The 20th Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement (EURēCA) took place April 11-15, 2016 in Hodges Library. Students from across the university entered their undergraduate research, senior design projects, clinical projects, and creative achievements for judging. From 247 entries, 88 received recognition at the EURēCA Awards night.
In addition to divisional awards, projects judged to be the best overall are recognized with the William Franklin Harris III Undergraduate Research Award, the Sustainability Award, and the Office of Research and Engagement’s Undergraduate Research Excellence Award (gold, silver and bronze).
7 Gold ORE Undergraduate Research Excellence Awards
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Category |
| Alexis Burnham | Identifying genetic factors in Streptococcus uberis that enable evasion of the host immune response | Gina Pighetti | Natural Sciences and Agriculture |
| William Dunn | Knoxville Architecture Senior High School: Sewing the Fabric of Place | Julie Beckman | Architecture and Design |
| Emmitt Turner | Changes in HIV over time for the east region of Tennessee | Laurie Meschke | Nursing, Health, and Human Sciences |
| Jenny Patel &
Madeline Standbridge |
A Comparative Study of Cellular Calcification within the Male and Female Aortic Valves | Zannatul Ferdous | Engineering |
| Shaun Mccomas | The Homeless and Civilians Legal Assistance Initiative: An Outcomes Evaluation | Sunha Choi | Social Science, Social Work, Education, Communication, and Humanities |
| Rachel Van Deventer | Evaluating Prediction Models for Targeting Product Reviewers | Michel Ballings | Business |
| Quentin Eastridge & Erik Vass | Health Information Technology & Simulation Lab: Interactive Debriefing Application (IDA) | Sarah Lowe | Art and Performing Arts |
8 Silver ORE Undergraduate Research Excellence Awards
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Category |
| Christina Lulich | Scalar Conflict: Perceiving Truth Through Contradiction | Tricia Stuth | Architecture and Design |
| Grace Wholley | Word Learning in Quiet and in Noise | Jessica Hay | Social Science, Social Work, Education, Communication, and Humanities |
| Chad Melton | Photometry of Scattered Disk Objects at 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm | Joshua Emery | Natural Sciences and Agriculture |
| Rebecca Fong | Stability of Phosphatidylserine in the Membrane of Yeast | Todd Reynolds | Natural Sciences and Agriculture |
| Hayden Jordan, Taylor Overton & Jonathan
Yoder |
Calf Bottle Monitoring System | John Wilkerson | Engineering |
| Adaya Kirk | Audience, Content, Media: Factors to Consider When Designing Technology Based Asthma Education Programs for Children | Tami Wyatt | Nursing, Health, and Human Sciences |
| Timothy Cook | Swiss National Bank Information Leakage | Andy Puckett | Business |
| Benjamin Maxey & Tom Foltz | Bonne Chance, Language Learning and Visual Coding | Cary Staples | Art and Performing Arts |
8 Bronze ORE Undergraduate Research Excellence Awards
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Category |
| Samuel Denney, Justice Halfacre, and Timothy Jackson | Impact of Grape Seed Extract on Sensory Characteristics of Leafy, Green Vegetables | Francine Hollis | Bronze ORE Undergraduate Research Excellence Award in Natural Sciences and Agriculture |
| Mustapha Williams | ONE KNOXville | Marleen Davis | Architecture and Design |
| Molly Cross | The Cultural Phenomenon of the Working Man: A Historical Analysis of Theatrical Masculinity | Misty Anderson | Social Science, Social Work, Education, Communication, and Humanities |
| Brooke Pearson | “External Forcing Factors that Affect Torque Resistance Among Hardwood and Softwood Species, Norris Dam State Park, Tennessee, U.S.A.” | Henri Grissino-Mayer | Natural Sciences and Agriculture |
| William Hoskins | Effect of Heat Treatment and Chemical Composition on the High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) Resistance of C-½ Mo Steels | Carl Lundin | Engineering |
| Ashley Dykes,
Warren Bryant, Hiro Yamada and Jacob Barron |
Early Mobilization of Mechanically Ventilated Patients | Kathleen Thompson | Nursing, Health, and Human Sciences |
| Wayne Taylor | Guess who’s being your mentor? A photo elicitation study of mentorships to minority aspirant Certified Professional Accountants. | Anne Smith | Business |
| Thomas Foltz | Pupil, Learning Disabilities and the importance of Empathy | Sarah Lowe | Art and Performing Arts |
College Winners
College of Agricultural and Natural Resources
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Alexis Burnham | Identifying genetic factors in Streptococcus uberis that enable evasion of the host immune response | Pighetti, Gina | First Place |
| Samuel Denney, Justice Halfacre, & Timothy Jackson | Impact of Grape Seed Extract on Sensory Characteristics of Leafy, Green Vegetables | Hollis, Francine | Second Place |
| Kaitlyn Shields | Measuring School-Based Agriculture Education Total Program Success: Classroom, FFA, and SAE | Stripling, Christopher | Third Place |
| Kelsey Ritter | Elucidating the Toxic Effects of Silver and Copper Nanoparticles on Oncorhynchus mykiss | Strange, Richard | Honorable Mention |
| Christina Kihm | Auxin signaling mutants iaa3 and iaa17 enhance plant resistance to cyst nematode parasitism | Hewezi, Tarek | Honorable Mention |
| Nicole Talley | Evaluation of fungal endophytes and inoculation methods in Vigna unguiculata | Butler, David | Honorable Mention |
| Sarah Alouani | Exploring Granuloma Formation in Johne’s Disease | Eda, Shigetoshi | Honorable Mention |
| Tammy Stackhouse | Overexpression of the PpJAZ1 Gene in Camelina sativa for Cleistogamy | Liu, Wusheng | Honorable Mention |
College of Architecture and Design
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Angela Claeys & Hannah Margush | ( Hear…There ) | Mullikin, Lisa | Honor Award |
| David Berry | Seeking Silence, The Great Salt Lake Desert | Stuth, Tricia | Honor Award |
| Kristia Bravo, Alexis Jolley & Cayla Adams | Orchestration | Teston, Liz | Honor Award |
| Macvan Scott & Caleb Brothers | Transformative Production – Applying Sustainable Design to the Old City | Stevens, Kevin | Office of Sustainability Award |
College of Arts & Sciences
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Ashton Clark & Christina Thiessen | Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Satisfaction, and ADHD in Emerging Adults | Bolden, Jenn | First Place, Social Sciences |
| Rebecca Shrem | Use of process analogies to enhance student learning | Jain, Nitin | First Place, Social Sciences |
| Grace Wholley | Word Learning in Quiet and in Noise | Hay, Jessica | First Place, Social Sciences |
| Preston Mitchell | Undergraduate Student Motivations for Choosing a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) Major | Van Riemsdijk, Micheline | Honorable Mention, Social Sciences |
| Hudson Kelley & Michael Hazelton | Folk Economic Geography: Pricing Private Parking on Game Day in Fort Sanders, Knoxville | Foresta, Ronald | Honorable Mention, Social Sciences |
| Stephanie Smith & Jerika Norona | Impulsivity and the Dissolution of Romantic Relationships | Welsh, Deborah | Honorable Mention, Social Sciences |
| Molly Cross | The Cultural Phenomenon of the Working Man: A Historical Analysis of Theatrical Masculinity | Anderson, Misty | First Place, Humanities |
| Honor Lundt | Female Warriors: Judith, Grendel’s Mother, and Gender Roles in Anglo-Saxon England | Mackenzie, Scott | First Place, Humanities |
| Stephanie Bullock, Kiernan Bensey, Jacob Gross, Erik Vass & Alyssa Gauci | Bonne Chance | Dubreil, Sebastien | Honorable Mention, Humanities |
| Melissa Quarles | Klezmer Music and Identity | Golden, Rachel | Honorable Mention, Humanities |
| Chad Melton | Photometry of Scattered Disk Objects at 3.6 um and 4.5 um | Emery, Joshua | First Place, Physical Sciences |
| Louis Varriano | Neutron-mirror neutron oscillations in a residual gas environment | Kamyshkov, Yuri | First Place, Physical Sciences |
| Scott Eckley | Uncommon Diogenitic Troilite-Orthopyroxene Melt Texture: 2-phase Symplectite Found in Diogenite NWA 10451 | McSween, Harry | Honorable Mention, Physical Sciences |
| Aaron Stubblefield | Kinematic Vorticity Analysis of the Cordillera Blanca Shear Zone | Jessup, Micah | Honorable Mention, Physical Sciences |
| Devin Williams | Scoring Human Decomposition from Photographs: A Validation Study | Mundorff, Amy | First Place, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Han Cho | Determine prevalence and transmission of Toxoplasma gondii in Amazon Natives | Su, Chunlei | First Place, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Brooke Pearson | “External Forcing Factors that Affect Torque Resistance Among Hardwood and Softwood Species, Norris Dam State Park, Tennessee, U.S.A.” | Grissino-Mayer, Henri | First Place, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Sheridan Brewer | Isolation and Characterization of Anaerobic Microbial Communities from Hydraulic Fracturing Fluids | Hazen, Terry | Honorable Mention, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Connor Vermilyea | Validation of the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) of 3-D forest structure of Miombo Woodlands in Niassa National Reserve | Washington-Allen, Robert | Honorable Mention, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Sarah Ottinger | Plant selection of mycorrhizal symbionts in response to abiotic stress | Classen, Aimee | Honorable Mention, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| Amina Naantaanbuu-Jones | Exploring LRP-1 Expression in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus as a Regulator of the Mammalian Circadian Clock | Prosser, Rebecca | First Place, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Kelly Arnholt | Evaluation of Cellulose Nanocrystal Toxicity Using the Bioreporter E. coli 652T7 | Ripp, Steven | First Place, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Clayton Nunn | Sub-cellular localization of Arabidopsis thaliana NIP2;1 major intrinsic protein, and its effects on hypoxic stress survivability | Roberts, Daniel | First Place, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Rebecca Fong | Stability of Phosphatidylserine in the Membrane of Yeast | Reynolds, Todd | First Place, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Megan Landon | Validation of LRRK2 homology models and discovery of novel inhibitors | Smith, Jeremy | Honorable Mention, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Sahba Seddighi | Cellular mechanisms by which social status alters behavioral responses to stress | Cooper, Matthew | Honorable Mention, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Abbigail Stidham | Induced Programmed Cell Death (PCD) in the Presence of E93 | Park, Jae | Honorable Mention, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
| Akshita Patel | Characterization of Nicotiana benthamiana Plants Overexpressing ISE2 | Burch-Smith, Tessa | Honorable Mention, Cellular and Molecular Biology |
School of Art, College of Arts & Sciences
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Santiago Ortiz-Piazuelo | The Confluence of Language and Its Significance Through Visual Exploration | Lyons, Beauvais | First Place |
| Kiernan Bensey | Sensory Code | Lukens, Jon | First Place |
| Jia Liang | “Bonne Chance” mobile version | Staples, Cary | Third Place |
School of Music, College of Arts & Sciences
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Rebecca Percy, Flute | Fantaisie (Georges Hüe) | Binder, Shelley | First |
| Paul Royse, Piano | Synoptic Connections (Paul Royse) | Adams, Fay | Second |
| Jared Hopland, Kevin O’Bryan & Brianna Stock, Marimba | Home by Sundown (Ralph Hicks) | Bliss, Andrew | Third |
Haslam College of Business
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Samantha Herold | A Material(ity) World: A Content Analysis of CSR Reporting Strategies of the Food & Beverage and Automotive Industries | Mollenkopf, Diane | First Place |
| Thomas Zyer | Thinking and Feeling: The Difference in Strategies of Pharmaceutical Advertising | Schumann, David | First Place |
| Kaitlin Waters | Brand Positioning vs. Employee Behavior: How Customer Service Affects Brand Perception | Zablah, Alex | Third Place |
| Benjamin Davis | Understanding the Retail Investor: Fundamental and Technical Analysis | Flint, Daniel | Honorable Mention |
| Piper Davis | How Do Sharing Economy Companies Grow? A Comparison of Internal and External Growth Patterns of Airbnb and Uber | Smith, Anne | Honorable Mention |
College of Communication and Information
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Steven Woods | Understanding Trends in Social Media Advertising from the Agency Perspective | Childers, Courtney | First Place |
| Alexander Wade | Kanye West: The Brand | Childers, Courtney | Second Place |
College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Emmitt Turner | Changes in HIV over time for the east region of Tennessee | Meschke, Laurie | First Place |
| Natalie Bennett | Inactivation of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Mediates Decreased Butytrate Oxidation in Colorectal Cancer Cells | Donohoe, Dallas | Second Place |
| Joshua Anderson | Physical Activity and Cognition in Preschool Children | Coe, Dawn | Third Place |
| Stephanie Eddy | Habituation Rate to Foods of Differing Fat and Sugar Content in Healthy Weight Women | Raynor, Hollie | Honorable Mention |
| Madeline Hayes | Arachnoid Cyst Surgical Treatment: A Meta Analysis of the Current Literature | TerMaath, Stephanie | Honorable Mention |
College of Engineering
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Jenny Patel & Madeline Standbridge | A Comparative Study of Cellular Calcification within the Male and Female Aortic Valves | Ferdous, Zannatul | First Place, Research |
| Hayden Jordan, Taylor Overton & Jonathan Yoder | Calf Bottle Monitoring System | Wilkerson, John | First Place, Design |
| William Hoskins | Effect of Heat Treatment and Chemical Composition on the High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) Resistance of C-½ Mo Steels | Lundin, Carl | Second Place, Research |
| James Ghawaly | Development of a Radioisotope Identification Algorithm for Gamma Spectra with a Low Energy Signal-to-noise Ratio | Hall, Howard | Third Place, Research |
| Aaron Sheppard, Matthew McCarter, Colin Szklarski, Trevor Cloar, Colten Stephens & Alex Kiser | Engineering Appalachia: A New Bridge at Red Bird Mission | Retherford, Jenny | Second Place, Design |
| James Swart, Parker Dulin & Payton Smith | RSWaTS: Rural School Wastewater Treatment System | Buchanan, John | Third Place, Design |
| Brandon Wilbanks | Biofuel Production in Modular Escherichia coli | Trinh, Cong | Honorable Mention |
| Mikayla Ehrsam | Investigation of Thin Film Silver Deposition inside Hollow Polymer Cylinders | Kalyanaraman, Ramakrishnan | Honorable Mention |
| Samira Ibrahim | Robust and Cost Efficient Method for Fabrication of Tungsten Tips for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy | Mukherjee, Dibyendu | Honorable Mention |
| Evan Boone | Incorporating Bioinspired Building Blocks into Conjugated Polymers for Organic Electronic Applications | Kilbey, Michael | Honorable Mention |
College of Nursing
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Ashley Dykes, Warren Bryant, Hiro Yamada & Jacob Barron | Early Mobilization of Mechanically Ventilated Patients | Thompson, Kathleen | First Place |
| Trevor Rogers, Brianne Geist, Rachel Cupp, Hunter Brooks, & Halie Lemasters | Vaccines, Education, and Economic Status: A Proposed Quantitative Study | Swift, Shelia | Second Place |
| Samantha Carley, Amy Larsh, Sharon Caddy & Kathryn Barnes | Tradition vs. Evidence-Based Practice in ICU Visitation Policies | Thompson, Kathleen | Third Place |
| Adaya Kirk | Audience, Content, Media: Factors to Consider When Designing Technology Based Asthma Education Programs for Children | Wyatt, Tami | First Place |
| Benjamin Woodward | Unit level Changes in Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection Before and After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Mandatory Reporting Legislation | Umberger, Reba | Second Place |
| Hannah Yoder | Cultural and situational risk factors that determine Black women’s experiences of antenatal care | Hardy, Lynda | Third Place |
| Neely Celsor, Caitlin Beaman, Lee Wayland & Anna Whitworth | The Effectiveness Of Patient Education With Technological Resources Versus Patient Education With Traditional Paper Handouts on Hospital Readmission Rates | Thompson, Kathleen | Honorable Mention |
| Lauren Gilletti, Shalini Patel, Tonya Denton & Emily Salomon | Cystic Fibrosis: Transition Education from Pediatric to Adult Medical Care | Thompson, Kathleen | Honorable Mention |
College of Social Work
| Student Name | Project Title | Faculty Mentor | Place |
| Shaun Mccomas | The Homeless and Civilians Legal Assistance Initiative: An Outcomes Evaluation | Choi, Sunha | First Place |
| Jessica Catlin | HIV Medication Compliance and Patient Satisfaction | Choi, Sunha | Second Place |
| Andrea Brennan | Reunification Rate of Drug Exposed Children in Custody with the Department of Children’s Services, Knox County | Choi, Sunha | Third Place |