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. 

By 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 

“Developing a Biophysical Approach to Study Temporal Dynamics of Cell Divisions during C. elegans Embryogenesis. 

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 

A 3D Printed Microdevice for Detecting Pathogens” and “A 3D Printed Microdevice towards Molecular & Quantum Computing.” 

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) 

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 

Optimization of electric propulsion systems for spaceflight missions. 

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kamesh Sankaran 

Student Researchers: Jin Yue Trousil (H), Josh Rivera