2021 URA Cohort Awardees

The 2021 URA Cohort is our largest yet with 28 student-faculty pairs!

Awardee: Emily Hanson
Faculty Mentor: Janel Owens
“Assessing Levels of ‘Forever’ Chemicals in Tree Leaves Sampled within the Fountain Creek Watershed: An E.P.I.C. Story”

Awardee: Trenton Osinski
Faculty Mentor: Robert Mitchell
“Rural Global Perspectives: Examining Global Awareness in Rural Student Populations”

Awardee: Madison Simmons
Faculty Mentor: Aaron Corcoran
“Determining the Cause of Bat Fatalities at Wind Turbines Using 3-D Thermal Videography”

Awardee: Jennifer Burrows
Faculty Mentor: Amanda Morgenstern
“In Search of Better Medicine: Computational Analysis of Novel Drug Candidates for Human African Trypanosomiasis”

Awardee: Natalie Church
Faculty Mentor: Wendy Haggren
“Integration of Mouse Alpha Amylase Gene into the Yeast Genome using CRISPR and Traditional Cloning Methods”

Check out this interview with Natalie Church HERE!

Awardee: Brent Windebank
Faculty Mentor: Wendy Haggren
“Impact of Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs) on the Microbial Community of the Fountain Creek Watershed”

Awardee: Holly Siu
Faculty Mentor: Edwardo Portillos
“Club Basketball in Colorado Springs: Shaping Success, Identity, and Deviance”

Awardee: Alexis Rayburn
Faculty Mentor: Emily Mooney
“40-Year Resampling Study of Alpine Moth Lipid Reserves at Pennsylvania Mountain, Colorado”

Check out this interview with Alexis Rayburn HERE!

Awardee: Hazel Key
Faculty Mentor: Kimbra Smith
“Revealing Invisible Histories of Colorado Springs”

Awardee: Brianna Santos
Awardee: Layla Burney
Faculty Mentor: Brandon Vogt
“Put on Your Hiking Boots: A Survey and Environmental Assessment of Two Rock Glaciers in the San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado”

Check out this interview with Brianna Santos HERE!

Awardee: Naila Tagoilelagi  
Faculty Mentor: Beth Daniels
“Sexual Harassment: Understanding the Impact on Women in STEM”

Check out this interview with Naila Tagoilelagi HERE!

Awardee: Alayne Graybill
Faculty Mentor: Andy Klocko
“Exploring How Changes in Epigenetic Marks Impacts the Organization of the Fungal Genome”

Awardee: Tiffany Lundberg
Faculty Mentor: Andy Klocko
“Exploring How Fungal Genome Organization Evolves”

Awardee: Alisha Silkey
Faculty Mentor: Rachel Tayer
“Mental and Cognitive Health among Adults Experiencing Housing Insecurity”

Awardee: Alaric Sollenberger
Faculty Mentor: Karin Larkin
“Fatty’s Place: A Historical Archaeology of Tourism at Garden of the Gods”

Awardee: Brendan Gould 
Faculty Mentor: Phillip Brown
“Could Smart Vehicles Make Roads More Dangerous?”

Check out this interview with Brendan Gould HERE!

Awardee: Irina Amouzou
Faculty Mentor: Tre Wentling
“BBC: Blackness, BDSM, Community”

Awardee: Riley McGrath
Awardee: Brian Pierce
Faculty Mentor: James Van Scotter
“Strategic Information Leadership”

Check out this interview with Riley McGrath HERE!

Awardee: Madison Fox
Faculty Mentor: James Kovacs
“Bioengineering of a Haloalkane Dehalogenase for the Bioremediation of Perfluorinated Compounds”

Check out this interview with Madison Fox HERE!

Awardee: Brian Foster
Faculty Mentor: Tom Pszczynski
“The Effects of Uncertainty, Death, and Incongruity on Epistemic Motivation”

Awardee: Sophie Nordgren
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Zohn
“COVID-19 and its Aftermath: Raising Awareness of Suicide Risk and Suicide Prevention”

Awardee: Tristan Lee
Faculty Mentor: Byeong Lee
“Co-Design for Deep Learning Accelerators in RISC V Processors”

Awardee: Nicholas Windesheim
Faculty Mentor: Terry Boult
“Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification Plan Development for DARPA/MDA/DOD Technology Research and Development”

Awardee: Hadeel Khammash
Faculty Mentor: Amy Klocko
“Analysis of Effectiveness and Efficiency of CRISPR Targeting of AVT5 in Fission Yeast”

Check out this interview with Hadeel Khammash HERE!