KENNESAW, Ga. | Apr 21, 2021

On Tuesday, Kennesaw State University held the Symposium of Student Scholars honoring the top presentations among the 668 student researchers who presented 438 projects across a variety of disciplines.

“This is the greatest number of students we’ve had participate in the symposium,” said Amy Buddie, director of undergraduate research and professor of psychology. “We are so proud of all the research our undergraduate and graduate students presented yesterday.” 

The 2022 symposium award winners included: 

• Top Presentation, Undergraduate: Development of Aqueous Compatible Organic Semiconducting Polymers. Undergraduate Student: Sarah Chang. Research Mentor: Graham Collier. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
• First Runner-Up, Undergraduate: "Change is Brewing”: Women Finding Liberation in the Performative Rituals in Modern Paganism. Undergraduate Student: Katie Nelson. Research Mentor: Tom Fish. Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.
• Second Runner-Up, Undergraduate: Analysis of Vertebrae Pathologies of Grave A650 Chryssi Island, Crete, Greece. Undergraduate Student: Abbey E. Bartmess. Research Mentor: Susan Smith. Department of Geography and Anthropology. 
• Top Presentation, Graduate: Finding Undervalued Pitch Metrics at Coors' Field Using a Random Forest Classifier. Graduate Student: Andrew Plant. Research Mentors: Joe DeMario and Bob Venderheyden. School of Data Science and Analytics. 
• First Runner-Up, Graduate: New Ant in the Big City: Known Natural History of Lasius cf. Emarginatus in its Native Range and Potential Impacts Of Recent US Introduction. Graduate Student: Samantha M. Kennett. Research Mentor: Clint Penick. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology. 
• Second Runner-Up, Graduate: Characterizing the Microbial Assemblages of Perimyotis Subflavus in Traditional and Non-Traditional Hibernacula and Screening Community Members for Antagonism with Pseudogymnoascus Destructans. Graduate Student: Jordyn Upton. Undergraduate Student: Jeremy Kaluza. Research Mentors: Christopher Cornelison. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Students presented in-person and virtually at the symposium, a student conference hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research. During the event, the Office of Undergraduate Research hosted a live blog featuring several projects. 

– Meagan Lowney