Scholar Showcase
Friday, April 17, 2026
The USCA Center for Research Excellence is pleased to announce Scholar Showcase 2026. This year’s event will be held on Friday, April 17 in the SAC Gym. All interested students are invited to share their research and creative activities.
Poster Hanging - 9:00 am - 10:00 am
Session 1 - 10:00 am - 11:30 am
Poster Hanging - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Session 2 – 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Session 1 – 10:00 am – 11:30 am
Honors Symposium Session – H&SS 103
Session 1 - 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Session 1 – 10:00 am – 11:30 am
10:00-10:15
The Vampire Novel: How Vampires Became Monsters
Andrew Pencille
mentored by Dr. Eric Carlson
10:15-10:30
Tales of Two Bodies: Orlando and The Danish Girl
Kirstie McElmurray
mentored by Dr. Julie Wise
10:45-11:00
"A Metaphor Cannot be Paraphrased": Parallels Between Monk and Go Through the Lens of Black Tropes
Aaron Stone
mentored by Dr. Todd Hagstette
11:00-11:15
The Postmodern Labyrinth: House of Leaves and Internet Horror
Ben Weeks
mentored by Dr. Amanda Warren-Seeger
11:15-11:30
The Brutality of Sugar: Power, Pain, and Poverty in the Sugarcane Industry of India
Hayle Sharpe
mentored by Dr. Christine Wernet
Session 1 – 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
3:00-3:15
Boom or Bust? Comparing Nesting Success in Eastern Bluebirds at Two Aiken Locations Across the Years
Emory Owens
mentored by Dr. Michelle Vieyra
3:15-3:30
Syntheses and Analyses of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Separation of Water Isotopologues
Emily Walker
mentored by Dr. Gerard Rowe
3:30-3:45
The Need to Please: People-Pleasing Tendencies in Prelicensure Nursing Students
Alexa Carnahan
mentored by Dr. Mary Gaffney
3:45-4:00
Determining the role of tbx5a and tbx5b in development of zebrafish
James Saxon
mentored by Dr. April DeLaurier
Poster 1 - The Gregg Diaries
Laurie Collins, Addisen Alvanos and Caroline Wright
mentored by Dr. Todd Hagstette
Poster 2 - Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project: Process, Results, and Significance
Palmer McCay
mentored by Dr. Sarah King
Poster 3 - Pain and Poverty: An analysis of violent crime in economic recessions
Logan Blume
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dryer
Poster 4 - Cognitive Status and Difficulty with Activities of Daily Living among Adults Aged 50 and Older
Jeasmine Nyelle Elizabeth Blyther
mentored by Dr. Delaram Sirizi
Poster 5 - Observable differences in physiological markers of respiratory vagal nerve stimulation in deep breathing mindfulness training.
Allaina Rayne Szilveszter, Lansley Macgargle, Malia Patten and Stephen Caleb Byrd
mentored by Dr. Alexandra Roach
Poster 6 - Pornography Consumption Modulates False-Consensus Effect
Sanja Becnel, Maddisson Stone
mentored by Dr. Adam Pazda
Poster 7 - Incarcerated Parents
Victoria Adsit, Chelsea McCants and Amaiyah Smith
mentored by Dr. Judith Collazo
Poster 8 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Kennedy B Melton
mentored by Dr. Melissa Martin
Poster 9 - Removal of Recess for Targeted Populations
Olivia O'Shields
mentored by Dr. Judith Collazo
Poster 10 - Supporting Students with Schizophrenia in the College Setting
Kendall Risher
mentored by Dr. Melissa Martin
Poster 11 - Contextual Factors Project
Makariya Rouse and Olivia O'Shields
mentored by Dr. Judith Collazo
Poster 12 - Menstruation in Women's Basketball
Destiny R Harman
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 13 - An Evaluation and Comparison of Generic and Performance Designed Athletic Apparel
Ian N McKinney
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 14 - Upper and Lower Extremity Power Effects on Countermovement Jump With and Without Arm Swing
Savanna Spires
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 15 - Synthesis and Deuteration of DHA
Benjamin J Ferrick
mentored by Dr. Kenneth Roberts
Poster 16 - HDAC4 and bone ossification
Sophia Nwanneka Afamefuna
mentored by Dr. April DeLaurier
Poster 17 - Overcoming Ribosomal Stalling in a Plant Transgene
Prisha Bhavsar
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 18 - Designing and testing dTgm9-based activation tags for Glycine max
Brenden Bogar
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 19 - How does size affect Suppressor-mutator (Spm) transposition frequency?
Jennifer Gonzalez
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 20 - A Tale of Two Counties: Mortality trends of infants in Aiken and Charleston (1920 vs 1950)
Alexis Gray
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 21 - Identification of desmocollin (dsc) mutant zebrafish
Adam P Langworthy
mentored by Dr. April DeLaurier
Poster 22 - The Muscular Organ Necessary to Live: Cardiac Related Deaths in Men and Women in Charleston in 1960 and 1972
Samantha Morse
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 23 - Till death do us part: Does marital statues change quality of health care?
Anadalay Rojas
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 24 - Cloning pro-apoptotic Bax gene into the inducible pLX(2I)R.pA plasmid
Leana Clark
mentored by Dr. William Jackson
Poster 25 - Optimizing buffer conditions for single turnover assays of the 2,4′-dihydroxyacetophenone dioxygenase (DAD) reaction.
Kaydee Croom
mentored by Dr. Ken Roberts
Poster 26 - Born into Inequality: Racial Disparities and Infant Mortality in the 20th Century in South Carolina.
Sahra Elysabeth Ditto-Williams
mentored by Dr. Andy Dyer
Poster 27 - Medical Indifference: Hospital Death Documentation in 1950 vs 1970
Gina Marie Stone
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 28 - Cotton to Chrome: The Atomic Age and Industrial Inequality in Williston, SC (1915-1972)
Katharina J Behrens
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 29 - The Turning Point: Age, Mortality and Infectious Disease in Aiken County
Amya K Bush
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 30 - Unequal Burdens of Death
Paola Estrada Lopez
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 31 - Death Comes in Fours: Comparing the age of death of four major groups of working adults from Aiken SC in 1917
Johnathan Conner Gladden
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 32 - 2026 USCA Bluebird Trail Update
Alyssa Godfre and Sofia Romero
mentored by Dr. Michelle Vierya
Poster 33 - The importance of temperature control in Eastern Bluebird nestboxes
Quinn Schreiber and Shiloh Tew
mentored by Dr. Michelle Vierya
Poster 34 - Better Luck Next Lifetime: A Comparison of Life Expectancy in Aiken County (1915 vs.1960)
Ayana Bell
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 35 - The Cost of Labor: Cardiovascular deaths and occupations
Anna Caroline Corley
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 36 - Racial Discrepancy: Antibiotic Treatment and Pneumonia Among Black and White Patients, Aiken 1940-1950
Blake R Logue
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 37 - Bluetooth Low Energy Communication Security in Wearable IoT Devices: A Fitbit Sense 2 Case Study
Andrew Bishop and Adriel Sosa
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier
Poster 38 - Do These Petals Make a Loop? A Topological Approach to Flower Form
Sam Burns
mentored by Dr. Mohammad Hailat
Poster 39 - Zenbleed: Digital Noise Synthesis
Jacob Evans, Nicholas Owens and Denton Spivey
mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang
Poster 40 - Predicting Exoplanetary Habitability: A Balanced Machine Learning Approach to Recent Climatology Metrics
Breana N Ginn, John K Clegg
mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang
Poster 41 - PacerBot: University RAG AI Powered Chatbot
Justin Glover, Andrew McCord and Katerina Yeung
mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang
Poster 42 - Tower of Trials - PWA Game
Edgar Gonzalez, Delvin Berry and Justin Coleman
mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang
Poster 43 - AGY Frame Installation & Compressor Evaluation
Gage R McCullough, Alejandro Espinosa, Elijah Hall, William Hamilton and Paige Andrews
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 44 - Nuclear Waste Tank Collaboration
Luke Nagy, Carson Alexander McCaslin, Austin Lee Reynolds and Jacob Phillips
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 45 - Integrating Blockchain Technology into RFID Middleware for Intrusion Detection
Kaeden D Nomm, Zane Yongue and Sean Soda
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier
Poster 46 - Savannah River Site F-Area and H-Area Tank Farm Waste Depth Sampling Probe
William Parrott and Luciano Castro
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 47 - Burn Characteristics of Fire-Treated Wood for SRNS Construction Applications
Samuel Peatman, Ian Chisholm, Britney Yarnell and Lane Maciejewski
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 48 - Bridgestone capstone 2026
Benjamin Randolph, Daniel Shumpert, Frank Whiteside and Nicholas Avant
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 49 - Shipmate - Package Tracking
Alex Yongue, Judah D Owen and Brandon Malcom
mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang
Poster 50 - Mitigation of Light Pollution Affecting the Ruth Patrick Science Center Telescope Through Drone-Based Mapping and Shielding Development
Caleb Durden, Aidan Clayton, Olivia Ellis and Frederik Boucher
mentored by Dr. Neil Miller
Poster 51 - Tamper Detection in CT DICOM Images for Digital Forensics and Clinical Integrity using Deep Learning
Sydney Halupa, Jessica Brown and William Carroll
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier
Poster 1 - The Battle of Shiroyama - Imperial Reform, Samurai, and the Satsuma Rebellion
Jack Shaffer
mentored by Dr. Heather Peterson
Poster 2 - The Persecution of Afro-Germans from the Weimar to the Start of Nazi Germany
Spencer Alexander Weaver
mentored by Dr. Samuel Pierce
Poster 3 - Tempest of Canaan: The Fall of Ugarit & Israel's Northern Kingdom
Caroline R Wright
mentored by Prof. Natalia Bowdoin
Poster 4 - The Graniteville Manufacturing Company's Textile Worker's Strike of October 1933
Caroline R Wright
mentored by Dr. William Westermeyer
Poster 5 - Bilingualism and Identity
Breanna Shults
mentored by Dr. Melencia Johnson
Poster 6 - Supporting K-12 Students with ADHD in the Classroom
Tirzah A Slagle
mentored by Dr. Melissa Martin
Poster 7 - Equity Issue Project on (Incarcerated Parents)
Amaiyah Smith, Chelsea McCants and Victoria Adsit
mentored by Dr. Judith Collazo
Poster 8 - The Call Me MiSTER Balancing Act: Advocating for Ourselves, Each Other, and the Profession
MyAsia Smoke and Antwone Williams
mentored by Dr. Deborah McMurtrie
Poster 9 - The Effects of Parental Death on Adolescent Development
Lauren Bell
mentored by Dr. Deborah McMurtrie
Poster 10 - T-CHEER: Teaching with Content Knowledge, Humor, Empathy, Engagement, and Relevance
Zach Evans
mentored by Dr. Michelle Rasheed
Poster 11 - Building Literacy in the Math Classroom
Jessica Lawson
mentored by Dr. Michelle Rasheed
Poster 12 - Contextual Factors and Their Impact on Teaching and Learning
Olivia O'Shields and Makariya Rouse
mentored by Dr. Judith Collazo
Poster 13 - Characteristics of depression in K-12 Students.
Alli Sheffield
mentored by Dr. Melissa Martin
Poster 14 - Embracing LIFE: Examining the Attitudes of Engaging with Individuals with Disabilities at a Comprehensive Institution to Promote Learning is For Everyone (LIFE)
Skylar Shirey
mentored by Dr. Melissa Martin
Poster 15 - Closing Learning Gaps
Kyra Shuler
mentored by Dr. Bridget Coleman
Poster 16 - Effectiveness of Introducing Differentiated Small -Group Instruction
Tamika Smith
mentored by Dr. Bridget Coleman and Dr. Judy Beck
Poster 17 - Is Tobacco Free Really Tobacco Free?
Austin Powell
mentored by Dr. Mary Rogers
Poster 18 - Pedal to the Metal
Tyler Lei-Ann Robbins and Hayley Stack
mentored by Dr. Laura Swain
Poster 19 - Educational values predict somatic symptoms and perceived stress for White American college students, but not for American students of color
August Beltran and Rebekah Orton
mentored by Dr. Mary Moussa Rogers
Poster 20 - Differential Effects of Brief Mobility Protocol on Jump and Hop Performance
Charlton Judson Pickett
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 21 - Improving Postpartum Follow-Up and Infant Health Outcomes Through RN-Led Home Visits
Cara Alan, Yazmine Simmons, Alexandra E Bishop and Kayte Caroline Wimberly
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 22 - RN Led Mobile Health Clinics and Access to Care in Rural Areas and Health Outcomes
McKenzie Beard, Ansley Kitchings, Emmalie Mahan and Joceline Madison
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 23 - RN-led Hygiene education and its impact on reducing infectious disease outbreaks in schools
Lily Hannah Boswell, Bailey Drawdy, Brooke Owens and Hailie Cliett
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 24 - Activities of Daily Living Relationship with Quality of Life in Adults Benjamin Bowers
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 25 - RN-Led Simulation-Based Learning and its Effects on Clinical Reasoning
Kasey Corbett, Miranda Mills, Elisabeth Pretorius and Gabreille Gray
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 26 - QI Poster
Kendell V Golston, Peyton B Owenby, Tyleigh M Spiller and Jennie Melville
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 27 - Impact of Hand Hygiene Compliance on HAI Reduction
Kayleigh N Gummo, Perla Huerta-Hernandez, Viviana S Medina Roman and McKintley G Morgan
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 28 - Reducing Nurse Burnout Through Stress-Reducing Interventions
Olivia Holley, Taylor L Griner, Morgan K McDermott and Brandi Barlow
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 29 - Reducing Emergency Department Wait Times Through RN-led Fast Track Triage
Reagan Littleton, Karlee Kolb, Hannah Teague, and Andrew Troufler
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 30 - Using RN Led Education to Manage Chronic Illnesses
Zi'Yier F Rice, Kennedy J Brown, Fredericka Imani Trottie and Josselyn Borbonio
mentored by Dr. Pastelle Walston
Poster 31 - The "Bright Side" of Renal Failure: Comparing Renal Disease in Black Women and White Women in 1920 vs. 1960 in Charleston County, SC
Vivica Birt
mentored by Dr. Andy Dyer
Poster 32 - The Effect of Caffeine on Performance in Habitual and Non-habitual Participants
Anna Clare Sommer and Cam Greene
mentored by Dr. Andrew Hatchett
Poster 33 - The Trophic Stage of Egg Development in Livestock Pests
Isabella Cardenas
mentored by Dr. Mary Mills
Poster 34 - Altering the terminal inverted repeat sequences of the soybean CACTA transposable element dTgm9 inhibits its transposition
Gabrielle Peak
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 35 - A Vaccine's Impact: Tuberculosis Vaccine's Effect and Male Longevity in Aiken, SC
Treshon Rawlins
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 36 - A closer look into egg development within Culicoides sonorensis midges
Lucero Rodriguez
mentored by Dr. Mary Mills
Poster 37 - Regulation of egg development in the livestock pest, Culicoides sonorensis
Madelyn Smith
mentored by Dr. Mary Mills
Poster 38 - PCMV Puma into the PLX(2I)R.PA
Maria Guadalupe Andraca-Hernández
mentored by Dr. William Jackson
Poster 39 - Using HIV-1 inhibitory elements in an inducible plasmid system to regulate gene expression
Marissa Brooks
mentored by Dr. William Jackson
Poster 40 - Genetic Analysis of the Dwarf Soybean Mutant
James Burns
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 41 - Genetic Determinants of Soybean Flower Attractiveness
Isabella Gesmondi
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 42 - Characterizing HIV-dependent expression of pro-apoptotic BimL in HEK293T cells
Gracie Goss
mentored by Dr. William Jackson
Poster 43 - Developing mPing-based Constructs for Transposase Assisted Target Site Integration
Madison L Hamlin
mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Poster 44 - Investigating the roles of rcor1 and rcor2 in zebrafish development
Samantha K Owen
mentored by Dr. April DeLaurier
Poster 45 - Cognitive Status and Functional Limitations Among Older Adults: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study
Tiffani Rowe
mentored by Dr. Delaram Sirizi
Poster 46 - Unequal Care in a Time of Cure: Racial Inequality in Pneumonia Deaths in Charleston from 1925 to 1946
Raymond Luvite Moton
mentored by Dr. Andrew Dyer
Poster 47 - Assembly and Comparative Analysis of Sabal palmetto Genomes Linked to an Herbarium Specimen
Sam Burns
mentored by Dr. Nathan Hancock
Poster 48 - A Low-Cost MQTT-Based Cyber-Physical Smart Grid Testbed for Multi-Attack Detection
Anthony Sambrano, Vidhikala Nainani and Chad Heath
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier
Poster 49 - DWPF Motor Jig Capstone Project
William Thomas, Zackary Rhoden and Nicholas Parker
mentored by Dr. Bethany Fralick
Poster 50 - Detection of Tampering in Medical X-Ray Images Using Residual Networks
Lucy Marie-Antoinette Tyrteos, Jafar Omar Abdalla and Bhumika Patel
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier Berry
Poster 51 - An Algorithm for the Constrained Longest Common Subsequence and Substring Problem for Multiple Strings
Richy Appa Modugu and Brandon Weathers
mentored by Dr. Rao Li
Poster 52 - Mitigating Last-Revealer Attacks in PoS Blockchains
David Cavale, Soham Khot and Adiba Hussain
mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier
Dr. Bill Jackson
Dr. C. Nathan Hancock
Dr. Michele Harmon
Dr. Matthew Miller
Dr. Michelle Vieyra
Dr. Jeremy Culler
Technical Assistance
Prof. Brad Reinhart
Center for Research Excellence
USCA Office of Academic Affairs