ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University’s Office of Undergraduate Research has announced 16 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships for summer 2021. Each SURF winner receives university funds, including a $2,000 stipend, $1,000 in research support, free housing for ten weeks during the summer and $500 in travel support to disseminate their research results to conferences during the next university year.
“The proposals for summer research were reviewed and scored based on rigorous criteria, using a rubric validated by the Advisory Board of the Office of Undergraduate Research and available online,” said Cristian Bahrim, physics professor and acting director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. “This year the proposals were of exceptional quality. The winners scored between 77.3% and 90.5%, which is the best performance ever.”
This year, 29 reviewers selected the 15 winning proposals. Each SURF proposal was reviewed by four faculty, among whom at least two were experts in the research area assessed. Of the 15 winning projects, 11 represent STEM areas and four represent humanities, arts, social and behavioral sciences education and business areas, with 16 awardees.
“The O.U.R. Advisory Board and the whole LU community is proud of all our SURF 2021 winners. We warmly congratulate the student winners, as well as their inspiring and dedicated faculty mentors for this achievement and we look forward to their finalized research projects in the fall,” said Bahrim.
SURF 2021 awardees and their mentors:
College of Arts and Sciences
Oluwatomisin Egbewale, computer science
Mentors: Dr. Sujing Wang and Dr. Xingya Liu
Callan Noak, computer science
Mentors: Dr. Sujing Wang
Nyah Sciarrilla, biology
Mentor: Dr. Matt Hoch
Carrissa Slaughter, biology
Mentor: Dr. Ashwini Kucknoor
Danielle Soileau, biology
Mentor: Dr. Ashwini Kucknoor
College of Engineering
Alexander Bahrim, electrical engineering
Mentors: Dr. Gleb Tscheslavski and Dr. Cristian Bahrim
Kalen Baker, mechanical engineering
Mentor: Dr. Ping He
Cymone Houston, civil and environmental engineering
Mentor: Dr. Thinesh Sevaratnam
Melissa Tan, civil and environmental engineering
Mentor: Dr. Thinesh Sevaratnam
Gabriel West, mechanical engineering
Mentors: Dr. Sushil Doranga and Dr. Jenny Zhou
College of Fine Arts and Communication
Chloe Smith, speech and hearing sciences
Mentor: Dr. Monica Harn
Madison Fondren and Kinlee Buesing, speech and hearing sciences
Mentor: Dr. Jamie Azios
Cesar Julian Delgado, communication and media
Mentors: Mr. Andre Favors and Dr. Natalie Tindall
College of Education and Human Development
Damaris Thrash, health and kinesiology
Mentor: Dr. Shannon Jordan
College of Business
Viviana Denova, finance
Mentor: Dr. Gevorg Sargsyan