2011 Award Winners

The Allen Newel Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research

Alan Pierce (Computer Science), "Decision Problems on Iterated Length-Preserving Tradsucers"

Award for Artistic Excellence

Marci Calabretta (English), "Last Train to the Midnight Market"

Sarah Habib (BHA), "Meditation of the World"

Samuel Lavery (BHA), "Resurrecting Pittsburgh: The Syria Mosque"

Sophia Schrank (Drama), "Jean Cocteau's Orpheus"

Kristen Staab (BHA), "TODAY, I"

Shannon Stephens (English), "Fumbling in the Marrow: Poems by Shannon Azzato Stephens"

Bizhou Wang (Architecture), "Buildings in Limbo - Informal Cities of the Future"

Stefan Dezil (Drama), Spencer Diaz (Art), David Grabowski (Music), James Krahe (Art), Yulin Kuang (English), Lachlan McKinney (Drama), Alexander Rothera (Art), Benjamin Welmond (Art), "Zombie College Musical"

Boeing Blue Skies Award

First Place:
Jeffrey Cooper (Computer Science), Jitu Das (Computer Science), Priyanka Deo (Computer Science), Daniel Jacobs (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Michael Ornstein (Mechanical Engineering), Harrison Rose (Biomedical Engineering), James Wahawisan (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Alexander Zirbel (Computer Science), "Exploration and Mapping of Unstructured Environments Using an Autonomous Quadrotor"

Second Place:
Ming-Yang Hung (Mechanical Engineering), "Novel cardiovascular flow regimes in patient-specific anatomies"

Third Place:
Can Erdogan (Computer Science), "Action Selection via Learning Opponent Models in RoboCup"

CIT Honors Research Poster Competition

First Place:
Jacob Beatty (Mechanical Engineering), "A Computational Fluid Dynamic Study of the Application of Momentum Kill Procedure to Oil Drilling"

Second Place:
Rachel Bradley (Chemical Engineering/EPP), "Aerosol Delivery of Self-Dispersing Pulmonary Drug Formulations"

Third Place:
Eric Turner (Electrical & Computer Engineering), "Error Analysis Supporting Logic in Memory Implementation of Polar Format Algorithm for Synthetic Aperture Radar"

IBM Undergraduate "Smarter Planet" Award

Jonathan Beebe (Computer Science), Afnan Fahim (Computer Science), Elise Gonzales (Computer Science), Asma Hamid (Information Systems/Qatar), Meghan Nahass (Social and Decision Science), "iSTEP 2011: Uruguay"

Manish Burman (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Brian DeVincentis (Mechanical Engineering), Brandon Kase (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Navigating CMU"

Johnson & Johnson Undergraduate Research Award

First Place:
Zhi-Yang Lim (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Low Energy Image Reconstruction with Magic Memory"

Second Place:
Brandon Chock (Chemical Engineering), "Protein Transport through Nanoconstructed Block Copolymer Hydrogels"

Third Place:
Manish Burman, Brian DeVincentis, Brandon Kase, "Navigating CMU"

Lockheed Martin ECE Undergraduate Project Awards

First Place:
Eric Turner (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Error Anaylsis Supporting Logic in Memory Implementation of Polar Format Algorithm for Synthetic Aperture Radar"

Second Place (tie):
Amal El-Ghazaly (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Lateral Tracking Electrothermal Actuator"

Second Place (tie):
Archa Jain (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Neereja Sundaresan (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Parameterizable On-Chip Communication Synthesis for Multi-Core Systems"

Third Place (tie):
Joel Feinstein (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Achieving Extreme Processor Performance Using Unconventional Cooling"

Third Place (tie):
Amber Xu (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Andrew Noh (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Center-out Decoding using and Emotiv EEG Headset"

Third Place (tie):
Rajeev Krithivasan (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Graph Morphisms to Support Consistency Checking in Cyber Physical System Architectures"

Psychology Department Competition

Talk Prize:
Cynthia Peng (SHS), "Hemispheric Differences in Higher-Order Object Processing and Effect of Expertise"

Talk Prize Runner-up:
James Bursley (Psychology), "Neural Mechanisms of Unconscious Thought"

Poster Prize:
Cynthia Peng (SHS), "The Zen Mozart: Effect of Mindfulness Meditation and Classical Music on Visuospatial Skills"

Poster Prize Runner-up:
Howard Soh (Biology & Psychology), "Cue weighting in speech categorization based on short-term cue variabilities"

Richard Schoenwald Phi Beta Kappa Undergraduate Research Prize

Maxwell Hutchinson (Physics), "GPU Acceleration of VASP with Application to the Structure of Elemental Boron"

Kristen Severson (Chemical Engineering), "Optimal Production of Biodiesel from the Transesterification of Algal Oil Using Bioethanol"

Sigma Xi Competition

First Place:
David Huang (Biological Sciences), "Identification of New Candida Albicans Adherence Genes"

Second Place:
Jule Carr (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Cynthia Clement (Mathematics), Carineh Ghafafian (Materials Science Engineering), Elissa Goldner (Civial and Environmental Engineering), Mahaesh Jayaraman (Chemical Engineering), Lane Kurkjian (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Anna Lenhart (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Kaiyan Liew (Mechanical Engineering), Agnieszka Marsczalik (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Tejank Shah (Materials Science Engineering), Lauren Sittler (Chemical Engineering), "A Feasibility Study of Bio-Gas Digesters and Composting Systems at Carnegie Mellon University"

Third Place:
Katherine Fu (Biological Sciences), "Increasing the Efficacy of Cross-Linking Agents in Lung Cancer"

SRC-URO Poster Competition

First Place:
Abigail Ondeck (Chemical Engineering), "Shape and Size Controlled Synthesis of Nano Particulate Catalysts"

Runner Up:
Tudor Achim (Computer Science), "Learning a Low Dimensional Representation of Graspable Objects"

Runner Up:
Emily Walker (Materials Science Engineering), "Novel Solder-Magnetic Nano-Particle Composites and Their Reflow Using AC Magnetic Fields"

Statistics Department Competition

First Oral Presentation:
Christopher Makris (Statistics), "Exploration of Imputation Methods for Missingness in Image Segmentation"

First Poster:
Yi Xiang Chong (Mathematics), Christine Ibaraki (Statistics), Chun Wa Mok (Mathematics), "Classroom Salon: Text Mining and Clustering"

Second Poster:
Brittanie Boone (Economics & Statistics), Erica Choi (Chemistry), Thomas Todd (Statistics), "Investigation of the results from the Content Focusing Coaching study and evaluating the alternative Hierarchical Models"

Third Poster:
Emily Boncek (Science and Humanities Scholar), Yinglu Yao (Statistics), Xiaoya Zhu (Economics & Statistics), "Exploring Learning Rates: Do Students Learn at Different Rates?"

STUDIO for Creative Inquiry Award

First Place:
Stephanie Ross (Art), "Best in Show"

Runner Up:
Anna Grace Meyer (Design), "Leave Only Footprints"

Runner Up:
Jonathan Boerner (Mechanical Engineering), Andrew Burks (Mechanical Engineering), Katherine Coste (Materials Science Engineering), Jaywoo Kim (Mechanical Engineering), Michael Ornstein (Mechanical Engineering), Nicolas Paris (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "RobOrchestra Vibraphone Project"

Undergraduate Economics Program (UEP) Competition

First Place:
Dina Megretskaia (Economics), "Investigating the Effect of Payment Medium on Consumer Spending"

Second Place:
Sebastian Wai (Economics), "Tracking Semiconductor Inventors in Silicon Valley and Beyond"

Third Place:
Shweta Suresh (Economics), "Impact of Social Risk Aversion and Audience Effects on Generosity to the Poor"

Fourth Place:
Akshay Upadhyay (Economics), "Increading Reliability: Attracting More Clients to Microfinance Institutions"

Undergraduate Environmental Research Award

First Place:
Kristen Severson (Chemical Engineering), "Optimal Producation of Biodiesel from the Transesterification of Algal Oil Using Bioethanol"

Runner Up:
Jule Carr (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Cynthia Clement (Mathematics), Carineh Ghafafian (Materials Science Engineering), Elissa Goldner (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Mahaesh Jayaraman (Chemical Engineering), Lane Kurkijian (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Anna Lenhart (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Kaiyang Liew (Mechanical Engineering), Agnieszka Marszalik (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Tejank Shah (Materials Science Engineering), Lauren Sittler (Chemical Engineering), "A feasibility study of bio-gas digesters and composting systems at Carnegie Mellon University"

Runner Up:
Dyanna Becker (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Daisy Wang (Civil and Environmental Engineering), "Analysis of the Thermal Performance of Green Roofs"

Yahoo! Competition

First Place:
Manish Burman (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Brian DeVincentis (Mechanical Engineering), Brandon Kase (Electrical and Computer Engineering), "Navigating CMU"

Second Place:
Adrian Trejo (Computer Science), "Managing On-Demand, Transient Virtual Machines"

Third Place:
Jonathan Harbuck (Computer Science), "Cafe Play: A Customizable Mobile Phone Game Framework for Enhancing English Literacy"