STEM Night, 10/22/24
This Monday, at 7 in the HUB MPR, undergraduate STEM students will share their summer research. The poster session will begin at 7:30 and showcase students’ work both at Whitworth and off campus.
Dr. Aaron Putzke, a Summer Research Advisor on many of these student summer research projects, wants to emphasize STEM night as a non-discipline specific presentation opportunity for students who conducted their research at Whitworth over the summer and at other institutions. This is a good opportunity to hear about student research and allow student researchers to tell the story of their research. STEM night is also a warmup for the 8 students participating in the 2024 Murdock Science Research Conference at Whitman College November 8-9.
Honors Biophysics major Alex Peters is giving an oral presentation entitled “A 3D-Printed Microfluidic Device for Roundworm Sorting and Imaging.” This presentation is meant to prepare him for his upcoming talk at the Murdock Science Conference.
The oral presentation will cover Peters’ research in Dr. Aaron Putzke’s lab. In his own words, “My research is in developing a cost-effective, automated microfluidic device for sorting C. elegans, a microscopic worm used in genetic and cancer research. Using a custom SLA-DLP 3D printer, our lab has created a maskless fabrication technique that reduces the material and labor costs typically associated with traditional microfluidic devices. Our design aims to make autonomous sorting technology more accessible, particularly for smaller research institutions, while maintaining high accuracy in sorting based on key phenotypic traits like fluorescence in C. elegans.”
Peters hopes his research will make advanced sorting technologies more accessible to smaller labs and institutions, thus broadening research opportunities for C. elegans and accelerating cancer studies and discoveries in gene mutations, cancer mechanisms, and potential therapies.
The Whitworth Summer Research Projects are listed below. Students with “(H)” are a part of the Honors Program.
Kaitlyn Hawker
10/18/2024
“Learning Mechanism of the Neural Network for Internet Traffic Classification.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Qian Mao
Student Researcher: Liam Michael Hunt
“Temporal variability in plant and plant-herbivore ecology.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Olivia Cope
Student Researchers: Erica Heid, Ella Davis, Shayla Shea, Uuree Bayasgalan
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Jonathan Dawson and Dr. Aaron Putzke
Student Researchers: Zora Anetor-Ebhabha, Cora Martin
“Voltage-Sweep Ion Mobility Spectrometry.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Eric Davis
Student Researchers: Emily Edstrom (H), Gavin Valdez, Landon Vyhmeister
“Materials Chemistry Applications of Molecular Recognition.”
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Kraig Wheeler and Dr. Diana Schepens
Student Researchers: Noah Dunham (H), Shay Perlot, Mu Mu Dun (H), Kamrynn Burk, Molly Fleagle (H), Ainsley Hill, Henry Zaske
“Fabrication and Development of Ecological Test Systems.”
Faculty Advisor: Prof Scott Griffith
Student Researchers: Keegan Davis, Wesley Ostlund
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Kent Jones and Dr. Phillip Measor
Student Reserachers: Lauren Podhajsky, Nic Tibbets, Eq Qian
“Structural Investigation of Interesting Proteins by X-ray Crystallography.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Deanna Ojennus
Student Researchers: Nabi Kahn, Darren Melville (H)
Student Volunteers: Jake Loosemore, Madeline Jones (H)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Aaron Putzke
Student Researcher: Bailee Cook (H)
“Novel 3D printed microfluidic device for sorting and high resolution imaging of live roundworms.”
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Aaron Putzke and Dr. Phillip Maesor
Student Researcher: Alex Peters (H)
“Crystallographic Studies of Chiral Resolving Agents and Azo Dyes.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Trisha Russell
Student Researchers: Kolbe McNaught, Taylor Voelker
“Innovation Incubator Project Development.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Pete Tucker
Student Researchers: Matthew Kaczmarek, Kat Costales
Student Volunteer: Luke Lewis
“Theoretical and experimental piezoelectric ceramic printing.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Schipf
Student Researcher: Josh Park
Student Volunteers: Rabi Tayyab, Andrew Weibers
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kerry Breno
Student Researcher: Samantha Pease
“Optimization of electric propulsion systems for spaceflight missions.”
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kamesh Sankaran
Student Researchers: Jin Yue Trousil (H), Josh Rivera