Honors College undergraduate researchers land top awards at Showcase
Fifty-three students participated in the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) 2024 on March 25th, 2024 as part of a week-long series of events honoring the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff.
Held since 2012, SURCA is the only WSU-wide venue for students systemwide in every major and year in college to share their mentored research.
Honors College students winning either Crimson or Gray awards are listed below by major, mentor, and project title.
Abstracts and additional information about each SURCA presenter for all the presenters is available online.
Applied Sciences
Jacob Buursma
Neuroscience
Mentor: Kristen Delevich
“Long-term Effects of Adolescent Cannabis Vapor Exposure on Corticostriatal Circuits Responsible for Decision Making”
Arts and Design
Jasper Willson
Multimedia Journalism
Mentor: Lisa Waananen Jones
“Forest on Fire: A Documentary About the Changing Relationship of Fire in the Sequoia Ecosystems”
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Dylan Suina
Mechanical Engineering
Mentor: Jeffrey Bell
“Modifying 3D Printed Carbon-infused Thermoplastics for Applications in Potentiometry”
Suzanne Gelston
Chemical Engineering
Mentor: Dilara Ozdemir
“In Vitro Activity of HOCl Generating Scaled-up Electrochemical Bandages”
Connor Reschke
Materials Science and Engineering, Spanish
Mentor: Hui Li
“Recycling Wood Waste with Particleboard and Pelleting”
Humanities
Matthew Bunge
Economic Sciences
Mentor: Shawna Herzog
“Britain’s Financial Revolution and Class Exploitation, 1689 – 1740”
Molecular, Cellular, and Chemical Biology
Ally Richards
Microbiology
Mentor: Sean McGuire
“Investigating the Role of Protein-protein Interaction of GPAT9 in Arabidopsis thaliana”
Lauren Benjamin and Hailey Landsparger
Neuroscience
Mentor: Emily Qualls-Creekmore
“Identification of Neural Circuits That Participate in Stress Habituation”
Stevie Fawcett
Microbiology, Spanish
Mentor: Stephanie Seifert
“In vitro Tool Development for the Study of Hantaviruses”
Eva Rickard
Data Analytics
Mentor: Sascha Duttke
“Decoding Gene Regulatory Networks Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia”
Jasmin Chu
Neuroscience
Mentor: Kristen Delevich
“Microglial Ablation Effects on Adolescent Behavioral Flexibility”
Organismal, Population, Ecological, and Evolutionary Biology
Molly Greiner
Biochemistry
Mentor: Hanna Delgado
“Characterizing symbiotic rhizobia isolated from native Trifolium”
HarleyJo Holman
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Sciences
Mentors: Lisa Shipley, Leah Brueggeman
“Mountain Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) Habitat in the South Selkirks: Zonal Shifts in Dynamic Landscapes”
Braeden Stiffler
Biochemistry
Mentor: Janice Parks
“How Pea-canola Intercropping (Peaola) Changes Soil Inorganic Nitrogen Content”
Social Sciences
Matteya Proctor
Neuroscience, Psychology
Mentor: Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe
“The Moderating Effect of Cognitive Self-Efficacy on the Relation Between Cognition and Technology-Based Health Information Search in Middle-Aged and Older Adults”