• Student Accomplishments – Fall 2014

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Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments this fall. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.

AWARDS

The first panel image from Julianne Norton's graphic novel.
The first panel image from Julianne Norton’s graphic novel.

Julianne Norton ’15 (CLAS) is a winner of the prestigious Mitchell Scholarship, which will support her pursuit of a graduate degree in creative writing in Ireland. There, she will continue work on a graphic novel begun with the support of the UConn IDEA Grant. The novel builds on topics and themes Julianne has explored in prior projects and will include a cross-cultural comparison of post-memory of the Holocaust and the Irish Famine. Learn more about Julianne and the Mitchell Scholarship by reading the story about her achievement in UConn Today; see more of her work on her portfolio website or Instagram feed.


PUBLICATIONS

Robert Stickels ’15 (CLAS) is the first author on the following article:

Stickels, R., Clark, K., Heider, T.N., Mattiske, D.M., Renfree, M.B. & Pask, A.J. (2014). DAX1/NR0B1 Was Expressed During Mammalian Gonadal Development and Gametogenesis Before It was Recruited to the Eutherian X-Chromosome. Biology of Reproduction; published ahead of print November 13, 2014.

Haley Garbus ’15 (CLAS) is a co-author on two journal articles:

Alexander, M.L., Smith, A., Rosenkrantz, T., Garbus, H., & Fitch, R.H. (2014). Behavioral and histological outcomes following neonatal HI injury in a preterm (P3) and term (P7) rodent model. Behavioral Brain Research, 259, 85‐96.

Alexander, M.L., Smith, A., Rosenkrantz, T., Garbus, H., & Fitch, R.H. (2014). Cell size anomalies in the auditory thalamus of rats with hypoxic‐ischemic injury on postnatal day 3 or 7. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 33, 1‐7.


PRESENTATIONS

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Controls for Dillon Jones’ CNC machine.

New York Maker Faire – September 20-21, 2014 – New York, NY

Dillon Jones ’15 (ENGR) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
The Botler/The Gentleman’s Gantry Machine

Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) Symposium – October 7, 2014 – Storrs, CT

Aaron Rosman ’16 (CAHNR) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Small Plants, Big Questions: Asian Waterwort and Threestamen Waterwort

COMSOL Conference – October 10-14, 2014 – Boston, MA

Casey Settle ’15 (ENGR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Analysis of Heat Transfer in a Complex Three Dimensional Structure Fabricated by Additive Manufacturing

Frontiers in Optics – October 19-23, 2014 – Tucson, AZ

Michael Cantara ’16 (ENGR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Ultracold Trimer Formation Energetics of Rb and K

Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting – October 22-25, 2014 – San Antonio, TX

Stephanie Knowlton ’15 (ENGR)
Spatiotemporal Oxygen Monitoring for Three-Dimensional Engineered Tissues

Catherine Oliver ’15 (ENGR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Analyzing ROS Generation from Magnetic Nanoparticles in an Alternating Magnetic Field and Its Role in Intracellular Hyperthermia

Kevin Smith ’16 (ENGR)
Investigating the Effects of Stromal Cell-Neuronal Cell Co-Culture on Neuronal Maturity and Neuronal Viability Under Oxidative Stress

Northeastern Educational Research Association Conference – October 22-24, 2014 – Trumbull, CT

Caroline Thompson ’15 (ED)
Career Paths of Elementary Educators: An Assessment of Attrition and Mobility in Connecticut by Type of Community

Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting – November 15-19, 2014 – Washington, DC

Ashlesha Dhuri ’16 (CLAS) & Xiao Li ’15 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Comparing Dorsal and Ventral Hippocampus Oscillations During Learning

Franchesca Kuhney ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Human Conditioned Place Preferences Using Secondary Reinforcers

Kaitlin O’Connell ’15 (CAHNR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Behavioral Effects of rmTBI Injuries in Mice Models

Sarthak Patel ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Temporal Sequence Learning by Rats in a Radial Arm Water Maze

Margaret Rowland ’15 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Animal Models of Effort-Related Decision Making: The Antidepressant Fluoxetine Potentiates Effort-Related Effects of the Dopamine Depleting Agent Tetrabenazine

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting – November 16-21, 2014 – Atlanta, GA

Notations are included below for students who won poster presentation awards in their divisions.

Gianna Credaroli ’15 (ENGR) – 2nd Place in Separations
A New Thin Film Composite Membrane

Ari Fischer ’15 (ENGR) – 3rd Place in Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
Poster presentation: Thermochemical CO2 and H2O Splitting Via Chemical-Looping with Cerium and Cobalt Mixed Oxides for Oxygen Generation
Oral presentation: Conversion of Caffeine and Lipids in Catalytic Fast-Pyrolysis of Spent Coffee Grounds (Based on UConn IDEA Grant project)

Gabriella Frey ’15 (ENGR) – 1st Place in Separations
Formulating Draw Solution Mixtures for Forward Osmosis

Oscar Nordness ’15 (ENGR) – 2nd place in energy fuels and petrochemicals – OUR Travel Award recipient
Incorporation of High Pressure CLC into IGCC systems

Clarke Palmer ’16 (ENGR) – 3rd Place in Fuels, Petrochemicals, and Energy – OUR Travel Award recipient
Reactor Design and Analysis of a Simulated Moving Bed Reactor for Chemical-Looping Combustion

George Shaw ’15 (ENGR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Fluorescence Nitro-Explosive Detection through Electrospun Pyrene-PES Nanofibers

Abbey Wangstrom ’15 (ENGR) – 2nd place in Reaction and Catalysis Engineering
High Activity, High Stability Pt/ITO Fuel Cell Catalysts

Learn more about the AIChE presentations via the School of Engineering.


ONGOING PROJECTS

Christina Cotte ’17 (CLAS) worked with Dr. Craig Nelson’s Genetics lab over the summer diagramming the trajectory of reprogramming cells and developing a Lineage Map of the early stage mouse embryos. She and her colleagues have found new information about the process of turning a fibroblast cell into a stem cell that will be helpful for its future use. A publication with their findings on the reprogramming stem cell project is in preparation. The Lineage Map project is Christina’s focus for the 2014-15 academic year.

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Joseph Rosen and Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah

UConn IDEA Grant recipients Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah ’15 (CLAS) and Joseph Rosen ’17 (CLAS) are currently soliciting submissions for the premiere issue of Exsistentia, a new multimedia literary journal that addresses existential questions through the art of curation. Submissions in all genres (poetry, prose, illustration, audio, film, etc.) that respond to the issue’s thematic question, “do you see me?,” will be accepted through January 1, 2015, via exsistentia.net.

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Ornella Tempo

Ornella Tempo ’16 (ENGR) is conducting her McNair Scholars and Honors Thesis research in Dr. Yusuf Khan’s laboratory at UConn Health. She is studying the in vitro evaluation of calcium peroxide (CaO2) release from composite polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLAGA) microsphere scaffolds. The objective of this project is to investigate the potential of a materials-only approach for guided bone regeneration.