Fifteen students were recognized as having outstanding presentations at the Fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Festival Thursday.

Representing a wide range of topics, 88 ACU students and 5 McMurry students presented their research during Thursday afternoon’s festival, which took place in the Hunter Welcome Center. The research categories included oral and poster presentations, which were judged by a team of 49 faculty, staff and administration members.

Dr. Autumn Sutherlin, director of undergraduate research and chair of the Research Festival, said the festival provided the opportunity to see the breadth of research being done on campus.

“We may know what people in our own departments or buildings are doing, but for students and faculty alike, our appreciation for other fields is deepened when we hear about how scholarship is done in different departments,” said Sutherlin, associate professor of biochemistry.

Sutherlin said more students from different departments participated this year.

“There were approximately twice as many presentations as the first festival,” Sutherlin said. “The quality of student presentations has also improved over the past five years.”

The Sixth Annual Undergraduate Research Festival will take place April 1, 2014.

The competition this year produced fourteen winning presentations across five categories, including one group of two. The Student Panel on Undergraduate Research also chose three mentors of the year.

Outstanding Poster Presentation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics:

Blaine Smith, senior biology major from Keller – “Klotho protects lung epithelial cells against oxidant DNA damage”

Ben Cobb, freshmen biology major from Chantilly, Va.  – “Chemotherapy’s Major Flaw: Revealing Stress’ and Dexamethasone’s Counter-Productivity in Chemotherapy”

Zack Morgan, senior biology major from Keller – “Establishing recA as a Gene Involved in Natural Transformatin among Aeromonads”

Outstanding Poster Presentation in Social Science, Arts and Humanities

Stephanie Fink, senior art major from Fayettville, Ga.  – “Lagniappe: an unexpected gift”

Elizabeth Ellery, senior psychology major from San Angelo – “Social Modeling in Media from Aardvarks to Zombies:  A comparison of prosocial and aggressive themes in  Mattel’s Monster High and Public Broadcasting System’s Arthur”

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Andrew Miller, senior physics major from the Woodlands – “PyCBC: A Toolkit for Advanced-Detector Era Gravitational Wave Data Analysis”

Adam Simpson, senior physics and mathematics major from Abilene – “Imaging sound to measure thermal contact between AlN and Si”

David Reynolds, senior mathematics major from Round Rock – “Bridges on a Tile Floor”

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Social Science

Kholo Theledi, junior family studies and gerontology major from Pretoria, South Africa – “Analysis of Political Inequality”

Dylan Brugman, senior political science and sociology major from Aurora, Co. – “Examining Gender Relations in the Book of Twilight.”

Kaitlyn Howell, senior education major from Rockwall, and Ellen Smith, senior English education major from College Station – “The role of reading response in two elementary classrooms: A comparative case study”

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Arts and Humanities

Rebekah Horton, senior English and marketing major from Weatherford – “Epiphanies as a Structure in ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'”

Heather Kregel, senior English major from Tyler – “Physicians in the Literature of Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson: Portraying the Icons of Changing Times”

Toni Maisano, junior communications major from Burnet – “More Than Just a Piece in Their Games: A Rhetorical Analysis of Identification in ‘The Hunger Games'”

Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year:

Dr. Brian Cavitt, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry

Dr. Lauren Lemley, assistant professor of communication and director of the Speaking Center

Dr. Stephen Baldridge, assistant professor of social work and director of the BSSW Program