2025 CCRS Awards:
UCSF Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation Winner: Danica Belman, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Ulrike Muller, “Prey size selectivity in aquatic carnivorous plants: Expanding predator-prey models to plant predation”
UCSF Honorable Mention Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Sofie Krivobok, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Alija Mujic, “Friends or Foes? Investigating the Relationship of Rhizopogon vinicolor and its Potential Parasites”
UCSF Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation Winner: Ana Ramirez Perez, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Karine Gousset, “Exploring the Role of L-Plastin in the Formation of Tunneling Nanotubes”
UCSF Honorable Mention Graduate Oral Presentation: Taylor-J Sanchez, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Juris Grasis, “Evaluating Hydra vulgaris metabolism due to temperature stress and microbiome elimination”
EECU Outstanding Math Presentation Winner: Riley White, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Khang Tran, “Sums of Gegenbauer Polynomials”
Davin Youngclarke Award Winner: Dilpreet Sekhon, Faculty Mentor: Dr. Amber Shaver, “Understanding Community Perceptions of Local Public Health Departments in Central California”
ACS Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation Winner: Stan Gomez, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen, “Dimerization of Substituted 1,6-Dihydropyridines for the Eventual Synthesis of Tetracyclic Bis-Piperidine Alkaloids”
ACS Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Arcana O’Regan, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Morgan Hawker, “Improving Polyethylene Bioremediation: Enhancing Surface Oxidation Using Radio Frequency Plasma”
ACS Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation Winner: Gurmannat Chalotra, Faculty Mentor, Dr.Qiao-Hong Chen, “Development of Dehydroabietylamine Derivatives as Potential Androgen Receptor N-Terminal Domain Antagonists”
ACS Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation Winner: Grant Provencio, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Laurent Dejean, “Investigating the role Bcl-2 family proteins in the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism”
The following awards are sponsored by the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Health and Human Services, the College of Science and Mathematics, the College of Social Sciences, the Craig School of Business, the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, the Kremen School of Education and Human Development, and the Lyles College of Engineering.
Oral Presentations:
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Brandi Holcomb, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Paul Price, “A Meta-Analysis of Impostor Phenomenon and Socioeconomic Status”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Mona Sandoval, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Martin Shapiro, “Experiential Influences on Modifying the Better-Than and Worse-Than Average Effects”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Joseph Igot, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Shuo Wu, “A Software-Defined GPS Receiver with Integrated Spoofing Detection and Mitigation”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Brian Kurzeja, Faculty Mentor, Dr. David Ruby, “MatchupMind: Predictive Sports Analytics through Deep Learning”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Patrick Hinrichs, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Yongsheng Gao, “Classifying Di-Higgs Production Modes with Deep Learning”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Lawrence Rede, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Shuo Wu, “Arm Controlled Manipulator”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Noah Reed Miranda, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Lori Clune, “Playing with Orientalism in How to Host a Murder's Hoo Hung Wu”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Christian Dwyer, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Hrant Hratchian, “Electronic Structure and Photodetachment of Gadolinium Oxides”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Andrew Villarreal, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Lauren Dial, “The Impact of Censoring LGBTQ+ Themes in Children’s Literature: Perspectives From LGBTQ+ Parents”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Jessica Perez, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Martin Shapiro, “Examining Teachers' Perceptions of Psychedelics in California's Central Valley: A Multi-Drug Comparative Study”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Olivia Soghomonian, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Luis Gordo Pelaez, “From the Caucuses to Venice: Depicting Armenian Carpets in Italian Renaissance Art”
Outstanding Oral Presentation Winner: Ismael Abdullah Hernandez (#226), Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Lent, “Modeling Traumatic Brain Injury in Drosophila melanogaster Through Behavioral and Lifespan Analyses”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentations:
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Madelyn Snead, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Martin Shapiro, “Cost Communication on University Websites: Impacts on Student Users”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Parshwa Khane, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Sankha Banerjee, “Development of an Electrodialysis-based Water Treatment System for Selective Removal and Recovery of Phototoxic Contaminants”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Joseph White, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Ettore Vitali, “Detecting Periodic Behavior in Astrophysical Phenomena”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Philip Sarkisian, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Gerardo Munoz, “Electrodynamics in an Expanding Universe”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Ashutosh Goswami, Faculty Mentor, Dr.YuanYuan Xie, “Pollutus Imperium Tree (PIT)”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Prabhjot Gill, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Joy Goto, “The Hidden Trigger: Bicarbonate Role in Enhancing Cyanobacterial Neurotoxicity in Fruit Flies”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Ethan Fierro, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Yishaiya Abosch, “What Makes A Machiavellian: The Negative Connotations of Political Realism”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Xochitl Solis, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Allen Azizian, “Mass Shootings: Prevalence of Mental Disorders and Case Management Services”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Paola Aguilera, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Morgan Hawker, “Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seed surface modifications using low-pressure air plasma to enhance germination”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Keyora Wharry, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea, “The nematicide effect of chalcones in Caenorhabditis elegans do not involve the oxidative stress or neuropeptide pathways of the nematode”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Kaylin Prayitno, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Jamie Levitt, “Assessing the Educational and Training Needs of U.S. Dairy Processors”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Amna Khan, Faculty Mentor, Dr. David Lent, “Neurological Deficits in Starved Drosophila melanogaster”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Yogeshwari Oka, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Cory Brooks, “Investigating mAb AR9.6 Mechanism of Action: Inhibition of MUC16 Protein-Protein Interactions”
Honorable Mention Oral Presentation: Shaur Herng Chong, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Qiao-Hong Chen, “Improving Anticancer Potency of Indazole Biaryl Compounds”
Poster Presentations:
Outstanding Nursing Poster Presentation Winner: Mark Gomez, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Bryan Tune, “A Retrospective Correlational Study of the Use of Electronic Distraction Media via an Interactive Tablet in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Same-Day Ears, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Procedures and Their Relationship on Post-Operative Emergence Delirium in a Pediatric Population”
Outstanding Engineering Poster Presentation Winner (Split Award): Caleb Bahne, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Alaeddin Bani Milhim, “End-Effector Design: Precision Citrus Harvesting with Controlled Stem Length” and Andrei Catalan, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Alaeddin Bani Milhim, “Study and Analysis of a Cost-Effective-Six-Degree-of-Freedom Robotic Arm in Autonomous Harvesting”
Outstanding Engineering Poster Presentation Winner (Split Award): Nicolas Macias, Faculty Mentor, Dr. The Nguyen, “Accessibility: Affordable Prosthetic Arm” and Visotheara Var, Faculty Mentor, Dr. The Nguyen, “Accessibility: The Affordable Prosthetic Arm”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Roohaniat Kaur Sidhu, Faculty Mentor, Dr. James Kawagoe, “Methods for PLA Surface Smoothing: A Comparison between Vapor and Immersion Smoothing with Organic Solvents”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Paige Ounesavath, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Shabnam Pooya, “Association of MC4R Gene Variants with Basal Metabolic Rate, Liver Function, and Lipid Profile in Overweight and Obese Students at California State University, Fresno”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Margaret Mullooly, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Kristina Closser, “Exploring the design space of peptide-mediated reversible nanoparticle aggregation”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Mariah Sadeddin, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Hubert Muchalski, “Determination of H-atom transfer rate constants of phenolic antioxidants using 19F NMR peroxyl radical clock”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Donnel Gray, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Gayle O’Bannon, “Evaluation of Corn Supplementation in a Fixed-Formula Diet for Sheep”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Eliana Kahn, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Krish Krishnan, “Amide Temperature Coefficients for Structural Insights to the Kalata B1 Protein”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Chahat Asi, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Emily Walter, “We Are Not Plants to ‘Weed Out’: Navigating Self-Efficacy, Burnout, and Social Support for First-Year STEM Majors”
Outstanding Poster Presentation Winner: Terone Dunbar, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Jason Bush, “Evaluation of Putative Genes Involved in Tall Cell Papillary Thyroid Cancer”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentations:
Honorable Mention Nursing Poster Presentation: Chong Vue, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Eileen Jimenez, “Translated Medication Labels and Their Perceived Effectiveness in the Elderly Hmong Population”
Honorable Mention Nursing Poster Presentation: Anahy Ortuno, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Lynn Jakobs, “Contraceptive Decision-Making Among Young College Women in California: Results of a Quantitative Study”
Honorable Mention Engineering Poster Presentation: Luay Al Aghbari, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Jorge Pesantez, “Comparative Analysis of Deep Neural Networks to Forecast Water Demand”
Honorable Mention Engineering Poster Presentation: Nicholas Amely, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Sankha Banerjee, “AI-Based Mobile Projecting System Using a Supernumerary Robotic Limb”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Annika Garza, Faculty Mentor, Dr. McDowell Porter, “AI-Generated vs. Human-Generated Social Media Content's Effect on Purchase Intention”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Melissa Jauregui, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Ulrike Muller, “Understanding Bladderwort (Utricularia) traps - The role of morphology in suction feeding”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentations: Sharon Stephanie, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea, “Characterization of endophytic microbiome in Punica granatum arillus”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Hannah Mettee, Faculty Mentor, Dr. He Wei, “Reinforcement-learning-guided Automated Design of MRI-based Dopamine Sensors”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Rachel Castro Orellana, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Martin Shapiro, “Shades of Engagement: The Light and Dark Triad in Social Media Use”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Careen Derkalousdian, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Laurent Dejean, “Investigating the Effects of Oxygen Concentration on the Regulation of Glucose Fuel Metabolism by Bcl-xL in Yeast”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Samantha Singh, Faculty Mentor, Dr. Koteswara Rao Nalamolu, “Exploring the Gut Microbiome in Type 1 Diabetes: Integrating Technology for Improved Diabetes Management”
Honorable Mention Poster Presentation: Katherine Nathania, Faculty Mentor: Dr. William Whalen, “Going All the Whey: Feasibility Study of Beer Production using Acid Whey”
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