Past EFSC Undergraduate Research

Spring 2026 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Presented at FURC 2026

• Exploring the Neurological Impact of Sound Therapy Through EEG-Based Brainwave Analysis (Anna Barnhart)
• Faculty and Parental Perceptions of Active Shooter Protocols in Educational Institutions (Ashley Kon)
• Magical Injustice: Primal World Beliefs in Hierarchies and Egalitarianism within the Legal System of the Harry Potter Universe (Abigail Hayes)
• Auto Garden (Isabel Martinez)
• Battling Sepsis at the Source: Creating an Antimicrobial Solution to be Used on Severe Burn Patients (David Raguindin)
• Dual Enrollment Equivalency Lookup Tool: Making Educational Data Accessible Through Python Programming (Aiden Dugan)
• Examining the Absorption Claim About Cosmetic Hyaluronic Acid (AnnaRose Heinly)
• One is the Loneliest Number: Romanticization of Harsh Narratives to Escape Rising Loneliness (Taylor Fox)
• “El Cuco and The Boogeyman”: The Moral and Cultural Impacts on Childhood Tales (Naylees Cruz-Vazquez)
• I’m—Invincible; Nicomachean Ethics and Emotional Connections in Invincible and The Boys (Blake Ketterer)

Spring 2025 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Fall 2025 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Fall 2024 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Presented at FURC 2024

• Conversations with My Comfort Character: Fictional Mentors in the 21st Century (Kassandra Chase Tramel)
• It’s Not Me, It’s You: The Rise of Therapy Speak and It’s Role in Perpetuating Generational Trauma in Grimm and Charmed (Amanda Krack)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. Adaptations: Cross-Media Storytelling from The Dark Knight to The Scott Pilgrim Universe (Maryssa DeVincenzo)
• “I Always Come Back” A Look into the World of Five Night’s at Freddy’s in Correlation to Generation Z (Emma Sigarto)
• Inverse Cyborgs: Machines Re-envisioning Their Selfhood, from The TARDIS to The Terminator (Cameron Myjak)
• Schrödinger’s Mimic: Doubles, Shapeshifters, and Inauthentic Reality Infiltrating Sci-fi and Fantasy (Sean Kohut)
• Lane “What is Grief, If Not Love Persevering”: Prolonged Grief Disorder, Complex Grief, and Fog of Grief in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, WandaVison, and Agents of Shield (Angelique Williams)
• I’m Perceived, Therefore I Am: Dystopian Narratives, Self-Commodifying, and Generation Z’s 21st-century Perception of Individuality (Victoria Jackson)
• Gopher Tortoise Burrow Distribution Patterns in the High Human Activity Areas of Wickham Park (Riley Renfro)
• Passively Cooling Buildings with Barium Sulfate laminates (Devin Wright), Practical Applications for Living in a Tree: Growing Not Building (Julie McClellan)
• Sustainable Growth Blanket: Testing Plant Growth with Soil Bacteria on Fiber Sheets (Leen Abu-Ammour)
• Environmental Impact Assessment of Paint Equipment Washout in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems (Elizabeth Eskildsen and Dallas Eskildsen)
• An Exploration of The Viability of a Lactose Intolerance Gene Therapy Treatment in Mammalian Cell Culture (Cassalynn Staats and Joseph Adely)

Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Fall 2023 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Presented at FURC 2023

Eight talented EFSC students took part in the 2023 Florida Undergraduate Research Conference (FURC) in Miami Gardens, presenting research in communications, pop culture, and biology. Explore their projects through photos in our Flickr album.

• The Effect of Sub-minimum Inhibitory Concentrations of Oxacillin on the Expression of the Alpha-hemolysin Encoding Gene HLY in the Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus Aureus Reference Strain Wood 46 (Sophia Alberts)
• Schrödinger's Mimic: Doubles, Shapeshifters, and Inauthentic Reality Infiltrating Sci-fi and Fantasy (Sean Kohut)
• “PLZ Tell Me Fangz”: Fanfiction, coded language, and harmful misrepresentation (Clair Mallace)
• Visceral Reality: The Desire for Bodily Stimulation in Real VR, the OASIS, the Matrix, and the Holodeck (Brandon Pimer)
• Spectrophotometric Investigation of Plant-Based Enzymes for Pancreatic Insufficiencies (Brittany Lowe)
• The Washout Phase of Construction Painting: A Harmless Move? The Effects of Latex Paint on Terrestrial Residents (Elizabeth Eskildsen)
• Terror in Hawkins: Conceptual Resilience in Stranger Things (Kyler Begley)
• I Don't Know If They Really Want You to Be a Hero; I Think They Just Want You to Look Like One (Lauren Boonstra)

Fall 2022 Undergraduate Research Exhibition Book of Abstracts

Spring 2022 Virtual Undergraduate Research Exhibition

Presented at FURC 2022

• The Antibacterial Effect of Clove (Syzygium aromaticum), Garlic (Allium sativum), and the Combination (Sarah Clemons)
• An Analysis of the Effects of Various Essential Oils on the Growth of Staphylococcus aureus (Rick Snow)
• Promotion of Initial Plant Growth with Rhizobacterial Inoculation (Kristen Browning)
• Spectrophotometric Investigation of Plant Based Pancrelipase for Pancreatic Insufficiency (Brittany Lowe)
• tilizing Glycolysis in Streptococcus pyogenes to Model Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GISTs) in Response to Endogenous Stimulus-powered Nanoreactors (Om Patel)
• Identifying Observable Changes in Grant Seeking Habits of Florida Museums Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Closures (Cassandra Garner)
• Sabrina the Teenage Activist (Amber Bixby)
• Between Waifu and Besto Friendo: Parasocial Relationships and Cowboy Bebop, Attack on Titan, and Death Note Fans (Brianey Torres)
• #CoulsonLives: Paratextual Networked Selves in Fictional Universes (Matt Hudson)

Spring 2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Exhibition

Fall 2021 Virtual Undergraduate Research Exhibition

Presented at FURC 2021

• Effects of Human Disturbance on Biomass and Biodiversity of the Indian River Lagoon (Mia Hammonds)
• Salinity Effects on Indian River Lagoon Invertebrate and Vertebrate Composition (Savannah Luhn)
• HBOT-Enhanced Physical Therapy: A Novel Approach to Improving Rehabilitation for Neurological Brain Injury (Stephanie Salonen)

Presented at the Midwest Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature Gathering: Christianity, Race, and Justice 2021

• The Land That Never Has Been Yet: Black American Poets as Prophetic Voices (Janelle Fuller)

Fall 2020 Virtual Undergraduate Research Exhibition

Presented at FURC 2020

• Initial Optical Profile of Anthocyanins in Single and Double Bloom Hibiscus Rosa-Sinesis (Amanda Siegel)

Presented at FURC 2019

• Comparative Analysis and Identification of Class 1 CRISPR-CAS Genes of Recreational Water Staphylococcus Aureus (Brandon Lopez-Duenas)
• A Comparison of the Coagulation of Microalga (Gymnodinium) Between Chitosan and Alum and Effects on Macroalgal (Chlorpophyta) Survival (Hannah Olson)

Presented at FURC 2017

• Fighting Civilization, Not Acne: The New Adult Genre and Twenty-Somethings in The Between and The 100 (Sevan McBride)
• Antimicrobial Properties of Moringa Oleifera (Brieanna Chankersingh)
• Inhibiting the Division of Pathogenic Bacteria Using Iron-Binding Glycoproteins (Mark Cherry and Troy Hart)
• Induced Evolution in Danio Rerio (Pierce Dillon)
• Effectiveness of Ovotransferrin and Sodium Bicarbonate in the Inhibition of Bacterial Growth (Nicole Conde)
• The Furious Road to Ozploitation: Examining the Culture Stereotypes Within Mad Max: Fury Road (Brandon Shepherd)
• Dancing in the Dark: The Conflict of Romantic and Sentimental Ideas in the Internet Apocalypse Trilogy (Nykholas Quinones)
• Meiofaunal Communities Differ Depending on Environmental Quality (Cara Irwin)
• Artful Stealing and Convergent Dodging: Analyzing Divergent and Convergent Thinking in Creative Control, Temp Music, and Stealing Like an Artist (Abraham Mullican)
• Malicious Humorous Death: How The Edge of Tomorrow and ARQ Explore Death and Dying Through Dark Comedy (Thomas Foster)
• Afterlife or Transcendence: How the Talos Principle Uses Principles of Game-Based Learning to Intrigue the Player (Jacob McMullen)
• Keeping It in the Family: Examining the Changing Portrayal of Incest Within Wayward Pines and Game of Thrones (Rodney Rich)
• That's Pretty Ugly: How Uglies Confronts Plastic Surgery as a Necessity in Youth (Robyn Tilley)
• Superman's Dawn of Sociopathic Injustice: How the DSM's New Criteria Diagnoses Superman as a Sociopath (Jonathan Howard)
• Build-a-Bear...or...Build-a-Baby: Examining Trans-Humanism in Science Fiction from Gattaca to Star Trek: Into Darkness (Sierra Zeiders)

Presented at FURC 2015

• Potential Algaecidic Applications of the Brazilian Peppertree (Morgan Enoch and Dylan Myers)
• Non-Invasive EKG Study of Burmese Pythons (Maria Myrback in association with the Florida Institute of Technology)
• Differences in Crop Growth and Leaching Rates of Low N-P and High N-P Fertilizers (Kasey McDowell, James Pouncey, and Brent Anderson)
• Extraction and Chemical Analysis of Urushiol in Schinus Terebinthifolius (Dylan Myers and Paige Twiddy)

Presented at FURC 2014

• Effects of Plastic Bag Coverage on Growth of Enteromorpha (Erika Steele)
• Effects of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Inoculum Fungi (AMIF) on the Overall Growth Rate of Rhizophora Mangle and Laguncularia Racemosa (Charlotte Garfinkel)
• The Effects of Holistic Medicine on Propionibacterium Acnes (Frank Skiff)
• Brazilian Pepper Plants (Schinus Terebinthifolius Raddi) Toxin Effects on Freshwater Organisms (Dylan Myers)

Presented at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists 2014

• Non-Invasive EKG Study of Burmese Pythons (Maria Myrback in association with the Florida Institute of Technology)