CUGR announces 2022 UMaine Student Symposium award winners

April 26, 2022 Research, Signature and Emerging Areas, Student Life

The University of Maine Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) has announced the 2022 UMaine Student Symposium (UMSS22) award winners.

The symposium, held April 15 at the New Balance Field House and Memorial Gym, provides an opportunity for the public to view numerous posters and exhibits of undergraduate and graduate research and scholarly work. More than 1,000 student researchers, co-authors, faculty, staff, sponsors and community members attended the event, which was held in hybrid format this year.

Over 350 projects were submitted for the symposium, now in its seventh year. Students submitted virtual presentations to be reviewed by judges and participants, and they had the option to present at the in-person event.

In addition to awards for virtual presentations, the symposium featured special awards sponsored by UMaine research centers and People’s Choice Awards for in-person presentations.

This year’s award recipients are:

Special Awards

  • Zachary Doherty, who won the Susan J. Hunter Undergraduate Award for the project “Taste and Odor Degradation in Water by Nanobubble-facilitated Ultrasonication,” advised by Onur Apul.
  • Sean Sibley, who won the Susan J. Hunter Graduate Award for the project “Family Nurse Practitioner Student Perceptions of Simulation Based Education,” advised by Kelley Strout.
  • Caitlin Wiafe-Kwakye, who won the Dean of Graduate School Undergraduate Mentoring Award.
  • Martha P. Gladstone, who won the Provost’s Innovative and Creative Teaching Award.
  • Jacob Snow, Md Ikramul Hasan and Richa Arya, who won the Student Innovation Commercialization Awards.

 UMSS22 Virtual Presentation Undergraduate Category Awards

  • Meg Lander, who won the award for Allied Health category for the project “Efficacy of the FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program in Maine High School Soccer,” advised by Christopher Nightingale.
  • Kimberly Hunt, who won the award for the Arts category for the project “Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Interpretive Architecture,” advised by Phillip Silver.
  • Katie Southworth, who won the award for the Biomedical Sciences category for the project “DMC9 Prophage Characterization and Impact on Group B Streptococcus Virulence,” advised by Melody Neely.
  • Nicholas Johnson, who won the award for the Business category for the project “Measuring China’s Footprint in the United States,” advised by Stefano Tijerina.
  • Nicole LaPlant, who won the award for the Education category for the project “Creating a Healthy Rural Ecosystem for Community Vitality: Developing Rural Business Research,” advised by Catherine Biddle.
  • Mackenzie Ladd, who won the award for the Engineering and Information Sciences category for the project “Effect of Interface Contact Conditions on the Electrical Resistance of 3D-Printed Conductive Filaments,” advised by Brett Ellis.
  • Ainslie Allen, who won the award for the Interdisciplinary Research category for the project “Detecting Shared Touch Surface Contamination with a Deep Learning-Enhanced Smartphone and Nanopatterned Material System,” advised by Caitlin Howell. 
  • Emily Holt, who won the award for the Natural Sciences category for the project “Measuring Firn Thickness and Volume Change Using GPR Profiles Across the Juneau Icefield,” advised by Seth Campbell.
  • Jinyoung Park, who won the award for the Physical and Mathematical Sciences category for the project “Isolation and Analysis of Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) Using TEAB Auxiliary,” advised by Matthew Brichacek.
  • Leah Savage, who won the award for the Social Sciences and Humanities category for the project “Objectifying the Classroom: An examination of self-objectification, appearance comparisons, and their effects on cognitive resources within video-class environments,” advised by Amelia Couture-Bue.

UMSS22 Virtual Presentation Graduate Category Awards

  • Lauren Jellison, who won the award for the Allied Health category for the project “Firefighter Cancer Risk: A Qualitative Study of the Current Perceptions and Practices Surrounding Cancer Prevention in the Fire Service in Maine,” advised by Patricia Poirier.
  • Stephanie Winslow, who won the award for the Arts category for the project “Andante et Scherzo,” advised by Elizabeth Downing.
  • Caitlin Wiafe-Kwakye, who won the award for the Biomedical Sciences category for the project “Investigating the Impact of Prophages on Bacterial Fitness of Streptococcus agalactiae,” advised by Melody Neely.
  • Thomas Erick, who won the award for the Business category for the project “NIL Legislation and Sponsorship of D1 NCAA Athletes,” advised by Norm O’Reilly.
  • Anne Fensie, who won the award for the Education category for the project “The Study of Adult Learners in Distance Education: A Scoping Review of the Literature,” advised by Elizabeth Allan.
  • Nicholas Soucy, who won the award for the Engineering and Information Sciences category for the project “CEU-Net: Ensemble Semantic Segmentation of Hyperspectral Images Using Clustering,” advised by Salimeh Yasaei Sekeh.
  • Rachel Church, who won the award for the Interdisciplinary Research category for the project “Understanding Sense of Place in Maine Through Community Cookbooks,” advised by Susan Smith.
  • Avery Lamb, who won the award for the Natural Sciences category for the project “Using Paleolimnological Tools to Evaluate the Links Between Climate Change and CyanoHABs in Maine Lakes,” advised by Jasmine Saros.
  • Amy Halpin, who won the award for the Social Sciences and Humanities category for the project “Now or Later? Decision-Making Preferences in Community-Dwelling Older Adults,” advised by Rebecca MacAulay.

 UMSS22 People’s Choice Awards

  • Amanda Sandberg, who won for the project “Evaluating Ca2+ Related Drugs for Inhibition of JC Polyomavirus Infection,” advised by Melissa Maginnis.
  • Jordan Miner, who won for the project “Role of the HU177 Cryptic Collagen Epitope in Differentially Controlling Breast Tumor Cell Behavior,” advised by Peter Brooks.
  • Sarah Hanscome, who won for the project “Simulation-Based Learning in Nursing Education,” advised by Deborah Eremita.

The free public event was organized and co-hosted by CUGR, Student Government and the Graduate Student Government as part of Maine Impact Week. Additional sponsorships were received from Maine Technology Institute (MTI), Texas Instruments, John Turner Consulting, Power Engineers, Machias Savings Bank, IEEE Maine Chapter, Hannaford Supermarkets, UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy and Rick Mundy, HomeLight, The Jackson Laboratory, SMRT, St. Joseph Healthcare, University Credit Union and UpStart.