Undergrads showcase research, design projects

Undergraduate research and design was on display April 16 at the annual Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium at Tudor Fieldhouse.

Senior Aaroh Parikh, left, explains his research project at the April 16 Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium.

More than 350 undergraduates competed for cash prizes in the annual one-day, campuswide event that gives students in all disciplines a chance to share their research and design projects with the broader Rice and Houston communities. The annual public event, which is put on by a student committee in conjunction with the Office of Fellowships and Undergraduate Research, featured poster presentations, oral presentations and cash prizes awarded by faculty and graduate student judges.

Judges were from Rice; Baylor College of Medicine; Chevron; Hewlett Packard; MD Anderson Cancer Center; McDermitt, Will & Emery; Methodist; National Oilwell Varco; Page; Schlumberger; Shell; Texas Children’s Hospital; the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science; the University of Texas Health Science Center; and Zilka Biomass and Energy.

Prizes were awarded in the following categories:

–School of Humanities awards for the top three projects: Brooke Bullock, Thomas Carroll and the team of Zainab Shipchandler and Julika Kaplan.

–School of Engineering awards for the top three individual projects: Ravi Sheth, Peter Washington and Gabrien Clark.

–School of Engineering best group project: Team of Joshua Chartier, Hasitha Dharmasiri, Kiefer Forseth, Andrew Jones and Thomas Ladd.

–School of Natural Sciences awards for top three projects: Anne Wells, Moez Dawood and a tie between Peter Cabeceiras and Aaroh Parikh.

–School of Social Sciences awards for top three projects: Sarah Brooks, Anjali Rhaguram and the team of Sydney O’Connor and Jonika Tannous.

–Jenessa Shapiro Student Choice Award: Joshua Soucie, Brian Cera, Steven Rich, Emna Nehdi and Rima BenAmar.

–Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy Prize: Team of Ana Builes, Shaan Patel and Nicholas Petersen.

–The Baylor College of Medicine Collaborative Research Group Award: Ibrahim Akbar.

–Center for Civic Leadership Prize: Team of Ana Builes, Shaan Patel and Nicholas Petersen.

–Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication Prize: Team of Zainab Shipchandler and Julika Kaplan.

–Center for the Study of Environment and Society Prize: Nick Thorpe.

–Chao Center for Asian Studies Prize: Bo Kim.

–Humanities Research Center Prize: Brooke Bullock.

–Institutes of Biosciences and Bioengineering Prize for Translational Research in Biosciences and Bioengineering Prize: Anne Wells.

–K2I Prizes: the team of Joshua Chartier, Hasitha Dharmasiri, Kiefer Forseth, Andrew Jones, Thomas Ladd; the team of Blaine Rister, Daniel Volz, Daniel Reiter, Heija Zhang; and Philip Taffet.

–Rice Space Institute Prize: Benjamin Lewis.

–Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies Award: Team of Joao Ascenscao, Truce Pham, Mariam Hussein and Carlos Carames.

–The Shell Center for Sustainability Awards: Tierra Moore, Shayak Sengupta and Lun Li.

–The Smalley Institute Prize for Nanotechnology: Nicole Moody, Iyza Baig and Benjamin Zhang

–Rice Neuroscience Awards: Rohit Ready, Abigail Wright and Daniel Connolly.