2013 EURēCA Awardees

The university offers undergraduates the opportunity to reach beyond the classroom to pursue the excitement of original research and creative projects. Every spring, the Office of Research & Engagement organizes the Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA) — a two-day exhibition and performance event for students.

Projects judged to be the best overall are recognized with the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society Awards, William Harris III Undergraduate Research Award, Office of Research Top Undergraduate Research Award, and the Environmental Sustainability Award.

College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources

William Barbour
Project: Design of an Underwater Video and GPS Mapping System for the Exploration of Streambed Aquatic Populations
Faculty Mentor: Paul Ayers

Samantha Brown
Project: Cj0843c, a putative lytic transglycosylase, contributes to beta-lactam resistance in Campylobacter jejcni
Faculty Mentor: Jun Lin

Anthony Cicco
Project: Comparison of grapeseed, pomegranate, and cranberry extracts against salmonella enterica sorovants Typhimusium and Enteritidis
Faculty Mentor: Doris D’Souza

Joshua Grant
Project: Functional analysis of a putative membrane-bound endo-β-1-4-glucanase from Panicum virgatum
Faculty Mentor: Neal Stewart

Chelsea Johnson
Project: Molecular characterization of herbicide resistance in horseweed (Conyza canadensisL.)
Faculty Mentor: Neal Stewart

College of Architecture and Design

Haley Allen
Project: Omakuva [self-portrait] Re-Align
Faculty Mentor: Brian Ambroziak

Ali Alshaleh, Kyle Jenkins, and Jake Heaton
Project: Steam Bending: Explorations with Wood in Parametric Design
Faculty Mentor: Gregory Aspaw

Christina Clouthier, Stephen Guertin, Walker Westbrook, and Geoffrey Hillstead
Project: A Study of Applachian Vernacular as it Pertains to the Design of Modern Prefab Architecture
Faculty Mentor: Goeritz, Hansjoerg

Amanda Gertsen
Project: Collective Dialogue
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Akerman

Holly Harris
Project: Confabulatores Nocturni: Edgar Allan Poe Creative Writing Pavillion
Faculty Mentor: Brian Ambroziak

Michael Housley
Project: Perceptions of Identity
Faculty Mentor: Katherine Ambroziak

Margaret Jamison, Deanna Olson, and Caroline McDonald
Project: Learning Landscape IDEC
Faculty Mentor: Jeff Geren

Kirsten Reed
Project: Reconstructing Process [investigations into the relationship of the hand and the machine]
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Akerman

Benjamin Wathen
Project: Knoxville Planetarium
Faculty Mentor: Katherine Ambroziak

School of Art

Jennifer Grant
Project: You Know Your Voice is Kind of Nice When Your Mouth Isn’t Screwing it up
Faculty Mentor: Marcia Goldenstein

Deborah Rule
Project: What You Always Wanted to Knox
Faculty Mentor: Marcia Goldenstein

Tara Sripunvoraskul
Project: Chinese Language Mobile Apps
Faculty Mentor: Carolyn Staples

Lyndsey Stewart
Project: Etching and Oxidation:  Inkless Printing
Faculty Mentor: Beauvis Lyons

Catherine Widner
Project: Origins: Formation, Deterioration
Faculty Mentor: Marcia Goldenstein and K. Yamamoto

College of Arts and Sciences

Desta Bume
Project: Controlled Formation of Metal Silicate Monolayer on Silicon Wafers
Faculty Mentor: Craig Barnes

Matthew Culbert
Project: 3-dimensional imaging and quantification of cell adherence on curved surfaces of medical grade devices using confocal laser-scanning microscopy
Faculty Mentor: Biggerstaff, John

Matthew Dillon
Project: Ballistic Missile Defense
Faculty Mentor: Brandon Prins

Peter Duden
Project: Phosphorylation Regulates Myosin Driven Organelle Movements
Faculty Mentor: Andreas Nebenfuehr

Connor Gautam
Project: Simulations of Mirror Neutron Oscillation/Regeneration
Faculty Mentor: Yuri Kamyshkov

Devin Jones
Project: Corn and Rice Strains of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Fall Migration in South Texas
Faculty Mentor: Gary McCracken

Devin Pinkston, Marcus Wild, Betsy Pack, and Claire McCarter
Project: Relationship satisfaction and diabetes-specific anxiety: Gender and ethnicity as moderating variables
Faculty Mentor: Kristina Gordon

Jeffrey Rymer
Project: Novobiocin as an Allosteric Modulator of Ste2p
Faculty Mentor: Jeff Becker

McCall Sarrett
Project: The Effects of Pedagogical Conditions on Second Language Processing
Faculty Mentor: Harriet Bowden

Nancy Tran
Project: Arabidopsis Calmodulin like gene (CML38) – A Novel Anaerobic Response Polypeptide and A Suppressor of Gene Silencing
Faculty Mentor: Dan Roberts

Jasmine Vazin
Project: What’s for dinner? Potential activities and substrate specificities of diverse extracellular peptidases in the Tennessee River
Faculty Mentors: Andrew Steen and Steven Wilhelm

Austen Webber
Project: Effects of Viral Lysis on Carbon Cycling in Marine Microbial Communities; Assaying Extracellular Enzymes and Tracking Size Fractions of Released Dissolved Organic Matter
Faculty Mentors: Andrew Steen and Steven Wilhelm

Kendal Youngblood, Robert Pinter, and Patrick Hollis
Project: Oral History Projects of U.S. Veterans of World War II
Faculty Mentor: Vejas Liulevicius

College of Business Administration

Hannah Alexander
Project: International Taxation and Initial Foreign Entries
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Jonathan Chavez
Project: The Network:  Financial Connectivity and Economic Growth
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Rebecca Colburn
Project: Returns Management and Consumer Satisfaction
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Robert Davis
Project: The Effect of Subsidies on Solar Panel Purchases
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Nicholas Love
Project: Sustainable Fish: A Look at Consumer Behavior
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Christopher Miles
Project: Will Say on Pay Matter?
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Margaret Ross
Project: The Effectiveness of Coupons in Grocery Stores
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

Daniel Whitaker, III
Project: Tennessee’s Gas Tax: Burning Gas and Dollars
Faculty Mentor: Lane Morris

College of Communication and Information

Lauren Beets
Project: Multimedia Storytelling
Faculty Mentor: Robert Heller

Christine Copelan, Kristin Carver, and Lauren Gregg
Project: Mommy Made Me: An Investigation of Flu Shot Influences
Faculty Mentor: Ron Taylor

Nathaniel (Nate) Patton
Project: Multimedia Story Telling
Faculty Mentor: Robert Heller

College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences

Sheryl Benson
Project: Repeated Food Exposure via the Olfactory and Gustatory Systems and Rate of Salivary Habituation
Faculty Mentor: Hollie Raynor

Elisabeth Spratt
Project: Determining the effects of oral delivery of bile salt hydrolase in Zucker fatty rats
Faculty Mentor: Guoxun Chen

Emily Tucker
Project: Gender and Mother-Child Interaction in Informal Urban Settlements of Kenya
Faculty Mentor: Hilary Fouts

Laura Wilson, Maxwell Graham, Amanda Hall, Brianna Wilkerson, and Stephen Polcsa
Project: Raising the Bar: Comparative Analysis of Neighborhood Culture and Demographics on Profit Margins and Socioeconomic Status of Bar Businesses
Faculty Mentor: Rachel Chen

College of Engineering

Morgan Baltz
Project: Characterization of Influenze Hemagglutinin Mutants for th eElucidation of an Autocatalytic Merchanism
Faculty Mentor: Eric Boder

Brock Bartley
Project: Oxidation and Plasmonic Behaviro of Ag-Co nanoparticle Arrays
Faculty Mentor: Ramki Kalyanaraman

Thomas Warren de Wit
Project: An Inter-Keypoint Orientation Descriptor for RGB-D Object Recognition
Faculty Mentor: Lynne Parker

Alexandra Hackett
Project: Mechanical Characterization of Ion-Irradiated Silicon Carbide by Nanoindentation
Faculty Mentor: Erik Herbert

Ryan Hodges, Brandon Massengill, Brittani Perez, and Chanci King
Project: Subclinical Mastitis Inline Detection System
Faculty Mentor: John Wilkerson

Victor Lollar
Project: In-Situ Condition Monitoring of Components in Small Modular Reactors
Faculty Mentor: B.R. Upadhyaya

School of Music

Sean Copeland, Daniel Reeve, Nathan Arnwine, and Tylar Bullion
Faculty Mentor: Dan Cloutier

Megan Brooker
Faculty Mentor: Shelley Binder

Andrea Markowitz
Faculty Mentor: Marjorie Stephens

College of Nursing

Tristan Daniel, Elizabeth Berry, and Cynthia Denton
Project: Effective pain management strategies for patients with addiction histories
Faculty Mentor: Thompson, Kathleen

Anna Freels, Evan Berres, and Summer Reives
Project: Awareness of the Female Condom Among Undergraduate College Students at the University of Tennessee
Faculty Mentors: Sadie Hutson and Ezra Holston

Blair Slingerland and Egan Monroe
Project: CUVO’s Caps
Faculty Mentor: Kathleen Thompson

College of Social Work

Jasmine Brown
Project: Effects of Rental Assistance on Recipients’ Living Situations
Faculty Mentor: Sungkyu Lee

Jessica Heins
Project: Effectiveness of Interventions Provided by Knox County for Families with Truant Behavior
Faculty Mentor: Sungkyu Lee

Candice Sellers
Project: Effect of Integrated Services on HIV-positive Clients’ Physical Health
Faculty Mentor: Sungkyu Lee

John Wells
Project: Effectiveness of a Community-Based Intervention on Criminal Thinking among Adults with Mental Illness Who are at Risk of Recidivism
Faculty Mentor: Sungkyu Lee

Theatre

Adam Crandall
Project: Almost, Maine
Faculty Mentor: Casey Sams