The Undergraduate Research Office hosted the spring 2026 Intersections, an undergraduate research symposium, in April. This program, held each semester, allows members of the Case Western Reserve University and broader communities to see the breadth of research and creative endeavors completed by undergraduate students.
Several students received honors for their presentations at the event.
Arts and Humanities
- First place (tie): Ifeyinwa Chidi— “Student Perceptions of Their Own Writing Development Throughout the SAGES Program at CWRU,” mentored by Martha Schaffer, Department of English
- First place (tie): Walter Wexler—“WRUW 91.1 Archive Cataloging, Digitization, and Oral Histories” mentored by John Grabowski, Department of History
- Third place: Adam Joseph, William Clark and Rebecca Liaw—“More than Just a Shot: Mapping Police Violence and Community Health Disparities in the U.S.,” mentored by David Clingingsmith, Department of Economics
Computer Science & Data Science
- First place: Kaleb Kim, Krishin Parikh, Vidyut Veedgav, Hung Nguyen and Elyas Ortecho-Rose— “Lineage: Telling Life Stories Through Movies,” mentored by Shuai Xu, Department of Computer and Data Sciences
- Second place: Lyra Bhatnagar, Ananya Veerubhotla, Evan Holtzmeier and Ramses Aguilar—“Machine Learning for Sepsis Prediction” mentored by Shuai Xu, Department of Computer and Data Sciences
- Third place: Moq Alyasiri—“Estimating Tail Risks in Indices Using Machine Learning,” mentored by Cyrus Taylor, Department of Physics
Engineering
- First place (tie): Trey Coughlin— “Naturally Sourced and Intrinsically Flame-Retardant Polybenzoxazines,” mentored by Hatsuo Ishida, Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering
- First place (tie): Irene Bhunia, Hannah Driscoll, Lucas Romero, Melis Sahin and Jerry Yang—“A Safer and More Inclusive Phototherapy Device for Treatment of T-Cell Lymphoma,” mentored by Matthew Williams, Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Third place: Rohan Bhushan, Michael Dumas, Kanthi Karumbunathan, Ari Kefer and Kaitlin Kim—“Wearable Biosignal System for Detection and Prediction of Recurrent Syncope,” mentored by Matthew Williams, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Life Sciences
- First place: Alyssa Bashaar— “Identification of condensin-inhibited pathways that promote cell death during development,” mentored by Michelle Longworth, Department of Molecular Medicine
- Second place: Enysah Roberts—“Exploring the Role of FAK in the Centrosome Vulnerability of Invasive Lobular Carcinomas,” mentored by Darcie Seachrist, Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute
- Third place: Angela Li—“Association Between Insomnia and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Role of APOE ε4 Status in Older Adults,” mentored by Yeunjoo Song, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences
Nursing, Social Science, & Management
- First place: Berenice Grijalva Arvizu— “Puentes y Palabras: Supporting Bilingual Language Development Through Culturally Responsive Play-Based Materials,” mentored by Lauren Calandruccio, Department of Psychological Sciences
- Second place (tie): Katelyn Kim and Elizabeth Odife—“The Effect of Insulin Copay Caps on Diabetes-Related Mortality and Insulin Rationing Behaviors,” mentored by David Clinigingsmith, Department of Economics
- Second place (tie): Bradley Winter—“How Team Meeting Dynamics Established by Leaders Predict Engagement and Psychological Safety,” mentored by John Paul Stephens, Department of Organizational Behavior
Physical Sciences & Mathematics
- First place: Antonio Maria Verissimo Lopes Maia— “Shear Thickening and Jamming in Dense Suspension: Impact of Particle Rotation,” mentored by Abhinendra Singh, Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering
- Second place: John Conover—“Separating the Four Stereoisomers of Isoleucine Using LC-MS,” mentored by Runjie Xia, Department of Chemistry
- Third place: Dounia Ouzidane—“Exploring Non-dimensional Reduction Techniques on Bulk RNA-sequence Data” mentored by Abdul-Nasah Soale, Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics
