Arts & Sciences Expo 2023

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Arts & Sciences Exposition 2023

Expo 2023 was held Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28. The event featured 57 participants and about 50 projects. This year's Expo included the Honors Projects of all senior Honors students.

For numerous photos of the reception, courtesy of Danny Bush, visit .

Participants, Projects, and Mentors

The projects are indexed by the mentors’ departments/programs.

The 2023 Arts & Sciences Exposition

Accounting

Valentina Cossio- Siles '23: “Art in Business.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Michael Kasperski

Biology

Neeya Shetty '24 & Tara Kaul '25: “The Effect of Glutamine Inhibitors on Mitophagy in AML Cells.”
Mentor: Dr. Kaitlyn Dykstra

Courtney Fox '23: “FEZ1 Expression in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Mixed Lineage Leukemia-rearrangement (MLL-r).”
Mentor: Dr. Kaitlyn Dykstra

Madelyn Dziezgowski ’24: “The Effect of HDAC11 Inhibition on Fez1 Expression and Cell Viability in MLL-wt vs MLL-rearranged AML Cell Lines.”
Mentor: Dr. Kaitlyn Dykstra

Tharini Nagarkar ‘24: “Finding Fez1: Nuclear Function in MLL-rearranged Acute Myeloid Leukemia.”
Mentor: Dr. Kaitlyn Dykstra

Amelia Haley ’23 & Filip Morawski ‘23: “Exploring two potential components of synergistic AML cell targeting via autophagy inhibition and disruption of glutamine metabolism.”
Mentor: Dr. Kaitlyn Dykstra

Nishtha Tripathi ‘24: “Investigating Brain Circuitry and Behavioral Output in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease Progression.” REU.
Mentor: Dr. Sean Ryan

Tessa Fabiniak ’25 & Tanvi Paritala ‘23: “The Effect of 3,5-Dicholorosalicylic Acid (DCSA) on Craniofacial Development in Zebrafish.”
Mentor: Dr. Sean Ryan

Laurie Horsch ’23: “Generation of pUC18 vector containing a narG-GFP construct for Pseudomonas aeruginosa applications.” Independent biology research.
Mentor: Dr. Johanna Schwingel

Shannon Heinig ‘24: “Generating histidine kinase & response regulator mutants in Moraxella catarrhalis.” Independent biology research.
Mentor: Dr. Johanna Schwingel

Samantha Greco ’23 & Allison Pierce ‘22 (Sam Greco presented): “Using Identification Methods to Name Unknown Bacteria.” Course research from BIO 321 - Microbiology.
Mentor: Dr. Johanna Schwingel

Erin McLaughlin ’23 & Adam Russ ‘23: “Eye Spy with My Little Eye Several Unknown Microorganisms: Identification of Microbes Using Biochemical and Genetic Identification Methods.” Course research from BIO 321 - Microbiology.
Mentor: Dr. Johanna Schwingel

Emily Gustafson ‘23: “The Pet Project.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Johanna Schwingel

Biochemistry

Arden Bui ‘23: “Serine/Arginine-rich 45 affects Arabidopsis thaliana Reproduction by Promoting Pollen Tube Development and Suppressing DUO1-Activated Zinc Finger 1.”
Mentor: Dr. Xiaoning Zhang

Leigha Haberly ‘23: “A molecular battle ground: How Serine Arginine-Rich (SR45) suppresses protease SAP2 to regulate immunity in Arabidopsis thaliana.”
Mentor: Dr. Xiaoning Zhang

Serena Fan ‘24: “Investigating the nuclear localization of SAP18 in Arabidopsis thaliana.”
Mentor: Dr. Xiaoning Zhang

Iesh Gujral ’26 & Nele Vetter ‘26: “Investigating the Effect of Serine/Arginine-Rich 45 on Flowering Time and Gene Activity in Transgenic Arabidopsis Lines.”
Mentor: Dr. Xiaoning Zhang

Chemistry

Erin Brege ‘23: “Dental Anxiety.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Scott Simpson

Lillian Crane ‘25: “The molecular corking effect.”
Mentor: Dr. Scott Simpson

Katherine Merkel ‘23: “An Investigation of the Structure of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes.”
Mentor: Dr. Scott Simpson

Kishan Patel ’24 & Samay Saxena ‘25: “Calculating Octanol-Water Partition Coefficients for Polyfluorinated Alkyl Acids.”
Mentor: Dr. Scott Simpson

William Wozniak ‘24: “Calculating the effects of corks on single atom alloys aggregation.”
Mentor: Dr. Scott Simpson

Computer Science

Teddy Murphey ‘24, Arjun Patel ‘23, & Kyle Strycharz ‘23: “Campus Dining Hall Rating Application – isHickeyGood.” Course project for CS 390 - Software Engineering.
Mentor: Dr. Chris Bopp

Blake Krlic ’24 & Brandon Nguyen ‘24: “User Experience Design App Prototypes.” Course project for CS 257 - User Experience Design.
Mentor: Dr. Chris Bopp

Inclusive Special Education

Sarah Sefried ‘23: “The Social and Emotional Needs of Children Receiving Foster Care Support from the Perspective of Foster Parents: A Qualitative Study.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. René Hauser

Philosophy

Amara Young ‘23: “An Ethical Examination of Laptop Ban Policies in Undergraduate Courses.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Russell Woodruff

Psychology

Yasmine Lotfi ‘23: “Magnetic Mind: Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (rTMS) as a Promising Treatment for Resistant Depression.” Behavioral Neuroscience Senior Seminar report.
Mentor: Dr. Althea Kaminske

Jacqueline Kibler ‘24: “Sports-Related Concussions: Evaluating Protocol.” Behavioral Neuroscience Senior Seminar report.
Mentor: Dr. Althea Kaminske

Angela LaGrou ‘24: “Environmental Effects on the Development and Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.” Behavioral Neuroscience Senior Seminar report.
Mentor: Dr. Althea Kaminske

Andrew Jozef ‘24: “Bilateral Movement as a Treatment for Corpus Callosum Defects.” Behavioral Neuroscience Senior Seminar report.
Mentor: Dr. Althea Kaminske

Fatima Lagunilla ‘25: “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effectiveness in Treating Bipolar 1 & 2.” Behavioral Neuroscience Senior Seminar report.
Mentor: Dr. Althea Kaminske

Neeya Shetty ‘24: “Microaggressions on College Campuses.” Independent study.
Mentor: Dr. Irene Strasser

Abigail Holohan ‘23: “Boy-Oh-Boy: Effect of Perception of Gender on ADHD Diagnosis.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Stephane Vogel

Public Health and Health Science

Ayushi Jain ‘23: “Queering Medical Education through an Intersectional Lens: An Overview & History of the Medical Treatment and Discrimination Against Trans* Patients of Color in Health Care.” Honors Project.
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Allen

Caroline Rozanski ‘23: “For Joey: Investigating the Knowledge of 5k Runners on 5K Charities.” Honors project.
Mentor: Dr. Jeffrey Allen

Visual and Performing Arts

Carolina Berlingieri ‘25: Two acrylic portraits, oil landscape.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Isabella Biviano ‘26: Oil landscape, watercolor landscape.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Arden Bui ‘23: Two pastel landscape drawings.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Caitlin Cullinane ‘24: Oil portrait, oil dog portrait, oil still Life, watercolor landscape.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Lyndsay Flippin ‘23: Three architectural designs.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Maxwell Wolfe ‘26: Oil landscape, watercolor landscape.
Mentor: Anne Mormile, M.F.A.

Benjamin Allen ‘23, Alexandra Beamish ‘25, Vivek Boddakayala ‘23, Nikolas Figueroa ‘23, Joseph Fisher ‘23, Yasmine Lotfi ‘23, & Tanvi Paritala ‘23: Original Production Music Composed and Arranged by members of MU 431 - MIDI & Audio Applications.
Mentor: Dr. Les Sabina

Women's Studies

Bianca Billoni ‘23: “The Evolution of Female Rage in Cinema – From Being Angry Because of Others to Being Angry for Herself.” WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz

Faith Gworek ‘23: “The Pay Gap in Women’s Sports.” WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz

Abigail Holohan ‘23: “Baking, She Wrote: Recipes Inspired by Fictional Women.” WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz

Ayushi Jain ‘23: “Crossroads of Womanhood: An Art Collection on Intersectional Feminism.” Three paintings. WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz

Tenaya Ramadhan ‘23: “Rape Culture in the Film Promising Young Woman (2020) – How the Film’s Villains Fit the Social Roles of Rape Culture.” WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz

Amara Young ‘23: “The MSSA’s Male-Only Registration Requirement.” WS 499 capstone project.
Mentor: Dr. Lauren Matz