September 8, 2025 | Office of Undergraduate Research

accomplishments-heading

Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in spring 2018. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.

AWARDS

Congratulations to Colby Buehler ’18 (ENG), Sydney Carr ’18 (CLAS), Vince Pistritto ’18 (CLAS, SFA), and Daniel Wackelin ’18 (ENG), the undergraduate recipients of 2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! They are among the 12 UConn students and alumni who won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year. Three other talented undergraduate researchers, Amy Robinson ’18 (ENG), Nicholas Russo ’18 (CLAS), and Nicholas Oliveira ’18 (ENG) received Honorable Mention recognition.

Naseem Sardashti ’18 (ENG), an undergraduate research in the Health Research Program working under the guidance of Dr. Sangamesh Kumbar, was awarded 3rd place at the 2018 Northeast Bioengineering Conference for her and her team’s work on the synthesis of hybrid skin models for product evaluation.

PUBLICATIONS

Jamasia Williams ’20 (CLAS), a participant in the Work-Study Research Assistant Program, was a co-author on a recent publication based on research conducted with Dr. Molly Waring:

Waring, M.E., Jake-Schoffman, D.E., Holovatska, M.M., Mejia, C., Williams, J.C., & Pagoto, S.L.(2018). Social media and obesity in adults: a review of recent research and future directions. Current Diabetes Reports, 18:34. doi.org/10.1007/s11892-018-1001-9.

EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS

Spring 2018 included a series of art exhibitions and screenings by the following undergraduate students:

Matthew Bilmes ’18 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Exit: A Short Film

Kiana Cao ’18 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
An Examination of Immigration: A look into Buddhism, Community & Refugees

Yanlin (Eva) Hu ’18 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
CHU: A Solo Exhibition of Ceramic Sculpture

James Keth ’19 (SFA, CLAS) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
The Khmer – A Personal Journey: On being Cambodian American

Austin MacDonald ’18 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient & UConn Co-op Legacy Fellow
Prodigal: The Sentinel’s Garden

Emy Regan ’19 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Clementine: The Adventures at Foxhead Manor

PRESENTATIONS

Joint Mathematics Meetings – January 10-13, 2018 – San Diego, CA

Rajeshwari Majumdar ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Applications of Multiplicative LLN and CLT for Random Matrices

Anthony Sisti ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Black-Scholes Using The Central Limit Theorem

Plant and Animal Genome XXVI Conference – January 13-17, 2018 – San Diego, CA

Madison Caballero ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Designing a Genotyping Array for Genomic Selection in Loblolly Pine

Alexander Trouern-Trend ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Comparative Genomics of the Juglandacea

Conference on Electronic and Advanced Materials – January 17-19, 2018 – Orlando, FL

Hope Whitelock ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Real Nanoparticles Have Curves: Exploring the Polar Phase Transition Topology in Superellipsoidal Nanoparticles

International Stroke Conference – January 23-26, 2018 – Los Angeles, CA

Maria Antony ’19 (CLAS, CAHNR) – ISC Junior Investigator Travel Award recipient
Oral presentation: Restoration of MiRNA MiR-181c-5p–Rescue From the Detrimental Effect of Social Isolation in the Mice Subjected to Ischemic Stroke

Ocean Sciences Meeting – February 11-16, 2018 – Portland, OR

Jessica Hinckley presenting her research poster. — Jessica Hinckley ’19 (CLAS)

Jessica Hinckley ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Investigating Dissolved Gas Concentrations and Alkalinity in a Long Island Sound Time Series

International Neuropsychological Society Conference – February 14-17, 2018 – Washington, DC

Debra Tomasino ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Informant Report of Cognitive Functioning in Geriatric Depression: Correlates with Objective Cognitive Tests and Structural Imaging

Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting – February 22-25, 2018, Baltimore, MD

Caroline Brooks ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient

Savannah-Nicole Villalba presenting her poster. — Savannah-Nicole Villalba ’18 (CLAS)

Cross Sectional Time Series Analysis on the Impacts of Race on Homeownership

Savannah-Nicole Villalba ’18 (CLAS)
A Healthy Food Inventory of Waterbury, CT

Eastern Psychological Association Meeting – March 1-3, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA

Allison Arnista ’18 (CLAS) & Kyrstyn Jenkins ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Evaluating Mechanisms of Reward Enhancement by Nicotine in Humans

Dilsara Liyanage ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The EEG Mu Rhythm and Language Abilities in 18- and 24-Month-Olds

Morgan Livingston ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Longitudinal Outcome of Attention Modification Training for Social Anxiety

Adam Mealy ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Longitudinal Stability of Hostile Attention Allocation, Attention Bias, and Hostility Symptoms

Michelle Padua ’18 (CLAS) & Skyler Sklenarik ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Behavioral Biases in People at Risk for Problematic Gambling

Eastern Society for Pediatric Research Annual Meeting – March 16-18, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA

Benjamin Redenti ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Risk Stratification System for Use in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) and Correlation with Adverse Events During Hospital Admissions

Margaux Verlaque-Amara ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Impact of State-By-State Adoption of Key Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Provisions on PED Patients

American Chemical Society National Meeting – March 18-22, 2018 – New Orleans, LA

Caroline Anastasia ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Multicomponent Flexible Film of Organometallic Polymers with Polyimide as High k and Low Loss Dielectric

Northeast Writing Center Association Conference – March 24-25, 2018 – Worcester, MA

Joseph Greenwald ’18 (BUS), Daniel Johnson ’18 (CLAS), & Kaylee Thurlow ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Cracking the Code: A Method for Designing and Implementing a Writing Center Honor Code

Odia Kane ’19 (CLAS) & Kharl Reynado ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Assessing Our Practice: A Writing Center Fellow-To-Fellow Support System

Kharl Reynado and Odia Kane presenting at NEWCA. — Odia Kane ’19 (CLAS) and Kharl Reynado ’19 (CLAS)

Anneliese Lapides ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Reassessing Our Responses to the Everyday Language of Oppression

Sierra Rice ’18 (ED) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Hosting a Regional Middle and High School Conference: A Practical Model

Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting – March 24-27, 2018 – Boston, MA

Roisin Healy ’19 (CLAS) & Jonathan Serino ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Understanding “Thunder” is More Difficult than “Rainbow” when Performing a Concurrent Auditory Task

Northeast Bioengineering Conference – March 28-30, 2018 – Philadelphia, PA

Garrett Soler ’18 (ENG)
An Economical & Ergonomic Hydrocephalus Software System

New England Science Symposium – April 8, 2018 – Boston, MA

Brian Aguilera ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
CD13 Promotes Tunneling Nanotube Formation and Cell-cell Communication in Human Endothelial Cells and Mouse Primary Macrophages

Eastern Nursing Research Society Annual Scientific Sessions – April 11-13, 2018 – Newark, NJ

Courtney Lopiano ’18 (NUR)
A Battle on Opiates: The NICU Nurse’s Perspective on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

Connecticut Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Annual Meeting – April 20, 2018 – Hartford, CT

Kayla Hope presenting her research poster. — Kayla Hope ’18 (CAHNR)

Kayla Hope ’18 (CAHNR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
What Type 1 Diabetes Nutrition Advice is Being Shared on Twitter and Who is Sharing It?

Experimental Biology Conference – April 21-25, 2018 – San Diego, CA

Jordyn Dickey ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Analysis of Physiology and Neurobiology (PNB) 2265 Course Redesign

In recognition of the pivotal role that mentors play in supporting undergraduate research and creative activity, the Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the recipents of the 2018 Mentorship Excellence Awards. These awards recognize two faculty members – one in a STEM field, and one in a non-STEM field – and one graduate student who exemplify the ways in which outstanding mentors challenge and support their students, enabling them to take intellectual risks and achieve milestones they might not have initially envisioned being able to reach.

The 2018 Mentorship Excellence Awards were presented to Andrea Voyer, Nicholas Eddy, and Laura Mickelsen during the Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition on Friday, April 13, 2018.

Andrea Voyer, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Professor Voyer’s award was presented by Savannah-Nicole Villalba ’18 (CLAS). The following text is excerpted from Savannah-Nicole’s presentation remarks.

Savannah-Nicole Villalba presents plaque to awardee Andrea Voyer. — Savannah-Nicole Villalba ’18 (CLAS) presents the award to her mentor, Professor Andrea Voyer.

I had Dr. Voyer for one of the required classes for our major, social theory. Dr. Voyer gracefully worked us through the dense theories of 19th century sociologists. It was my first time engaging with sociological theory, and many of us were struggling to understand the concepts. Dr. Voyer was patient with us as we tried to make connections to the material. She was encouraging so that we weren’t afraid of being wrong, and was personable in a way that encouraged students to work harder.

This mentality was one that she brought with her when we began the IDEA Grant application process. When we started discussing the possibility of applying, she did not bring me in to work on something she was interested in. In our first meeting, she asked me what I was passionate about and I could tell she genuinely cared. Dr. Voyer was the first person to believe in my passions and to tell me that my research questions were valid. We spent months working on the application process, and when the grant was approved, I knew it would not have been possible without her guidance.

With her own incredible research and personal life, she has always been accessible to discuss the newest challenge I faced. Instead of just providing answers, she would offer suggestions on ways to problem solve to reach reasonable solutions. Even though Dr. Voyer has been away this school year, she has helped me apply (and be accepted) to graduate school, supported (and protected) me at my first research conference, and has shown me what an academic mentor should be.

Nicholas Eddy, Assistant Professor in Residence, Chemistry
Professor Eddy’s award was presented by Pranjali Ichalkaranje ’18 (CLAS). The following text is excerpted from Pranjali’s presentation remarks.

Pranjali Ichalkaranje presents plaque to awardee Nicholas Eddy. — Pranjali Ichalkaranje ’18 (CLAS) presents the award to her mentor, Professor Nicholas Eddy.

Research with Dr. Eddy has been the most rewarding experience I could have wished for as an undergraduate. I was able to grow tremendously by obtaining knowledge and skills applicable not only in research but also other aspects of life. In terms of research, teaching an undergraduate student with experience in life sciences but limited knowledge in Organic Chemistry was a challenging task that Dr. Eddy took on with no hesitation.

I was challenged each day, whether it was mixing a solution or reading articles with little background on the material. He was not afraid to hold me to a higher standard and push me beyond my limits, allowing me to put classroom knowledge into practice and increase my critical thinking and problem solving skills. He encouraged me to read, write, ask questions, and – most importantly – make mistakes. Though I made more than he agrees to, he offered reassuring and constructive feedback each time. Most importantly, he made sure I had everything I needed to succeed in anything I put my mind to – a role he took on as my mentor.

My research experience opened my eyes to career opportunities in research and medicine. I have been able to grow immensely as a scientist, researcher, student, writer, teacher and an overall individual.

Dr. Eddy represents the diligence, passion and commitment that students, scientists and teachers need on a daily basis. He puts his students, researchers and colleagues before himself. He is the highlight of the students’ day, and a source of comfort for many as they embark on their undergraduate experience.

Laura Mickelsen, Ph.D. Candidate, Physiology and Neurobiology, Jackson Laboratory
Laura was presented with her award by Eric Beltrami ’19 (CLAS) and Jacob Naparstek ’18 (CLAS), two of the undergraduate researchers who work under her supervision in the Jackson lab. The following text is excerpted from Eric’s presentation remarks.

Photo of James Costanzo, Jacob Naparstek, awardee Laura Mickelsen, Eric Beltrami, and Alexander Jackson. — Award winner Laura Mickelsen, center, is pictured with undergraduate researchers James Costanzo, Jacob Naparstek, and Eric Beltrami, as well as Professor Alexander Jackson.

Laura is an incredible scientist and speaker, and she has made an effort to help develop those skills in us. She challenges us to explain our projects and try to troubleshoot our setbacks independently so that when we present our work we are prepared to take ownership of what we did and understand the scientific process behind it thoroughly.

Laura’s exceptional mentorship is not limited to guidance in our research projects. Laura has fostered a family of people who deeply care about one another… and the lateral hypothalamus. Laura makes coming to lab not only incredibly productive but also fun. With her effortless humor and kind heart she has made lab somewhere we look forward to going every day. She never hesitates to make sure we are keeping up in our courses and ask us about our extracurricular involvement. It is clear to us that she cares about our personal lives and is always there to provide us guidance in our daily life and about our career goals. I can honestly say that Laura’s mentorship was a major factor in my decision to pursue a career in which I can make research a part of my life.

Laura, whatever path you take on your journey to success will be an amazing and rewarding one because of your incredible dedication and love for what you do. I am constantly inspired by your personal drive and ability to master such a diverse set of skills. James, Jake and I cannot thank you enough for everything.

Congratulations to the 2018 award recipients! The Office of Undergraduate Research thanks the undergraduate students who nominated their faculty and graduate student mentors as well as the Peer Research Ambassadors who served on this year’s selection committee.

Office of Undergraduate Research

Month: May 2018

• Student Accomplishments – May 2018

• 2018 Mentorship Excellence Awards