Carnegie Mellon University

2008 Award Winners

Award for Artistic Excellence

Julie Stein, “Egg Ceremony”

Theresa Chen, “An Escapist World”

Yvonne Chan, “Family Tree Paintings”


The Seventh Annual Bose Competition

First Place:
Bhargav Bhat and Hemant Sikaria, “Gesture Recognition Platform for Deaf Users”

Second Place:
Christine Appleby, “Improved Frequency Response Visualization Tool”


CIT Honors Poster Competition

First Place:
Benjamin Cannon, “Wireless Power Transfer via Magnetic Resonant Coupling”

Second Place:
Geeta Shroff and Hemant Sikaria, “Trinetran: An Assistive Technology for the Blind”

Third Place:
Courtney Ondeck, “Iron Cobalt Nanoparticles in Hyperthermic Cancer Application”


Ford Motor Company Undergraduate Research Awards

First Place:
Asa Watten, “Carbon Footprint Modeling of Biofuels”

Second Place:
Lisa Plimpton, “Testing of Biodegradability of Polymers Used in Ground Water Remediation”

Third Place:
Ethan Minogue, Ilya Kelner and Jason Mirra, “Assistive Automotive Intelligence Technology”


IBM Innovation that Matters Awards

Sungjoon Won and Jing Jin, “Contextual Web History”

Kevin Woo, Eugene Marinelli, James Kong, Aaron Johnson, Austin Buchan, Brian Coltin, Justin Scheiner, Siyuan Feng, Christopher Mar, and Bradford Neuman, “Investigating Power Management in a Robot Colony”


Intel IFYRE Competition

First Place:
Diane Mattingly, “Alloy Decorated Gold Electrocatalysts”

Runner Up:
Benson Tsai, “Qwerk Support Enhancement for Tekkotsu”

Runner Up:
Carmeline Dsilva, “Platinum-Silver Nanoparticles as Fuel Cell Catalysts”


Elizabeth Jones Award in Humanities and the Arts

Dawn Weleski, “Entropic Vision of Greek Culture”

Ben Bigelow, “Crater Eraser”

Clare Hoch, “Solar Decathalon Greenscape”

Laura Miller, “Pittsburgh History Through Sculpture”

Abiola Fasehun, “Akaabo: An Introduction to the Yoruba Language”

Erin Goldberger, “Pittsburgh Food and Drink”


The Eigth Annual Lockheed Martin ECE Undergraduate Project Awards Sponsored by Lockheed Martin, Organized by Eta Kappa Nu, Sigma, PA

First Place:
Ryan Comes, “The Effects of Chemical Mechanical Polishing on Integrated Circuit Performance”

Runner Up:
Bhargav Bhat and Hemant Sikaria, “Gesture Recognition Platform for Deaf Users”

Runner Up:
Teck Hua Lee, Wei Jie Lee and Tze Chang Ng, “OpenSPARC Checkpoint and Rollback”

Judges’ Choice:
Geeta Shroff and Hemant Sikaria, “Trinetran: An Assistive Technology for the Blind”

Judges’ Choice:
Geeta Shroff, “DiaWear: Wearable Food and Activity Recognition System for Diabetes Patients”

Judges’ Choice:
Sarah Hseih and Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero, “Segmentation of Biomedical Data”


Phi Kappa Phi Competition

Brittany McCandless, “Images of Captivity: The Impact of Broadcast News on the Collective Memory of the Iranian Hostage Crisis”

Rebecca Snyder, “Quantification of Diffusion Coefficient of Magnetic Nanoparticles through a Porcine SIS ECM-Based Tissue Scaffold”

Timothy Sandy, “Wormbot”

Alexandra Kronstein, “Constraints on Language Acquisition in Infants and Adults”


Psychology Department Competition

First Place:
Michael Pato, “The Domain Generality of Stress-based Cues in Adults””

First Place:
Jen Fillo, “Intentions for the Division of Labor”

Second Place:
Alyx Kronstein, “Constraints on Language Acquisition in Infants and Adults”

Third Place:
Adriane Soehner, “Effects of Daily Regularity on the Loves of Mothers and their Infants”

Third Place:
Yuliya Rinberg, “Motivating Students: Does Creativity Matter?”


Sigma Xi Poster Competition

First Place:
Ryan Comes, “The Effects of Chemical Mechanical Polishing on Integrated Circuit Performance”

Second Place:
Christina Maksymiuk, “The Analysis and Classification of Condensed-Phase Oxidation Products from the Ozonolysis of Limonene”

Third Place:
Courtney Ondeck, “Iron Cobolt Nanoparticles in Hyperthermic Cancer Application”

Honorable Mention:
Rohit Ramnath, “Development of Neural Network in Mouse Accessory Olfactory Bulb”

Honorable Mention:
Gregory Newby, “Research and Development of Protease Biosensors Using scFv Constructs”

Honorable Mention:
Olusheun Ogunsunlade, “Anatomic Modeling of Pediatric Patients”

Honorable Mention:
Sarah Hsieh and Manual Gonzalez-Rivero, “Segmentation of Biomedical Data”

Honorable Mention:
Jennifer Fillo, “Intentions for the Divisions of Labor”


Statistics Competition

First Place:
Jeremy Doo, Gregory Hallenbeck, So Young Park and Jason Waddell, “Detection of X-ray Sources”

Second Place:
Mike Carney, Grace DeForest, Kenneth Ip, Katherine Kardavas and Eileen Tucker, “Using Assistment Measures to Predict Student Proficiency”

Third Place:
Jeremy Doo and Martin Nemaric, “Estimating Early Exercise Premium in Cash Settled American-Style Options”


STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Award

Charles Patterson, “The Energy We Have”

Jessie Chorng and Paul Castellana, “An Exploration of Social Interaction through Music”

Erica Sandbothe, Richard Pantaleo, Justin Scheiner, Laura Abbott and Daniel Shope, “RobOrchestra III”


'Thought' Prize for Excellence in Research Presentation

Kevin Woo, Eugene Marinelli, James Kong, Aaron Johnson, Austin Buchan, Brian Coltin, Justin Scheiner, Siyuan Feng, Christopher Mar, and Bradford Neuman, “Investigating Power Management in a Robot Colony”


Undergraduate Environmental Research Award

First Place:
Michael Whiston, “Impact of Flanged Diffuser on Turbine Performance”


Yahoo! Undergraduate Research Awards

Bhargav Bhat and Hemant Sikaria, “Gesture Recognition Platform for Deaf Users”

Geeta Shroff, “DiaWear: Wearable Food and Activity Recognition System for Diabetes Patients”