The 2017 Illinois Summer Research Symposium brought together research programs that support the inclusion and participation of students from US populations underrepresented in graduate study to present their research.

On July 20-21, more than 150 students presented research developed through the mentorship and training of faculty members from across a variety of disciplines.

2017 ISRS Award Winners:

Outstanding Roundtable

• Melissa Hernández (SROP) - Herencia: How Does the Négritude Movement Reveal Itself in Afro Colombian Women's Contemporary Literature?
• Ariam Torres (SPI)  - Instruments of Struggle: Building Long-Term Change in the Face of Environmental Injustice
• Mayson Trujillo (UIC)  - Administrator's Knowledge and Perceptions of Emotionally Supportive Teaching Practices
• Madeleine Uraih (UIC)  - Low-Income Communities in Chicago: Parent and Student Perceptions of Health

Honorable Mention

• Zaheera Ali (SROP) - “I write my letters at school, so I’m ready, right?”: Low-income Latino children’s transition from Head Start to kindergarten
• Michael Caple (SPI) - Electrodeposition of Lithium Transition Metal Oxides via Deep Eutectic Solvents
• Ashley Davis (SPI) - Uncovering Blindspots: Is what we don't know hurting us? A critical look at the data collected by universities on their Black student populations
• Amber Drew (UIC) - Raciolinguistics: Approaches to African American English in U.S. Classrooms
   

Outstanding Poster

• Merci-Pauline Ujeneza (SROP) - Label Free Detection of Angiogenic Blood Vessels In Vitro
• Allison Kelley (PRECS) - You Are What You Eat: Food-Drug Interaction in Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera)
• Denisse Herrera  (UIC) - Phyllanthusmins: A Potential Natural Product Chemotherapeutic for the Treatment of Ovarian Cancer
• Carolyna Quiles (SROP) - Generation of Biocompatible Scaffolds for Modeling Tumor Microenvironments

Honorable Mention

• Alexander Dickinson (SROP) - Computational Reproducibility of Physics Research
• Aaron Mena (SPI) - Magnetically-controlled actuation kinetics and characterization of 4D-printed soft elastomers
• Adam Castaneda (SROP) - Active Jumping Droplet Vapor Chambers for High Heat Flux Cooling
• Jalen Parks (SROP) - The Effects of Environmental Toxicants on early Embryonic Development in Mice

Outstanding Oral Presentation

• Diamond Harris (UIC) - Early Childhood Professionals? Conceptualizations of Emotional Competence
• Lindsey Crudup (McNair) - Mujeres Hechas De La Noche: The Effects of Sex Tourism and the Hypersexualization of the Afro-Cuban Woman
• Raul Platero (SPI) - Developing an Efficient Approach to the Computation of Eigenvectors for Symmetric Matrices
• Allegra Wyatt (SROP) - The Experiences of Black Mothers Who Lose a Child to Gun Violence

Honorable Mention

• Sierra Raglin (SPI) - Maize Cultivars Influence on Soil Nitrogen Cycling
• Gavin Ridley (SROP) - Transient Simulations of Next Generation Nuclear Reactors
• Danae Biddle (SROP) - Effect of in utero Exposure to di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) on Uterine Physiology of Mice
• Brianna Tyler (McNair) - Representation as Key - Is this the Career for Me?

 

Full Program Booklet

 

Schedule at a glance 

 

Participating Programs

Discoveries in Bioimaging REU - National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates for Discoveries in Bioimaging

EBICS REU - National Science Foundation Center on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems

GSEF - Graduate School Exploration Fellowship

McNair - TRiO Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program

MEMERRES - Mentor-Mentee Relationships in Research

POETS - Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems

PRECS - Phenotypic Plasticity Research Experience for Community College Students

REU-INCLUSION - Incubating a New Community of Leaders Using Software, Inclusion, Innovation, Interdisciplinary & Open-Science

SPI - Summer Predoctoral Institute

SROP at Illinois - Summer Research Opportunities Program for Undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

SROP at UIC - Summer Research Opportunities Program for Undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Chicago

SURE Tox - Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Toxicology at the University of Illinois