2018 Undergraduate Research Symposium

This year marked the 10th year for the undergraduate research symposium. Thanks to our alumni judges who volunteered their time. Joe Drago (BS ’72) is a retired nuclear engineer from the Department of Energy who is now a consultant to the energy industry and nonprofit organizations. He also has his master’s in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering from Illinois. Dan Hanus (BS ’86) is a section head at Procter & Gamble and has an MBA from Xavier University.

Judge Dan Hanus, Department Head Dr. Paul Kenis, symposium winners Qihua Chen, Elijah Karvelis and Marko Ivancevic, and judge Joe Drago (BS &amp;rsquo;72) — Judge Dan Hanus, Department Head Dr. Paul Kenis, symposium winners Qihua Chen, Elijah Karvelis and Marko Ivancevic, and judge Joe Drago (BS ’72)

This year, judges awarded three students the top award: Qihua Chen, Marko Ivancevic, and Eli Karvelis. Chen, a member of Dr. Diwakar Shukla’s research group, presented with, “Molecular Dynamics Simulations Reveal the Conformational Heterogeneity of a Strigolactone Receptor in Parasitic Plants.” Marko Ivancevic, who worked with the Paranthaman Research Group at Oak Ridge National Lab, presented, “Novel Carbon Electrodes Derived from Waste Tires for Capacitive Deionization of Brackish Water.” Eli Karvelis, a member of Dr. Brendan Harley’s research group, presented, “Modeling Glioblastoma Invasion with Microfluidic Chips.”

Honorable mentions were awarded to Alayna Johnson and Anastasiya Lukiyanenko.

Congratulations to all the research symposium participants:

Qihua Chen (Shukla Group), Molecular Dynamics Simulations Reveal the Conformational Heterogeneity of a Strigolactone Receptor in Parasitic Plants
Marko Ivancevic (Paranthaman Group, Oak Ridge National Lab), Novel Carbon Electrodes Derived from Waste Tires for Capacitive Deionization of Brackish Water
Alayna Johnson (Flaherty Group), Effects of Catalyst Hydrophobicity on Rates and Selectives of Alkene Epoxidation
Eli Karvelis (Harley Group), Modeling Glioblastoma Invasion with Microfluidic Chips
Anastasiya Lukiyanenko (Diao Group), Characterizing Cooperative Transitions in Organic Semiconductors
Jun Og (Murphy, Kenis Groups), Gold Nanorod-Hydrogel Composite
June Qian (Sing Group), Single-Chain Dynamics of Ring Polymers in Dilute Solution Under Mixed Flows
Channing Richter (Schroeder Group), Precise Control Over Position and Orientation of Anisotropic Colloidal Particles Using Stokes Trap
Bugra Sahin (Guironnet Group), Di-block Bottlebrush Polymer Synthesis
Yuquan Tong (Burke Group), An Iterative Approach to the Synthesis of Contiguous Polyols