Undergrads showcase their work at annual research symposium

Tudor Fieldhouse is typically a venue for showcasing athletic prowess, but April 12 it was accomplishments in research and design that were on display.

More than 250 undergraduates took part in the annual Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium held at the fieldhouse last week. The symposium is a one-day, campuswide event that enables Rice undergraduate students in all disciplines to share their cutting-edge research and design projects with the broader Rice and Houston community. The event features poster presentations, oral presentations and cash prizes determined by faculty and graduate student judges.

Judges from Rice University, Apple, Baylor College of Medicine, Helsinn Therapeutics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Hermann, Texas Voice Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center awarded students in the following categories:

• George R. Brown School of Engineering Award for Best Group Engineering Project: Andrew Badachhape, Emily Eggert, Salma Ayoub and Laureen Lou.
• George R. Brown School of Engineering Award for Top Individual Projects: Yu-Yi Lee, Andria Remirez and Ravi Sheth.
• School of Humanities Awards for Top Three Projects: Mariel Rodriguez, Micha Zheng and Maggie Sulc.
• School of Social Sciences Awards for Top Three Projects: Glory Nwaugbala, Ira Shrivastava, JB Makhani, Kanwal Hooda, Trent Navran, and Katherine Cai; Benjamin Chou; and Mark Plitt.
• Wiess School of Natural Sciences Awards for Top Three Projects: Lyahn Hwang, Celester Riepe and Kevin Li.
• Center for Multimedia Communications Team Award: Nathan Lo, Rahul Rekhi, Navlekar Abhijit, Eric Palmgren and Fabio Ussher.
• Center for Multimedia Communications Individual Award: Blaine Rister.
• Center for the Study of Languages Prize: Shirin Lakhani.
• Center for the Study of the Environment and Society Prize: Shayak Sengupta.
• Chao Center for Asian Studies Prize: Monica Matsumoto.
• Humanities Research Center Award: Jarvis Sam.
• Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering Award: Yu-Yi Lee.
• Ken Kennedy Institute Awards: Blaine Rister, Andria Remirez and Jazz Silva.
• Rice 360° Global Health Technologies Award: Nathan Lo, Rahul Rekhi, Navlekar Abhijit, Eric Palmgren and Fabio Ussher.
• Rice Space Institute Award: Anna Wright.
• Smalley Institute for Nanotechnology Award: Eric Lange and Adrian Yao.

The annual public event is put on by a student committee in conjunction with the Office of Fellowships and Undergraduate Research.