2021 ReSEARCH Dialogues

Conference Details:
The 2021 virtual ReSEARCH Dialogues Conference was hosted via the Symposium by ForagerOne online conference platform. Virtual presentations (posters, videos, recorded presentations, etc.) are available for viewing via this link: symposium.foragerone.com/utcrd21. 

Q&A Sessions
Nine live Q&A sessions were held between Mon. April 12 and Thurs. April 15, 2021. Sessions will featured students (undergraduate, graduate, and high school), faculty, and staff representing a wide range of academic disciplines, and were moderated by UTC faculty and staff. 

The ReSEARCH Dialogues team would like to thank the 2021 moderators and panelists. We are extremely grateful for your support.

DAY ONE - Monday, APRIL 12

Welcome Session: 11:00-11:30am (View Recording)

• Dr. Steven Angle, UTC Chancellor
• Dr. Jerold Hale, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
• David Steele, Chief of Staff and Director of Civic Engagement, UTC

Community Panel Discussion: 12:00-1:00pm (View Recording)
This panel will focus on how research and creative activity is driving change in our community, and the work left to be done. The audience will learn about aspects of Chattanooga that they didn’t know previously, and our discussion will hopefully plant seeds for future projects and collaborations.

• Moderated by David Steele, Chief of Staff and Director of Civic Engagement Chancellor's Office
• Panelists:
  • Molly Blankenship – CEO of Chattanooga 2.0
  • Abby Garrison – Vice President, Venture Forward (Nonprofit Advancement and Social Innovation), United Way of Chattanooga
  • James McKissic – President & CEO of ArtsBuild
  • Deb Socia – President & CEO of The Enterprise Center
  • Lorne Steedley – VP of Diversity & Inclusive Growth at The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce
  • Daniela Paz Peterson – senior advisor for community strategies, The Trust for Public Land

Presenter Q&A: 1:30-2:30pm (Moderators: Mrs. Callie Adams, Dr. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor
Moataz Abdalla	Engineering	Strong biodegradable materials and degradation models for osteosynthesis treatments	Graduate	Dr. Hamdy Ibrahim
Oluwakorede Ajumobi	Data Science	Predicting Student Success at UTC: A Qualitative and Quantitative Modeling Approach	Graduate	Dr. Hermant Jain
Sai Medury	Computer Science	Design and Evaluation of Cascading Cuckoo Filtersfor Zero-False-Positive Membership Services	Graduate	Dr. Anthony Skjellum
Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu	Engineering	EMG Based Trajectory Control of Hand Exoskeleton, The Real-Time Control of An Active Balance Board with An EMG Monitoring System For Rehabilitation	Faculty	N/A
Preyanka Dey	Engineering	Evaluation of uncertainties in watershed scale hydrological modeling by Monte Carlo methods	Graduate	Dr. Jejal Bathi
Dell Zimmerman	Chemical Engineering	Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate) Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Applications	Undergraduate	Dr. Soubantika Palchoudhury

Presenter Q&A: 3:00-4:00pm (Moderators: Ms. Rachel Fleming, Dr. Kristen Black)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Elizabeth Allen	Microbiology	Linoleic acid affects membrane permeability and antimicrobial activity of fish piscidins on Vibrio cholerae	Undergraduate	Dr. David Giles
Taya De Blonk	Biology	Phylogeography of stonerollers across North America (Campostoma: Cyprinidae)	Undergraduate	Dr. Fernando Alda-Pons
Vaidehi Rathod	Food Chemistry	Developing a High Protein Vegan Meal Replacement	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Katherine Allison	Psychology	Impact of Creativity on Second Language Learning & A New Way to Listen & Community-Based Service Design to Mitigate Covid-19 Transmission	Undergraduate	Dr. Ashleigh Pipes & Dr. Linda Frost
Dr. Ashleigh Pipes	English	Examining Creativity as an Individual Difference in Foreign Language Learning	Faculty	N/A
Austin Averill	Anthropology	An Assessment of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park	Undergraduate	Dr. Morgan Smith
Dr. Brooke Persons	Archeology	Characterizing Commerce in the Colonial Caribbean: Economic Scaling of 19th Century Ceramics in Charlotte Amalia, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands	Faculty	N/A
Taylor Wells	Archeology	Digital Archaeology: Preserving Hard Copies of Archaeological Records for Enhanced Accessibility	Undergraduate	Dr. Morgan Smith

Presenter Q&A: 4:30-5:30pm (Moderators: Dr. Karissa Peyer, Dr. Brooke Persons)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Angela Kruck	Psychology	What’s in a Name? An Assessment of Degradation of Women in the Name of Climbing Routes	Undergraduate	Dr. Alexandra Zelin & Dr. Jill Shelton
Kayeden Milne	Pre-Health/Biology	The COVID pandemic and the likelihood for students to receive the vaccine. & The COVID-19 vaccine and students opinions on receiving it.	Undergraduate	Dr. Dawn Ford
Bree Rust	Psychology	Testing the association between PTSD and Personality traits. & The association between state social anxiety and eye contact avoidance.	Undergraduate	Dr. Ashley Howell
Tanishqa Kuchi	Computer Science	Kahlo vs. Matisse vs. Rothko: Using Python to Track and Artist's Color Palette Over Time	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Dr. Elise Chapman	Biology	Creativity and Research with Student Driven Inquiry in Pollinator Biology	Faculty	N/A
Julianna Schau	Psychology	How juveniles and adults use strategies to appear innocent in a police interview	Graduate	Dr. Amye Warren

DAY TWO - Tuesday, APRIL 13

Welcome Session: 11:00-11:30am (View Recording)

• Dr. Joanne Romagni, UTC Vice Chancellor for Research
• Dr. Yancy Freeman, Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs
• Meredith Perry, Director, Research and Sponsored Programs

Panel Discussion: 12:00-1:00pm. "Conducting Research through an Anti-Racist Lens"
Join us for an important conversation surrounding racial equity, de-centering whiteness, and anti-racism practices while conducting research. Panelists include Dr. Alexandra Zelin from Psychology, Dr. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste from Health and Human Performance, and Professor Chapel Cowden from the UTC Library.  (View Recording)

• Moderated by Natalie Haber, Online Services Librarian and Associate Professor, UTC Library
• Panelists:
  • Dr. Alexandra Zelin, Psychology
  • Dr. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste, HHP
  • Chapel Cowden, UTC Library

Presenter Q&A: 1:30-2:30pm (Moderators: Dr. Kelly McNamara, Dr. Kidambi Sreenivas)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Dr. Azad Hossain	Environmental Science	Remote Sensing of Water Quality Using Planet Dove Imagery	Faculty	N/A
Christi Denton	Nursing	Performance Enhancing Psychological Skills: A Proposed Method of Stress Inoculation in Healthcare	Graduate	Dr. Joanie Jackson
Dr. Eleni Panagiotou	Applied Mathematics	Measures of entanglement complexity of physical filaments	Faculty	N/A
Elisabeth Sheff-Stefanik	Sociology	Legal Protections for LGBTQ & Polyamorous Families	Faculty	N/A
Jacob Robbins	Psychology	The Lay Concept of Male-type Depression	Graduate	Dr. Ruth Walker

Presenter Q&A: 3:00-4:00pm (Moderators: Ms. Carolyn Runyon, Dr. Kelly McNamara)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Kimberly Page	Higher Education Research	Does COVID-19 Impact Variables Related to Student Success?: A Comparative Analytics Model	Graduate	Dr. Elizabeth Crawford
Maame Korsah	Mathematical Epidemiology	Assessment of the impact of awareness programs on COVID-19 transmission dynamics	Graduate	Dr. Jin Wang
Dianna Vermilyea	Nursing	Screening, Treatment, and Referral of Victims of Human Trafficking Utilizing an Evidence Based Approach	Graduate	Dr. Bernadette DePrez
Rachel Lewis	English	Perspectives of Pop Culture and Fandom in English: How Pop Culture and Fandom Can Be Used In Pedagogy, Research, and Analysis	Graduate	Dr. Rik Hunter
Anay Patel	History	Lozh' Chernobylya	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Astha Sinha	Chemistry	Impact of Water pH on Fate and Transport of Carbon Nanotubes	GPS/High School

DAY THREE - Wednesday, APRIL 14

Welcome Session: 11:00-11:30am (View Recording)

• Dr. Daniel Pack, Dean for the College of Engineering and Computer Science
• Dr. Michael Danquah, Associate Dean, College of Engineering and Computer Science; Professor and Director of Chemical Engineering
• Dr. Bradley Harris, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering

Student Research Panel Discussion: 12:00-1:00pm. "How to strengthen your portfolio for applying to graduate school"
The panel is made up of recently graduated UTC students who have gone on to pursue graduate studies or plan to do so in the near future. Their undergraduate degrees span a broad range, from business to engineering to psychology. (View Recording)

• Moderated by Dr. Bradley Harris, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering.
• Panelists:
  • Blake Garren, UTC business alumna and current graduate student at UTC
  • Olivia Pearson, UTC engineering alumna and current graduate student at Georgia Tech
  • Elizabeth Plunk, UTC arts and sciences alumna and current graduate student at University of Rochester Medical Center
  • Christian Saenz, UTC arts and sciences alumna and current graduate student at Georgia State
  • Samantha Sweck, UTC engineering and arts and sciences alumna

Presenter Q&A: 1:30-2:30pm (Moderators: Ms. Rachel Fleming, Ms. Madonna Kemp)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Chelsey Paige	Art History	Inspecting Provenance from a Post-colonial Perspective	Undergraduate	Dr. Carolyn Runyon & Dr. Olivia Wolf
Laila Hinton	Education	"Let's Stop Recycling Poverty "	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Dr. Jennifer Hogg	Biomechanics	Immersive real-time biofeedback optimized with enhanced expectancies improves motor learning.	Faculty	N/A
Morgan Osborn	Biology/Computer Science	Explore the Seasonality of COVID-19	Undergraduate	Dr. Hong Qin

Presenter Q&A: 3:00-4:00pm (Moderators: Dr. Kristen Black, Dr. Kidambi Sreenivas)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Mohammad Aman Ullah Al Amin	Engineering	Digital Twin Model Construction for Two-Arm Collaborative Robot for Process Automation.	Graduate	Dr. Seong Dae Kim
Tiffany Harvey	Biology	Revised phylogenetic hypothesis of Neotropical electric fishes using complete mitochondrial genomes	Undergraduate	Dr. Fernando Alda-Pons
Dr. Donald Reising	Engineering	Radio Identity Verification-based IoT Security Using RF-DNA Fingerprints and SVM	Faculty	N/A
Grace Nansamba	Computer Science	Second-generation polyalgorithms for parallel dense-matrix multiplication	Graduate	Dr. Anthony Skjellum
Akera Williams	Psychology	How Does Race and Gender Impact Perceptions of the Wrongfully Convicted?	Graduate	Dr. Amye Warren

Presenter Q&A: 4:30-5:30pm (Moderators: Dr. Shewanee Howard-Baptiste, Mr. Danny Grzesik)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Angela Kruck	Psychology	Cognitive Offloading: A Tool for Academic Success	Undergraduate	Dr. Alexandra Zelin & Dr. Jill Shelton
Zachary Swanson	Psychology	Investigating the Effects of Intergenerational Dialogue on Character Development	Graduate	Dr. Jill Shelton & Dr. Ralph Hood
Brennan Huber	Computer Science	Behavioral Model based Trust Management design for IoT at Scale	Graduate	Dr. Farah Kandah
William Rolen	Engineering/Computer Science	Scheduling Application for Radiation Effects Testing Sites	Undergraduate	Dr. Daniel Loveless

DAY FOUR - Thursday, APRIL 15

Welcome Session: 10:00-10:30am. (View Recording)

• David Steele, Chief of Staff and Director of Civic Engagement, UTC

Keynote Speaker: 11:00am-12:00pm. "Establishing a Culture of Curiosity" (View Recording)

• Mr. Marcus Shaw, Former Chief Executive Officer, CO.LAB (see bio below)

Presenter Q&A: 2:00-3:00pm (Moderators: Dr. Reetesh Ranjan, Ms. Endia Butler)

(View Recording)

Name	Discipline	Title	Status	Mentor Name
Lineah Sakson	Psychology	Complex Trauma's Causes and Impact Throughout Life	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Chasity Drew	Learning & Leadership	Native American Inclusion and Belonging	Graduate	Dr. Beth Crawford & Dr. John Harbison
Dallas Jones	Engineering/Computer Science	Python	Undergraduate	Dr. Anthony Skjellum
Lauren Ledford	Sociology	In what ways do the standards of beauty affect the health of cultures?	CSAS/High School	Ms. Kelly Davis
Andrew Rivers	Engineering	Framework for Teaching Concepts of Engineering Optimization to STEM Student Using Greenpower Formula 24 Race Cars	Graduate	Dr. Raga Ahmed
Zachary Swanson	Psychology	Thinking about life: An Investigation into Explicit Worldview Beliefs	Graduate	Dr. Jill Shelton & Dr. Ralph Hood

Marcus Shaw, Former Chief Executive Officer, CO.LAB

Marcus most recently served as the CEO of CO.LAB in Chattanooga, TN.  Prior to CO.LAB, Marcus was the senior director of business development and partnerships for Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a D.C.-based nonprofit that helps build diversity and leadership pipelines for corporate institutions, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. While there, he significantly grew MLT’s partnerships with Fortune 500 partners and led the proposal for an entrepreneurship development program focused on women and minorities. Marcus is also the founder of a boutique consulting company that specializes in working with startups and small to medium-sized businesses.  Marcus is an investment management veteran whose career includes Wall Street and Capitol Hill.  He started his career as a network engineer at IBM.  Marcus holds an MBA from Duke University as well as a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Morehouse College and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

The ReSEARCH Dialogues team would like to thank all of the outstanding members of the 2021 RD Planning Committee. We are extremely grateful for your support.

ReSEARCH Dialogues 2021 Planning Committee

• Michael Andrews, TV Studio Manager/Adviser for the Mocs News Communications, Executive Video Producer, Communications and Marketing
• Holley Beeland, Graphic and Web Support, SimCenter
• Boris Belinskiy, PhD, UC Foundation Professor, Mathematics
• Stuart Benkert, PhD, Department Head of Arts and Sciences
• Kristen Black, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychology
• Edward Brudney, PhD, Assistant Professor, History
• Jacob Cagle, Videographer/Editor, Communications and Marketing
• Troy Carroll, Adjunct Instructor for SCJS, Learning Management System Specialist
• Todd Doman, Grant Specialist, ORSP
• Natalie Haber, MLS, Online Services Librarian Research and Instruction, UC Foundation Assistant Professor
• Bradley Harris, PhD, Assistant Professor, Civil and Chemical Engineering
• Jenny Holcombe, PhD, Lecturer, School of Nursing
• Fang Yu Hu, PhD, Assistant Professor, History
• Alexis Hurley, Project Coordinator, Office of the Chancellor
• Joanie Jackson, PhD, FNP, Associate Professor, School of Nursing
• Susan Lazenby, Budget and Planning Manager, Technology
• John Lee, PhD, Associate Professor, Chemistry
• Meredith Perry, Director, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP)
• Karissa Peyer, PhD, Professor, Health, Education and Professional Studies
• Leslie Pusey, M.Ed, Director of National Scholarships and Fellowships
• Michelle Rigler, Executive Director, Disability Resource Center
• Stephen Rumbaugh, Creative Services Director, Communications and Marketing
• Jennifer Skjellum, PhD, Commercialization Counselor, CIE
• Morgan Smith, PhD, Assistant Professor, Anthropology

UTC Research and Creative Activities Week

The first-ever UTC Research and Creative Activities Week was held between Monday April 12 and Thursday April 15, 2021. This week-long celebration highlights and recognizes research and creative activities scheduled across campus during (or around) the week of April 12-15. ReSEARCH Dialogues events are held each day of UTC Research and Creative Activities Week.

Events: