Students showcase research excellence in College's DISCOVER 2022 symposium

Thursday, Apr 28, 2022 • Greg Pederson :

The UTA College of Science is justifiably proud of the tremendous research being conducted by both its graduate and undergraduate students. Every year, the College sponsors a research symposium, DISCOVER (formerly a University-wide event called ACES), that puts a spotlight on the outstanding work being done by students. 

This year’s symposium was held on April 22, during the College’s annual Science Week, which this year featured more events than ever before. Following the online posting of the research projects two weeks ago, the symposium included a poster exhibition session followed by a presentation program in the UTA Planetarium. Five undergraduate and five graduate finalists selected by a panel of College of Science faculty and alumni judges explained their research for the audience. Another round of voting was conducted, and awards were presented to each of the finalists.

This year there were 51 graduate student entries and 39 undergraduate entries.

“We believe that the quality of research being done by our students is an excellent representation of UTA’s status as a Tier I research university,” said Lara Mydlarz, College of Science associate dean and professor of biology. “Every year we are extremely impressed by the outstanding work that our students do, and this year is certainly no exception. Congratulations to all the students who entered their research in the DISCOVER symposium and thank you for all of your hard work.”

Five-minute video presentations by each poster author can be viewed on the College’s YouTube channel, @UTAScience.

DISCOVER symposium award winners include, from top left: Shannon Thomas (2nd place, graduate division): Kelsey Beavers (3rd place, graduate); Rodina Eladawy (honorable mention, graduate): Tiffany Aguirre (honorable mention, graduate); Camille Condron (2nd place, undergraduate division); Anisha Sharma (3rd place, undergraduate); bottom row, from left: Rebecca Roten, Alaa Alises, and Fariha Sheikh (honorable mention, undergraduate); Anna Romero and Diana Puga Ruiz (honorable mention, undergraduate).

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

1st place – Rushikesh Patil, physics

Poster title: “Case Studies of Analysis of Correlation between THEMIS-B and OMNI Interplanetary Magnetic Field Observations”

Faculty mentor: Ramon Lopez, professor of physics

2nd place – Camille Condron, biology

Poster title: “The effect of a drought-tolerant Bradyrhizobium bio-fertilizer on soybean growth in a temperature gradient greenhouse”

Faculty mentor: Woo-Suk Chang, associate professor of biology

3rd place – Anisha Sharma, psychology

Poster title: “Aging and Prospective Memory Offloading”

Faculty mentor: Hunter Ball, assistant professor of psychology

Honorable mention – Alaa Alises, Rebecca Roten, Fariha Sheikh, psychology

Poster title: “Overcoming Prospective Memory Declines in Older Adulthood”

Faculty mentors: Elizabeth Wiemers, adjunct assistant professor of psychology, and Hunter Ball, assistant professor of psychology

Honorable mention – Diana Puga Ruiz and Anna Romero, chemistry and biochemistry 

Faculty mentor: Kevin Schug, Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry

GRADUATE STUDENTS

1st place – Prarthana Guha, Ph.D. student in chemistry and biochemistry

Poster title: “Roles of Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) in inflammation and macrophage activation”

Faculty mentor: Subhrangsu Mandal, professor of chemistry and biochemistry

2nd place – Shannon Thomas, Ph.D. student in chemistry and biochemistry

Poster title: “Investigation of contamination from seals and septa used for gas-tight sampling vials in vacuum-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction”

Faculty mentor: Kevin Schug, Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry

3rd place – Kelsey Beavers, Ph.D. student in biology

Poster title: “Lineage-Specific and Plastic Gene Expression Patterns Associated with Disease Resistance in Coral”

Faculty mentor: Laura Mydlarz, professor of biology

Honorable mention – Tiffany Aguirre, Ph.D. student in psychology

Poster title: “The Affects of Chemotherapy on Cognitive Abilities Utilizing the Rat Gambling Task and Novel Object Recognition Task”

Faculty mentor: Perry Fuchs, professor of psychology

Honorable mention – Rodina Eladawy, Ph.D. student in mathematics

Poster title: “Predicting Sustained Attention via Multiple Linear Regression”

Faculty mentor: Pedro Maia, assistant professor of mathematics

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The UTA College of Science, a Texas Tier One and Carnegie R1 research institution, is preparing the next generation of leaders in science through innovative education and hands-on research and offers programs in Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Data Science, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Health Professions, Mathematics, Physics and Psychology. To support educational and research efforts visit the giving page, or if you're a prospective student interested in beginning your #MaverickScience journey visit our future students page.