Past Winners

Kyle Timmer
"A Biomimetic Scaffold to Improve Rotator Cuff Shoulder Repair" (Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)

Andrew Freeman
"Breaking the Ice: Fast and Reliable Aircraft Wing Deicing" (Electrical Engineering)

Satinderpal Kaur
"Flooding, Food Security and Plant-insect Interactions" (Entomology)

Vincent Carlson
"Shatterpoints: An Adaptation Theory" (Theatre)

Vignesh Srinivasakuma
"AI Teaches AI to Teach" (Computer Science)

Dhanush Gandavadi
"Origami for Cancer Therapy" (Bioengineering)

Aravind Baby
Materials Science and Engineering

Anwesh Bhattacharya
Computer Science

Byron Juma
Recreation, Sport and Tourism

Alexandra Richmond
Special Education

Julia Stowell
Music

Kshitij Tewari
Recreation, Sport and Tourism

Charles Nudelman
"Preventing Vocal Injuries in Teachers Using Voice Acoustic Biomarkers and Immersive Virtual Reality" (Speech and Hearing Science)

Erick Hernandez Alvarez
"How Much is a Color Worth? Quantum Dots Can Tell You!" (Materials Science and Engineering)

Ricky Price
"Why Work Matters" (Special Education)

Yaman Yu
"How do Internet Users from Bangladesh and India Deal with Targeted Ads on Social Media? (Information Science)

Joe Mirabelli
"How Ecological Perspectives Can Help Address Graduate Student Stress" (Educational Psychology)

Abdulgafar Sulaiman
"Be Asphalt, My Friend!" (Civil Engineering)

Nicole DelMastro-Jeffrey
"Mapping at the Margins of Environmental Justice and Racial Equity in Education" (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership)

Nina Frye
"Why Are You the Way That You Are?: Antiracism in Public School Teachers" (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership)

Yash Laxman Kamble
"Color Changing Smart Materials: Rethinking Material Synthesis" (Chemical Engineering)

Breanna Metras
"Keeping Kefir Authentic" (Nutritional Sciences)

William Nguyen
"The Gut Microbiome: The Invisible Heroes of Your Health" (VMS - Comparative Biosciences)

Taiylor Rayford
"'What Did You Expect?': The Importance of Expectations and a Sense of Belonging" (Educational Psychology)

Alex Gagliano
"A New Eye on the Exploding Sky" (Astronomy)

Tawni Williams
"Piglet Behavior Analysis" (Animal Sciences)

Ipshita Upadhyay
"Shots Against Cholera" (VMS - Pathobiology)

Adam Nelczyk
"Frying Cured Meat Awakens Dormant Breast Cancer Cells" (Molecular and Integrative Physiology)

Alicia Cabrera-Prado
"Reshaping U.S. Dual language Teacher Training With Study Abroad" (Education Policy, Organization and Leadership)

Meghan Connolly
"Does the Immune System Play a Role in Neurodevelopmental Disorders?" (Neuroscience)

Apurva Godbole
"Is it a Stem Cell? Developing a New Tool to Phenotype Cells" (Chemical Engineering)

Katlin Harris
"Bands and Brands in the Wake of Union Demands" (Musicology)

Ian Ludden
"From Sharing Cake to Fairer Voting Districts" (Computer Science)

Giavanna McCall
"Examining the Effects of Reading Engagement on Cognition" (Educational Psychology)

Azlan Smith
Voices: Crowd-Sourced Storytelling" (Creative Writing)

Kerry Xu
"Your Neurons are Playing the Telephone Game" (Chemistry)

Jiadi Zhang
"Heritage Language Maintenance and Bilingual Education" (Curriculum and Instruction)

Sherry Yi
"Using Videogames to Spark Interest for Learning" (Educational Psychology)

Shonit Nair Sharma
"Paperometer: A Low-cost Incentive Spirometer" (Medicine)

Joseph Puthussery
"Ambient Particulate Matter Induced Toxicity" (Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering)

Maitreyee Sharma Priyadarshini
"Trying Not to Burnout, Literally!" (Aerospace Engineering)

Sara Bell
 "Single Cell Chemistry of the Brain" (Chemistry)

Caitlin Bloomer
"Mapping the Route to Crayfish Conservation" (Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences)

Ragini Chakraborty
"Bodies at the Borders: Exploring Gendered Violence During 1947 Partition" (Comparative Literature)

Karen Chi
 "Phthalates: The Everywhere Ingredient" (Nutritional Sciences)

Hanna Dahlstrom
"Preserving Videogames in the 21st Century" (Library & Information Science)

Travis Dore, "Hydro All the Way Down" (Physics)

Taylor Jorgensen
"Circadian Rhythms in Astrocytes" (Neuroscience)

Aubrie Powell
"Why Consider Country?" (Musicology)

Rebecca Andrus
"Can We Reinvent the Toilet" (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Lucas Buccafusca
"The Tragedy of the Wind Turbine" (Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering)

Mary E. Lyons
"In an Era of Academic Rigor, Play in Kindergarten" (Curriculum and Instruction)

Sana Saboowala
 "Investigating the Biological Effects of Historical Trauma in South Asia" (Integrative Biology)

Mehmet Yalcin Aydin
"Who is Smarter? Tomopology Optimization of Heat Sinks" (Mechanical Science and Engineering)

Mayank Boob
"Two Ways to Fight Pressure" (Biophysics and Quantitative Biology)

Abhilasha Gulhane
"Vision of an Eye, Smile on the Face ... Can Telemedicine Help?" (Technology Management)

Dong Liu
"So Close Yet So Far: A Tale of Public Transit" (Geography and Geographic Information Science)

Srinivasu Mudalagiriyappa
"Toxoplasma Gondii - A Mind-Altering Parasite" (Pathobiology)

Gelson Pagan
"Understanding the Brain by Building BRaNEs" (Bioengineering)

Pranjali Priyadarshini
"Towards a Greener Chemistry: Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide" (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Swati Rastogi
"Economic Efficacy of Mahila Bazaar (Women Vendors-only Market), Delhi, India" (Urban and Regional Planning)

Magen Rooney
"Accessibility of Work-Based Learning Experiences for Students with Severe Disabilities" (Special Education)

Tim Yang
“On the Road to Self-Driving... Drivers?” (Kinesiology)

Gabriel Piqué
“The University of Illinois Saxophone Ensemble: Exploring Old Works in A New Format” (Music)

Dhawal Thakare
“Self-Healing Coatings: The Future of Smart Materials” (Mechanical Science & Engineering)

Kelly Clary
“Reducing Drug Use Among Emerging Adult Veterans” (Social Work)

Parinaz Fathi
“3D-Printed Gastrointestinal Stents” (Bioengineering)

Hope Holland
“Everyday Experiences of Street Harassment: Death by Paper Cut, or No Big Deal?” (Psychology)

Belinda Pacheco Johnson
“Lasers, Shockwaves, and the Initiation of Explosives” (Chemistry)

Collin Kaufman
“Using Cells to Make a Walking Robot” (Neuroscience)

Junghwan Kim,
Evaluating Public Transit Systems - From a User’s Perspective” (Geography)

Aditya Kumar
“How Soft Materials Break and Heal: Enabling the Development of Next-generation Materials” (Civil & Environmental Engineering)

Lee Ann Lyons
“Fighting the Uptick in Tick-Borne Disease” (Pathobiology)

Jennifer Leigh Sears Scheier
“From Bells to Headsets: The Untold History of the American Stage Manager” (Theatre)

Whitney Sinclair
“Inhale, Exhale” (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Laura Adamovicz
"Turtles in Trouble: Applications of Health Assessment for Conservation" (Comparative Biosciences) 

Elizabeth Davis
"Your Brain is Talking Directly to Your Stem Cells" (Neuroscience)

Payel Kundu
"Harnessing Plant Compounds to Promote Healthy Aging" (Neuroscience)

Robby Goldman
"Unearthing the Secrets of Volcanic Eruptions" (Geology)

Adrienne Ertel
"Prehistoric Supernova: Unearthing the Remains of Exploding Stars in Ocean Material" (Astronomy)

Kartik Hegde
"Enabling Real-time Video Understanding Based on Deep Neural Networks" (Computer Science)

Huancui Hu
"Linking Atmospheric River Hydrological Impacts on the U.S. West Coast to Rossby Wave Breaking" (Atmospheric Sciences)

Derek Jung
"On the Shoulders of Giants" (Mathematics)

Elizabeth Maxwell
"Killing Cancer with Chemo-Beads" (Veterinary Science)

Cassandra Nikolaus
"The Student's Dilemma: Supper, Sleep or Social Life" (Human Nutrition)

Sree Kalyan Patiballa
"Auxetics: Materials for the Future (?)" (Systems & Entrepreneurial Engineering)

Jennifer Peruski
"Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals" (Art History)

Sarvagya Sharma
"Diamonds: A Physicist's Best Friends" (Physics)

Ritu Raman
"Bio-Bots: Building Beyond Biology" (Mechanical Engineering)

Janelle Mapes
"What Makes Breast Cancer Cells Grow?" (Molecular & Integrative Physiology)

Christina Bronson-Lowe
"Complexity and oral motor learning: a path to better treatment of swallowing disorders?" (Speech & Hearing Science)

S.K. (Kayleigh) Van Poolen
"Started with a Hurricane Named Katrina" (Library & Information Science)

Vaibhav Karve
"Recognizing patterns in New York traffic" (Mathematics)

Arif Abdullah
"Mimicking Venus Flytrap: Autonomous Structures That Sense and Respond" (Mechanical Engineering)

Kamalika Chatterjee, "Studying mechanical deformation of aircraft materials : Have a safe flight!" (Mechanical
ngineering)

Kyung Yun Choi
"Impact Resistant Prosthetic Hand: The Soft Overcomes The hard" (Aerospace Engineering)

William Davies
"Condensation on an Inclination" (Mechanical Engineering)

Jessica Hekman
"Domestication comes in on little feet -- like, microscopic ones" (Animal Sciences)

Jamie Pearson
"'You Need to Keep Those Kids Quiet': Autism in African American Communities" (Special Education)

Widya Aulia Ramadhani
"Please Remove Shoes: The Relation of Shoes Removal Practice, Transitional Space, and Human Health" (Architecture)

Jessica Saw
"Urinary Stones: A Product of Dynamic Interactions Between the Microbiome and Mineral Precipitation" (Molecular & Integrative Physiology)

Lisa Schlein
"A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Brain Cancer" (Pathobiology)

Ipek Tasan
“Finding Partners in Crime Causing Colon Cancer” (Biochemistry)

Marc R. Gancayco
“Sublancin: An Antibiotic with a Sweet Side” (Chemical Biology)

Vahid Mirshafiee
“Targeted Delivery of Anticancer Drugs to Tumors” (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Robin Holland
“Taking Down the Powerhouse” (Vet Med Pathobiology)

Himel Dev
“’Don’t Just Post and Regret, Ask Me Instead!!!’ – Cassandra” (Computer Science)

Ipek Ensari
“Effects of acute exercise on anxiety: Results of a meta-analysis” (Kinesiology)

Juan Gerardo
“Humanizing Mathematics Teaching” (Curriculum & Instruction)

Boon Chong Goh
“Solving 3D jigsaw puzzle of a young virus” (Physics)

Larisa Hussak
“From Wall St. to Planet Wuggy: What 4-year-olds’ Explanations Can Tell Us About Income Inequality in America” (Psychology)

Ismaeel Muhamed,
Decoding a cell’s body language” (Biochemistry)

Amir Saberi
“Planarians and their Parasitic Cousins” (Cell and Developmental Biology)