Second Award
Cisplatin cures cancers but increases mortality due to its nephrotoxicity. My in vitro studies led to the hypothesis that mice treated with acrolein or cisplatin will promote kidney fibrosis…
Biomedical Engineering
Second Award
Electronic-cigarettes, or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), represent a major public health issue, but little is known about their toxicological effects when inhaled. This study e…
Second Award
Probiotics were engineered to deliver antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that show promise as an alternative to antibiotics. This work involved designing a broad-spectrum Escherichia coli Nissle…
Second Award
The purpose of this experiment was to study the interactive effects of radiation, convection, and fluid vortices in a forest fire heat transfer environment. Applying these principles to fire…
Second Award
Quadcopter drones are poised to become a widely used technology with important humanitarian, civil and military applications. However, these flying robots face significant and complex aerody…
Second Award
Over 70 million people worldwide and 5 million in the U.S. have epilepsy and millions of people fall each year with hundreds of thousands hospitalized. Despite the high number of fatal falls…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
Functional polymers are currently attracting tremendous attention because of their use in diverse polymer applications, such as fuel cell membranes, gas separation, biomaterials, and polymer…
Second Award
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects millions, but diagnostic methods are inadequate and expensive. The connection between the brain and retina suggests that retinal biomarkers may exist for AD.…
Second Award
Aviation-generated emissions from hydrocarbon fuel combustion account for approximately 3.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Current wingtip devices seek to lower induced drag from…
Second Award
‘Bleeding Canker’ is a disease of Horse Chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) identified throughout North-West Europe since 2002. The infection, first identified in Ireland in 2011, causes…
Second Award
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill was detrimental to the prosperity of marine and wildlife habitats, as well as the fishing and tourism industry in the surrounding region. Oil spills can al…
Second Award
Alzheimer’s is a devastating and debilitating condition which affects humans, particularly in their senior years. It causes loss of short-term memory which results in disorientation and crea…
Second Award
An estimated 25 million people in the United States suffer from diseases for which there is no effective FDA-approved treatment. This issue exists for a variety of reasons; development of dr…
Second Award
This hybrid elastomeric robot successfully demonstrated that a synthesized high-level robot controller, Linear Temporal Logic MissiOn Planning (LTLMoP), can reduce the unpredictability of so…
Second Award
Traditional antibiotics are becoming obsolete due to the growing danger of antibiotic resistance and their frequent toxicity to human indigenous microbiota. This investigation develops a syn…
Second Award
Potential "newly emerging contaminants" in waterways are being evaluated. Unused or excreted pharmaceuticals may pose threats to aquatic organisms. This arouses concern since the EPA has not…
Second Award
Flying robots have tremendous potential for many applications, including search and rescue and emergency response. However, the capabilities of these robots are currently highly limited, and…
Biomedical Engineering
Second Award
Chocolate and caffeine are well-known to affect the quality of sleep. Chocolate, however,contains only minimal traces of caffeine but larger amounts of theobromine, a related alkaloid stimul…
Second Award
Chondroitin sulfate is one branch of glycosaminoglycan that forms proteoglycans within the connective tissue of jellyfish. However, few studies are done on the source jellyfish for extractio…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
This is a continuation project (Year 3). Two types of simple, cost-effective, reusable electrochemical sensors were created with functionalized gold nanoparticles (~1.6 nm core diameter) for…
Second Award
The neurotrophin BDNF has been shown to engage in retrograde signaling and interneuronal transport, causing increased synaptic transmission and neurogenesis, respectively. It was hypothesize…
Second Award
As battery cells age, their capacities diverge, which causes problems in large series connected packs such as those found in electric vehicles. Cells that develop larger or smaller capacitie…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
Biosensors are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s society with applications in health diagnostics, bio warfare detection, water quality monitoring, and food safety. Currently in heal…
Second Award
This science investigation is aimed at developing smart phone algorithms for automated detection of seizures and falls. The product of this investigation is the Seizario app, which utilizes…
Biomedical Engineering
Second Award
A novel antigen-presenting cell (APC)-targeted immunomodulatory nanoparticle (NP) was developed as a vaccination platform, with potential uses such as cancer therapeutics. The nanoparticle e…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
Radiation and nuclear terrorism are growing threats for humanity in today’s world. One reason for this is the lack of a shielding material that is effective against both neutron and gamma ra…
Second Award
Energy, transportation, and chemical sectors are major contributors to the increase in the greenhouse gas CO2 concentration in our atmosphere. Increasing greenhouse gases causes global warmi…
Second Award
Carbon capture and storage is a major strategy to mitigate greenhouse gasses (GHGs) but the associated high costs and risk of CO2 leakage can deter its adaptability. Carbon Mineralization te…
Second Award
Algae are one of the most promising sources of biomass because of their environmental sustainability, and the direct use of algal byproducts as transportation fuels. Hydrogen is one of the f…
Translational Medical Science
Second Award
Alopecia areata (AA) is one the most common autoimmune diseases resulting from T cell mediated destruction of hair follicles. Lack of understanding of immune pathways in AA has restricted AA…