Scholars Forum 2024 Award Winners

College of Arts and Humanities

Juried Art Dean’s Award (Tie)

• Benjamin Van Wieren, “Two Homes: An Exploration of Light and Dissonance” (faculty mentor, Ivan Fortushniak)
• Juliana Shaffer, “From the Garden” (faculty mentor, Sharon Massey)

Juried Art Honorable Mentions

• Simon Fortushniak and James Jaworski, “Kopchick Bench Model” (faculty mentor, BA Harrington)

Graduate:

Dean’s Award

• Ammar Mahmoud, “Developing a Plan to Handle Any College-level Writing Assignment” (faculty mentor, Dana Driscoll)

Outstanding Poster

• Oksana Moroz, “‘To Post or Not to Post?’ Gen Z Multilingual Students’ Habits and Usages of Digital Tools and Digital Identity Construction During Pandemic” (faculty mentor, Matthew Vetter)

Outstanding Oral

• Brian Sateriale, “Androgynism: Recognition of the Influence of Hieros Gamos—the Ancient Masculine-Feminine Sacred Union—in Literature, Art, and Film of the 20th and 21st Centuries” (faculty mentor, Christopher Orchard)

Undergraduate:

Dean’s Award

• Victoria Mwangi, “The Crimean War Through the Eyes of Florence Nightingale” (faculty mentor, Lingyan Yang)

Outstanding Poster

• Thomas Jordan, “What is Music? A Philosophical Analysis of Western Music” (faculty mentor, Leo Yan)

Outstanding Oral

• Olivia Wanat, “Colonial Independence: A Comparison of Puerto Rico and the Philippines” (faculty mentor, Soo Lu)

Eberly College of Business

Graduate:

Dean’s Award

• James Walubengo Mukaisi, “Factors affecting the average wage: Challenges for business firms” (faculty mentor, Yaya Sissoko)

Undergraduate:

Dean’s Award

• John Sieber and Myca Torreance, “Shooting for Success: An Econometric Analysis of Factors Influencing NBA Salaries” (faculty mentor, James Jozefowicz)

Outstanding Poster

• Austin Moore and Victor River, “Sector Analysis of Stock Market Volatility” (faculty mentor, Todd Potts)

Outstanding Oral

• Jacob Holes and Nate Zik, “Analyzing Determinants of Major League Baseball Game Attendance” (faculty mentor, James Jozefowicz)

College of Education and Communications

Graduate:

Dean’s Award

• Nafisah Ahmad Sulaiman, “The Effect of Political Songs on Choice of Candidate, Political Ideology, and Party Loyalty Among Young Nigerians” (faculty mentor, Nurhaya Muchtar) *2023 COEC Dean’s Award Winner

Outstanding Oral

• Ram Sharma, “From Crisis to Connection: Strategic Communication in Nepal's 2015 Earthquake Recovery” (faculty mentor, Nurhaya Muchtar)

College of Health and Human Services

Graduate:

Dean’s Award

• Amber Lawrence, “Allegheny County and Environmental Injustices: A Mixed Methods Approach” (faculty mentor, Hilario Molina) *2022 USOAR participant

Outstanding Oral

• Cara Staresinic “The Impact of Parental Involvement on Juveniles on Probation” (faculty mentor, Alida Merlo)

Outstanding Poster

• Jenna Sorensen and Adam Jones, “Does the Process Matter? Student Perceptions of IUP’s Community Standards Procedures” (faculty mentor, Adam Jones)

Undergraduate:

Dean’s Award

• Thomas Oraskovich, “Gender and Racial Dynamics in Indiana Indigent Defense Representations” (faculty mentor, Christian Vaccaro) *2023 USOAR participant

Outstanding Poster

• Morgan McNaught, “Expanding Our Self-Views: Examining a Writing Intervention to Reduce Self-Objectification” (faculty mentor, Anson Long)

Outstanding Oral

• Megan Grill, “Negative Mental Health Outcomes in Emerging Adults Estranged from a Parent” (faculty mentor, Tara Johnson)

College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Graduate:

Dean’s Award

• Elena Frye and Heather Alvarado, “Analyzing Fire-Cracked Rock at Mary Rinn for Comparison to Monongahela Sites” (faculty mentor, Lara Homsey-Messer)

Outstanding Poster

• Brady Blackburn, David Janetski, Eric J. Chapman, Eli Long, John Berger, and Trent Millum, “The Effects of Culverts on Fish Communities in Western Pennsylvania Streams” (faculty mentor, David Janetski)

Outstanding Oral

• Toby Trotta and Samuel Moffat, “A Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Analysis for Education Level and Alzheimer’s” (faculty mentor, Yu-Ju Kuo)

Undergraduate:

Dean’s Award

• Dainel Kukula, “Drone Acquired Data for Analysis of Energy Efficiency in IUP Buildings” (faculty mentor, John Benhart)

Outstanding Poster

• Michael Wood, “A GIS Analysis of Drone Flight Risks and Sensor Infrastructure in Cambria County” (faculty mentor, John Benhart)

Outstanding Oral

• Samuel Moffat, Michael Raus, and Toby Trotta, “Optimizing Mathematical Models to Minimize Long-Term Side Effects of Proton Therapy” (faculty mentor, Yu-Ju Kuo)

Jones White Writing Center Awards

Graduate

• Amber Lawrence, “Allegheny County and Environmental Injustices: A Mixed Methods Approach” (faculty mentor, Hilario Molina) *2022 USOAR participant

Undergraduate

• Thomas Oraskovich, “Examining Forgiveness and Reconciliation Among Estranged Adult Children” (faculty mentor, Christian Vaccaro) *2023 USOAR participant

Excellence in Data Analysis Award (sponsored by the ARL)

Graduate

• Court Harding, Maria Celeste Molina Zavala, and Josiah Townsend, “Why the Swamper Crossed the Road: Space Use of Adult Female Endemic Ctenosaura, Ctenosaura bakeri” (faculty mentor, Josiah Townsend)

Undergraduate

• Hannah Borys, “Behavioral Microanalysis of Pre vs. Post Conditioning Data Collected from Conditioned Placement Preference Trail 5: Mirtazapine and Methamphetamine Relapse Prevention” (faculty mentor, Daniel Widzowski) *2023 USOAR participant

Women in STEM Awards (sponsored by KCNSM)

Graduate

Outstanding Poster

• Emily Sykora, “A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Platform Mound Features at a Mississippian Mound Town, Site 38KE12, Kershaw County, South Carolina” (faculty mentor, Andrea Palmiotto)

Outstanding Oral

• Morgan Buterbaugh, Jaylee Lassinger, and Josh Pettenó, “Modeling the Optimization for Formula 1 Racing” (faculty mentors, Frederick Adkins and Yu-Ju Kuo)

Undergraduate

Outstanding Poster

• Ainsley Weidensall, Samuel Moffat, Nicholas Reid, and Ethan Hiester, “Network Traffic Anomaly Detection Using XGBoost Within A Federated Learning Environment” (faculty mentor, Soundarararajan Ezekiel)

Outstanding Oral

• Lily Carone, “AI and the Future of Humanity: An Anthropological Perspective” (faculty mentor, Francis Allard)

Sigma Xi

Graduate:

First place: Brady Blackburn, David Janetski, Eric J. Chapman, Eli Long, John Berger, and Trent Millum, “The Effects of Culverts on Fish Communities in Western Pennsylvania Streams” (faculty mentor, David Janetski, Biology Department)

Second place: Lillian Lux, “A Remote Sensing Assessment on the Impact of Sea Level Rise within the Saxis Wildlife Management Area” (faculty mentor, Christopher Schaney, Geography Department)

Third Place (tie):

Court Harding, Maria Celeste Molina Zavala, “Why the Swamper Crossed the Road: Space Use of Adult Female Endemic Ctenosaura, Ctenosaura bakeri” (faculty mentor, Josiah Townsend, Biology Department)

Elizabeth McCreary, “Geophysical Survey of the Friendly Fire Incident, French and Indian War, Pennsylvania” (faculty mentor, William Chadwick, Anthropology Department)

Frye, Elena; Heather Alvarado, “Analyzing Fire-Cracked Rock at Mary Rinn for Comparison to Monongahela Sites” (faculty mentor, Lara Homsey-Messer, Anthropology Department)

Undergraduate:

First place: Caleb Rokosky, “Intrinsic Disorder in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Srs2 Helicase C-terminal Domain” (faculty mentor, Jana Villemain, Chemistry Department)

Second place: Morgan Hoover, “Cross-analysis of Reheated Eruption Samples from Oregon Cascade Cinder Cone Volcanoes” (faculty mentor, Nicholas Deardorff, Geology Department) *2023 USOAR participant

Third place (tie)

Lauren Croyle, “Examining I-sharing as a First Step in Forming Friendships” (faculty mentor, Anson Long, Psychology Department)

Ainsley Weidensall, Samuel Moffat, Nicholas Reid, Ethan Hiester, “Network Traffic Anomaly Detection Using XGBoost Within a Federated Learning Environment” (faculty mentor, Soundararajan Ezekiel, Computer Sciences Department)

Honorable mentions

Sierra Farrington, Brice Cole, Morgan Cheek, Lily Palfrey, “Effects of the herbicide Glyphosate on biological assemblages in a Western Pennsylvania stream” (faculty mentor, David Janetski, Biology Department)

Cassandra Booth, “Wastewater Surveillance using GeneXpert PCR” (faculty mentor, Narayanaswamy Bharathan, Biology Department) *2023 USOAR participant

Best Computational Science Poster Award (S-COAM)

Ainsley Weidensall, Samuel Moffat, Nicholas Reid, Ethan Hiester, “Network Traffic Anomaly Detection Using XGBoost Within a Federated Learning Environment” (faculty mentor, Soundararajan Ezekiel, Computer Sciences Department)