Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Showcase

The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience or SURE for short, aims to grow and enhance the undergraduate research experience for UM-Dearborn students. Through this program, current students have the opportunity to participate in individual research projects under the mentorship of faculty.  In addition to the research conducted under the guidance of an experienced faculty mentor, SURE students participate in professional development events and social programming as a cohort.  Many students continue their research beyond the summer.  Join us in celebrating their research at our 2026 Showcase! 

Order of Program 

Welcome 

Dr. Joan Remski
Associate Provost for Undergraduate Curriculum and Experiential Learning

Opening Remarks

Dr. Gabriella Scarlatta
Chancellor

Acknowledgements 

Kelsey Parker
Project Manager for Experiential Learning

Poster Session 

Voting for People's Choice concludes at 5:00pm

Presentation of Awards & Closing Remarks

Dr. Maureen Linker
Senior Provost Fellow

Thank you to our sponsors: the Mardigian Library, Office of Community-Engaged Learning, Commission for Women, and Magna International!

Researchers 

1. The Evolution of Altruism and Spite: Exploring the Green Beard Effect in Proteus Mirabilis, Christopher Alteri (faculty mentor), Serena Mazloum (student researcher)
2. The Generational Divide: Gen Z and Historical Changes in the Transition to Adulthood, Pamela Aronson (faculty mentor), Jumana Kamalaldin (student researcher)
3. Founding Mothers: Stories of Women Leaders in Corrections, Francine Banner (faculty mentor), Alicia Seferi (student researcher)
4. The Deportability of Latino Men: MS-13, Street-Level Bureaucrats, and Mobility Regimes, Maya Barak (faculty mentor), Rayan Bazzi (student researcher)
5. Metastability, Nucleation, and Hydrodynamic Limits in Modified Becker–Döring Models of Particle Coarsening, Michael Dabkowski (faculty mentor), Adan Arriaga Silva (student researcher)
6. Assessing Invertebrate Biomass and Diversity in Michigan's Changing Climate, Anne Danielson-Francois (faculty mentor), Daniel Acosta (student researcher)
7. Neurophysiological Effects of Mental Fatigue: A Replication Study, Tobin Dykstra (faculty mentor), Ingrid Ishikawa Pires (student researcher)
8. Michigan's History of Mobilization for Reproductive Freedom, Georgina Hickey (faculty mentor), Kaz Lewis (student researcher)
9. Nhe9-Mediated Ph Regulation Coordinates Dynein Clustering for Retrograde Phagosome Transport, Kalyan Kondapalli (faculty mentor), Aayushma Pokhrel (student researcher)
10. The Role of Pegylation on the Binding Ability of a Flavin-Biotin Probe, Simona Marincean (faculty mentor), Rocco Paolini (student researcher)
11. Determining if Altering Membrane Composition Reduces Oxidative Damage Using Yeast as a Model System, Peter Oelkers (faculty mentor), May Bouhachem (student researcher)
12. Examining Environmental and Community Impacts of Green Schoolyards, Carmel Price (with Natalie Sampson, faculty mentors), Macy Burton (student researcher)
13. Navigating Between Administrative Rules and Mysticism: How Do Government Agencies Respond to Their Encounters with Mystical Phenomena?, Vadym Pyrozhenko (faculty mentor), Farah Abdun-Noor (student researcher)
14. Archive of The Vanished, Adam Sekuler (faculty mentor), Marcos Carrillo (student researcher)
15. Development of Artificial Intelligence Raters for Coding Self-Defining Memories, Caleb Siefert (faculty mentor), Braylen Castro (student researcher)
16. Developing a Precision Laser-Control System for Single Molecule Biophysics, Suvranta Tripathy (faculty mentor), Syeda Haider (student researcher)
17. Using Live Cell Imaging to Measure Growth and Shape Differences in Melanoma Cells, Besa Xhabija (faculty mentor), Wiam Almahdi (student researcher)
18. Durability of Biocompatible Thermoplastic Elastomers Under Extreme Environments, Georges Ayoub (faculty mentor), Nicholas Choi (student researcher)
19. From Chatbots to Watchdogs: Leveraging Large Language Models for Security Protection, Anys Bacha (faculty mentor), Daisy Sinani (student researcher)
20. A Study of Driver State Leveraging AI Models, Shan Bao (faculty mentor), Zhalgas Tileumuratin (student researcher)
21. Uncertainty-Aware Energy Management of Renewable-Powered Microgrids Using Demand Response, Van Hai Bui (faculty mentor), Ali Beidoun (student researcher)
22. Efficient Transfer Learning Techniques for Real World Decision-Making with Applications to Smart Agriculture, Srijita Das (faculty mentor), Jonah Yamine (student researcher)
23. CIgnosis: Explaining and Repairing Continuous Integration Failures with Large Language Models, Anwar Ghammam (faculty mentor), Daniel Raskin (student researcher)
24. GPS for Data: Speeding Up AI Training by Solving Digital Traffic Jams, Jinhua Guo (faculty mentor), Karim Joumaa (student researcher)
25. Machine Learning Misclassification Error Detection to Enhance Safety of Level 3 Autonomous Driving, Jian Hu (faculty mentor), Raameen Ahmed (student researcher)
26. Causal-Alpamayo: Improving Autonomous Vehicle Decision-Making Through Causal Reasoning and Vision Language Action Explainability, Utkarshani Jaimini (faculty mentor), Daniel Caro (student researcher)
27. Feasibility Study on Accelerated Drying of Grains, Cheol Lee (faculty mentor), Anoush Shakaib (student researcher)
28. Nanoparticle-Enhanced Photobattery for Simultaneous Solar Energy Harvesting and Storage, Rongheng Li (faculty mentor), Muaz Qamar (student researcher)
29. BadPixelGen: Backdoor Attacks against Pixel-Space Image Generators, Ang Li (faculty mentor), Alpaslan Arslan (student researcher)
30. Support-Free Additive Manufacturing via Multi-Axis Digital Light Processing, Zheng Liu (faculty mentor), Rayyan Arslan (student researcher)
31. Quantitative Analysis of Macrophage Phagocytosis of Collagen and Extracellular Matrix Components, Caymen Novak (faculty mentor), Bianca Wilson (student researcher)
32. LivePerf: An Educational Tool for Real-Time Visualization of Code Performance, Probir Roy (faculty mentor), Mohamed Saleh (student researcher)
33. Understanding the Impact of Different Facets of Teaching Quality on Students' Perception of Professors Using Public Student Feedback Data, Zheng Song (faculty mentor), Lana Burger (student researcher)
34. UM-Embed: An Open-Source Modular Embedded Systems Platform for Teaching and Research at UM-Dearborn, Guilherme Vieira Hollweg (faculty mentor), Resul Ilmammedov (student researcher)
35. Visible Light Communication-Based Pose Detection for On-Site Drone Coordination, Xiao Zhang (faculty mentor), Christian Nwobu (student researcher)
36. Elders’ Stories of Resilience and Resistance Guide Young People into a Climate-changed Future: A student-led oral history collection, Finn Bell (faculty mentor), Dominic Gomez (student researcher)
37. Lifelong Learning: Analyzing World History Content Offerings from a Decade of National Conferences, Erin Bronstein (faculty mentor), Shelby Simmons (student researcher)
38. Through the Looking Glass: How Classroom Observation Studies Inform Student Regulation Research in Secondary Classrooms, Lauren Cabrera (faculty mentor), Blythe Drotman (student researcher)
39. Access to the Starting Line: Centering Athlete Voice in Collegiate Adaptive Sport, Denise Kamyuka (faculty mentor), Wyatt Serrato (student researcher)
40. A Population-Level Analysis of Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis among Middle Eastern and South Asian Foreign-Born Women in the U.S., Angu Khan (faculty mentor), Nigthdelyn Martinez (student researcher)
41. Bridging Languages: Cultivating Inclusive PreK Environments for Multilingual Children, Kyongson Park (faculty mentor), Aarya Dhakal (student researcher)
42. Wolverine Wellness : A Resilience Building Program for First Year Collegiate Student-athletes, Veronica Son (faculty mentor), Leah Welch (student researcher)
43. Global Health Topics for the Elderly: A Review and Analysis of Challenges and Opportunities in Care Delivery, Charu Chandra (faculty mentor), Rukaya Alhemuzi (student researcher)
44. Supply Chain Configuration as a Driver of Financial Risk: Evidence from the Automotive Industry, Yan Xie (with Yi-Su Chen, faculty mentors), Jack Borenski (student researcher)

For more information on SURE, please explore our SURE website.