2016 Award Winners

Award for Artistic Excellence

Jacqueline Barnes (BHA), “Phanta Noir: An Exploration of Black Fantasy”

Chloe Chia (Design), “Passports as Power”

Iris Beaumier (Drama), “Where the Hardyhead Live: Revisited”

Olivia Hern (Drama), “Enfantine: Prague Quadrennial”

Sylvia Kosowski (BCSA), “Algorithmic Animation: A Tool for Creating Two-Dimensional Painterly Animation in the Context of Webcomic Storytelling”

The Boeing Blue Skies Award

First prize: “Game Changer” — Jonathan Appiagyei (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Homer Baker (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Ashrith Balakumar (Mechanical Engineering), Jacob Bartel (Mechanical Engineering), Suyash Bhatt (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Yeongwoo Hwang (Computer Science), Felipe Oropeza (Mechanical Engineering), Paul Pan (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Hannah Tomio (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Andrew Ye (Physics), “Autonomous Visual Orbit Determination”

Second prize: “Most Creative” — Kaan Dogrusoz (Electrical & Computer Engineering), “Safe Cyclist”

CIT Honors Research Poster Competition

First Place: Hannah Lyness (Mechanical Engineering), “The Effects of a Two Degrees of Freedom Ankle/Foot Prosthesis on Balance”

Second Place: Sean Kim (Chemical Engineering/Biomedical Engineering), “Nano-patterning Biomimetic ECM Cues on Engineered Cardiac Tissue”

Third Place (Tie): Thomas Eliot (Electrical & Computer Engineering), “LowPower Circuits for Ingestible Electronic Drug Delivery Systems”

Third Place (Tie): Kathryn Sullivan (Materials Science Engineering/Biomedical Engineering), “Affinity-based DNA Separation by Strand Invasion”

Dietrich Humanities Prize

Heather Cowie (Art), Joseph Hill (Drama), and Kaytie Nielsen (BHA), “Mariannes Noir: Mosaique Afropeennes”

Lina Pulgarin-Duque (BSA), “A Small Leap: Placing Theater at the Center of Science Outreach”

Nicole Yoon (BHA), “Dream Girl in Social Media”

Danielle Lehman (BHA), “The Proviso: Understanding Dystopian Dualities and how they can be used to challenge our current decisions and perspectives”

Iman Mazloum (BHA), “The Zahra Center: A Play. Sharing Muslim Narratives through Performance in Order to Promote Action Around Sensitive Topics and to Counter Symbolic Annihilation of Islam and Muslims”

David Parker (History), "Runaways, Freedom Seekers, and Fornicators: The Indentured Servant in Court in 17th Century York County, Virginia"

Mathematics Poster Competition

First prize: Jackson Bahr (Science and Humanities Scholar), “Subrings of C Generated by Angles”

Runners up: Weichen Yin (Physics), “Twinning conditions in Austenite-Martensite Phase Transitions”

Keven Chionh (Science and Humanities Scholars) and Liuyu Jin (Mathematics), “ Brachistichrone problem in non-uniform gravitational fields”

Yongshan Ding (Computer Science), “Quantum algorithms on matrix product verification”

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Award

First prize: Daniel Evans (Biological Sciences), Kathryn Hanson (Chemistry), “Role of Alternative Isoforms of the F1-Atpase Epsilon Subunit in Aging and Oxidative Stress”

Second prize: Yeon Soo Kim (Human Computer Interaction), Kristina Wagner (Human Computer Interaction), “Can We Develop New Technology to be Used by Older Adults? A Case Study, Using an Intelligent Yet Unintimidating Watch To Remind Older Adults to Take Pills and other Medication”

Psychology Department Competition

Poster Competition

First prize: Hyunho Yoon (Psychology), “Statistical Learning of Language and its Basis in Memory”

Oral Competition

First prize: Maya Schumer (Psychology), “Brief Mindfulness Training Reduces Negative Affect, Anxiety, and Stress: A Meta-Analysis”

Runner-Up: Joshua Swanson (Psychology), “Predictors of Behavioral and Relationship Outcomes During Mutual Self-Disclosure: Implications for One-to-One Peer Support Interventions”

Runner-Up: Nina Hill (Biological Sciences), Predicting Eating Behavior with Visceral and Visual Assessments of Hunger

 Sigma Xi Poster Competition

First Prize: Himali Ranade (Chemical Engineering), “siRNA Loaded Lipidoid Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers and Chronic Inflammatory States”

Second Prize: Zeyu Hu (Biological Sciences), “Characterizing kappa-opiate receptor expressing sensory afferents in the mouse PNS”

Third Prize: Andrew Ye (Physics), “Continuing the Carbon Fiber Trombone”

Third Prize: Hyunho Yoon (Psychology), “Statistical Learning of Language and Its Basis in Memory”

SRC-URO Poster Competition

First prize: Eli Zoghlin (Materials Science and Engineering), “Investigation of Crystallization Kinetics in Iron-Nickel Amorphous Alloy”

Second prize: Nathan Drucker (Materials Science and Engineering), “Van Der Waals Heterostructure of Magnetic Semiconductors”

Third prize: Vishal Ahuja (Chemical Engineering), Anna Zhang (Chemical Engineering), “Investigation of Fruit-Derived Permeation Enhancers for Transepithelial Drug Delivery”

Statistics Oral Presentation Competition

First place: Hyunsang Cho (SHS), Yuka Moroishi (Statistics), Kristina Schiffhauer (Statistics) “Biographies in Time:  Investigating Gender Discrepancies in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies”

Second place: Andersen Chang (SHS), “Simple Models for the Statistical Analysis of Infectious Disease Counts”

Third place: Robert Citrone (Statistics), Devin Cortese (Statistics), Maksim Horowitz (Statistics), “A Statistical Analysis of the National Football League Draft:  Valuing Draft Picks and Predicting Future Player Success”

Honorable Mention: Meghna Baskar (Economics), Kiersten Chuc (Statistics), Suvrath Penmetcha (Information Systems), Rohit Srungavarapu (Business Administration), Skye Toor (Mechanical Engineering), “Port Authority Bus Reliability Across Pittsburgh Neighborhoods”

Honorable Mention: Qiulei Bao (Mathematics), Zhehao Yu (Mathematics), “Comparison of Community Detection Methods”

Honorable Mention: Timothy Fitzgerald (BHA), Dee Dee Paik (Economics), Daniel Park (Economics and Statistics), Siqi Yang (Statistics), Derek Young (Statistics), “Optimization of Spaces in Hunt Library”

Early Research (Freshman/Sophomore): Siqi Guo (SHS), “Differentiating Stars and Galaxies in SDSS and WISE Data”

Early Research (Freshman/Sophomore): Joshua Brakensiek (Mathematics), “Galaxy Morphology and Synthesis:  Application for the Large Synoptic Sky Telescope”

Undergraduate Environmental Research Award

First prize: Angela Ng (Civil and Environmental Engineering), “Evaluating the Drinkable Book Water Purification Capabilities”

Runner-up: Iris Beaumier (Drama), “Where the Hardyhead Live: Revisited”

Runner-up: Samuel Joyce-Farley (Chemistry), “TAML Activator-Catalyzed Degradation of Diclofenac by Hypochlorite: Investigation of Kinetics, End Products and Degradation Pathway”

Runner-up: Madelaine Ku (Civil and Environmental Engineering), “What Does Global Climate Change Mean for My Community? – An Evaluation of Recent and Historical Precipitation and Temperature Trends in Pittsburgh”