SUBJECT: Congratulations to the SURE 2025 Faculty and Student Awardees!!

Campus Community, 

On behalf of the SURE Administration Committee we would like to extend a CONGRATULATIONS to the following 40 faculty members who received funding for a SURE summer undergraduate student researcher. We had another record breaking year in terms of applications and are so proud of the breadth and range of our faculty's research expertise as well as their commitment to mentoring and developing undergraduate student researchers. These projects represent all four colleges, and include students at every stage of their academic career. Because of the number of excellent applications received this year we were not able to fund every proposal that was positively reviewed. However, with contributions from Enrollment Management, the Mardigian Library, and the college Deans, we were able to exceed our base budget funding! 

Throughout the summer, SURE students will be participating in professional development workshops, building cohort relationships with other undergraduate researchers, and engaging in fun, social activities in addition to their research work. Congratulations SURE 2025 faculty mentors and student researchers listed below, and a special thanks to our faculty reviewers for their hard work: Yunus Zeytuncu (CASL), Maureen Linker (Provost Office), Alireza Mohammadi (CECS), Finn Bell (CEHHS), Wayne Fu (COB), Molly Manley (Office of Community Engaged Learning), Amy Seipke (CECS & Mathematics Librarian), and Chris Spilker (Head, Library Research Center).

As a reminder, if you would like to donate to the SURE Gift Fund you can find us at: UM-Dearborn Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Gift Fund and remember us on Giving Blue Day later this month! 

And here are our 2025 SURE Awardees!!

CASL:

• The effect of Bisphenol S on the sex-determination of the vertebrate embryo, John Abramya (faculty mentor), Mohamedeyed Ammari (student researcher)

• #MeToo and a Culture of Respect: Creating a Policy-Based Institutional Life History, Kathleen Darcy (faculty mentor), Sajra Terzic (student researcher)

• Investigating the mechanisms of planar cell polarity and cell-cell junction dynamics, Ji Fan (faculty mentor), Fatima ElSaghir (student researcher)

• How Cancer Hijacks Immune Cells: Investigating the Role of NHE9 in Macrophage-Mediated Tumor Progression, Kaylan Kondapalli (faculty mentor), Francesca Badalamenti (student researcher)

• The End of Human Rights: Corporate Voices in Human Rights Rhetoric, Michael MacDonald (faculty mentor), Megan Brown (student researcher)

• Mapping forest and lake temperature variability in the natural area of the Environmental Interpretative Center, Jacob Napieralski (faculty mentor), Talia List (student researcher)

• What is the government hiding? Examining the challenges of communicating practical administrative knowledge to citizens, Vadym Pyrozhenko (faculty mentor), student researchers TBD

• Toward a Coexistent Future Between the Arts and Technology, Liz Rohan (faculty mentor), Jenny Huynh (student researcher)

• Parents without borders: Exploring the impacts of international parental child abductions, Amny Shuraydi (faculty mentor), Cadence Pero (student researcher)

• Artificial Intelligence & Personality Evaluation Through Narrative Assessment, Caleb Siefert (faculty mentor), Carley Wehab (student researcher)

• ARPA and Innovation; Foundations, Cities, and Alternative Economic Development; Detroit Oral Histories, Dale Thomson (faculty mentor), Lilly Samulski (student researcher)

• Electron Microscopy Techniques and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry as Tools to Characterize Biosorption of Lead by Bacterial Strains from an Urban Watershed, Sonia Tiquia-Arashiro (faculty mentor), Somie Opara (student researcher)

• Unravelling the Influence of Membrane Composition on Kinesin-Driven Organelle Movement, Suvranta Tripathy (faculty mentor), Hassan Bazzi (student researcher)

• Investigating the Role of Natural Products in the Treatment of Renal Cancer, Besa Xhabija (faculty mentor), Eva Schwark (student researcher)

CECS:

• Optimal Operation of EV Fast Charging Stations: A Data-Driven Approach to Load Estimation and Uncertainty Management, Van Hai Bui (faculty mentor), Daniel Skilarov (student researcher)

• Uncertainty estimation in deep neural networks, Srijita Das (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

• The viability of dynamic ultrasound imaging as a tool for enhanced smooth muscle tissue characterization during a simulated perturbation test, Amanda Esquivel (faculty mentor), Issraa Fakih (student researcher)

• Study and Detect CAN Protocol Related Bugs in Cyber-Physical Systems(CPS), Foyzul Hassan (faculty mentor), Michael Gharbieh (student researcher)

• Error Analysis for Machine Learning Classification Models in Autonomous Driving, Jian Hu (faculty mentor), Andy He (student researcher)

• BadKAN: Backdoor Attacks to Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks, Ang Li (faculty mentor), Hussein Haidar Ahmad (student researcher)

• Exploration of sex based differences in pulmonary fibrosis, Caymen Novak (faculty mentor), Batoul Chalhoub (student researcher)

• Materials Characterization for Sustainable Steelmaking, Christopher Pannier (faculty mentor), Kennedi Williams (student researcher)

• Developing transmigration assays in microphysiological systems to understand neuroinflammation, Aditya Raghunandan (faculty mentor), Malak Harajli (student researcher)

• AI Meets Robotics: Creating an Interactive Conversational Robot with ChatGPT, Samir Rawashdeh (faculty mentor), Natalie Kim (student researcher)

• Designing a Device to Characterize the Stiffness of Hydrogels for In Vitro Tissue Applications, Rafael Ruiz (faculty mentor), Santiago Dugarte (student researcher)

• Software Engineering Applications of Family Engineering Research Study, DeLean Smith (faculty mentor), Boluwatife Kolawole (student researcher)

• Repurposing Old Smartphones for Community Sensing, Zheng Song (faculty mentor), Marwa Chbeir (student researcher)

• Optimal Control for Differential Wheeled Robots: Addressing Uncertainties and Disturbances, Guilherme Vieira Hollweg (faculty mentor), Harpreet Mann (student researcher)

• Energy-Efficient Light and LoRa Hybrid Communication Framework for Mobile Robots, Xiao Zhang (faculty mentor), Syed Zitmir Gilani (student researcher)

CEHHS:

• Careful Conversations: Area Educators’ Perceptions of Teaching During a National Election, Erin Bronstein (faculty mentor), Esraa Abukhadijeh (student researcher)

• Understanding the Mental Health Needs of Formerly Incarcerated People in Michigan, Vitalis Im (faculty mentor), Myron Wood (student researcher)

• Improving Educational Support Systems for Multilingual Learners, Kyongson Park (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

• Climate Adaptation in the Midwest: Learning from Immigrants and Refugees, Natalie Sampson (faculty mentor), Noor Raza (student researcher)

• Diversity and Disability Representation through Children’s Literature, LaShorage Shaffer (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

• Unequal Healthcare Access: Children of Single Mothers of Color Before and After the Affordable Care Act, Yiwan Ye (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

COB:

• Virtual Tutor: Learning and Having Fun with a Friend?, Yi Maggie Guo (faculty mentor), Sophia Guo (student researcher)

• Ghost Parents: Neurodiversity, identity destruction, and institutional trauma, Elif Izberk-Bilgin (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

• Do I Pollute During Uncertain Time? Political Uncertainty and Toxic Emissions, Jing Kong (faculty mentor), Jansen Sangala (student researcher)

• A Bitcoin Company: The Strategy of Microstrategy, Lee Redding (faculty mentor), student researcher TBD

Mardigian Library:

• Capabilities and Limitations of Bibliometric Reporting in Various Platforms, Amy Seipke (faculty researcher), Jeneen Jadallah (student researcher)

All the best for the upcoming spring and summer months,

The SURE 2025 Admin Committee: 
Maureen Linker, Associate Provost
Yunus Zeytuncu, Associate Dean, CASL, Mathematics
Alireza Mohammadi, Associate Professor, CECS, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Finn Bell, Assistant Professor, CEHHS, Health and Human Services 
Kelsey Parker, Project Manager for Experiential Learning
Amy Seipke, Engineering & Mathematics Librarian
Chris Spilker, Head, Library Research Center 
Sam Heintz, EXP+ Administrative Assistant