Past winners | The Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

See recordings of all Research Live! finalists in MediaSpace.

2019 Winners

1st Place: Rebecca Andrus, "Can We Reinvent the Toilet" (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
2nd Place: Lucas Buccafusca, "The Tragedy of the Wind Turbine" (Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering)
3rd Place: Mary E. Lyons, "In an Era of Academic Rigor, Play in Kindergarten" (Curriculum and Instruction)
People's Choice: 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)

1st Place: Tim Yang, “On the Road to Self-Driving... Drivers?” (Kinesiology)
2nd Place: Gabriel Piqué, “The University of Illinois Saxophone Ensemble: Exploring Old Works in A New Format” (Music)
3rd Place: Dhawal Thakare, “Self-Healing Coatings: The Future of Smart Materials” (Mechanical Science & Engineering)
People's Choice: 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)

1st Place: Laura Adamovicz, "Turtles in Trouble: Applications of Health Assessment for Conservation" (Comparative Biosciences)
2nd Place: Elizabeth Davis, "Your Brain is Talking Directly to Your Stem Cells" (Neuroscience)
3rd Place: Payel Kundu, "Harnessing Plant Compounds to Promote Healthy Aging" (Neuroscience)
People's Choice: 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)

1st Place: Ritu Raman, "Bio-Bots: Building Beyond Biology" (Mechanical Engineering)
2nd Place: Janelle Mapes, "What Makes Breast Cancer Cells Grow?" (Molecular & Integrative Physiology)
3rd Place (tie): Christina Bronson-Lowe, "Complexity and oral motor learning: a path to better treatment of swallowing disorders?" (Speech & Hearing Science)
3rd Place (tie): S.K. (Kayleigh) Van Poolen, "Started with a Hurricane Named Katrina" (Library & Information Science)
People's Choice: 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 Engineering)
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)

1st Place: Ipek Tasan, “Finding Partners in Crime Causing Colon Cancer” (Biochemistry)
2nd Place (tie): Marc R. Gancayco, “Sublancin: An Antibiotic with a Sweet Side” (Chemical Biology)
2nd Place (tie): Vahid Mirshafiee, “Targeted Delivery of Anticancer Drugs to Tumors” (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
People's Choice: 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)