapping Mechanical Properties and Microstructure”
Setayesh Abiazi Shalmani working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Using Machine Learning to Predict Hemodynamics in Aneurysm”
Hannah Vincent working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Cancer Malignancy Quantification”
Priyansh Jigneshkumar Patel working with Feng Guo, “Control Design and Validation of Series-Connected Multilevel Power Electronics Circuits for High-Power Medium-Voltage Applications”
Adam Kovacs working with Chiu Law, “Control of Micro-Actuators Based on Smart Metamaterials”
Matthew Sember working with Chiu Law, “Optimization of Cellulose Nanocrystal/Iron Elastomer”
Elijah Cephus working with William Musinski, “Characterization of High Temperature Oxidation of Nickel Superalloys”
Jiovanni Ortiz working with William Musinski, “Mechanical Testing of Pre-Oxidized Nickel Superalloys at High Temperatures”
David Jablonski working with William Musinski, “Fabrication of High-Strength, High-Conductivity Copper Alloys”
Mona Said working with Ashwin Narasimhan, “Gold Nanostructure Synthesis in Microfluidics for Biosensing Applications”
Mikayla McWilliams working with Priyatha Premnath, “Immunofluorescence for Bone Tissues”
Alec Kaufmann working with Priyatha Premnath, “Contouring MicroCT Images”
Samantha Kono working with Priyatha Premnath, “Biomaterials in Osteosarcoma”
Divine Aniamaka working with Priyatha Premnath, “Development of Polyacrylamide Gels”
Kenzie Friedrich working with Priyatha Premnath, “Computational Modelling to Study Mechanobiology of Cell”
Laila Ghareeb and Owen Schneider working with Deyang Qu, “Engineering and Developing of Advanced Batteries”
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”
Spencer Frey working with Jacob Rammer, “Early Detection and Prevention of Elbow Injury in Baseball Pitching”
Flavio Toma working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “In-situ Precipitation of Graphene in Melts to Synthesize High Performance Metal Matrix Nanocomposites”
Alec Buhler working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Study on the Effect of Solidification Rate on the Properties of Aluminum Cerium Alloys Through Different Casting Techniques”
Justin Wolfe working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Magnesium Based Foams for Bone Regrowth”
Carol Martinez and Luke Wilson working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Synthesis and Characterization of Aluminum-Cerium-Graphite Composites”
Jake Siong working with Alyssa Schnorenberg, “Investigation of Musculoskeletal Joint Health”
Henry Young working with Konstantin Sobolev, “Green Concrete”
Jivan Singh and Cole Tauscher working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Exploring User Preference for Redirected Walking Manipulations in Virtual Reality”
Landon Faris working with Jerald Thomas Jr, “Evaluation of Vertical Force on the Foot While Experiencing Curvature Gain in Virtual Reality”
Jack Harmer and Jagger Vicente working with Zhen Zeng, “Developing a Roboitic-enabled Testbed for Advanced Manufacturing”

Freshwater Sciences (School of)

Kayla Peirick working with Carmen Aguilar-Diaz, “Light and Temperature Adaptation by Phytoplankton in the Milwaukee Harbor”
John DeTuncq working with Russell Cuhel, “Use of Physical Structure in Milwaukee Harbor Waters to Optimize Understanding of Harbor Revitalization Projects”
Owen Brandt working with Dong Fang Deng, “Application of Bile Acids to Improve Larval Fish Production”
Willow Williams working with Dong Fang Deng, “Gender Differences in Growth and Resilience to Environmental Stress in Yellow Perch”
Nyla Connell working with George Duffy, “The Influence of Snow Storms on Lake Michigan Thermodynamics”
Kaitlyn Suchomel working with Laodong Guo, “Impact of Polymeric Structure on the Yield, Molecular Composition and Chemical Properties of Dissolved Organic Matter Released by Microplastics”
Miles Carlson working with Laodong Guo, “Influence of Natural Organic Matter on the Molecular Weight Distribution of PFAS”
Kade Barkas working with Sergey Kravtsov, “Are the Hurricane and Severe Weather Seasons in the Southeast United States Increasingly Overlapping?”
Grant Probst working with Benjamin Peterson, “Metabolic Context for Mercury-Methylating Pathways in Anaerobic Microorganisms”

Information Studies (School of)

Sean Davis working with Maria Haigh, “Narratives in Flux: Applying Disinfolklore to MAGA and Russian Propaganda Themes”
Nadia Oniskevich working with Maria Haigh, “Trolling the Divide: Decoding Troll Strategies in MAGA and Russian Disinformation”
Simon Rabinovich Potapov working with Maria Haigh, “Disinfolklore and Trolling Narratives: Decoding the Interplay of Russian and MAGA Strategies in Wisconsin’s Digital Media Landscape”
Hemamrutha Gangaraju working with Maria Haigh, “Echoes of Influence: Exploring Online and Offline MAGA Messaging Tactics in Wisconsin’s Indian Community”
Isaiah Edwards working with Maria Haigh, “Crossing the Divide: Decoding Wisconsin’s African American Shift Toward MAGA in 2024 Through Disinfolklore”

Letters & Science (College of)

Jack Williams working with Susana Antunes, “Frames of Resistance: The Role of Cinema in Brazilian Social Movements”
Shaun Harrington working with Alexander Arnold, “Synthesis of Novel Diazepine Derivatives Using a Palladium Catalyzed Amination Reaction”
Ryan Burmesch working with Alexander Arnold, “Synthesis of Novel Orally Available PEGylated Imidazodiazepines”
Alec Veliz working with Alexander Arnold, “Determination of Permeability and Solubility of New Drug Drug Candidates”
Joshua Matthews and Inaara McCray working with Sara Benesh, “U.S. Supreme Court Justice Appearances”
Samuel Pruhs working with John Berges, “Invasive Mysids in Lake Michigan Harbors: A New Pathway for “Forever Chemicals” Into Aquatic Foodwebs?”
Patricia Iwok and Sophia Taavao working with Caitlin Bowman, “Human Neuroscience of Healthy Cognitive Aging”
Dina El Kassas, Gwyn Parker, Oli Pierce and Justin West working with Rachel Buff, “The Gangster Buffs of Charleston: Jewish Safety in a Small Southern City”
Allyson Ruffino working with Alita Burmeister, “Investigating Genetic Interactions between Phage Resistance and Antibiotic Resistance”
Gaurav Sachdeva and Gaurav Saluja working with Avik Chakrabarti, “Sourcing In and Out: The Competitive Position of Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs from Milwaukee”
Kamila Gutierrez working with Esther Chan, “Atheist & Religious Social Media Influencers”
Nicholas Nelson working with Philip Chang, “Moving-mesh Simulations of Cataclysmic Variables”
Andrew Truitt working with Dyanna Czeck, “Geometries of Small-Scale Boudin Structures Related to the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
Camille King working with Dyanna Czeck, “Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility across the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
Olliver Plank working with Dyanna Czeck, “Geochemistry of the Pulo Do Lobo Metasedimentary Rocks along the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
Calista Klein working with Dyanna Czeck, “Quartz Grain Shape Orientations in Metasedimentary Rocks along the Southern Iberian Shear Zone”
Hannah Pfaff working with Alison Donnelly, “Monitoring Spring Phenology of Trees and Shrubs in Downer Woods”
Ava Wolcott working with Richard Edwards, “Finding Identity in Cuisine: A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of the Koshkonong Creek Village”
Nora Fitak, Kaitlyn Lund 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, “Role of Proteasome Activity in 17beta-Estradiol Induced Facilitation of Dendritic Spine Density in the Dorsal Hippocampus of Ovariectomized Female Mice”
Daniel Reddin working with Polymnia Georgiou, “Role Of Epigenetic Modifications On Social Reward Processing”
Shannon Mcconahy working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Understanding the Role of mhy9 in Development and Cilia Function”
Emerson Neczek working with Jennifer Haas, “Community Archaeology: Investigating Milwaukee’s 19th Century History at the Maryland Avenue Montessori School”
Gavin Sayrs working with Pamela Harris, “Lucky and Displacement Statistics of Restricted Stirling Permutations”
Mary Richards working with Gerlinde Hoebel, “Determinants of Nocturnal Body Color in Eastern Gray Treefrogs”
Delaney Carlson, Abigail Haider and Sarah Wawrzyniakowski working with Jean Hudson, “Digital Osteological Collections: Wisconsin Fauna”
Olivia Bogie and Katherine O’Donnell working with Jean Hudson, “Preparation of Vertebrate Skeletons 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, “Investigation into subglacial deformation for Pleistocene Glaciation in Southeastern Wisconsin”
Ellie Voge working with Han Joo Lee, “A Cognitive Bias Modification for Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms on a Mobile-Based Web Platform: Feasibility and Acceptability”
John Balseiro working with Han Joo Lee, “Investigating EEG Markers of Proactive and Reactive Inhibitory Control”
Matthew Forman working with Han Joo Lee, “Exploring Proactive and Reactive Error-Monitoring in Various Self-Reported Psychopathologies”
Kate Fredrick and Rose Lemerande working with Ashley Lemke, “Archaeology at Way Ranch, Texas: Stone Tool, Debitage, and Spatial Analysis”
Erik Collins working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Tagging Engram Neurons to Identify Their Identity and Examine Their Necessity and Sufficiency in Social Recognition Memory”
Robyn Blan working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Processing of Social Information by Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortices”
Madeline Jereb working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Social Memory Processing in a Mouse Model of Schizophrenia”
Ireoluwa Adams working with Shama Mirza, “Developing New and Efficient Therapy for Glioblastoma Patients”
Marcia Pina working with Gabriela Nagy, “A Qualitative Exploration into Childhood Adversity, Migration Adversity, and Social Support Among Latino/a Immigrants”
Hailey Carver working with Gabriela Nagy, “Mental Health Training for Southside Milwaukee Faith Leaders”
Elissa Lonzo working with Jessica Nelson, “Center for Nursing History Exhibition Research”
Ava Luedtke working with Jessica Nelson, “Oral Histories of Local Nurses”
Caine Kandler working with Sophia Norenberg, “Chloride in Urban Streams: Effect of Surface Water-Groundwater Reconnection on Chloride Loading”
Rowan Grider working with David Pacifico, “Ground Stone Analysis – Cerro Sechin”
Cameron Pace working with Charles Paradis, “Upward Contaminant Transport From Water Tables to the Vadose Zone”
Joel Mathews working with Charles Paradis, “Modeling Single-Well Injection-Drift Tests With MODFLOW and MT3D”
Jatin Pandey working with Xiaohua Peng, “In Vivo Efficacy and Selectivity of h2o2-Activated Prodrugs in Combination with VitC”
Julia Jakusz working with Xiaohua Peng, “Cytotoxicity and Selectivity of ROS-Responsive Prodrugs in Combination with a Pro-oxidant”
Megan Gee working with James Peoples, “The 2024 Alaskan Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines Merger: A Case Study Analysis”
Shena Munden and Cassandra Rice working with Anne Pycha, “Sparkman’s Tale: Lingusitics, Murder, and California”
Natasha Brighty, Hossein Khatibi, Jocelyn Muelver, Gabrielle Sweeney and Anna Walker
Mariah Senfleben working with Christopher Quinn, “Roles of RBM-26 in Axon Degeneration”
Mackenzie Dasek working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Role of Memory in Web Navigation in Frontinella Bowl and Doily Spiders (Araneae: Linyphiidae)”
Leila Goodrum working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Hybrid Mating Signals and Mate Preferences in Enchenopa Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)”
Victoria Gonzales, Kam Rabon and JaQuan Williams working with Ermitte Saint Jacques, “Living for the City: The Black Middle Class in Milwaukee”
Jena Choi working with Gina Seegers Szablewski, “Geological Process Drawings”
Mason Novak and Kahler Paulson working with Arijit Sen, “Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School: COI Media Project”
Hidayah Osman working with Arijit Sen, “Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School: Archival Indexing Project”
Genevieve Dwyer working with Sooho Song, “Analysis of Korean as a High-Context Language & Analysis of English Speakers’ Gender Pronoun Use in Korean”
Preston Ruh working with Glenn Starr, “Cognitive Control and Context Sensitivity in Scalar Implicature Derivation”
Isabelle Bright and Meadow Conner working with Glenn Starr, “Second Language Acquisition of Complement Set Focus in Negative and Positive Quantifiers”
Raquel Quevedo working with Shevaun Watson, “Bilingual User Experience Research with Cuentos de Confianza”
Joseph Parlier working with Jorg Woehl, “Point Spread Function Imaging Using Fluorescent Nanobeads”
Michael Ray and Peter Schnier working with Xin Yu, “Environment, Status, and Property: Digital Analysis of Chinese Burial Practices”
Karena Clark working with Alexa Anderson, “Exploring Outcomes Among Black Women Using the Wisconsin Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Dataset”
Ryan Babich and Ivan Martin working with Joshua Gwon, “REVIVE: Rural Vaping Free Intervention for Young Adults via Text Messaging”
Aspen Sikorsky working with Hyunkyoung Oh, “Technology-Based Family-Focused Interventions for Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.”

Public Health (Joseph J. Zilber School of)

Kylie Degner and Maxwell Sharkey 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”
Kimberly Bahena and Yaritza Garcia working with Rose Hennessy, “Library Storytime: Feasibility of a Sexual Assault Prevention Program for Young Children and their Caregivers”
Bethany Garcia-Cortez working with Michael Laiosa, “Impact of Freshwater Algal Toxins on Signal Transduction of Immune Cells”
Allison Schmitz working with Scott Strath, “Evaluating Running Economy in Carbon-Plated Running Shoes Across Athlete and Recreational Runners”
Sydney Jacobson working with Scott Strath, “Wearable Sensor Metrics During Gait Assessment”
Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology (School of)
Paige Ewen working with Sabine Heuer, “Semantic Feature Analysis – A Systematic Literature Review of Treatment Dose and Intensity”
Hannah Somers working with Wendy Huddleston, “Quantification of Attentional Fields in Human Posterior Parietal Cortex”
Faith Williams working with Shelley Lund, “Development of Standardized Case Studies to Evaluate Clinical Decision-Making in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Assessment”
Ravneet Kaur working with Victoria Moerchen, “Physicality during Parent-Infant Interaction: Examining Parental Physical Behaviors in the Context of Early Bonding”
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”
Avery Baier and Isabella Lipski working with Bhagwant Sindhu, “A Feasibility Study of the BE-Me (Bee Mee) Program for Enhancing Resilience to Chronic Pain in Military Veterans”

Katharine Vetuschi working with Danielle Romain Dagenhardt, “Examining Pretrial Release Decision Making and Disparities”
Lisbeth Lopez Cordero working with Andrew Steward, “A Longitudinal Study of the Aging Together Anti-Ageism Peer Support Program”