Students from the College of Arts & Sciences earned top spots in this year’s Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference (GSURC), presenting research projects from fields including anthropology, biology, chemistry, computer science, English, global studies, mathematics & statistics, neuroscience and philosophy.
Arts & Sciences students were among the more than 430 undergrads from across the university who presented research, the most in the conference’s 13-year history. Students showcased their work as scientific posters, oral presentations, artistic and film displays, and musical performances. Faculty judges evaluated and scored each project to determine award winners based on presentation type and category.
The winners of GSURC 2019 were:
Oral Presentations
- First place in Natural and Computational Sciences: “Sensory System of the Second Antenna of the American Lobster, Homarus americanus: Distribution of Sensilla and Expression of Receptor Proteins”
Aaliya Ahmad
Neuroscience
Faculty sponsor: Charles Derby and Manfred Schmidt - Second place in Natural and Computational Sciences: “Optimizing a Neural Behavior Model of the Sea Slug Melibe leonine”
Teodora Mitroi, Andrey Shilnikov, Jassem Bourahmah
Neuroscience, Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty sponsor: Andrey Shilnikov - First place in Humanities: “The Lofty Sky: An Analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s Influence on the Determinism of Stephen Crane’s ‘The Red Badge of Courage’”
Ariannah Kubli
English
Faculty sponsor: Chris Kocela - Second place in Humanities: “Endangering Transgender Prisoner Rights with the Overhaul of PREA”
Rachel Burke
Philosophy
Faculty Sponsor: Andrew J. Cohen - First place in Social & Behavioral Sciences and Provost Award: “A Study on the Integration of Refugees Through the Lenses of Time, Language and Institutional Navigation”
Richard Powers
Anthropology
Faculty sponsor: Emanuela Guano - Second place in Social & Behavioral Sciences: “Local Policy Staffing”
Donovan Giardina
Criminal Justice and Criminology
Faculty sponsor: Dean Dabney
Poster Presentations
- First place in Natural Sciences and Provost Award:“Biophysical Analysis of the Heme Uptake Protein ChtA from Corynebacterium diptheriae”
Anne Jean, Catherine Adhiambo, Daniel Wongo and Timothy Williams
Chemistry
Faculty sponsor: Dabney Dixon - Second place in Natural Sciences: “Creature Comforts, Convict Cichlids: Social Buffering in the Highly Social Amatitlania”
Jeffery Yang, Alex Awuah, Angel Pena-Reyes
Biology
Faculty sponsor: Edmund Rodgers - First place in Social & Behavioral Sciences and Humanities and Provost Award: “The Intersection of ISIS Video Production and Influencing Events”
Umnia Al Bayati, Matthew Mottet, Ana Petrova
Global Studies
Faculty sponsor: Weeda Mehran - Second place in Social & Behavioral Sciences and Humanities: “Putting the Wolf Before the Plow: Why the First Domesticates Were So Much More Than Food”
Kim Myers
Anthropology
Faculty sponsor: Frank Williams
Arts & Sciences undergraduate presenters were also among the winners of the Sustainability Award, presented by the university’s Office of Sustainability for research focused on environmental protection and ecological problem-solving.
- Madison Floyd, Biology, Poster, “A Post-Hurricane Assessment of Acropora palmata Colonies in Salt Pond Bay, St. John, USVI”
- Gillian Gilbert-Wason, Biology, Poster, “Quantifying the Survival and Recovery of Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) in the Eastern Portion of Salt Pond Bay, St. John, USVI”
- Chazz Jordan, Biology, Poster, “Evolutionary Relationships in the Euglossine Bee-Pollinated Orchid Genus, Stanhopea”
- Nishant Sinha, Computer Science, Oral presentation, “A Mobile and Low-Cost Spectrophotometry-Based Water-Quality Monitoring System Using Off-the-Shelf Cameras”
- December Weir, Environmental Science, Poster, “Coral Bay Watershed Management Project: Coral Harbor Marine Inventory Project”
- Franka Riviere, Public Health, Poster, “The Poisoned Generation: Lead Exposure in Children”
- Liv Fallon, Film & Media, Film, “Elohi”
Other GSURC 2019 winners included:
Artistic Displays
- First place: “Lost and Found”
Amina Daugherty
Sculpture
Faculty sponsor: Ryan James Rasmussen - Second place: “The Escape Room”
Andrew Chevalier Jr.
Photography
Faculty sponsor: Jill Frank - Third place: TIE
“The Guardian”
Thanh Nguyen
Graphic Design
Faculty sponsor: Kevin Hsieh
“Lampoonery”
Tony Smart
Photography
Faculty sponsor: Jill Frank
Film Displays
- First place: “Elohi”
Liv Fallon
Film and Media
Faculty sponsor: Robbie Land - Second place: “International Human Trafficking Institute (IHTI) Public Service Announcement”
Catherine Rakowiecki
Film and Media
Faculty sponsor: Cynthia Searcy
Musical Performances
- First place: “Performance Practice in Malcolm Arnold’s ‘Divertimento for Wind Trio’”
Douglas Tiller, Ian Hardemon, Chris Kowalewski
Faculty sponsor: Gan Baker - Second place: “The Five Stages of Grief”
Quinten Hanson
Faculty sponsor: Lara Dahl
GSURC 2019 was hosted by the Honors College at Georgia State and co-sponsored by the university’s Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni into Graduate School and Professional Programs and the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development.