The ninth annual Celebration of Scholarship and Creativity proved to be yet another resounding success as students from a variety of disciplines presented their academic and creative projects to their fellow students and professors. This year saw a record number of projects—more than 150—from a variety of disciplines, including the humanities, natural sciences, and visual and performing arts.
Throughout the day, numerous events took place across the campus, including several contests for the projects. After the poster session, Biology Professor Stephen Oliver, Professor Ellen Fynan, and Assistant Professor Roger Greenwell announced the winners of the 2016 Imoigele P. Aisiku ’92 Poster Competition:
BIOLOGY
1. Investigation of the Effect of Bud3 Phosphorylation Site Mutations on CellCycle Progression in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Alexis Anderkin, Christian Grant, Jennifer Hood-DeGrenier, Ph.D.
Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Hood-DeGrenier, Ph.D.
2. Monitoring and Identifying Members of the Soil Microbiota in Worcester-Area Parks
Nidhee Krishnan
Faculty Advisor: Roger S. Greenwell, Ph.D.
Funding Source: Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grant
3. Xenopus laevis and the IFIH1 Gene: Cloning the IFIH1 Gene
Diego J. Urbina
Faculty Advisor: Daron Barnard, Ph.D.
Funding Source: Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grant
BIOTECHNOLOGY
1. Effectors of the Streptomyces coelicolor Life Cycle Transition to Aerial Hyphae
Joseph Girouard
Faculty Advisor: Roger S. Greenwell, Ph.D.
Funding Source: Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Grant
2. Computational Investigation of Reaction Mechanism of HNO with Thiols
Tadas Buivydas, Endrit Theodhori
Faculty Advisors: Susan Mitroka, Ph.D., Joseph Quattrucci, Ph.D.
3. Analysis of Differences Among Various Fish Muscle Proteins
William Rodriguez, Ellen Fynan, Ph.D.
Faculty Advisor: Ellen Fynan, Ph.D.
CHEMISTRY
1. Hydrogen Storage in Metal-Decorated Graphene Systems
Neil P. Chapin
Faculty Advisor: Joseph G. Quattrucci, Ph.D.
2. Estrogen in the Blackstone River and its Effect on Tadpole Development
Francini Fonseca
Faculty Advisors: Daron Barnard, Ph.D., Kathleen Murphy, Ph.D.
Funding Source: WSU Faculty Mini-Grant
3. DFT Study of the Dissociation of Molecular Hydrogen over Nickel-DecoratedGraphene
Alexander Zielinski
Faculty Advisor: Joseph G. Quattrucci, Ph.D.
The winners of the third annual Sheehan Commonwealth Honors Project Competition are as follows:
First Prize ($250)
The Goodbyemoon
Amy Angell
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Bidinger, Ph.D.
Second Prize ($150)
Introducing Elizabeth Bishop, Poetry, and Writing as a Process
Kayleigh Berger and Kasey Wozniak
Faculty Advisor: Heather Treseler, Ph.D.
Funding Source: Summer Undergraduate Research Program
Third Prize ($100)
Lake Sediment Based Insight into the Deglaciation and Post-Glacial Climate and Environmental History of the Mealy Mountains, Southeastern Labrador, Canada
Jim Lenoir
Faculty Advisor: Tim Cook, Ph.D.
Funding Source: Summer Undergraduate Research Program
Honorable Mention
Reyes House Access to Health Care
Brittany Clark, Brittany Desilets, Megan Foley, Sarah Khallady, Rachel Little
Faculty Advisor: Joan Mahoney, Ph.D.
Funding Sources: The Fairlawn Foundation Fund at Greater Worcester Community Foundation, The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts
The second annual WSU CHIPs in Action nursing competition featured two nursing honors teams that presented projects focusing on the Hepatitic C virus and Salmonella, mentored by Fynan and Greenwell, respectively. This year, this winning team was:
WSU CHIPs in Action: Focus on Cancer-Causing or Cancer-Associated Microbes, Salmonella enterica
Shelby Bronnes, Ruba Dabbagh, Colleen Walsh
Faculty Advisor: Roger S. Greenwell, Ph.D.
Funding Source: The Fairlawn Foundation Fund at Greater Worcester Community Foundation, The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts
The winning team is given a donation in its name to a medically important foundation of its choice.
Academic Innovation
Over 50 WSU Students Display Projects at State Research Event
Over 1,000 Massachusetts undergraduate students—including 54 from Worcester State University—presented distinguished academic innovations and endeavors at the annual Statewide Undergraduate . . .