2019 Award Winners
Award for Artistic Excellence
Christine Phang (Humanities and Arts); “Little Mouse's Search: Exploring Meaning Through Children's Literature”
John Sprong (English); “In Recovery: A Collection of Short Stories”
Zain Islam-Hashmi (Architecture), Stephanie Smid (Architecture); “Alluminare: A Glow-in-the-Dark Collection”
Zain Islam-Hashmi (Architecture); “Dirt Forms: Understanding and Implementing an Earthen Construction Collectivism in Pittsburgh”
Xavier Apostol (Art); “Orchards”
The Boeing Blue Skies Award
First prize: “Connect, Protect, Explore, and Inspire the World” – Jonathan Fortis Rivera (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Alexander Patel (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Ishan Pardesi (Electrical & Computer Engineering); “Distributed Bluetooth Low-Energy Sensor Network for Modelling and Predicting Human Mobility at Meso-Scale”
Second prize: “Game Changer” – Junhan Kong (Computer Science); “StateLens: A Reverse Engineering Solution to Making Existing Dynamic Touchscreens Accessible”
Third prize: “Most Creative” – Hans Kumar (Mechanical Engineering), Serano Ng (Robotics); “Dexterity and Tactile Sensitivity: Strategies for a Jenga-playing Robot”
Dietrich Humanities Prize
Julie Heming (English); “Ghost Breath: Poems”
Ashley Chan (Art); “The Rochester Abandoned Subway”
Juliana Schnerr (Design); “MaryAnne, Ana, Marcela, Me. A Series of Short Stories”
Anne Crumley (CFA Interdisciplinary); “Rocking the Boat: De Facto Segregation and the Kennywood Swimming Pool: 1953-1956”
Chloe Desaulles (Humanities and Arts); “Dedications I-V”
Henry Armero Memorial Award for BCSA
Lingdong Huang (Computer Science and Arts) – “Pose Estimation Playrooms”
Mathematics Poster Competition
Grand prize: Emily Zhu – “Multicolor Ramsey numbers for small hypergraphs”
Poster prizes
Alp Muyesser (Mathematical Sciences)- “Unavoidable colorful patterns in graphs”
Xinyu Wu (Computer Science) - “A log-Sobolev inequality for the multislice, with applications”
Annie (Jingjing) Xu (Mathematical Sciences) - “Traces for homogeneous Sobolev spaces in infinite cylindrical domains”
Young research award
Yurong Li (Mathematical Sciences) and Lily Qiao (Mathematical Sciences) – “Portfolio optimization with order size impact”
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Award
First prize:
Rriddhiman Bezbaruah (Mechanical Engineering); “Using Additive Manufacturing to Construct Next Generation Brain-Machine Interface Devices to Improve Stroke Rehabilitation”
Cristina Banuelos (Biological Sciences); “Structural brain network topologies associate with aspects of value-based decision-making”
Second prize:
Wyatt Swift-Ramirez (Chemistry); “Gentle Attachment of Bioactive Molecules onto a Robust Graphenic Scaffold”
Jack Forman (Materials Science and Engineering), Katherine Forrester (Biomedical Engineering), Andre Gutierrez Marty (Mechanical Engineering), Beichen Liu (Chemical Engineering), Rena Miu (Chemical Engineering); “Low Cost Artificial Lung”
Honorable mention:
Alexander Baikovitz (Mechanical Engineering), Jonathan Duffy (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Zachary Sussman (Computer Science); “In-Sight: Tension-Based Haptic Feedback to Improve Navigation for People who are Blind”
Puja Dutta (Biological Sciences); “Targeting ppGalNAc-T3 to Block the Migration and Invasion of Cancer Cells”
Psychology Department Competition
Poster Competition
First prize: Cristina Banuelos (Biological Sciences); “Structural brain network topologies associate with aspects of value-based decision-making”
Runner Up: Nicole Ang (Information Systems), Kalpa Anjur (Computer Science), Dominic Calkosz (Computer Science), Elizabeth Fulton (Science and Humanities Scholars), Suanna Moron (Biological Sciences), Emery Noll (Biological Sciences), Bridget Tan (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Nathan Williams (Philosophy), Kristy Zhang (Business Administration); “Enhancing Executive Function in Preschool Children: Generalizability and Long-term Effects of Cognitive-Motor Training”
Oral Competition
First prize: William Crouch (Biological Sciences); “Helping or Hurting? The Role of Unmitigated Communion and Relationship Intimacy Following Support Receipt”
Runner-Up: Isabella Starvaggi (Psychology); “Cognitive Responses to Fatigue in Seasonal Affective Disorder”
Sigma Xi Poster Competition
First Prize: Puja Dutta (Biological Sciences); “Targeting ppGalNAc-T3 to Block the Migration and Invasion of Cancer Cells”
Second Prize: Isabel Yoon (Biological Sciences); “Long-term Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Late-infantile Krabbe Disease”
Third Prize: Dominique Petach (Biomedical Engineering); “Reducing Thrombotic Deposition in ECCO₂R Systems”
Statistics
Poster Presentation Competition
1st place: Rishav Dutta (Computer Science); “Unsupervised Techniques for Identifying Pass Coverage amongst Defensive Backs Using NFL Tracking Data”
2nd place: Carlo Duffy (Statistics); “Associations of Physicians’ Propensity to Prescribe Opioids and Medicare Patient Panels’ Average HCC Risk Scores”
3rd place:
Adin Adler (Statistics), Irina Javed (Statistics), Shannon Lu (Information Systems), Shreya Prakash (Statistics); “Characterizing Incidents at Black & Veatch”
Julie Kim (Statistics), Yi Wen (Business Administration), Jae Won Yoon (Business Administration), Wanhe Zhao (Statistics); “Utilizing Infant EEG Brain Patterns to Predict Childhood ADHD”
Early Research (Freshman/Sophomore)
Parvathi Meyyappan (Statistics), Harold Rockwell (Biological Sciences), Filipp Shelobolin (Statistics); “Predicting Galaxy Mass and Star Formation Rate from Emission Line Spectra”
Oral Presentation Competition:
Adam Tucker (Economics and Statistics); “Forecasting Recession: A Comparison of Parametric and Ensemble Methods”
Undergraduate Environmental Research Award
First prize: William Fahy (Chemistry); “Aqueous Phase Chemical Alteration of Volcanic Ash Ice Nucleating Ability”
Runner-up:
Zachary Rapaport (Humanities and Arts), Christian Walsh (Design); “WaterWalks: Creative Action for Community Justice”
Zain Islam-Hashmi (Architecture); “Dirt Forms: Understanding and Implementing an Earthen Construction Collectivism in Pittsburgh”