Forty-one presentations were from undergraduate researchers from the School of Engineering, or were conducted under the guidance of engineering faculty members, including the mentorship of students from six universities outside of Brown. Many of the projects were supported by Brown's Karen T. Romer SPRINT/Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRAs).
“It is always great to gather together to learn about the research that undergraduate students have worked on during the summer,“said Oludurotimi Adetunji, Brown’s Associate Dean of the College for Undergraduate Research and Inclusive Science, in his opening remarks for the symposium. “Brown offers transformational opportunities for students to conduct research in collaboration with faculty colleagues.”
David Okoh ’25, a biomedical engineering concentrator said, “Summer research at Brown has been an amazing opportunity to engage with my field of study in a capacity that I wouldn’t usually be able to attain from standard academic coursework. I am thankful to the UTRA for granting me this opportunity of supportive mentorship and resources to scientifically tackle problems of my interest as well as springing me towards a future career in utilizing and applying science.”
“Through the UTRA, I’ve gained crucial lab skills and confidence in my ability to problem solve,” added Allie Chandler ’26. “I have met so many incredible and passionate people both on my research team and simply around the lab.”
Student presentations included: Jack Blocker ’25 (biomedical engineering, chemistry), Olivia Maule ’25 (anthropology and entomology), and research staffer Jacob Lerman presented two posters titled, “A Drosophila Model of Personalized Medicine using Genetic Variation in Mito-nuclear Interactions Underlying Climbing, Flight and Development time.” Evolutionary Ecology, and Behavioral Sciences Professors David Rand and Faye Lemieux mentored the trio, who were supported with an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Mageean Brown ’24 (mechanical engineering) presented the poster “Appendage Cupping and Hydrodynamics of a Shrimp-inspired Model,” and was advised by Thomas J. and Alice M. Tisch Assistant Professor Monica Martinez Wilhelmus. Brown was supported by the Wilhelmus Lab.
Sai Chamarthi ’24 (biomedical engineering) worked with Neuroscience Professor Wael Asaad to present the poster, “Adaptation to Distractors is Different for High and Low-Level Features in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation.” The project was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Allie Chandler ’26 (environmental engineering) presented the poster “Separating Bacteria Engineered to Bioaccumulate Arsenic from Drinking Water Using Microfiltration.” Chandler was advised by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin, and supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Mya Collins ’25 (neuroscience and engineering) worked with L. Herbert Ballou University Professor Leigh Hochberg to present the poster, "Speech Neuroprosthesis: Decoding Cortical Activity Patterns for Organic Communication in Individuals with Severe Paralysis." The project was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Working with faculty mentor Michelle Dawson, Nova Dea ’24 (biomedical engineering) presented a poster titled, "Senescent Fibroblast Matrix Remodeling Promotes Fibrotic Lung Architecture.” The work was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Ryan Doherty ’26 (chemistry) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and was advised by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin. Doherty’s poster was titled, “Nanoparticle Accelerants for FUS-LC Liquid-Liquid Phase Transition.”
Matthew Fang ’25 (materials science and engineering) worked with Professor Brian Sheldon on the poster "Residual Stress Analysis of Ion-Exchanged LLZTO via X-Ray Diffraction." Fang was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Andres Filizzola ’25 (biology) presented the research “Strategies for Inducing Engineered Bacteria Designed to Bioaccumulate Arsenic from Drinking Water.” Filizzola was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and mentored by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin.
Kiera Fullick ’24 (mechanical engineering), along with Tanner Diring from the University of Wisconsin and Jayna Rybner of the University of Southern California, combined their research skills to present the poster, “Aerodynamic Tail Effects Developed in Robotic Flapping Flight Wake.” The project was advised by Professor Kenny Breuer, and supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Zachery Gottshall ’25 (engineering and physics) presented the poster, “Modeling Entanglement Among Fermions.” He was advised by Professor of Chemistry and Physics Brenda Rubenstein, and was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Emma Hagenaars ’24 (biomedical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and presented the poster, “Portable Electronic Device for High-Throughput Dried Blood Spot Processing at the Point of Care.” Hagenaars was mentored by Professor Anubhav Tripathi.
Mayayi Izzo ’24 (biomedical engineering) worked with Elaine I. Savage Associate Professor Anita Shukla to present the poster, “Polymyxin B-modified Liposomes for Active Targeting and Treatment of P. aeruginosa Infections.” The project was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Anaya Kaul ’25 (biomedical engineering) was advised by Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe and presented the poster “Designing an Endothelial Cell-compatible Hydrogel for 3D Coaxial Bioprinting of Patterned Vasculature in Engineered Cardiac Tissue.” The work was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Jacob Kolman ’26 (electrical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present the research “Experimental Demonstration of Reciprocal Swimming at Intermediate Reynolds Numbers.” He was mentored by Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Engineering Roberto Zenit.
Xavier Lee ’25 (electrical engineering) was advised by Associate Professor David Borton and supported by the Borton Lab. Lee presented the poster “Development of Evaluation System for Closed-loop Neuromodulation Accelerator Platform.”
Gannon Lemaster ’26 (electrical engineering) presented the poster “A Multifaceted Approach to Improving Physiological Monitoring Enabled by Polarization Optics.” Lemaster was advised by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint, and was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Adrian Lin ’26 (neuroscience) was mentored by Visiting Scientist in Engineering David Lin on the poster “Motion Captured 3D Kinematics to Examine Upper Extremity Movement Synergies After Stroke.” Lin was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Noah Medina '23.5 (applied math) and Cal-Berkeley's Mareesa Islam were mentored by Professor Kenny Breuer as part of Brown University's Leadership Alliance Early Identification Program. The project title was "Characterizing Individual Bird Trajectory Preferences in Wind Tunnel Flight."
Alice Min ’25 (computer science), Robayet Hossain ’26 (computer science, applied math), Narek Harutyunyan ’26 (mechanical engineering), Hammad Izhar ’24 (math, computer science) presented research on “Advancements in Multi-Robot Systems: Enhancing the Crazyflie Drone Platform, Testing MAPF Implementation, Creating Drone Art, and Integrating JARVIS.” The group was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and was advised by Associate Professor Nora Ayanian.
“Optimization of Synthetic Paradigm for Biocompatible DNS scaffold Nanoparticles,” was presented by Justin Moustouka ’25 (biomedical engineering). Moustouka was mentored by Sorensen Family Dean and Professor of Engineering Tejal Desai, and supported by the Desai Lab.
Niyanta Nepal ’25 (biomedical engineering and education) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present the research “SERS-based Hydrogel Sensors for Rapid Detection of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria” and was mentored by Elaine I. Savage Associate Professor Anita Shukla.
David Okoh ’25 (biomedical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present the research “Capillary Flow Sample Preparation Device for Paclitaxel Detection using LC-MS/Ms”. He was advised by Professor Anubhav Tripathi.
Karolina Palac ’24 (biomedical engineering) presented the poster “Polymeric Gel Brain Tissue Surrogates for Studying TBI.” She was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and was advised by Howard M. Reisman ’76, P’09 Assistant Professor Vikas Srivastava.
“Endothelial Cell Lining of Patterned Vessels in Engineered Human Myocardium to Facilitate Perfusion and Integration in a Post-infarct Heart” was the title of research by Evan Ren ’25 (biomedical engineering). Ren was advised by Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe and supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Benjamin Schornstein ’24 (computer engineering) worked with L. Herbert Ballou University Professor Leigh Hochberg on “Restoring Upper-Limb Movement with an Integrated iBCI-Soft Robotics System.” Schornstein was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Eric Sorge ’24 (biochemistry and molecular biology) presented research on “Whole-Cell Biosensing and Remediation of Arsenic Using E. Coli: Towards Sustainable Materials for Water Treatment,” and was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). Sorge was advised by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Megan Kizer.
“Signal Processing and Optimization Techniques for Enhanced Physiological Monitoring” was presented at the symposium by Chandler Stevenson ’25 (electrical engineering). Stevenson was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and mentored by Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint.
Pamil Tamelessio ’25 (biochemistry) presented the research “Using Magnetic Nanoparticles to Increase Filterability in Living Filters.” Tamelessio was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA), and was mentored by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin and engineering graduate student Jingge Chen.
Kailee Tanaka ’26 (biomedical engineering) worked with Elaine I. Savage Associate Professor Anita Shukla on the research, “Evaluating the Drug Delivery Capacity of Biological Allograft Bone Implants.” She was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Yilin Xie ’26 (chemistry), Zachary Brown ’25 (applied math, biology), Marcus Lewis ’26 (chemistry) and Joseph Militello ’26 (biology) presented research on “Controlling the Dimensions and Uniformity of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Environmental and Biological Applications.” The group was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and was advised by Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Engineering Vicki Colvin.
Lana Yang-Maccini ’26 (computer engineering) presented research titled “Reduced-order Model of a Wave-induced Gas Cylinder Collapse,” which was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). Yang-Maccini was mentored by Assistant Professor Mauro Rodriguez.
Lily Yu ’26 (biomedical engineering) presented the poster “Optimizing Nanoparticle-based Gene Delivery System for Cancer Treatment.” Yu was supported by the Desai Lab, and advised by Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering and Professor Tejal Desai.
Andy Zhu ’25 (chemistry, math) was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). His research, “Secure Transmission of Secret Messages in the Molecules of Everyday Objects,” was advised by Engineering Associate Professor Jacob Rosenstein and Associate Professor of Chemistry and Physics Brenda Rubenstein.
Chandler Zhu ’26 (biomedical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and was mentored by Assistant Professor of Medicine Peng Zhang to present the research “Using HyPer7 to Study Mitochondrial Morphology and Oxidative Stress in Adult Rat Cardiac Fibroblasts.”
Elaine I. Savage Associate Professor Anita Shukla also mentored students from the University of Rhode Island and Smith College in projects and Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe worked with a student from CUNY-Hunter College. Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Engineering Roberto Zenit mentored students from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez campus and Brooklyn College. These were collaborations through the University's Leadership Alliance through its Summer Research – Early Identification Program, which helps guide outstanding students to Brown graduate programs. The results of this summer research were presented at the symposium as well.