Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

 
Belmont’s College of Sciences & Mathematics hosts the Science Undergraduate Research Symposium (SURS) each fall semester. The first annual event was held December 2, 2004, with 27 presenters and has grown to over 100 presenters in 2019. SURS is the culmination of many hours of undergraduate research work done during the summer and fall with faculty advisors and peers and offers these research students the opportunity to show the Belmont community the interesting research that is being done.

Follow


Submissions from 2025

Alcohol and Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Drinking in Older Adults, Aram Akbari, Jasmine Clark, Angel Medina, Jonathan Hill, and Michael Oliver

Early Biomarkers of Parkinson’s Disease: Motor and Speech Patterns, Robiya Akhmedvoa, Erin Johnson, Eddie Broad, and Milika'a Wells-Whittle

Adding Guidance-Based Stylistic Controls to Flow Models for Coherent Audio Generation, Zain Alsaad, Simeon Betapudi, Brody Blackwood, Marco Cassar, Kenneth Chau, Jayden Cruz, Evan Dant, Kritan Duwal, Rush Gorney, Maxwell Goskie, Elijah Konkle, Hari Patel, Mayur Patel, Brady Pinter, Christopher White, and Scott Hawley PhD

PDF

PD-1 Blockade Induced Bone Loss Occurs in a T-Cell Dependent Manner and May Be Mediated by IFNγ-Driven Osteoclast Activation, Elena Amonette and Paige M. Hill

Decoding Nuclear Power with Data, Molly G. Armbrecht

Life Satisfaction in Emerging Adults: Social Opportunity Anxiety and ADHD/ADD Compared to Overall Life Satisfaction in College-Age Students, Jessica Berber, Lily Smith, Noah Thomas, and Justice Butler

PDF

Physical activity and Memory Retention, Hannah Blackman, Marisa Ronner, Lindsay Biggs, and Izzy Melendez

Physics-Informed Fourier Neural Operators for Nanophotonic Scattering in Nonlinear Media, Brody L. Blackwood and Scott Hawley

Adverse Childhood Experiences and its Impact on Various Factors of Aging, Sandy G. Boles, Sandy G. Boles, Robert Kukfa, Yatri Patel, and Adeline Johnstone

Adolescent Identity Development: Impostorism and Parentification, Sandy G. Boles, Jasmine Clark, and Caitlyn McClain

PDF

Assessment of Nature Based Solutions Through Soil Microbial Community Diversity Using Biolog EcoPlates™, Roma C. Brassell, Lili M. Wrenne, and Darlene Panvini

The Influence of Music-Evoked Arousal on Perceptions of AI-Generated Neutral Situations, Aaron E. Brinkmann, Ashley Rivera, Jessica G. Samir, and Amanda Waggoner

Relationships and Sleep in Emerging Adults, Selah F. Caldwell, Paige Hammarstrom, Nikki Nieradka, and Anthony Davis

Effects of Caffeine and Alcohol on Astrocyte Viability and Morphology, Kayla Challacombe and Jinhee Park

Personality Traits and Self-Perceptions as Determinants of Health-Seeking Behavior, Emma Clapp

PDF

Music's Effect on the Mental Health of Differing Age Groups, margaret cleve, Kaniyah Newborn, and Luke Magro

Intelligent PDF Extraction: Building a Regex-Driven and LLM-Assisted Pipeline for Document Analysis, Brielle Croke

Transforming Client Care: A Study of Assessment Scores to Enhance Program Success, Brielle Croke, Mary E. Husmann, and Laura Spurlock

Investigating Endoderm Differentiation Following MYC and EGR1 Knockdown in Pluripotent Stem Cells, Kate Daniel, Katie Thorne, and Erick Spears PhD

PDF

The Relationship Between Trait Empathy and the Involuntary Mimicry of Emotion: An Electromyographical Study of Facial Suppression, Madison E. Dawes, Karlie Souder, Eddie Broad, Htoo Aye, and Sian Huai

PDF

Spatial Patterns of Salamander Density Across Human Disturbance Gradients in Warner Parks​, Siobhan M. Day

PDF

Functionalizing Silver Nanoparticles with Histamine, Noah J. DeBlanco

PDF

Surviving the Seasons: Climate and Time Effects on Native Songbirds, Essence Donaldson, Todd Hoskinson, and John Niedzwiecki

PDF

Exploring the MYC-EGR1 Pathway in Human Colorectal Cancer Cells, Jacob L. Dykstra III, Bishoy S. Sami, and Dr. Erick Spears

PDF

Characterization of Colorectal Cancer Cell Responses Using a Wound-Healing Scratch Assay Model on Wild-type (p53 +/+) and Knockout (p53 -/-), Mehrael Faragalla, Karen Barsoum, and Erick Spears

Exploring the Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Properties of Mentha Piprita (Peppermint), Haley F. Fields

PDF

The effect of leaf composition and structure on decomposition rates in Primula sp. and Allium schoenoparsum, Tatum P. Fortney, Kidist Aklile, Matty Mackay, and Solomon Kap

PDF

Evaluating the Effects of Water Quality and Anthropogenic Disturbance on Salamander Species Diversity, Abundance and Health in Warner Parks, Tatum P. Fortney and Chase Kinsey

PDF

The effect of leaf composition and structure on decomposition rates in Primula sp. and Allium schoenoparsum, Tatum P. Fortney, Darlene Panvini, Kidist Aklile, Matty Mackay, and Solomon Kap

The Effect of Acidic Environments on Cosmos sulphureus Decomposition, Alissia D. Fulton, Kobey Mojzis, Karol P. Calihua Cruz, Brandon Corn, and Darlene Panvini Ph.D.

Depression, ADLs, and Physical Activity in Adults with Alzheimer's Disease, Cecilia Garcia, Cristina Posada, and Rachel Grace Falleur

Face Your Feelings: Emotional Face Search Modulates a Startle Response, Daria S. Ghazi, Robiya Akhmedova, Aram Akbari, Kaitlyn Ziebell, and Carole Scherling

PDF

Home Sweet Home: Analyzing Contributive Factors of Home Selling Prices in the Greater Middle Tennessee Area, Miryana Glavan

Oops, I Judged You Again: First Impressions and Memory Recall, Isabel Greenwell, Julianne Louise Hopkirk, Lucas Tian Luen Uriarte, and Kelly Knox

Psychology: Athletic Coaching and Student Athletes’ Wellbeing, Paige Hammarstrom

Reading Between the Roles: Gender Bias in Resume Evaluation, Garrett Handelman, Siena G. DeAngelo, Sophie Guthrie, and Audrey Laskey

File

Melodies of Change: Climate Effects on the Phenology of Migrant Songbirds, Todd Hoskinson, Essence Donaldson, and John Niedzwiecki

PDF

Computational Modeling of Post-TAVR Cardiovascular Dynamics Using Reduced-Order Models, Jo D. Jamullamudi, Anna D. Bui, Daniel Olopade, and Kevin Gonzalez

PDF

Comparative Decomposition Rates of Prickly Pear and Sage Using Litterbags, Curtis Jang, Vy Ly, Ashlyn Reagan, Ellie Sebaugh, and Darlene Panvini

"Thanks Mom and Dad!: How does Parental Attachment relate to Emotion Regulation in Young Adults, Erin Johnson, Carole Scherling, Elle Thompson, and Angel Medina

"I'll just say what you said": a study on social conformity and sociopolitical figures, Hailey I. Kauffman, Charles W. Coffman, Christian L. Mitchell, and Kylie J. Watson

The relationship between caffeine intake and anxious tendencies in young adults and college students, Aubrey J. Kelly, Ashley Deker, Chloe Giraud, and Hannah Leierer

PDF

Physiological Response to Concealed Information in a Mock-Crime Paradigm​, Ezra Koenigsberg, TaMya McHenry, Jasmine Manzana, Taylor Powell, and Samantha Jackson

PDF

Visual Attention, Emotional Arousal, and Moral Judgment in Legal Evidence Processing, Audrey G. Laskey, Kyra Cannon, Josette Sanders, and Lingfei Luan

PDF

The Effect of Noise Pollution on the Diversity and Abundance of Bird Species at Different Locations at Warner Parks, Nashville, TN, Jeremy T. Little, Wyatt L. Fooks, Darlene Panvini, and Jackson Whiteside

PDF

Assembly and Testing of a Closed Cycle Cryostat, Chris Maguire

Parenting and Culture Orientation, Scovs Majors

PDF

Selective Attention with Lyrical Music vs. No Music, Scovs Majors, Rachel Falleur, Kim Niang, and Olivia Pokrifcsak

PDF

“The Role of Machine Learning in Social Media Content Moderation”, Bethaney A. Mallory-Smothers

Mini-SIEM, Jeremiah R. McDonald

PDF

Developmental Effects on Zebrafish Embryos Exposed to Alcohol, TaMya McHaney

Evaluating E. coli as an Indicator of Pathogenic Contamination in the Cumberland River Using Nanopore Sequencing, emelie p. mckenzie

Coping Mechanisms and Perceived Stress for College Students, Daisy V. McLeod, Ava Chaffee, Naima Salat, and Brenden McGary

PDF

Kairiomone Moderated Anti-Predator Responses in Pleurocera laqueta, Daisy V. McLeod, John Webb, Amanda Waggoner, and John Niedzwiecki

The Role of People Pleasing and Agreeableness in Impostorism, Addison Meckley, Josie Ekle, Elle Thompson, and Mary Smith

PDF

Metadata Analysis on the relationship between sleep, depression, and cognition in older adults, sara miller, Kristie Stephens, Grayson Harris, and Vincent Flegeance

Is Less More? Retrieval Ease and Parasocial Perceptions of Kindness, Heba Muhsin, Hannah Blackman, and Sofia Cancio

EYE-TRACKING ANALYSIS OF ATTENTION PATTERNS ACROSS LEARNING MODALITIES: COMPARING VIDEO, AUDIO, AND TEXT-BASED EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, Ethan B. Nickerson

PDF

The Relationship Between Walking Vs Running and Mental Health, Kim Ning

Creation of custom phantom to mimic gynecological brachytherapy with interstitial needles, Eliza Ossolinski

PDF

Presence of Ophiognomonia clavivignenti-juglandacearum on Juglans cinerea at Beaman Park in Nashville, Tennessee, Corinne Parker, Kidist Aklile, and Darlene Panvini

PDF

An Update & Exploration of the Herbarium at Belmont University, Corinne Parker and Darlene Panvini

PDF

Antifungal Effects of Fatty Acids on the Growth of Ophidiomyces Ophiodiicola in a Simulated Snake Skin Environment, Krupa S. Patel, Lizbeth DelaRosa, Jacey Cardenas, Thalia Rodriguez, and John Niedzwiecki

Effects of Caffeine and CBD on Vascular Development in Danio rerio, Christine Pattillo and Jinhee Park

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Emotion Recognition, Riley Perumal, Cecilia Garcia, and Mary Smith

PDF

Impact of Lignin Content on Decomposition Rates, Lindsey Powell, Olivia Fawkes, Moses Elijah Cadawas, Isaac Paul Dent, and Darlene Panvini

An Eye-Tracking Study on the Cognitive Effects of AI Assistance in Academic Reading and Writing Tasks, Ella Quincy, Kate Virtel, and Kaitlyn Bobo

Mimicry in Relation to Stereotypical Behavior within the College Experience, Molly Regan, Claire A. Miller, Beckett J. Reed, and Brenden J. McGary

Hertz So Good: The Effect of Aversive Noise on Visual Attention, Sam Roberts, Ellie Range, Grace Adams, Ezra Koenigsberg, and Carole Scherling

PDF

Fungal Foes and Fatty Defenses: How Simulated Snake Skin Lipids Influence Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola Growth, Thalia Rodriguez, Jacey Cardenas, Lizbeth DelaRosa, Krupa Patel, and John Niedzwiecki

The Social Contagion of Laughter: A Psychophysiological Response to AI-Manipulated Dialogue in a Naturalistic Scene, Cristal Romero and Daniel Telles

PDF

Relationship Satisfaction Among College Students, Gracie L. Sager, Makenna A. Stratton, Kyrah Brodie, and Autumn R. Thomas

Zebrafish Exposure to Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, Anne Saif, Lucas D. Wolthers, Audrey G. Laskey, Jacob Berry, Mary C. Pittman, Jinhee Park, and Davon W. Ferrara

Fair or Favor? Student Perceptions on Academic Accommodation, Carlota Salgado garcia, Brielle Croke, Htoo Aye, and Eliana Barbur

Diffusion MRI-Consistent Tractography with Resting State fMRI: Preliminary Steps, Jessica G. Samir, Christina Davis, and Bennett Landman

AI Faces the Criteria for Being Real; A Behavioral and Pupillary Reactivity Study, Jessica G. Samir, Madison Dawes, Kayla Challacombe, Karlie Souder, and Carole Scherling

PDF

Immunofluorescence-Based Detection of MYC–EGR1 Pathway Activity in p53-Deficient Human Colorectal Cancer Cells, Samantha E. Schultheiss, Lyndsea Skojec, and Erick Spears Dr.

PDF

Body Image in Athletes Compared to Non-Athletes, Madeleine R. Scott, Yara Ali, Hana Sokolovic, and Jenny Glenn

PDF

Insecticide Resistance Profile in Nashville Culex spp. Mosquito Populations, Ellie Sebaugh, Zachary Bement, Abelardo Moncayo, and Darlene Panvini

PDF

Anxiety’s relationship with caffeine usage and frequency, William H. Simmons, Kyra Cannon, and Harry Lackey

PDF

Utilizing β-gal to visualize selective transport of the SSA4 gene in S.Cerevisiae, Ian M. Staertow and Rebecca L. Adams PhD

Exploring the Synergistic Effects of Cisplatin and Curcumin in Osteosarcoma Cells, Ellis Stafford, Alexa Cabral, and Reese Nagy

Observations of Mitochondrial Morphology in San Fillipo Syndrome, Felicity Sterling, Molly Armbrecht, and Olivia Walker

Investigating Cell Death Pathways in San Fillipo Syndrome, Felicity Sterling, Sandy Sabry Attaallaa, and Anna Sears

Investigating Cell Death Pathways in Pompe Disease, Felicity Sterling, Paul George, and Kenda Alkayyali

Utilizing Acarbose as a Model for Pompe Disease, Felicity Sterling, Dania Humadi, and Lydia Alvarnaz

Cholesterol Accumulation in Hurler Syndrome, Felicity RG Sterling and Averi Slaughter

It's Time for Resting Pitch Face: How Musical Key and Tempo Influence Neutral Face Appraisals, Isabel Stewart, Nick DeMille, Eddie Broad, Vincent Flegeance, Kierstin Roy, and Carole Scherling

The Influence of Parental Expectations on Self-Efficacy in Emerging Adulthood, Isabel Stewart, Kate Matthews, Estrella Gonzalez Castillo, and Luke Magro

PDF

Sense of Belonging and Student Success Among College Students, Sriram Tandri Mr

Effects of High Glucose on Embryonic Development, Daniel I. Telles Orellana

Altruism and Political Polarization: The Impact of Social Media Identifiers on Prosocial Behavior in Emerging Adults, Daniel I. Telles Orellana, Sophia Castillo, Averee Martinez, and Grace Golden

Psychology: Measuring Generative AI Dependency In College Students, Katherine M. Tidwell, Tedd Begay, Sofia Mora Gonzalez, and Jasmine Manzana

PDF

Complexometric titration of terbium(III) compounds: an analytical blast from the past gives purity assurance when modern instruments fail us., Jake E. Timbes, Cameron Bateman, and Justin Stace

PDF

Water’s Effect on the Decomposition of Baptisia australis, Jackson Whiteside, Adeline Beckham, Jeremy Little, Reese Cobb, and Darlene Panvini

PDF

Potential Impacts of Construction on Bat Populations in Warner Parks, Nashville, Tennessee, Jackson Whiteside, Wyatt Fooks, and Jeremy Little

PDF

Impact of Height on Primrose Leaf Litter Decomposition, Lilianna Wrenne, Jacey Cardenas, Danner Brown, Wyatt Fooks, and Darlene Panvini

Tale of Two Toxins: Assessing Cardiotoxicity of Nicotine & Ethanol in Embryonic Zebrafish, Arooj Zehra and Jinhee Park

Submissions from 2024

PDF

Preliminary Results of Pythagorean N-Tuples, Cara Admiraal

File

Enhancing Chemotherapy: Synergistic Action of Cisplatin and Berberine Hydrochloride Against Osteosarcoma, Adam S. Al-Droubi and Andrea Florian