2019 2019: UMass Dartmouth announces winners of fall 2019 undergraduate research awards

The Office of Undergraduate Research’s 2019 Fall Stipend Initiative award students for their innovative and impactful research projects.

The Office of the Provost recently announced the winners of the Office of Undergraduate Research’s 2019 Fall Stipend Initiative. The overall quality of all the applications demonstrated the high level of undergraduate research conducted on our campus. Twenty-eight faculty members volunteered to review proposals and countless more continue to serve as mentors.

This year’s winners are:

Devin Cannistraro (Computer & Information Science), Supervisor: Professor Iren Valova - “Improving the Learning Accuracy of Convolutional Neural Networks”

Addi Catarina (Art Education, Art History & Media Studies), Supervisor: Professor Elena Peteva - “Objects of Grief”

Dylan DeFlorio (Computer & Information Science), Supervisor: Professor Iren Valova - “Stochastic Based Optimization of Convolutional Neural Networks for Calcareous Sediments Classification”

Gabrielle DeLeon (Chemistry & Biochemistry), Supervisor: Professor Maolin Guo - “Site-Directed Mutagenesis of a tRNA synthetase”

Zachary Gemelli (Psychology), Supervisor: Doctor Heloisa Alves - “The effects of mindfulness on recognition memory: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) Study”

Grayson Kelly (Computer & Information Science), Supervisor: Professor Iren Valova - “Evaluation of pattern identification properties of self-organizing maps”

Sofia Nguyen (Biology), Supervisor: Professor Whitney Hable - “The effect of ongoing ocean acidification on polarization and early development in brown algae”

Tracie Nguyen (Chemistry & Biochemistry), Supervisor: Professor Catherine Neto - “The effects of nonpolar phytochemicals from Vaccinium macrocarpon on bacterial growth”

Sean O’Leary (Chemistry & Biochemistry), Supervisor: Professor Maolin Guo - “Mutagenesis of a Trp tRNA synthetase”

Kaylie Owen (Animation/Game Arts), Supervisor: Shawn Towne - “Board Game Development”

Samantha Snell (Biology), Supervisor: Tara Rajaniemi - “Allelopathic effects of Artemisia campestris on colonizing species Dactylis glomerate”

Noah Tavares (Photography), Supervisor: Matthew Clowney - “Forester: An American Survey”