PRESENTING!
THE 2023 FRANKE HONORS PINNACLE PRESENTERS
Each year, Franke Honors students have the chance to present their work at Franke Honors Pinnacle. This year, we have more than 100 students presenting work in Bear Down Gym on April 18 from 1:00 - 3:00 PM.
Honors Thesis
ETHAN ALCOCK
From Populists to Patriots: Lessons on Ideological Shifts in U.S. Politics
Faculty Mentor: Marcia Klotz
AMAL ANILKUMAR
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Utility for Quantitative Assessment of Left Ventricular Function in a Chronic Heart Failure Model
Faculty Mentor: Steven Goldman
ANDREA ARDELEANU
Regulating the Oldest Profession: Drivers of Prostitution Policy over Space
and Time
Faculty Mentor: William Mishler
KRISTIJAN BARNJAK
The Constitutional Issues with State Anti-Boycott Laws
Faculty Mentor: Saura Masconale
NATASHA BARTON
Socialization Effects on the Activity Levels of Yucatan Mini Swine
Faculty Mentor: Steven Goldman
CAROLINE BLETHEN
Community-Based Pediatric Providers on Meeting the Unique Needs of LGBTQ+ Youth: A Focus Group
Faculty Mentor: Carrie Langley
HANNAH CAMPBELL
Navigation in an Omnidirectional Treadmill and Virtual Maze Navigation
and Survey
Faculty Mentor: Arne Ekstrom
JULIAN CAVELL
Insights Into Art Therapy: The Creative Arts and Their Capacity to Heal
Faculty Mentor: Timothy Ottusch
LEAH CHANG
Systematic Imaging of Caenorhabditis Killing Organisms
Faculty Mentor: George Sutphin
CRISTIAN CHAVIRA
A collapsed fingers subdomain is the basis for DNA Polymerase β I260M mutator activity
Faculty Mentor: Joann Sweasy
LOUIS CHOI
Memories in Stone: Ancient Roman Pet Epitaphs and Poetry Bridging the Past and Present
Faculty Mentor: Sarah McCallum
JOSH COLTEN
Can You Beat the Odds? A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Optimal Policy Search in Blackjack
Faculty Mentor: Xueying Tang
ABBY CONN
Drowning prevention and Bilingual Swimming Resources in Arizona
Faculty Mentor: Kristin Doran
KYLE COOK
A Historical View on University of Arizona Investigators‚ Äô Contribution to Heart Failure Research
Faculty Mentor: Cindy Rankin
JEENA DAVIDSON
Incubation of stockpiled topsoil to assess microbial response
Faculty Mentor: Craig Rasmussen
ADELA DIAZ
A Review of the Impact of Cultural Competency on Reproductive Health Outcomes for Hispanic Women
Faculty Mentor: Alicia Allen
SYDNEY DICKER
Are We One?: How the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of human cooperation, especially in matters pertaining to the future state of the world
Faculty Mentor: Linda Pallock
RYAN DONOVAN-SCHAGER
Analyzing Instruction and Retention of Sex and Gender Education in Pre-Health Curriculums at University of Arizona and its Effectiveness
Faculty Mentor: Alicia Allen
NICOLE FERGUSON
Impacts of a High-Fat Diet on the Neurovascular Unit of the Inner Retina
Faculty Mentor: Erika Eggers
JULISSA FIERRO
Best Practices For Nursing Management of Impella-Assisted Patients
Faculty Mentor: Melissa Goldsmith
EMILY FORYSIAK
Knowledge Gaps of Acinetobacter baumannii
Faculty Mentor: Marc Verhougstraete
JONATHAN GARCIA
Adaptability of Bumblebee Nectar Foraging Strategies as Resource Availability Changes
Faculty Mentor: Daniel Papaj
GRACE HALA'UFIA
Learning to Self-Administer Reward Modulates RyR2 Expression in the Nucleus Accumbens of Rats
Faculty Mentor: Arthur Riegel
ABIGAIL HARRIS
Effects of Late Preterm Birth on Communication and Feeding in Infants and Toddlers Birth to 24 Months
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Casteix
PETER HARTMAN
A Kinematic Analysis of Proplyds in NGC 1977 and the ONC
Faculty Mentor: Serena Kim
AILA HAUGER
From Sub-Saharan Africa to the United States: Examining the Impact of Abortion Policy on Maternal Health
Faculty Mentor: Tejal Parikh
ISABEL HERRERA
Equid Social Systems: Why were zebras never domesticated?
Faculty Mentor: Netzin Steklis
ZACH HILLS
The Economic Impact of Vaccine Preventable Illness
Faculty Mentor: Brian Hilligoss
ATEJA HORDGE
Cardiovascular Changes in Professional Basketball Players
Faculty Mentor: Douglas Keen
CARL INGEBRETSEN
On the Origin of Exozodiacal Dust in the Epsilon Eridani System
Faculty Mentor: Virginie Faramaz
JESSICA IVES
The Relationship between Maternal-Infant Bonding and Caregiving Modalities
Faculty Mentor: Alicia Allen
ALEXANDRA JAEGER
Availability of research related to speech production deficits in adults with cerebral palsy (CP): A review of three top neurology journals
Faculty Mentor: Meghan Darling-White
KAVYA JOHN
Acquisition of Temporal Order in Language and the Role of Sleep in 13-Month-Old Infants
Faculty Mentor: Rebecca Gomez
HALEY JOHNSON
LED Dental Wellness Light Brush
Faculty Mentor: N/A
AVICHAL KAUL
Analysis of the effect of Binning on Efficiency in Accumulator plots using the Hough Transform
Faculty Mentor: Erich Varnes
SHREYAS KHANDEKAR
To what extent should browsers protect users?
Faculty Mentor: Paul Kealey
TERESE KULANGARA
The Effect of Aging on Military Readiness in a Retired Elite Soldier - A Case Study
Faculty Mentor: Richard Simpson
REBECCA LARSON
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tear Recovery In Collegiate Football Clinical Settings
Faculty Mentor: Paul Smith
ROBERT LEIGH
The COVID Labor Market & The Great Resignation
Faculty Mentor: Todd Neumann
JACOB MARCZAK
Magic, Maternity, and Monsters: An Honors Seminar to Promote Story in Medicine
Faculty Mentor: Dan Derksen
KIDRON MARTIN
Deaf Victims of the Holocaust: History and Memory
Faculty Mentor: Susan Crane
KYLEIGH MASTERSON
Shedding Light on Anxiety Disorders: Photobiomodulation Therapy to Treat Anxiety-like Symptoms in a Model of PTSD
Faculty Mentor: Mohab Ibrahim
BRAYDON MATHIS
Community Health Needs Assessment of LGBTQ+ Youth in the Southwestern United States
Faculty Mentor: Laura Gronewold
MAC MCGRAW
New Components of the Insulin Signaling Pathway: Investigating the Role of Novel Proteins in GLUT4 Translocation
Faculty Mentor: Paul Langlais
ETHAN MORGAN
Centralizer Algebras and Their Applications
Faculty Mentor: Klaus Lux
ALICIA NGUYEN
How Psilocybin May Serve as an Alternate Treatment to Improve Mental Health in Major Depressive Disorder
Faculty Mentor: Francisco Moreno
VIVIAN NGUYEN
Theoretical Modeling of Tumor Angiogenesis
Faculty Mentor: Timothy Secomb
ELISE NOCHOMOVITZ
Suicide Prevention Trainings: Experiences & Recommendations
Faculty Mentor: Darin Knapp
RHIANNON OLIVAREZ-KIDWELL
Adrenal Insufficiency, Corticosteroid Treatment, and Associated Neurological Disorders: An Exploration of Pathogenic Connections
Faculty Mentor: Marina Cholanian
ERIN OLSTEAD
Responses of small mammal communities to flow restoration and vegetation along the Santa Cruz River
Faculty Mentor: Ellen Bledsoe
SARVESH PARADKAR
Stein's Identity and the Cramer Rao Lower Bound
Faculty Mentor: Sunder Sethuraman
FELIX PAT
Performance of Boosted Z Boson Tagger Using Unsupervised Learning in ATLAS
Faculty Mentor: Elliott Cheu
SYDNEY PEARE
Parents' Experiences of Navigating Gender Affirming Care for Their Transgender Youth
Faculty Mentor: Russell Toomey
OLIVIA PITCL
Machine Learning Approach in ATLAS Particle Energy Calibrations
Faculty Mentor: Kenneth Johns
KARLI RAMSEY
"Digital Dance" Analyzing and Quantifying Signatures of a Demi Plié via Stretchable Electronic Wearable Sensors for Dance Movement Therapy
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marvin Slepian
JAYNE REINES
What is the Role of the Physician in Religious Spaces at the End of Life?
Faculty Mentor: Hester Oberman
MAXWELL RIZZO
Revisiting the FUSE Data Archive - Finding O-VI
Faculty Mentor: Haeun Chung
ALI ROBINSON
Student Pharmacists' Perceptions of a NAPLEX Preparation Module in the Pharmacy Curriculum
Faculty Mentor: Rhys Axon
NOAH ROJAS
Proteomic Profiling of Mature White Adipocytes Identifies Protein Candidates Potentially Involved in Insulin-Stimulated Glucose Uptake
Faculty Mentor: Paul Langlais
HANNAH ROSEN
The Effects of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on DOMS
Faculty Mentor: Douglas Keen
FARAH SAWAL
How Does Exercise Impact Attention, Sleep, and Behavior in Children with Down Syndrome? A Swimming Intervention Study.
Faculty Mentor: Jamie Edgin
BENNETT SKINNER
Counting Carbon Atoms in Planet-Forming Disks
Faculty Mentor: Ilaria Pascucci
ETHAN SNAPP
TBD
Faculty Mentor: Frederick Kiefer
ELLA SPOOR
COVID Mitigation Decarceration Policies: Empirical Obstacles to Causal Estimation
Faculty Mentor: Bradley Bartos
TIA STEPHENS
Every Last Drop
Faculty Mentor: Marcos Serafim
OWYN STOKES
Exploring the Role of Soil Microbial Communities and Plant Endophytes on Metal Tolerance and Accumulation Variability in Arid-Adapted Plants
Faculty Mentor: Alicja Babst-Kostecka
KIERA TANNER
Best Practices in Patient Education by Nurses Related to the Opioid Epidemic
Faculty Mentor: Melissa Goldsmith
ESTEBAN URENA
Administration of Kv7 Channel Opener Retigabine Attenuates the self-administration of Cocaine
Faculty Mentor: Arthur Riegel
ALLYSON VARCOE
Does Perchlorate Induce Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Developing Zebrafish?
Faculty Mentor: Frank von Hippel
SYDNEY VERDUGO
Establishment of a Model System to Test The Impact of DNA Sensing by AIM2 on Epithelial Cell Differentiation
Faculty Mentor: Justin E. Wilson
DANI WEISSERT
Breaking the Cycle: A Comprehensive Study on Menstrual Equity at the University of Arizona
Faculty Mentor: Louise Roth
SYDNEY WHITEMAN
Investigating the effect of physical activity on metabolic biomarkers
Faculty Mentor: Yann Klimentidis
MAIA WILENIUS
The Effect of Recorded Nature Footage on Children's Perception of Nature
Faculty Mentor: Sung Eun Jung
VICTORIA YATSENKO
Effects of UVB Light on an SLE-like Mouse Model
Faculty Mentor: Joann Sweasy
BRIANNA ZAHORECZ
Sleep Quality and Life Satisfaction in Severely Depressed Individuals
Faculty Mentor: William Killgore
WINSTON ZENG
Fine-tuning Transformer-based Natural Language Generation Algorithms for USDA Grain Reports for Farmers, Producers, and Small Businesses
Faculty Mentor: Steven Bethard
REAGAN ZIMMERMANN
Best Practice Recommendations in Education About Alcohol Use: Increasing Awareness of a Social Carcinogenic
Faculty Mentor: Melissa Goldsmith
Quest Project
ERIN CHOI
Cultivating Academically Beneficial Traits in College Students: An Investigation of A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE)
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Teske
PORTIA COOPER
Training Neural Classifiers to Recognize Hate Speech Masked by Homoglyphs
Faculty Mentors:
Eduardo Blanco
Mihai Surdeanu
RYAN COTTER
Mushrooms & Mining: How Desert Fungi Can Drive Sustainable Mining in Arizona
Faculty Mentor: Caitlyn Hall
CALVIN HOLMES
An Induction Soldering Iron for Low-Cost Labs
Faculty Mentor: Hal Tharp
ISSAC KALIAT
Pyridinium Probes for Molecular Logic Gating
Faculty Mentor: Michael Taylor
MIRA KEERAN
Assessing the Need for Increased Mind/Body Relationship Care in Patients With Allergy/Immunology Disorders
Faculty Mentor: Tara Carr
RYAN KIM
The Physiological and Mental Effects of Being Outdoors and Why This is Important for Adolescents from Underrepresented Communities
Faculty Mentor: Martha Moore-Monroy
YONA KLEINERMAN
StudiousCat - Let's Thrive as Student's Together!
Faculty Mentor: John Pollard
IKA LIN
Post-Roe Abortion Care and Access: Exploring Perspectives of Reproductive Health Providers
Faculty Mentors: Purnima Madhivanan
CYNTHIA NAVARRO
Quantifying the Mobility Impact of Autonomous Delivery Robots on Traffic
Faculty Mentors: Li Xiaofeng
DESIREE NGUYEN
Exploration of Neural and Cardiac Activity Among Northern Quahog Clams
Faculty Mentor: Ulises Ricoy
ANDREW PONGRATZ
Home Sweet Home (That I Own): Expanding Homeownership Opportunities for Low-Income Families in Southern Arizona
Faculty Mentor: Brian Mayer
MAYA RAMIREZ
Exploration of the Pathological Role of CYTSA in Alzheimer's Disease
Faculty Mentor: Xinglong Wang
LOUJINE SALIB
Process of Genetic Characterization of HIV-1 vif Gene from Virologically Suppressed HIV-Infected Older Individuals on Long Term Antiretroviral Therapy
Faculty Mentor: Nafees Ahmad
JESUS SERRATOS
3D Printing Optical Lenses
Faculty Mentor: Rongguang Liang
ABHYUDAY SINGH
Multilingual Tweet Intimacy Analysis
Faculty Mentor: Steven Bethard
AUDREY SWETEN
Investigating the Role of Hac1 In the Unfolded Protein Response for Coccidioides posadasii
Faculty Mentor: Marc Orbach
VALENTINA VAZQUEZ
IL1B enhances gene expression and induces alternative splicing of PFKFB3
Faculty Mentor: Casey Romanoski
ISABELLA VAZQUEZ
Using iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to model arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM)
Faculty Mentor: Jared Churko
Special Projects
MOSES FOIRYOLO
Mult-Brain holder for high-resolution MRI microscopy acquisition
Faculty Mentor: Laurel Dieckhaus
SKYLAR FRY
VIP - StellarScape
Faculty Mentor: Hayley Meier
ELLE GOEHRING
Predictors of Verbal Fluency Performance in Perisylvian Aphasia
Faculty Mentor: Aneta Kielar
RYAN HAYMORE
Creating Primers for functional SNPs in liver and kidney transporters
Faculty Mentor: Nathan Cherrington
MINH LE
Vertical Integration Data Visualization
Faculty Mentor: Greg Heileman
FAWAZ STIPHO
Meta-Analysis on White Matter Hyperintensity Volume Differences Between APOE4 Carriers & Noncarriers
Faculty Mentor:
GABE WEIBLE
Mid-Infrared Direct Imaging of the Pleiades Substellar Companion HII 1348B
Faculty Mentor: Kevin Wagner