Trujillo, Dhamija win top awards at 10th Mountain Lion Research Day

Marissa Trujillo, a senior biochemistry major, and Akshay Dhamija, a doctoral student studying computer science, won the top scholar awards at the 10th Annual Mountain Lion Research Day. The event featured 45 faculty and student presenters at Nov. 30 in the Gallogly Events Center.

Dhamija, working with faculty member Terry Boult, El Pomar Endowed Chair of Innovation and Security, presented “Reducing Network Agnostophobia.” His research focuses on giving machines the capability to know when they need help from humans, which is witnessed when the machines are put into situations they weren’t trained to handle. There are existing methods to approach the problem, but Dhamija works on demonstrating why the existing approaches are insufficient.  The research has implications in the current development of artificial intelligence, for example with self-driving cars.

Trujillo, working with faculty member Allen Schoffstall, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, presented “Substitution of fluorinated 1H-1,2,3-triazolopyridines by secondary amines.” While previous research showed that many conditions were required to manipulate perfluoropyrdine, an important aspect of triazoles, she found that manipulation can be reached using mild conditions and reagents. This allows these reactions to be selective and designed with specificity, which has an impact in the design of pharmaceuticals.

Faculty and students from 11 departments and four colleges presented during the morning session. Chris Bell, associate professor of communication, and Kathrin Spendier, assistant professor of physics, delivered the keynote address “Journey of a Faculty Scholar” during the luncheon.

“The research journey is not a straight pathway or a pipeline. It is a labyrinth rich with twists, turns, good fortune, taking risks, hard work, mentorship and community,” said Jessi L. Smith, associate vice chancellor for research. “This Mountain Lion Research Day featured cutting-edge projects that showcased the wide variety of methods, ways of knowing and collaborative relationships that go into producing new knowledge. I learned so much from the presenters and was thrilled with the conversations I overheard among the guests. I am already excited about next year’s event.”

2018 Mountain Lion Research Day presenters

• Ahmed Al Guqhairman (Computer Science): Design Considerations of Underwater MAC Protocols – Faculty mentor: Edward Chow, professor, Computer Science Department
  Justin Bendesky (Chemistry and Biochemistry): Selective Reduction and Triazole Formation of Dimethyl-2,5-pyridinedicarboxylate – Faculty mentor: Allen Schoffstall, professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• Nicole Beutell, Madeline Lag and Jenny Lagervall (Psychology): Examining the Impact of Age and Mood on Perceived Worthiness of Healthcare Treatment – Faculty mentor: Andrew Lac, assistant professor, Psychology Department
• Emily Burmeister (Psychology): Adversity, Empathy, and Compassion on Pain and Suffering Damages – Faculty mentor: Edie Greene, professor, Psychology Department
  Christopher Clements (Chemistry and Biochemistry): Towards the Synthesis of Functionalized Niotrquinoxalines – Faculty mentor: Allen Schoffstall, professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• Akshay Raj Dhamija (Computer Science): Reducing Network Agnostophobia – Faculty mentor: Terry Boult, El Pomar Endowed Chair of Innovation and Security, and professor, Computer Science Department
• Keith Alan Davidson (Electrical and Computer Engineering): VAMPIRE: Virtual Automated Mechanism for Pursuing Investigations in Redox Electrochemistry – Faculty mentors: Gregory Plett, professor, and Scott Trimboli, assistant professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• *Nina Ellis Frischmann (History): Role Playing Games, Movies, and Illustrated Comics, Oh My!: Connecting Students with the Classics Using Popular Culture
• Katalin Grajzel (Psychology): Are UCCS Students Anxious About Statistics? – Faculty mentor: Kelli Klebe, professor, Psychology Department
• Garrett Groener and Taylor Van-Gundy (Biology): Identification of RNA chaperones in the Lyme disease spirochete – Faculty mentor: Meghan Lybecker, assistant professor, Biology Department
• Jewell Anne Hartman (Physics): Tight-Binding Investigation of Double-Strand DNA-Like Nanowire in Green’s Function Formalism – Faculty mentor: Marek Grabowski, associate professor, Physics Department
• Breanna Herron (Teaching and Learning): Booked on Math – Faculty mentor: Pat McGuire, associate professor, Teaching and Learning Department
• Sarah Hetz and Michael Norton (Biology): Skeletal muscle oxygenation: Revolutionary, non-invasive measures improving our understanding and predictive accuracy regarding endurance performance – Faculty mentor: Robert Jacobs, assistant professor, Biology Department
• Haley Hunsaker (History): Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Contradicting Stories Confuse Historians but One Thing Is For Certain, Floyd Dies – Faculty mentor: Barbara Headle, senior instructor, History Department
• Rebecca Ingram (Psychology): Reducing Agitation in Long-Term Care: A Virtual Reality Intervention for Women with Dementia – Faculty mentor: Leilani Feliciano, associate professor, Psychology Department
• Meera Khatri (Biology): Statin-mediated potentiation of chemotherapeutic toxicity – Faculty mentor: James Roede, assistant professor of toxicology, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
• Hannah Maben (Chemistry and Biochemistry): The Synthesis of Two Novel p-38α Inhibitors and the Stereoselective Reduction of Pyrazine – Faculty mentor: Allen Schoffstall, professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• Julian Medina (Computer Science): Comparison of Attention Mechanisms for Natural Language Processing – Faculty mentor: Jugal Kalita, professor, Computer Science Department
• Danielle Morin (BioFrontiers): Effects of Static Magnetic Fields on RBL-2H3 Cell Degranulation – Faculty mentor: Kathryn Spendier, assistant professor, Physics Department
• Santana Navarrette (Biology): Investigating the Functionality of Candidate Gene During Reproduction – Faculty mentor: Jeremy Bono, associate professor, Biology Department
• Andrea Poliakon (Biology): The RNA-binding Protein Caper Regulates Grooming Behavior in Drosophila Melanogaster – Faulty mentor: Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, associate professor, Biology Department
• Tanghid Rashid (Electrical and Computer Engineering): VAMPIRE: Virtual Automated Mechanism for Pursuing Investigations in Redox Electrochemistry Analysis of Biological Effects of Cell Phone Radiation on Human Body Using Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and Thermoregulatory Response – Faculty mentor: Heather Song, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• Katrina Richardson (Biology): A novel antisense RNA regulates the expression of the stress response protein Dps in Escherchia coli – Faculty mentor: Meghan Lybecker, assistant professor, Biology Department
• Arijet Sarker (Computer Science): Anti-Withholding Reward System to Secure Bitcoin Mining Pools – Faculty mentor: Sang-Yoon Chang, assistant professor, Computer Science Department
• Jennifer Schwertfeger (Nursing): Mental Health Apps Provide Supplementary Resources to College Students – Faculty mentor: Jennifer Zohn, assistant professor, Nursing Department
• Justin Shaffer (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Compact Attachable Fractal Antenna for Medical, Military, and Communications Applications – Faculty mentor: Heather Song, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• Chiranth Siddappa (Computer and Electrical Engineering): Exploring the Extended Kalman Filter for GPS Positioning Using Simulated User and Satellite Track with gps-helper – Faculty mentor: Mark Wickert, professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
• Alex Sielaff (Psychology): The Effect of Meditation and Mortality Salience on Defensiveness – Faculty mentor: Thomas Pyszczynski, professor, Psychology Department
• Kevin Stewart (Biochemistry and Chemistry): “Further development of triazole-based fluoropolymers and triazole-based monomers” – Faculty mentor: Allen Schoffstall, professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• Mark Stroud (Physics): Heating Metallic Implants and Development of Temperature Contrast Agents for MRI Thermometry – Faculty mentor: Zbigniew Celinski, distinguished professor, Physics Department
• Alexandra Stuart (Physics): The stray magnetic field above a magnetic domain wall – Faculty mentor: Karen Livesey, associate professor, Physics Department
• Meg Super (Biology): Caper regulates the development of neuromuscular junction and is required for survival during various life stages – Faculty mentor: Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, associate professor, Biology Department
• Josh Thompson (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering): Development of ForceTrak, a biomechanical and video tracking application and estimations of anthropometric parameters – Faculty mentor: Steven Tragesser, associate professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Marissa Trujillo (Chemistry and Biochemistry): Substitution of fluorinated 1H-1,2,3-triazolopyridines by secondary amines – Faculty mentor: Allen Schoffstall, professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• Ashley Ward and Sara Rodriguez (Chemistry and Biochemistry): Characterization of the higher order organization of the heterochromatin machinery genes in the nucleus of Neurospora crassa – Faculty mentor: Andrew Klocko, assistant professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• *David Weiss (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and *Pat McGuire (Teaching and Learning): Clickers aren’t enough: Results of a decade-long study investigating instructional strategies in chemistry
• Michael Wheeler (Chemistry and Biochemistry): Towards Understanding the Complement Receptor 2 and Epstein Barr Virus Glycoprotein 350 Molecular Interaction – Faculty mentor: James Kovacs, assistant professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
• *Mark Wickert (Electrical and Computer Engineering): Real-Time Digital Signal Processing Using pyaudio_helper and the Jupyter widgets in the Jupyter Lab
• Ethan Wright (Biology): How does the RNA Binding Protein Caper influence behavior and lifespan in Drosophila – Faculty mentor: Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, associate professor, Biology Department
• Zanyar Zohourianshahzadi (Computer Science): Deep Neural Consciousness – Faculty mentor: Jugal Kalita, professor, Computer Science Department

*Faculty presentations