2012 Undergraduate Symposium Prize Winners
$1000 First Prizes and $500 Second Prizes were awarded in each category
| Arts | |
| Honorable Mention | Marcello Dolce, '[ ] ' Faculty Sponsors: Patrick Jackson and Ann Page, Roski School of Fine Arts |
| 2nd Prize | Tam Banh, 'Revitalizing Los Angeles River - Taylor Yard Farm' Faculty Sponsor: Lawrence Scarpa, School of Architecture |
| 1st Prize | Stacy Kwok, 'Truth in Making, Craft: An Architectural Inquiry' Faculty Sponsor: Lee Olvera, Architecture |
| Interdisciplinary Award | Erin Cuevas, John Farrace, 'Welcome to Beautiful Juarez' Faculty Sponsor: Mario Cipresso, School of Architecture |
| Humanities | |
| Honorable Mention | Marrissa Emond, 'The Past and Present Menstrual Practices of the Dayak of West Kutai, Borneo: An Examination in Context for Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology' Faculty Sponsor: Robert Delgado, Biological Sciences |
| 2nd Prize | Anna Bishop, 'Macro-Mapping the Maya: A Large-scale GIS Analysis of Maya Settlement Patterns in Belize' Faculty Sponsor: Lynn Swartz Dodd, Religion Department |
| 1st Prize | Gregory Woodburn, 'Necessary of Life: Henry David Thoreau's Concepts of America's Problematic Progress, 1837 – 1862', Faculty Sponsor: Karen Halttunen, History Department; Brett Sheehan, History Department |
| Interdisciplinary Award | Anu Ramachandran, 'Faith: Friend or Foe? The Rise of Faith Healing in Tanzania and Its Impact on Community Understanding of HIV' Faculty Sponsor: Erin Moore, Anthropology |
| Life Sciences | |
| Honorable Mention | Brooke Sanders, 'Intra-articular Glucocorticoid Injections as a Cause for Adrenal Insufficiency' Faculty Sponsors: John Carmichael, Pituitary Center, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles; Albert Herrera, Biological Sciences |
| Honorable Mention | Barsegh Barseghian, Mary Boyadjian, 'Green Tea Polyphenols Preconditioning against Ischemic Stroke ' Faculty Sponsor: Rayudu Gopalakrishna , Cell & Neurobiology, Keck School of Medicine |
| 2nd Prize | Sarah Waliany, 'Role of Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in Promoting Metastasis of Breast Cancer Cells to the Brain' Faculty Sponsor: Rahul Jandial, Biological Sciences |
| 2nd Prize | Linda Peng, 'Genetic and Functional Analysis of CYCP2;1 in Arabidopsis' Faculty Sponsor: Xuelin Wu, Biological Sciences |
| 1st Prize | Kevin Le, Ellen Park, 'Bioengineering a mechanism to override plasmid-based antibiotic resistance' Faculty Sponsor: Sean Curran, Molecular and Cell Biology, Davis School of Gerontology |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering | |
| Honorable Mention | Aaron Henehan, 'Deconstructing the Rebound with Optical Tracking Data' Faculty Sponsors: Yu-Han Chang, Sam Danesis, and Rajiv Maheswaran, Computer Science Avril Pitter, Kirsten Rice, Kristen Sharer, 'Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Algae through Ultrasonication Extraction Method' Faculty Sponsors: Stephanie Olague, Massoud Pirbazari and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering |
| 2nd Prize | Sarah Hester, Steven Leverette, William Murray, 'Thrust Augmentation of a Solid Rocket Motor by Means of Inert Gas Injection' Faculty Sponsors: Dan Erwin and Joseph Kunc, Astronautical Engineering |
| 2nd Prize | Jenny Zhang, 'Hydrogen generation from formic acid using ruthenium carbonyls as catalysts: kinetic and spectroscopic study of the reaction mechanism' Faculty Sponsors: Miklos Czaun, Alain Goeppert, and Surya Prakash, Chemistry |
| 1st Prize | Hannah Gray, Aditi Yokota-Joshi, 'Removal of radioactive uranium from groundwater using nanoparticle technology and adsorption mechanisms' Faculty Sponsors: Massoud Pirbazari and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering |
| Social Sciences | |
| Honorable Mention | Mariah J Gill, 'Predicting the Success of Community Based Resource Management Programs: Waihe'e, Maui, Hawai'i Case Study' Faculty Sponsor: James Fawcett, Environmental Studies |
| Honorable Mention | Jordan Weiss, 'Antitrust: Policy, Prices, and Behavior' Faculty Sponsor: Michael Sproul, Economics |
| 2nd Prize | Leandra Fraser, 'Es Mejor Saber: A Proactive Approach to Gestational Diabetes Follow Up' Faculty Sponsors: Penina Segall-Gutierrez, Co-Director, Family Planning Fellowship, Co-Director, Diabetes and Pregnancy Service, Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology and Family Medicine |
| 2nd Prize | Tyler Vestal, 'The Accuracy of Pseudo-Temporal Questions in Interviews of Children' Faculty Sponsor: Thomas D. Lyon, Gould School of Law |
| 1st Prize | Adrienne Scotti, 'The Effects of Database Type and Forensic Laboratory Error Rates on the Probative Value of DNA Evidence in a Cold Case' Faculty Sponsors: Richard John and Nicholas Scurich, Psychology |
| 1st Prize | Lei (Lisa) Cui, Emily Gee, 'Chinese and American Emotional Responses to Environmental Advertisements ' Faculty Sponsor: Ann Crigler, Political Science Interdisciplinary Award Linda Dahl, 'The Golden Horde and the Emergence of Muscovy' Faculty Sponsor: Azade-Ayse Rorlich, History |
| Most Innovative | |
| Honorable Mention | Lori Chen, 'Architecture as a Vehicle for Social Change in Southeast Asia' Faculty Sponsors: Jinhee Choung, Political Science; James Steele, School of Architecture |
| 2nd Prize | Stephanie Lam, 'A Novel Method for Rib Periosteum Autografts in the Mouse for the Purpose of Assessing Bone Regeneration' Faculty Sponsor: Francesca Mariani, Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC |
| 1st Prize | Avril Pitter, Kirsten Rice, Kristen Sharer, 'Optimization of Biodiesel Production from Algae through Ultrasonication Extraction Method' Faculty Sponsors: Stephanie Olague, Massoud Pirbazari,and Varadarjan Ravindran, Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering |