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17th Annual Undergraduate Symposium for
Scholarly & Creative Work

Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Keynote Speaker: Maja Matarić

2015 Symposium Program

2015 Awards Banquet Program

2015 Undergraduate Symposium Prize Winners

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

Arts

20 submissions

Honorable Mention
William Cherry, Gus Bendinelli, Miranda Due, Michael Effenberger, Peter Franklin, Stephen Helstad, Jonathan Ho, Sarah Huck, William Ilgen, William Merrick, Amir Mojarradi, Michael Nader
Campbell’s
Faculty Sponsor: Sheldon Larry and Michael Peyser, Production, School of Cinematic Arts
Honorable Mention
Susana Lopera
Exocentricity
Faculty Sponsors: Karen Koblitz, Roski School of Art and Design
2nd Prize
Carrie Moore
Best Behavior: Stories of the Black Middle Class
Faculty Sponsor: Dana Johnson, English, Dornsife College
1st Prize
Max Pittsley with
Deborah Bello, Isabella Marie Benavente, Caroline Chiou, Catherine Chooljian, Norman Chootong, Paula Collins, Michael Duan, Quentin Frere-Carossio, Maracel Guevarra, Katherine Hood, Fangli (Simon) Hou, Jonathan (Nathan) Iskandar, Patrick Lancaster, Brendan Lobuglio, Boston Mak, Adrian Mendoza, Alexander Morgan, Luke Patterson, Alexis Russell, Emma Smith, Wai Hwa (Ben) Tan, Christopher (Brady) Thomas, Ilani Fay Umel, Jasmine Ying
ElemenTerra
Faculty Sponsor: Tracy Fullerton, Interactive Entertainment, School of Cinematic Arts; Geoffery Long, Innovation Lab, Annenberg; Laird Malamed, Interactive Entertainment, School of Cinematic Arts

Humanities

12 submissions

Honorable Mention
Janet Le
Reclaiming Community Space Through Wall Narratives: The Rise of Chicano/a and Latino/a Muralism in Pacoima
Faculty Sponsor: Elda Roman, Dornsife College
Honorable Mention
Cameron Espinoza
Elements of Substance: An Analysis of Dostoyevsky’s Stylistic Techniques in Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov
Faculty Sponsor: Juvenal Cortes, Political Science, Dornsife College
2nd Prize
Nina Castilla, Alleluia Tyus
Hasmonean Prutot: Cast or Struck?
Faculty Sponsor: Lynn Swartz Dodd, Religion, Dornsife College
1st Prize
Rosebud Campion
Can Western Art Music Be Narrative?
Faculty Sponsor: Joanna Demers, Thornton School of Music
Interdisciplinary Award
Amanda Semler
Methods of detecting submarine groundwater discharge and its implications for ancient and contemporary civilizations on Catalina Island
Faculty Sponsor: Lynn Swartz Dodd, Archaeology, Dornsife College

Life Sciences

44 submissions

Honorable Mention
Ryan Heintz
Exercise training reinstates cortico-cortical sensorimotor functional connectivity following striatal lesioning
Faculty Sponsors: Daniel Holschneider, Behavioral Sciences; Jean-Michel Maarek, Biomedical
Engineering; Zhuo Wang, Psychiatry & the Behavioral Sciences; Yu-Hao Peng,
Engineering; Yumei Guo, Psychiatry & The Behavioral Sciences
Honorable Mention
Kaitlin McGillivray, Vishnu Rao
The Impact of Dosing Strategies and the Tumor Microenvironment on Drug Resistance
Faculty Sponsor: Shannon Mumenthaler, Keck School of Medicine
2nd Prize
Karthik Vasan
The Role of Class III HDACs in the Growth and Survival of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Faculty Sponsors: Shou-Jiang Gao, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
1st Prize
Archana Bettadapur, Clara Hua, Gio Suh
Engineering the Extracellular Matrix for Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Growth and Differentiation
Faculty Sponsors: Megan McCain, Viterbi School of Engineering

Physical Sciences, Mathematics & Engineering

31 submissions

Honorable Mention
Christopher Dougherty, Ryan Miller
The recreation of a unique shrimp’s mechanically induced cavitation bubble
Faculty Sponsors: Veronica Eliasson, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi; Gauri Khanolkar, Graduate Collaborator
Honorable Mention
Samuel Kushner-Lenhoff
Low-threshold integrated red microlaser from samarium-doped silica
Faculty Sponsor: Andrea Armani, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi
2nd Prize
Karl Heyer
Developing the Next Generation of Cancer Diagnostics
Faculty Sponsors: Farzad Jalali-Yazdi and Richard W. Roberts, Chemical Engineering, Viterbi
1st Prize
Ellie Hara
Characterization of organic carbon transport in the aftermath of a large earthquake
Faculty Sponsor: Zhangdong Jin, State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology; Jin Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China; Fei Zhang, Institute of Earth Environment; Joshua West, Gen Li, Will Berelson, and Douglas Hammond, Earth Sciences, Dornsife College
Interdisciplinary Award
Evan Brown
Genetic Algorithm Optimization of Reactive Force Field Parameters in Molecular Dynamics
Faculty Sponsors: Aiichiro Nakano, Computer Science, Physics & Astronomy, and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Pankaj Rajak and Chunyang Sheng, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, Viterbi

Social Sciences I

22 submissions

Honorable Mention Engie Salama
Automated Curriculum Mapping Using Latent Semantic Analysis
Faculty Sponsor: Ian Haworth, School of Pharmacy
Honorable Mention Rachel Jones
We will not be silent no more: the case of Canada’s Idle No More and Indigenous Political Resistance in the Digital Age
Faculty Sponsors: Eliz Sanasarian, Political Science, Dornsife College
2nd Prize Roxana Ontiveros
Criminalization, Racialization, and Informality: Mexican Immigrant Labor Participation in the South Central and Compton Pallet Industry
Faculty Sponsor: Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Sociology, Dornsife College
1st Prize William Orr
Reckless and Indiscriminate: The Impact of Japanese Bombing in the Second Sino-Japanese War on pre-World War II American Depictions of Area Bombing
Faculty Sponsor: Philip Ethington, History, Dornsife College
Interdisciplinary Prize Award Luis Villanueva
The New Entrepreneur – Bridging South Central
Faculty Sponsor: Lorcan O’Herlihy, School of Architecture

Social Sciences II

35 submissions

Honorable Mention Janis Yue
Marijuana and the Mind: Brain Differences between Users and Non-Users
Faculty Sponsors: Laura Baker, Psychology and Neuroscience, Dornsife College
Honorable Mention Tori Hirata
Habits and Self-Control: An Examination of the Benefit of Habit Performance on Self-Control
Faculty Sponsor: Jo Ann Farver, Jennifer Labrecque, and Wendy Wood, Psychology, Dornsife College
2nd Prize Carolyn Windler
How Purity Beliefs Impact Moral Judgments Regarding Vaccines
Faculty Sponsor: Jesse Graham, Psychology, Dornsife College
1st Prize Kristene Hossepian
Community Violence Exposure and the Moderating Effects of Coparenting
Faculty Sponsors: Gayla Margolin, Psychology, Dornsife College
Interdisciplinary Award Hania Adib
Questioning Children about Their Understanding of the Physician’s Role
Faculty Sponsors: Thomas D. Lyon, Gould School of Law

Digital Media

Honorable Mention
Kylie Nicholson
Standards of Self: Disordered Thoughts, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders
Faculty Sponsor: DJ Johnson, Media Arts and Practice, School of Cinematic Arts
Honorable Mention
Linda Wang
Transcultural Reformations: History, Identity, and Politics in Dakar Hip-Hop Culture
Faculty Sponsor: Karen Tongson, Gender Studies, Dornsife College
2nd Prize
Ziyu Ouyang, Yu Chuan Shan
Modeling 3D Campus And Visualizing Indoor Routing
Faculty Sponsor: Kyohyouk Kim and John Wilson, Spatial Sciences Institute, Dornsife College
1st Prize
Max Pittsley with
Deborah Bello, Isabella Marie Benavente, Caroline Chiou, Catherine Chooljian, Norman Chootong, Paula Collins, Michael Duan, Quentin Frere-Carossio, Maracel Guevarra, Katherine Hood, Fangli (Simon) Hou, Jonathan (Nathan) Iskandar, Patrick Lancaster, Brendan Lobuglio, Boston Mak, Adrian Mendoza, Alexander Morgan, Luke Patterson, Alexis Russell, Emma Smith, Wai Hwa (Ben) Tan, Christopher (Brady) Thomas, Ilani Fay Umel, Jasmine Ying
ElemenTerra
Faculty Sponsor: Tracy Fullerton, Interactive Entertainment, School of Cinematic Arts; Geoffery Long, Innovation Lab, Annenberg; Laird Malamed, Interactive Entertainment, School of Cinematic Arts
Interdisciplinary Award Bronte Ficek
A Lecture Recital on the Brain and Music
Faculty Sponsors: Assal Habibi, Brain and Creativity Institute

USC Schwarzenegger Institute

2nd Prize Thomas Do
Proton Assisted Reduction of CO₂ by Cobalt Pyridine Amino Macrocycles
Faculty Sponsor: Alon Chapovetsky and Smaranda Marinescu, Chemistry, Dornsife College
1st Prize Joseph Yoo
Cobalt Dithiolene-like Metal Organic Surfaces for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution
Faculty Sponsors: Andrew Clough, Courtney Downes, and Smaranda Marinescu, Chemistry, Dornsife College

Photos

2015UGS_2     2015UGS_1

2015UGS_3     2015UGS_Keynote