The Office of Undergraduate Research welcomes you to the 2020 Virtual Summer Symposium!
Welcome! Please click through the links below to learn about the University of Utah's undergraduate research projects through posters and oral presentations. Don't forget to email students at the addresses provided to ask questions and to congratulate them for their excellent work!
Below you will first see a special session on COVID-19 research. Scroll down to then see all presentations, listed by college of the faculty research mentor.

SPECIAL SESSION: COVID-19 RESEARCH
As a top-tier research university, the U is dedicated to conducting transformative research to enhance the lives of our local, national, and global communities. During these challenging times, the U’s research community is working vigorously in response to the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis. At the forefront of these discoveries, student researchers are addressing critical issues of the global pandemic, including the social, psychological, and economic impacts the virus has on our society.
Through partnerships among the Office of the Vice President for Research (VPR), Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease (3i) Initiative, and the Office of Undergraduate Research, undergraduate researchers were key contributors to 42 COVID-19 research projects. Congratulations to the undergraduate researchers for your excellent work!
Office of Vice President for Research
Poster 1: SETH ACK - Diagnostic Capabilities of Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing for COVID-19
Poster 2: JAKE BALDAUF - Enhancing Transmission Models of Covid-19 with Genomic Data
Poster 3: ALEX BALLINGER - Communicating Research Information and Activities Through Digital Media
Poster 4: BECCA BATEMAN - JASC or mask: could SARS-CoV-2 become "just another seasonal coronavirus"?
Oral 1: DALLEN CALDER - Lessons Learned from COVID-19 to Enhance Research Administration Services
Poster 5: TAYLA CHIANG - Multiplexed Detection of COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 Biomarkers for Diagnosis
Oral 2: NIMA FATAHIAN - Defining The Role of Chaperone Mediated Autophagy in Cardiac Pathology
Oral 3: MATTHEW FINDLAY - REMEDI-COVID19
Oral 4: IZZY FULLER, SAM LAKEY, EVA PRONOVOST - Enhancing Education After COVID
Poster 12: ZACHARY LAURITZEN - Nanofiber Filtration Image Processing
Oral 7: KYLIE PERSSON - High-Throughput Production of Platelet-Like Particles
Poster 19: NATHAN PFAU - Psychological Impact of Social Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Poster 21: OLIVIA RICHARDS - Aerogel-based metamaterial design for helicopters
Poster 22: LUIS RUFINO - Investigating supersymmetric dark matter with MADHAT
Poster 23: JACOB SCUTT - Experimental Study on the Parametric Acoustic Array and its Applications
Poster 24: BRETT SMITH - Domestic Violence in the Age of COVID-19
Poster 25: MAIA SOUTHWICK, TRACY PHAN - Mental Health Among College Freshmen Displaced By COVID-19
Poster 26: KINCADE STEVENSON - Modeling and Docking Potential eIF4A Inhibitors
Poster 29: SANG TRUONG - Random Particle Motion Simulation Using LAMMPS
Poster 31: PAYTON UTZMAN - A Structural Analysis of the LC MutY Metagenome
ALL STUDENT PRESENTATIONS LISTED BY MENTOR'S COLLEGE
Cultural & Social Transformation
Education
Engineering
Poster 1: SETH ACK - Diagnostic Capabilities of Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing for COVID-19
Poster 5: TAYLA CHIANG - Multiplexed Detection of COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 Biomarkers for Diagnosis
Oral 4: IZZY FULLER, SAM LAKEY, EVA PRONOVOST - Enhancing Education After COVID
Poster 12: ZACHARY LAURITZEN - Nanofiber Filtration Image Processing
Oral 7: KYLIE PERSSON - High-Throughput Production of Platelet-Like Particles
Poster 21: OLIVIA RICHARDS - Aerogel-based metamaterial design for helicopters
Poster 23: JACOB SCUTT - Experimental Study on the Parametric Acoustic Array and its Applications
Poster 29: SANG TRUONG - Random Particle Motion Simulation Using LAMMPS
Health
Poster 35: REVI BROWN - Assessing Autophagic Flux in Primary Arterial Endothelial Cells From Humans
Oral 2: NIMA FATAHIAN - Defining The Role of Chaperone Mediated Autophagy in Cardiac Pathology
Honors
Humanities
Oral 10: ELIZA MCKINNEY - The Living Tomb: Victorian Discourse about Female Seclusion in the Orient
Medicine
Poster 2: JAKE BALDAUF - Enhancing Transmission Models of Covid-19 with Genomic Data
Oral 3: MATTHEW FINDLAY - REMEDI-COVID19
Poster 19: NATHAN PFAU - Psychological Impact of Social Isolation during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Mines & Earth Sciences
Poster 9: JERRY HOWARD - Drying and sintering of easily sterilizable and reusable xerogel filters for N95 respirators
Poster 38: JUSTIN KRIER - Mapping of Ultra Low Velocity Zones at the Core-Mantle Boundary
Nursing
Office of the President
Office of the Vice President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Science
Poster 3: ALEX BALLINGER - Communicating Research Information and Activities Through Digital Media
Poster 4: BECCA BATEMAN - JASC or mask: could SARS-CoV-2 become "just another seasonal coronavirus"?
Poster 40: DANIELLE BROWN - Validation of Matched Run Method for Extended Gamma-Ray Sources
Poster 42: NATHAN FOULK - Interaction corrections for 2D scattering from a hard disk
Poster 43: ANNABEL LEE - Exploring Carotenoid Binding Specificty Related to AMD
Poster 44: EMILY MARTIN - Identifying the Structure of the Zeaxanthin/GSTP1 Complex
Poster 45: MATT MIKOTA - Workplace Climate for LGBT+ Physicists: A Predictor of Outness
Oral 11: ANH NGUYEN - Visualizing the optical near field of noble metal nanoparticle via FDTD method
Poster 49: SAHAR NIKKHAH - Joint spectral analysis of Crab Nebula with FERMI-VERITAS-HAWC data
Poster 22: LUIS RUFINO - Investigating supersymmetric dark matter with MADHAT
Poster 46: SONIA SEHGAL - Finding the Role of Biological Probes in MUTYH
Poster 26: KINCADE STEVENSON - Modeling and Docking Potential eIF4A Inhibitors
Poster 31: PAYTON UTZMAN - A Structural Analysis of the LC MutY Metagenome
Social & Behavioral Science
Oral 12: RAQUEL CIFUENTES - Gender Roles in Preschool Children's Storytelling
Poster 24: BRETT SMITH - Domestic Violence in the Age of COVID-19
Poster 25: MAIA SOUTHWICK, TRACY PHAN - Mental Health Among College Freshmen Displaced By COVID-19
Vice President for Research
Oral 1: DALLEN CALDER - Lessons Learned from COVID-19 to Enhance Research Administration Services