Engineering students participate in 2021 Summer Research Symposium

“The diversity of poster presentations illustrates the wide range of opportunities students and faculty have to work together to produce knowledge,” said Oludurotimi Adetunji, Brown’s Associate Dean of the College for Undergraduate Research and Inclusive Science, in his opening remarks for the symposium. “I know that engaging undergraduate researchers gives students the flavor of how to be a good researcher and gives them the opportunity to think critically, and to develop the skills that are needed for data analysis and understanding literature review. All of these tools are important for them as they develop in their career.”

Elena Song ’23, a biomedical engineering concentrator said, “The UTRA has given me an irreplaceable learning experience with an amazing team and great mentorship. I’ve been able to dive into a specific area of study that allows me to extend my knowledge outside the classroom. Throughout the summer, my lab has given me numerous opportunities to grow and learn techniques hands-on.”

Student presentations included: Anthony Barisano ’23 (neuroscience) presented a poster titled, “Data Processing of hdEEG Dynamics during Movement Intention of Healthy Controls.” Engineering professor Leigh Hochberg mentored Barisano, who was supported with an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Sultan Daniels ’23 (computer engineering) worked with Professor Chris Rose to present the poster, “Finding a Bound on the Information Transmitted through Newtonian Gravity.” The project was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Megan Fay ’23 (chemistry, environmental science) presented the poster “Synthesis of Graphene Oxide and Silk Fibroin Composite Aerogels with Programmable Oil/Water Adsorption.” Fay was advised by Engineering Assistant Professor Ian Wong, and supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Anna Kim ’23 (neuroscience), worked with Engineering Assistant Professor Jonghwan Lee to present the poster, "Vascular Changes in a Non-Invasively Induced Model of Migraine." The project was supported by a Summer Research Assistantship in Biomedical Sciences.

Working with faculty mentor Kareen Coulombe, Momoka Kobayashi ’23 (biomedical engineering) and Stephen Pyon ’23 (biomedical engineering) co-presented a poster entitled, "Implementation and Evaluation of in vitro Prevascularization on Engineered Cardiac Tissue.” The work was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Mary Lou ’22 (biology, computer science) worked with Engineering Assistant Professor Ian Wong on the poster "Collective and Individual Invasion from Multicellular Spheroids in 3D Collagen Matrix." Lou was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Advay Mansingka ’23 (computer engineering) was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present the poster, “Champagne Problems: Investing Bubble Growth in Carbonated Fluids.” The project was advised by Professor Roberto Zenit.

Isabella Pulzone ’22 (environmental engineering) presented the poster, “Analysis of Isotopic Concentrations of Sulfuric Acid Utilizing Barium Chloride Precipitation.” She was advised by  Deputy Director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and Professor of Environment and Society and Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Meredith Hastings and Assistant Professor of the Environment and Society Wendell Walters, and was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Jonah Schwam ’23 (biomedical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and presented the poster, “Determining the efficacy of NRTI Lamivudine for OA intervention.” Schwam was mentored by Qian Chen, M.D., professor of orthopaedics, along with Research Associate Liu Yajun.

Phillip Schmitt ’22 (biomedical engineering) worked with Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe to present the poster, “Wet-spun Polycaprolactone Scaffolds Provide Customizable Anisotropic Support of Cardiac Tissues.” The project was supported by the School of Engineering’s Neal Mitchell Systems Thinking Project Award.

Tzuhwan Seet ’22 (economics, computer science) was advised by Professor Iris Bahar and presented a video demonstration of the joint work of physical systems being built, used, and repaired by humans and robots together, requiring robot interpretation of user commands within hybrid machine learning algorithms. The work was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).

Elena Song ’23 (biomedical engineering) and Jenny Wei ’23 (applied math-biology) were awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). They presented research with engineering postdoctoral researcher Arvin Soepriatna on “Engineering Bioelectric Sutures for Heart Repair.” The group was mentored by Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe.

Thomas Usherwood ’22 (biomedical engineering) presented the poster “An Electrokinetic Microfluidic Platform for Solid-Phase Cell Free DNA Extraction from Plasma for NonInvasive Prenatal Testing.” Usherwood was advised by Professor Anubhav Tripathi.

Engineering associate professor David Borton and graduate student Samuel Parker mentored Stanford University’s Justice Owah on a research poster, which was also presented at the symposium.

More than half of the students participating in the Summer Research Symposium received support for their research through SPRINT/Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA). Generous support was also provided through several other programs including: Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR-NSF), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI),  Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM), Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (IMNI), Leadership Alliance-Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP), Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Neal Mitchell Systems Thinking Project Award, Royce Fellowship,  Summer Research Assistantship in Biomedical Sciences, Voss Environmental Fellows, and Space Grant/NASA.