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2012UGS-Winners

14th Annual Undergraduate Symposium for
Scholarly & Creative Work

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Keynote Speaker: Beth Meyerowitz

 

2012 Symposium Program

2012 Awards Banquet Program

2012 Undergraduate Symposium Prize Winners

$1000 First Prizes and $500 Second Prizes were awarded in each category

Arts

Honorable Mention Marcello Dolce
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Faculty Sponsors: Patrick Jackson and Ann Page, Roski School of Fine Arts
2nd Prize Tam Banh
Revitalizing Los Angeles River – Taylor Yard Farm
Faculty Sponsor: Lawrence Scarpa, School of Architecture
1st Prize Stacy Kwok
Truth in Making, Craft: An Architectural Inquiry
Faculty Sponsor: Lee Olvera, Architecture
Interdisciplinary Award Erin Cuevas, John Farrace
Welcome to Beautiful Juarez
Faculty Sponsor: Mario Cipresso, School of Architecture

Humanities

Honorable Mention Marrissa Emond
The Past and Present Menstrual Practices of the Dayak of West Kutai, Borneo: An Examination in Context for Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Faculty Sponsor: Robert Delgado, Biological Sciences, Dornsife College
2nd Prize Anna Bishop
Macro-Mapping the Maya: A Large-scale GIS Analysis of Maya Settlement Patterns in Belize
Faculty Sponsor: Lynn Swartz Dodd, Religion, Dornsife College
1st Prize Gregory Woodburn
Necessary of Life: Henry David Thoreau’s Concepts of America’s Problematic Progress, 1837 – 1862
Faculty Sponsor: Karen Halttunen, and Brett Sheehan, History, Dornsife College
Interdisciplinary Award Anu Ramachandran
Faith: Friend or Foe? The Rise of Faith Healing in Tanzania and Its Impact on Community Understanding of HIV
Faculty Sponsor: Erin Moore, Anthropology, Dornsife College

Life Sciences

Honorable Mention Brooke Sanders
Intra-articular Glucocorticoid Injections as a Cause for Adrenal Insufficiency
Faculty Sponsors: John Carmichael, Pituitary Center, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles; Albert Herrera, Biological Sciences, Dornsife College
Honorable Mention Barsegh Barseghian, Mary Boyadjian
Green Tea Polyphenols Preconditioning against Ischemic Stroke
Faculty Sponsor: Rayudu Gopalakrishna, Cell & Neurobiology, Keck School of Medicine
2nd Prize Sarah Waliany
Role of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in Promoting Metastasis of Breast Cancer Cells to the Brain
Faculty Sponsor: Rahul Jandial, Biological Sciences, Dornsife College
2nd Prize Linda Peng
Genetic and Functional Analysis of CYCP2;1 in Arabidopsis
Faculty Sponsor: Xuelin Wu, Biological Sciences, Dornsife College
1st Prize Kevin Le, Ellen Park
Bioengineering a mechanism to override plasmid-based antibiotic resistance
Faculty Sponsor: Sean Curran, Molecular and Cell Biology, Davis School of Gerontology

Physical Sciences & Engineering

Honorable Mention Aaron Henehan
Deconstructing the Rebound with Optical Tracking Data
Faculty Sponsors: Yu-Han Chang, Sam Danesis, and Rajiv Maheswaran, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
Honorable Mention Avril Pitter, Kirsten Rice, Kristen Sharer
Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Algae through Ultrasonication Extraction Method
Faculty Sponsors: Stephanie Olague, Massoud Pirbazari and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi
2nd Prize Sarah Hester, Steven (Alec) Leverette, William Murray
Thrust Augmentation of a Solid Rocket Motor by Means of Inert Gas Injection
Faculty Sponsors: Dan Erwin and Joseph Kunc, Astronautical Engineering, Viterbit
2nd Prize Jenny Zhang
Hydrogen generation from formic acid using ruthenium carbonyls as catalysts: kinetic and spectroscopic study of the reaction mechanism
Faculty Sponsors: Miklos Czaun, Alain Goeppert, and Surya Prakash, Chemistry, Dornsife College
1st Prize Hannah Gray, Aditi Yokota-Joshi
Removal of radioactive uranium from groundwater using nanoparticle technology and adsorption mechanisms
Faculty Sponsors: Massoud Pirbazari and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi

Social Sciences

Honorable Mention Mariah J Gill
Predicting the Success of Community Based Resource Management Programs: Waihe’e, Maui, Hawai’i Case Study
Faculty Sponsor: James Fawcett, Environmental Studies, Dornsife College
Honorable Mention Jordan Weiss
Antitrust: Policy, Prices, and Behavior
Faculty Sponsor: Michael Sproul, Economics, Dornsife College
2nd Prize Leandra Fraser
Es Mejor Saber: A Proactive Approach to Gestational Diabetes Follow Up
Faculty Sponsor: Penina Segall-Gutierrez, Co-Director, Family Planning Fellowship, Co-Director, Diabetes and Pregnancy Service, Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology and Family Medicine
2nd Prize Tyler Vestal
The Accuracy of Pseudo-Temporal Questions in Interviews of Children
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas D. Lyon, Gould School of Law
1st Prize Adrienne Scotti
The Effects of Database Type and Forensic Laboratory Error Rates on the Probative Value of DNA Evidence in a Cold Case
Faculty Sponsors: Richard John and Nicholas Scurich, Psychology, Dornsife College
1st Prize Lei (Lisa) Cui, Emily Gee
Chinese and American Emotional Responses to Environmental Advertisements
Faculty Sponsor: Ann Crigler, Political Science, Dornsife College
Interdisciplinary Award Linda Dahl
The Golden Horde and the Emergence of Muscovy
Faculty Sponsor: Azade-Ayse Rorlich, History, Dornsife College

Most Innovative
Sponsored by USC Stevens Institute for Innovation

Honorable Mention Lori Chen
Architecture as a Vehicle for Social Change in Southeast Asia
Faculty Sponsors: Jinhee Choung, Political Science, Dornsife College; James Steele, School of Architecture
2nd Prize Stephanie Lam
A Novel Method for Rib Periosteum Autografts in the Mouse for the Purpose of Assessing Bone Regeneration
Faculty Sponsor: Francesca Mariani, Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC
1st Prize Avril Pitter, Kirsten Rice, Kristen Sharer
Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Algae through Ultrasonication Extraction Method
Faculty Sponsors: Stephanie Olague, Massoud Pirbazari,and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi

Photos

2012UGS_3     2012UGS_Keynote

2012UGS_1     2012UGS_2