Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Undergraduate students in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering actively work alongside our world-class faculty on a variety of research projects. Every year in April, these students have the opportunity to present their work as part of the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Visitors are invited to stop by and hear from the students about their research.

The annual event is organized by Omega Chi Epsilon, the national honor society for chemical engineering. It is an opportunity for students to showcase their research and network with alumni from the industry who serve as judges. Everyone is invited to attend.

2026 Undergraduate Research Symposium
April 10, 2026
12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Levis Faculty Center, Room 300
Participants and awardees are recognized at a 4:30 p.m. ceremony.  

Past Events

Thank you to all our alumni judges, graduate students, and OXE members who have made this event possible over the years. 

Event not held.

April 12, 2024

Judging Panel:

  • John Bartels (BS 89), Appraisal Manager, BP New Energy
  • Sujit Jagtap (Research Scholar), Research Scientist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI)

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners:

  • 1st Place: Sydney Nelson, Impact of Hypoxia and Perivascular Niche-derived Conditioned Media on Hematopoietic Stem Cell Fate in Gelatin Hydrogels
  • 2nd Place: Joseph Clark, Substrate Prediction for RiPP Biosynthetic Enzymes via Masked Language Modeling and Transfer Learning
  • 3rd Place: Amy Louise Bond, PGM Recover by Redox Co-Polymers

April 14, 2023

Judging Panel:

  • Jim Grant (BS 69), Hazardous Materials Manager, TSA  
  • Kenneth Jaconetty (BS 82), Intellectual Property attorney 
  • Mike Swift (BS 91), Regional Engineering Manager, BSI Engineering, Inc 

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners:

  • 1st Place: Megan Shamsi, Developing an Injury Model for Bone Regeneration 
  • 2nd Place: Yourong Weng, Hydrolysis-Resistant  Ester-Based Linkers for Development of Activity-Based NIR Bioluminescence Probes 
  • 3rd Place: Achal Anand, Environment-mediated Tumor Progression in Bioengineering Model of Glioblastoma 

April 1, 2022

Judging Panel:

  • Gonzalo Campillo Alvarado, Illinois Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  • Kenneth Jaconetty (BS 82), Senior director, IP Legal Lead for IP transactions at Astellas Pharma U.S.
  • Paul Jahn (BS 81), Chief Operations Officer of the Battery Anode Materials Project for Syrah Technologies

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners:

  • 1st Place: Maxwell Polanek, Investigating the Effect of Mineralized Collagen Scaffolds on the Immunomodulatory Capacity of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells
  • 2nd Place: Edward Neves, Biomaterial-based Tumor Models to Analyze the Role of Glioma Extracellular Matrix in Therapeutic Efficacy
  • 3rd Place: David Yang, Programmable and Automated Shape-controlled Synthesis of Bottlebrush Polymers

April 9, 2021

Judging Panel:

  • Corey Correnti (BS 85), Senior Advisor, Marakon
  • Jim Morris (BS 81), Former Chief Facilities Engineer, ExxonMobil
  • Tom Tulig (BS 78), General Manager, Process Development, Shell

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners:

  • 1st Place: Rachel Park, Metal Oxide Supports for Molybdenum Carbide Nanocatalysts in the Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction 
  • 2nd Place: Maxwell Polanek, Incorporating Placental-Derived Membrane Matrix and Soluble Factors in Mineralized Collagen Scaffolds for Improved Bone Repair 
  • 3rd Place: Devin Schinski, Polyethylene Encapsulation of Platinum-Bound Nanoparticles 

Event not held.

April 12, 2019

Judging Panel:

  • Dr. Christopher Burcham (BS 92), Senior Engineering Advisor, Eli Lilly and Company 
  • Ed Dvorsky (BS 85), Engineering Group Leader, Koppers Inc.
  • Dr. George McConaghy (BS 67, PhD 74), Retired; Amoco, BP 
  • Ron Corn (BS 79), Senior Vice President of Petrochemicals, Chevron Phillips Chemical 

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners:

  • 1st Place: Faisal Aldukhi, Elucidating Binding Pathway of Brassinolide and Castasterone to BRI1 
  • 2nd Place (tie): Ty’Nya Larry, Lung-on-a chip Enables Dynamic Imaging of Pulmonary Lung Tissue in Resonse to Aerisiolized Nanoparticles 
  • 2nd Place (tie): Kevin Wade, The Effect of Organosilane Cathode Coatings on Lithium-Ion Battery Performance 
  • 3rd Place: Noah Hopkins, Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Vesicles Using a Stokes Trap and Precision Microfluidics 

Judging Panel: 

  • Joe Drago (BS 72), Consultant, Energy Industry and Nonprofit Organizations
  • Dan Hanus (BS 86), Section Head, Procter & Gamble  

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place (tie): Qihua Chen, Molecular Dynamics Simulations Reveal the Conformational Heterogeneity of a Strigolactone Receptor in Parasitic Plants
  • 1st Place (tie): Marko Ivancevic, Novel Carbon Electrodes Derived from Waste Tires for Capacitive Deionization of Brackish Water 
  • 1st Place (tie): Eli Karvelis, Modeling Glioblastoma Invasion with Microfluidic Chips 
  • Honorable Mention: Alayna Johnson, Effects of Catalyst Hydrophobicity on Rates and Selectives of Alkene Epoxidation
  • Honorable Mention: Anastasiya Lukiyanenko, Characterizing Cooperative Transitions in Organic Semiconductors 

Judging Panel: 

  • John Schnake (BS 89), Corporate Director of Process Analyzers, Endress+Hauser Group
  • Corey Correnti (BS 85), Retired; Energy Company Consultany
  • John Bassett (BS 72), Retired; Vice President of Operations, Molycorp and President, Seadrift Coke. 

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Edwin Zen, Selection for enhanced growth yield strains of Escherichia coli in xylose via emulsion-based encapsulation 
  • 2nd Place: Moeen Meigooni, Molecular Perspectives on Agrochemical Control of Drought Resistance
  • 3rd Place (tie): Omotola Okesanjo and Robert Schneider, Topology Control of Bottlebrush Polymers
  • 3rd Place (tie): Zaid Al-Bardan, High performance oxygen evolution catalysts for water splitting in acidic electrolytes  

April 8, 2016 

Judging Panel: 

  • Shawn Cullen, Lyondell Basell
  • Paul Jahn (BS 81), Middough
  • Sarah Kuhl (BS 15), Clorox 
  • Aimee Nugent (BS 15), Pepsico
  • Rouema Vukovich (BS 89), Dow AgroSciences  

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Shayta Roy, Multi-compartment Biomaterial Scaffolds to Promote Mesenchymal Stem Cell Differentiation and Proliferation at Tendon Bone Junction
  • 2nd Place: Rebecca Boehning, Vapor Diffusion for Fabricating Large Single Crystals for Flexible Electronics
  • 3rd Place: SiiHong William Lau and Yasheen Jadidi, Selective Upgrading of Biomass Fuels by Continuous-Flow Homogeneous Catalysis  

April 10, 2015 

Judging Panel: 

  • Yusuf Esat (BS ChemE 06), Jenner & Block LLP
  • Drake Fitzsimmons (BS ChemE 13), Sage Enviromental
  • Nick Manser (BS ChemE 13), Sage Environmental
  • Elizabeth Keck (BS ChemE 02), Mead Johnson Nutrition
  • Dustin Olson, LyondellBasell 

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Kevin Erning, Reinforcement of Collagen Scaffolds via Incorporation of Polycaprolactone Frame Enhances Mechanical Robustness
  • 2nd Place: Sarah Laken, 3D In Vitro Models of Brain Cancer
  • 3rd Place: Sarah Kuhl, Single Polymer Studies Using Microfluidic Devices

April 4, 2014 

Judging Panel: 

  • Dr. Ed Heerdt (BS 65), Retired, Shell Oil Company
  • Tim Bachman (BS ChemE 70, MS 74 Civil Engineering), Retired; C-U Sanitary District
  • Ryan Soldat (BS 13), Sage Environmental
  • Elizabeth Keck (BS ChemE 02), Mead Johnson Nutrition
  • Drake Fitzsmmons (BS 13), Sage Environmental  

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Heeral Patel, A microfluidic platform to control oxygen concentration
  • 2nd Place: Lily Chen, Modeling branched polymers using single stranded DNA
  • 3rd Place: Wei Jan, Microseed matrix screening for protein crystallization on X-ray transparent microfluidic chips  

April 12, 2013 

Judging Panel: 

  • Jill Bonucci, UOP, LLC
  • Tom Webb, Private Consultant  

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Emre Sevgen, Microfluidic Platform for Antibiotic Susceptibility Screening 
  • 2nd Place: Eftalda Becka, Influence of Extracellular Matrix Microenvironment on Glioma Cell Malignancy 
  • 3rd Place: Patrick Corona, Computational Studies of the Dynamics of Single Polymers 

April 20, 2012 

Judging Panel: 

  • Eric Allen, Sage Environmental Consulting
  • Lisa Alvin, Dow Corning 

Undergraduate Research Symposium Winners: 

  • 1st Place: Karl Siil, Energy Source from Carbon Dioxide Reduction
  • 2nd Place: Jaebum Lee, A Multiplexed Microfluidic Platform for Antibiotic Susceptibility Screening
  • 3rd Place: Kevin Weyant, Characterization of a novel class of flavin-binding flurescent proteins as oxygen-independent biological imaging probes