Pirates Celebrate Research at Annual Research and Creative Achievement Week

Published May 17, 2021 by
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For the 15th consecutive year East Carolina University students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty and staff celebrated their research achievements at the university’s annual Research and Creative Achievement Week from April 5-9.

Held virtually for the second consecutive year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, more than 280 students presented virtual poster and oral presentations, tripling last year’s virtual participation number. In total, the event had more than 2,300 online visitors with 18,622 unique presentation views.

In addition to its traditional poster and oral presentations, RCAW included the 2021 Provost’s Challenge, the 2021 Laser TAG image competition, and a special innovation and entrepreneurship section that highlighted student achievements in those fields.

Winners for this year’s event included:

Thesis and Dissertation Awards

  • Masters Thesis Award in Social Science, Business and Education: Jordan W. Barbee, Kinesiology, “Associations of coach, peer and parent-initiated motivational climate with burnout and engagement”
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award in Life Sciences: Edward Sanderlin, Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Biology, Biomedicine and Chemistry “The functional roles of pH-sensing G protein-coupled receptors in intestinal inflammation”
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award in Humanities and Fine Arts: Temptaous T. McKoy, Rhetoric, Writing and Professional Communication, “Y’all call it technical professional communication, we call it #ForTheCulture: The use of amplification rhetorics in Black communities and their implications for technical and professional communication studies”

 

Undergraduate Awards

  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Biomedical Sciences: Spencer Lynch, “A new model for fibrinolysis”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Business: Rachel Watkins and Oswaldo Rangel-Corona, “Tellus: A business driving the world’s transition to sustainable products”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Engineering: Nia Wilson, “Exploring the dynamic relationship between temperature and elevation in the lower atmospheric boundary layer”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Human Health: Dana Shefet, “Your child is overweight, now what? Understanding how head start staff communicate with low-income families about childhood obesity”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Humanities: Arvind Rajan, “Medspectives – the podcast about health professionals, the stories of their practice, and their diverse perspectives into the world around us”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Natural Sciences: Sarah Akers, “Why so blue? An investigation into the genetic underpinning of blue eggshells in the eastern bluebird”
  • Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award in Social Sciences: William Guiler, “A neuropsychological profile of college students with ADHD”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Biomedical Sciences: Mikayla Luke, “Predicting HBZ interaction with BATF3 enhancer regions through ChIP-seq”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Biomedical Sciences: Ananya Pentakota, “Validation of a novel mouse model of Cox6a2 knockdown”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Business: Kunal Chakraborty, Shaima Alamari and Ryan Cotroneo, “Activity based costing for management decision making in quality assurance laboratories”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Community Engagement: Alex Urban, “Campus voter initiative”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Education: Adam Butler, “The child-parent reading experience in pediatric medical office waiting areas”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Engineering: Grace Krell, “Repeatability of AERO for improved lymphedema assessment”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Human Health: Katrina Free, “Acute high and moderate intensity treadmill exercise increases appetite and NPY/AgRP neuron activity in untrained female mice”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Natural Sciences: Raazia Zia, “Structural and thermodynamic investigation of Pb2+ binding to human cardiac troponin C”
  • Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award in Social Sciences: Marianne Congema and Sarah Hoffman, “Culturally responsive community palliative care”

 

Graduate Awards

  • Masters Oral Presentation Award in Education: Varina Wekam, “Investigating mentoring experiences for populations interested in pursuing a career in medicine”
  • Masters Oral Presentation Award in Natural Sciences: Kelley Depolt, “Compound coastal water event risk within eastern North Carolina”
  • Masters Oral Presentation Award in Visual and Fine Arts: John Rhodes-Pruitt, “The monster in me: Navigating towards the mainstream”
  • Masters Poster Presentation Award in Engineering: Patricia Butler, “Cost-benefit analysis of 3D FE modeling of the tibia throughout the stance phase”
  • Masters Poster Presentation Award in Human Health: Kathryn Moore, “Maintaining social participation and quality of life through community mobility after driving cessation with transportation planning”
  • Graduate Oral Presentation Award in Biomedical Sciences: Bhaven Patel, “Emergent coordination of the Chkb and Cpt1b genes in eutherian mammals: Implications for the origin of brown adipose tissue”
  • Graduate Oral Presentation Award in Engineering and Technology: Matthew Carroll, “Simulation of transient traffic flow resulting from mixed conventional and autonomous vehicles”
  • Graduate Oral Presentation Award in Human Health: Rachel Grantham, “Investigating the influence of framing techniques on self-efficacy, other-efficacy, and anticipated affect in an online fitness setting”
  • Graduate Oral Presentation Award in Social Sciences: Gwyneth Schuler, “Wildlife tourists’ perceptions of pro-conservation behavior efficacy”
  • Graduate Poster Presentation Award in Biomedical Sciences: Mark Tripson, “Cannabidiol (CBD) improved vocal recovery is associated with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant efficacy”
  • Graduate Poster Presentation Award in Natural Sciences: Aied Garcia, “Chronic nutrient enrichment alters the functional role of the soil microbiome in a coastal plain wetland”
  • Graduate Poster Presentation Award in Social Sciences: Dakota Pavell, “The genus cantius and the phylogenetic importance of North American primates”
  • Doctoral Oral Presentation Award in Education: Paul Briney, “The effects of implementing research-based interventions to fidelity within the MTSS framework on K-2 literacy”
  • Doctoral Oral Presentation Award in Natural Sciences: Brian Bartlett, “Projected changes of the distribution of nassau grouper spawning habitat and its management implications”
  • Doctoral Poster Presentation Award in Human Health: Polina Krassovskaia, “Inheritability of the ‘Athlete’s Paradox’: The impact of maternal exercise on offspring skeletal muscle health”

 

Laser TAG Image Competition

  • First Place: Dr. Emily Wilson, Anatomy and Cell Biology
  • Second Place: Rohan Parekh, Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • Third Place: Sarah Goodnight, Biology
  • Third Place: Jonathan Carver, Biology

Winning posters and presentations are available online, as well as images from the 2021 Laser TAG image competition.