HWS Research Symposium
22 October 2019 HWS Research Symposium
From invasive species to drone mapping, and the effect of stress on friendships to potential anti-cancer compounds, Hobart and William Smith students presented on a range of topics at this years Student Research Symposium on Sept. 17 as one of Homecoming and Family Weekends annual events.
The Research Symposium allows students to showcase their work from summer research projects and represents the very best of the Colleges, says Associate Provost Virginia Mansfield-Richardson, who helped to organize the event. This year, 46 students conducted summer research in the sciences and social sciences with 25 faculty members.
The projects, some of which will be published in various scientific journals, allow for the start of meaningful collaborations between students and faculty. The amount of hands-on learning and mentoring that takes place reflects faculty who go above and beyond what is expected of them due to their immense dedication to nurturing students intellectual growth, Mansfield-Richardson says.
For the hundreds of people who circulated through the Vandervort Room in the Scandling Campus Center to view the projects, the students shared details of their work.
The opportunity to present my workat Homecoming Weekend and explain to interested parents, students, and faculty what I had spent all summer doing allowed me to put into perspective the meaning of my work, said Loretta Hauslauer 19, who presented Investigating Community Attitudes Towards the Value of Dual Immersion Education for Minority and Majority Language Students. Under the guidance of her faculty adviser, Assistant Professor of Education Audrey Roberson, she examined the attitudes of the community toward bilingual education.
Tyler Fuller 18, who worked under the direction of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Joshua Newby, conducted research on the volatile compound furan. His research, titled Experimental and Computational Studies of Furan, focused on the potential of the compound to have multiple interactions when exposed to water, air, or carbon dioxide. At the Symposium, he says he also enjoyed sharing his work with his peers and learning about other projects.
I thought it was very interesting to be able to walk around and hear about the other students research. Overall, the Symposium had a great atmosphere, Fuller says.
The Student Research Projects presented include:
Student: Kely Amejecor 18
Faculty Mentors: John Halfman, Professor of Environmental Studies/Geoscience, Roxanne Razavi, Post-Doctoral Research Scientist and Lisa Cleckner, Director of the Finger Lakes Institute
Research Title: A Study of Nutrient Phypoplankton Composition in Canandaigua Lake Using a FluoroProbe
Student: Madeline Amsterdam 17
Faculty Mentor: Hannah Dickinson, Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric
Research Title: Pedagogies of Discourse
Students: Richard Andes 19, Caroline Carr 17, and Mikhail Fischer 17
Faculty Mentor: Nan Crystal Arens, Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: Testing a Method for Identifying Morphotypes in Dispersed Fossil Leaf Floras
Students: Fernando Banales Mejia 17, Megan Lafferty 18, and Sophia Melvin 18
Faculty Mentor: Erin Pelkey, Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Synthesis of Indolyl-Substituted 3-Pyrrolin-2-Ones and Furan-2-Ones from Tetronic and Tetramic Acids
Student: Sarah Benyo 18
Faculty Mentor: Shannon Straub, Assistant Professor of Biology
Research Title: A Phylogenetic Analysis of clpP as a Pseudogene in Apocynaceae
Student: Serena Bradt 18
Faculty Mentor: John Halfman, Professor of Environmental Studies/Geoscience
Research Title: The Water Quality of Seneca and Neighboring Lakes Through Exploratory Use of a Drone
Student: Kayleigh Buffington 17
Faculty Mentor: Roxanne Razavi, Post-Doctoral Research Scientist and Lisa Cleckner, Director of the Finger Lakes Institute
Research Title: Are Methyl Concentrations Affected by Changes in Primary Productions In the Finger Lakes
Student: Yu (Phoebe) Cai 17
Faculty Mentor: Joseph Rusinko, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Research Title: Phylogenomic Species Tree Estimation From Gene Tree
Student: Scott Calnan 17
Faculty Mentor: Ileana Dumitriu, Assistant Professor of Physics
Research Title: Homopolar Motor Acceleration and Braking System
Students: Peyton Capute, 18; and Jeremiah Piersante 18
Faculty Mentor: Nicholas Metz, Assistant Professor of Geoscience, and Eric Hoffman, (Plymouth State University)
Research Title: Warm Season Stationary Fronts East of the Rocky Mountains: Intraseasonal Distribution and Variability
Student: Joseph Carrock 17
Faculty Mentor: Steven Penn, Associate Professor of Physics
Research Title: New Waves and Optics Labs
Student: Casey Coffey 17
Faculty Mentor: Joseph Rusinko, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Research Title: Species Tree Estimation Under the Coalescent Model
Student: Meghan Coultier 19
Faculty Mentor: Shannon Straub, Assistant Professor of Biology
Research Title: Milochondrial DNA Insertions in the Plastid Genomes of Alyxia Species
Students: Adonis Cruz 17, Ryan Davison 17, and Vernon Lawson 17
Faculty Mentor: Justin Miller, Associate Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Toward Depsipeptidic Potential Anticancer Compounds Using Thioester Solid-Phase Synthesis
Students: Mark Curiel 17 and Jacqueline Kane 18
Faculty Mentor: Erika King, Associate Professor of Math and Computer Science
Research Title: Classifying Well-Covered Graphs
Student: Christopher Demas 17
Faculty Mentor: Ileana Dumitriu, Assistant Professor of Physics
Research Title: Interdisciplinary Approach to Understand Acne and Treatment Options
Students: Dylan Doeblin 18
Faculty Mentor: David Finkelstein, Assistant Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: Tracking Impact of Drought on the Chemistry of Ponds in the Cayuga Lake, NY Watershed
Student: Gail Foster 17
Faculty Mentor: Yan Hao, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Research Title: The Effects of Stress on Friendship Networks
Student: Tyler Fuller 18
Faculty Mentor: Joshua Newby, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Experimental and Computational Studies of Furan
Student: Magdy Gad 19
Faculty Mentor: Steven Penn, Associate Professor of Physics
Research Title: Building a Gentle Nodal Suspension System
Student: Loretta Hauslauer 19
Faculty Mentor: Audrey Roberson, Assistant Professor of Education
Research Title: Investigating Community Attitudes Towards the Value of Dual Immersion Education for Minority and Majority Language Students
Student: Tyler Hanzlik 17
Faculty Mentor: Ileana Dumitriu, Assistant Professor of Physics
Research Title: Levitation with Superconducting Electromagnets
Students: Emily Knipper 18 and Sydney Smilen 18
Faculty Mentor: Walter Bowyer, Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Effects of Estrogen Mimics on Fish in the Finger Lakes Region
Student: Mary Kowalsky 18
Faculty Mentors: John Halfman, Professor of Geoscience/Environmental Studies and NadiaHarvieux, Project Manager Finger Lakes Institute
Research Title: Assessed Property Values in the Owasco Lake Watershed
Student: Isabella Latimer 17
Faculty Mentor: Patricia Mowery, Associate Professor of Biology
Research Title: Apple Rootstock Breeding: Using RNA and Tissue Culture to Identify Elite Apple Rootstocks
Student: Yuxi Liu 18
Faculty Mentor: Patricia Mowery, Associate Professor of Biology
Research Title: The Chemical Ecology of Eavesdropping: Olfactory-Based Host Location and Specialization in Phytophagous Insects
Student: Keshihito Murphy 16
Faculty Mentor: Joshua Newby, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Spectroscopic and Computational Study of Thiophene
Student: Namita Neerukonda 17
Faculty Mentors: Erin Pelkey, Professor of Chemistry and Patricia Mowery, Associate Professor of Biology
Research Title: Biological Evaluation of Simplified Analogs of Protein Kinase C Inhibitor Staurosporine
Student: Molly Neureuter 18
Faculty Mentors: Neil Laird, Professor of Geoscience and Nicholas Metz, Associate Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: A Seven-Year Climatology of the Impacts of Short-Wave Droughts on Lake-Effect Snow Events on Lake Ontario
Student: Frank Oplinger 18
Faculty Mentor: Ileana Dumitriu, Assistant Professor of Physics
Research Title: HWS RockSat-C 2016
Student: Banan Otaibi 18
Faculty Mentor: Bradley Cosentino, Assistant Professor of Biology
Research Title: Physiological Differentiation in an Anti-Predator Adaptation Between Color Morphs of Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)
Student: Nina Prescott 17
Faculty Mentor: Daniel Graham, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Research Title: Representation and Recognition of the Human Face in Masks
Student: Richie Ramrati 18
Faculty Mentor: Yan Hao, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Research Title: Setting Up Cell Specific Cardiac Electro Physiology Models Using Genetic Algorithms
Student: Katherine Rogan 17
Faculty Mentors: Bradley Cosentino, Assistant Professor of Psychology, and David Droney, Professor of Biology
Research Title: Personality-Dependent Response to Stress Shapes Movement Behavior of Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)
Student: Lucas Ruddy 18
Faculty Mentor: Neil Laird, Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: Inland Extent of Long-Distance Lake-Effect Snow Bands: Inter-Annual Analysis and Lake Ontario Case Study
Student: Shruthi Shyam 19
Faculty Mentor: Joshua Newby, Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Research Title: Molecular Interactions of Methoxystyrene
Student: Harrison Simliaris 17
Faculty Mentor: John Halfman, Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: Impacts of Precipitation and Stream Discharge Variability on Phosphate Loading to Owasco Lake
Student: Briana Swete 17
Faculty Mentor: John Halfman, Professor of Geoscience
Research Title: Exploratory Drone Work to Detect Water Quality in Owasco Lake
Student: Sara Volo 17
Faculty Mentor: Susan Cushman, Director of Introductory Biology Laboratories, Finger Lakes Institute
Research Title: Assessment of Stream Quality Over Time and Time in Castle Creek in Geneva, New York
Student: Sarah Warren 18
Faculty Mentor: Tara Curtin, Associate Professor of Geoscience, and Finger Lakes Institute Endowed Chair in Environmental Studies
Research Title: Temperature Trends of Seneca Lake, NY (USA) Shown as an Effect of El Nino and La Nina Years
Student: Lauren Workman 18
Faculty Mentors: Hillary Mosher, Coordinator of the Finger Lakes Institute Partnership For the Regional Invasive Species Program (PRISM), and Lisa Cleckner, Director of the Finger Lakes Institute
Research Title: Evaluating and Invasive Species Program in the Finger Lakes Region of New York
Student: Elise Wyatt 18
Faculty Mentor: Emily Fisher, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Research Title: Manipulating Social Categorization: Effects on Social Capital and Intergroup Attitudes
Student: Amelia Zhao 17
Faculty Mentor: Patricia Mowery, Associate Professor of Biology
Research Title: Evaluation of Proheradione-Calcium, a Plant Growth Regulator; Biological SARs; and Other Biological and Chemical Management Properties on the Development of Fireblight and Apple Productivity