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Arts & Humanities

1st Place: Amelia Mackarey 
Representation and Imagination of the Holocaust in Young Adult LIterature
Mentor: Dr. James Campbell (Department of English)

Second Place : Matthew Patsis 
The Legacy of African Veterans of World War II and Their Role in Independence Movements of the Late Twentieth Century
Mentor:Dr. Ezekiel Walker (Department of History)

Honorable Mention: Irina Pidberejna
The Impact of Culture on Students’ Motivation in Acquiring a Second Language 
Mentor:Dr. Alla Kourova (Department of Modern Languages and Literatures)

Engineering and Computer Science

1st Place: Kappy Krueger 
Flow focusing microfluidic device for production of monodisperse droplets 
Mentor: Dr. Weiwei Deng (Department of Engineering Technology)

2nd Place: Angela Rodriguez 
Laboratory-Scale Ozone Oxidation of a Volcanic Surface Water Supply to Reduce Disinfection By-Product Formation Potential
Mentor: Dr. Steven Duranceau (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering)

Honorable Mention: Pascal Fouquet 
Co-Presenters: Frank Ramirez, Stephen Sofronsky
In-situ Synchrotron Analysis of Thermal Barrier Coatings under Thermal Gradients and Mechanical Loads 
Mentor: Dr. Seetha Raghavan (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Honorable Mention: Kevin Gleason 
Microdroplet Evaporation with a Forced Pinned Contact Line 
Mentor: Dr. Shawn Putnam (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)

Health Sciences

1st Place: Shekinah Fashaw 
The Use of Physical Restraints among Nursing Home Residents: Do Disparities Exist? 
Mentor: Dr. Latarsha  Chisholm (Department of Health Management and Infomatics)

2nd Place: Geraldine Martinez 
Factors that Influence Pain Management Strategies in the NICU
Mentor: Dr. Kelly Allred (Department of Nursing)

Honorable Mention: Hector Ortiz Cintron
Use of Complementary and Alternative Medications in Older Adults with Chronic Pain: A Pilot Hospice Nursing Survey 
Mentor: Dr. Kelly Allred (College of Nursing)

Honorable Mention: Kyle Perkins 
The Risks and Benefits of Running Barefoot or in Minimalist Shoes: A Systematic Review 
Mentor: Dr. Carey Rothschild (Department of Health Professions)

Life Sciences I

1st Place: Hollis Dahn 
Absence Makes The Gap Grow Stronger: Evolutionary Divergence In Allopatric Snake Populations 
Mentor: Dr. Christopher Parkinson (Department of Biology)

2nd Place: Vikramjit Dhillon 
Evolution of Functionally Conserved Regions In Orthologous Species 
Mentor: Dr. Xiaoman Li (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Honorable Mention: Jonathan Carr 
Co-Presenter: Benjamin Zand 
Avant Garden: An Ecologically Based Model for Urban Agriculture Design 
Mentor: Dr. William Safranek (Department of Molecular and Microbiology)

Honorable Mention: Caitlyn Herndon 
Understanding the role of a hemerythrin-like protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using fluorescent reporters and reverse genetics 
Mentor: Dr. Kyle Rohde (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Life Sciences II

1st Place: Nicole Parada 
Development of a Deoxyribozyme-Based Sensor for the Detection of the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex 
Mentor: Dr. Dmitry Kolpashchikov (Department of Chemistry)

2nd Place: Laura Herndon 
Identification of the Domain(s) in Protein Disulfide Isomerase That Is Required for Binding and Disassembly of the Cholera Holotoxin 
Mentor: Dr. Ken Teter (Department of Molecular and Microbiology)

Honorable Mention: Sydney Jimenez 
Bioremediation of Copper by Submerged and Emergent Aquatic Vegetation 
Mentor: Ms. Jennifer Elliott (Department of Biology)

Honorable Mention: Mikaela Morolla 
Determining the best method to facilitate shoreline stabilization using different greenhouse rearing times and planting densities of Spartina alterniflora 
Mentor: Dr. Linda Walters (Department of Biology)

Life Sciences III

1st Place: Jeremy Tran 
Using a Cell-Based Assay for Discovering Epigenetic Cancer Therapy Drugs 
Mentor: Dr. Mark Muller (Department of Molecular and Microbiology)

2nd Place: Aaron Pollock 
Mycobacterium tuberculosis regulation of efflux pump Tap by transcriptional activator WhiB7 
Mentor: Dr. Kyle Rohde (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Honorable Mention: Pascale Nelson 
Nitrated Hsp90-induced PC12 cell apoptosis requires p38 and JNK MAP kinase activation
Mentor: Dr. Alvaro Estevez (Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences)

Honorable Mention: Hayley O’Brien 
Determination of the Quantity and Quality of Human DNA in Household Dust (Dust Bunnies) to Identify Occupants of a Room 
Mentor: Dr. Jack Ballantyne (Department of Chemistry)

Physical Science

1st Place: Michelle Rich
Improving Ion-Selective Electrodes for Applications in Multiplex Analysis 
Mentor: Dr. Karin Chumbimuni-Torres (Department of Chemistry)

2nd Place: Allison Bratcher 
Analysis of Bending Waves in Saturn’s Rings with Cassini UVIS Stellar Occultations 
Mentor: Dr. Joshua Colwell (Department of Physics)

Honorable Mention: Maury Knudsen 
Brightness and Orbital Characteristics of Short vs Long Period Comets 

Mentor: Dr. Yanga Fernandez (Department of Physics)

Honorable Mention: Gerald Richardson 
Anisotropic Fluorescent Dyes for Efficient Luminescent Solar Concentrators
Mentor: Dr. Stephen Kuebler (Department of Chemistry)

Social Sciences I

1st Place: Jessy Guler 
Co-Presenters: Mira Atia, Jimmy Joseph, Daniela De Abreu Rodriguez 
Exposure to War and Conflict, Acculturation, and Identity Formation among Adolescent Refugees 
Mentor: Dr. Steven Berman (Department of Psychology)

2nd Place: Michelle Craske 
Music’s Normalization Influences on College Students Health Compromising Behaviors 
Mentor: Dr. Chrysalis Wright (Department of Psychology)

Honorable Mention: Brittany Bogeajis 
An exploratory study of gays and lesbian customers’ discriminatory service experiences in the hospitality industry 
Mentor: Dr. Heejung Ro (Department of Hospitality Services)

Honorable Mention: Michelle Esposito 
Co-Presenters: Jennifer Wilson, John Doyle, Vincent Iula, Rachael Wells, Laura Weinberger, 
Looking into an Open Mind: The Relationship between Creativity and Figurative Language Use 

Mentor: Dr. Shannon Whitten (Department of Psychology)

Social Sciences II

1st Place: Alexandra McConnell 
The C.S.I. Effect: Exploration of its Influence on Perception of Criminal Behavior 
Mentor: Mentor: Dr. Karen Mottarella (Department of Psychology)

2nd Place: Julio Montanez
Social Policy Positions of Undergraduate Students at a Large University in the Southeastern United States
Mentor: Dr. Terri Fine (Department of Political Science)

Honorable Mention: Nicholas James 
Qualitative Aspects of Social Interactions in Social Anxiety Disorder 
Mentor: Dr. Deborah Beidel (Department of Psychology)

Honorable MentionCory King 
Behavior of Vegetarian, Vegan, and Pescetarian Consumers and Their Participation in the Green Movement 
Mentors: Dr. Carolyn Massiah (Department of Marketing)

Social Sciences III

1st Place: Kelcey Sablon 
The Effect of Service Provider Skin Tone on Customer Perceptions of Service Quality 
Mentor: Dr. Carolyn Massiah (Department of Psychology)

2nd Place: Hanady Nabut 
Women’s Economic Empowerment in MENA: A Path to Stability and Growth 
Mentor: Dr. Houman Sadri (Department of Political Science)

Honorable Mention: Courtney Roy 
Peer Presentation: Can It Influence An English Language Learner’s Relationship With Peers? 
Mentor: Dr. Dan Ezell (Department of Child, Family, and Community Sciences)

Honorable Mention: Sarah Thomas 
Research Apprenticeship: An Effective Way to Increase Interest and Socialization at the Undergraduate Level 
Mentors: Dr. Anne Norris (School of Nursing)

Social Sciences IV

1st Place: Tayler Truhan 
Parentification rates in military families 
Mentor: Dr. Sandra Neer (Department of Psychology)

2nd Place: Amber Szalanski 
The relationship between hydraulic fracturing disclosure regulations and the revenue generated by state in the United States 
Mentor: Dr. Peter Jacques (Department of Political Science)

Honorable Mention: Jennifer Vogel 
Effectiveness of Integrating Serious Video Games for Knowledge Acquisition in Youth Health Education
Mentor: Dr. Euripides Montagne (Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

Honorable Mention: Brianna Williams
Individual Distress, Family Adjustment, and Parenting Alliance for Fathers in a Relationship Education Program 
Mentors: Dr. Andrew Daire (Department of Child, Family and Community Science)

Peer Choice

Peer Choice: Daphne Kopel 
Spatial Schema Transfers to Similar Place: A Case of Disney Theme Parks 
Mentor: Dr. Valerie Sims (Department of Psychology)

Peer Choice: Brynne Heatley 
Co-Presenters: Cierra Simmons, Blake McKinniss, Jonathan Gravato, Katelyn Smalley, Bryan solon 
Science After Hours: Reconnecting Adults with Science 
Mentor: Ms. Eileen Smith (School of Visual Arts and Design)

Peer Choice: Jacquelyn Weaver 
Co-Presenters: Anna Jenkins, Alexandra Consuegra, Antonio Ulivella, Gregory Norris, Heather Xiong 
Wading Birds and Oyster Reefs in Mosquito Lagoon: Searching for Signs of Successful Restoration 
Mentor: Dr. Linda Walters (Department of Biology)