News — Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (HU) held its sixth annual Student Research Symposium on April 17, 2024. The event featured engaging and timely discussions and insightful presentations from over 80 graduate and undergraduate students. “It was a true celebration of academic excellence,” said Dr. Akeisha Belgrave, HU’s Program Lead for Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
The event highlighted the dedication and passion of HU’s students in researching and communicating cutting-edge science, technology, engineering, and social science topics. Students had multiple formats to demonstrate their hard work and valuable data, both inperson and virtually, from anywhere in the world or from the on-campus Student Union in Harrisburg. The students’ dedication to research and presentation skills were truly commendable; their achievements reflect the excellence of our academic community and showcase the global reach of HU’s academic endeavors.
The Research Symposium is most certainly a labor of love for Dr. Belgrave and others within the HU community, and one that is valued by staff and students alike. “I want to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to the seamless execution of the Symposium,” said Dr. Belgrave. “This includes faculty and staff members who served as judges, supported presenters and advisors, volunteered during the event, assisted with technology needs, and helped with setup and teardown.”
Of the dozens of projects submitted across the Symposium, the top prize-winning students represented multiple degree programs at HU, including Analytics (AN), Biotechnology (BTEC), Computational Sciences (CS), Data Science (DS), Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), Human-Centered Interaction & Design (HCID), and Integrative Sciences (INSC).
Here are the winners of the 2024 Student Research Symposium:
Morning Posters:
• 1st Place: Maurice Lopez-Soliz (BTEC) – “Assessing the E+ect of Gravity and Coagulant Aided Thickening Methods on the Nutrient Profile of RAS E+luent for 326 Market St, Harrisburg, PA 17101 Potential Reuse in Hydroponic Production”; Independent Research; Advisors: Rachel Fogle, Joseph Tetreault
• 2nd Place: Mackenzie Millhouse (GIS) – “Balancing Energy Demands & Environmental Sustainability: A Geospatial Approach to Solar Farm Siting”; Class Project; Advisor: Albert Sarvis
• 3rd Place: Austin Jones (GIS) – “Food Security Analysis in Harrisburg, PA”; Independent Research; Advisor: Albert Sarvis
Afternoon Posters:
• 1st Place: Rebecca Conner (INSC) – “Harnessing Kitchen Chemistry to Replace Toxic Indicators to Create Safer Lab Procedures”; Class Project; Advisor: Yiben Wang
• 2nd Place: Vaughn Kline (INSC) – “Green Chemistry Lab Design”; Class Project; Advisor: Yiben Wang
• 3rd Place: Nyicia Morgan (INSC) – “The E+ect of a Combined Cannabidiol and Chlorhexidine Treatment on Streptococcus mutans’ Biofilm Formation & Metabolic Activity”; Project I; Advisor: Yiben Wang
Morning Oral Session:
• 1st Place: Rebecca Conner (INSC) – “Using an Ethosomal Solution to Study Transdermal Vitamin D3 Delivery on Dorsal Porcine Ears”; Independent Research; Advisor: Andrea Nagy
• 2nd Place: Hao Zhang (DS, PhD) – “Dual-Label Deep LSTM Dereverberation for Speaker Verification”; Independent Research; Advisor: Roozbeh Sadeghian
• 3rd Place: Kate Henry (HCID, MS) – “Ethical Service Design in a Nonprofit Human Services Setting”; Class Project; Advisors: Richard Wirth, John McKnight, Nathan Aileo
Afternoon Oral Session:
• 1st Place: Don O’Hara and John Clark (CS, PhD) – “AI Project Management Engine”; Independent Research; Advisor: Majid Shaalan
• 2nd Place: Matthew Rissler (AN, MS) – “Shifting Realities: The Transformative Impact of First-Time VR Use on User Interest and Opinions”; Independent Research; Advisor: Roozbeh Sadeghian
• 3rd Place: Kapila Molri (CS, PhD) – “Bio-Inspired Smart Strategies for Self-Healing Fault Tolerant Systems”; Independent Research; Advisor: Majid Shaalan
These students exemplify the essential characteristics needed across STEM fields today, such as academic excellence, critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, intellectual honesty, a pioneering spirit, and fearlessness in challenging the status quo. From biotechnology to user-experience design, each winner has proven they have what it takes to make a positive impact and advance their chosen field.
Rebecca Conner, an Integrative Sciences major, took top prize in not one but two Symposium categories. She also won the Top Oral Presentation Award in the Outstanding Women in Science category at the recent 99th annual Pennsylvania Academy of Science meeting. Rebecca is already contemplating the next steps unlocked by these academic and personal milestones.
“I’m so thankful that my project, after two years, is finally complete and successful,” Rebecca said. “The plan now is to get more replicate data and publish my work in an academic journal by the end of the year. In the future, I believe my research will be used to develop and deploy an efficient, over-the-counter transdermal vitamin D delivery method to improve experiences and outcomes for patients everywhere.”
The success of students like Rebecca, and the Symposium as a whole, reflects HU’s collective dedication to fostering research and innovation in our community of learners and leaders.
The HU community extends a special thank you to President Eric Darr, PhD, for delivering an inspiring opening address, and to Provost Cameron McCoy, PhD, for his thoughtful closing remarks and for presenting the awards to our deserving winners. Other indispensable team members include Rebekah Harriger (Experiential Learning, Judging), Julia Dunst, PhD (Director of Research), Julie Denniston (Graduate-School Coordinator), Laura Wukovitz and Loren Nocheck (Library), and Emily Mallis (Advancement).
Here’s to making the 2025 Symposium an even more engaging and resounding success! CONTACT Jessica Warren | [email protected] ABOUT HARRISBURG UNIVERSITY Harrisburg University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is a private, nonprofit university offering bachelor's and graduate degree programs in the fields of science, technology, and mathematics. For additional information about the University's affordable, demand-driven undergraduate and graduate programs, please call 17101 717-901-5146 or email [email protected]. Stay updated by following Harrisburg University on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook
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