Photo of Vani Thakur presenting her research at another event
Vani Thakur presenting her work at another event

Meet six undergraduate students presenting research at Intersections today

Early research experiences are a hallmark of undergraduate education at Case Western Reserve University. Across disciplines, our undergraduate students have ample opportunities to work with faculty mentors as they go on to explore their own topics of interest.

In celebration of these research experiences, students can present their work each semester at Intersections, a research symposium that gives members of the campus community the chance to see the breadth of student research taking place at CWRU.

The Fall 2024 Intersections event is today (Dec. 6) from 11:30 a.m to 2 p.m. at the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center. Live coverage will take place on the university’s Instagram account.

To give you an idea of what to expect, we spoke with six students who will present their work at today’s event.  View a complete list of student presenters and get more information about the event.

Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Nandana Ahuja

Photo of Nandana Ahuja

Fourth-year undergraduate student majoring in history and philosophy of science

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

I am presenting my History and Philosophy of Science Capstone, which studies how we label historical figures using modern terms in the search for representation. Specifically, I am analyzing arguments for Leonardo da Vinci’s homosexuality and Isaac Newton’s asexuality. These arguments are based on a lack of evidence rather than concrete proof and demonstrate biases in our historical views of artists and scientists. I argue that labeling these figures is reductive and does not truly serve as representation. 

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

I enjoyed the research process and working with my advisor, who was very helpful throughout. I explored the Kelvin Smith Library stacks and tracked down primary sources, which I’d never done before. I also use a variety of sources, including a TV show, so I found the whole process of gathering evidence fun.  

3. Have you presented before?

I have never presented at Intersections before, but I have gone to support my friends, so I am excited to reverse those roles!

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

Presenting work you’re passionate about is fun and rewarding; everyone should do it at some point. I always thought I couldn’t present a humanities project at Intersections, but I was excited to find out it was possible.  

Maxine Chou

Photo of Maxine Chou

Fourth-year student majoring in chemistry and music

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

The project I am presenting is titled “Opioid-Induced Modulation of Colonic Epithelial Barrier Integrity.” It explores how opioid receptor signaling may enhance barrier function by stimulating mucin production or increasing tight junction integrity. This research is clinically relevant because maintaining colonic epithelial barrier integrity is essential for health, and its dysfunction is associated with diseases such as ulcerative colitis. 

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

I enjoyed learning and applying new protocols and microscopy techniques to collect and analyze my results. I appreciated the autonomy of directing my own project, which allowed me to actively shape the research. Finally, I  enjoyed working with my mentor, Jeffrey McCausland, and my PI, Alan Levine, because of their continuous support and encouragement.

3. Have you presented before?

Yes, I presented a related project in the summer of 2023 at the NIH/NIDA Summer Intern Research Showcase. However, my current project has evolved since then, and the work I am presenting at Intersections has not been presented before!

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

Students should get involved with Intersections because preparing and presenting research posters develops essential skills for engaging in scientific discourse. It is also a great opportunity to see the amazing work being done by other CWRU students!

Grant Mussemann

Photo of Grant Mussemann

Fourth-year student majoring in biology

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

I will be presenting on a diverse group of South American mammals called notoungulates that went extinct about 13,000 years ago. Notoungulates have tall, ever-growing teeth, similar to the incisors of a rodent or rabbit. In order to maintain them, enamel is secreted predictably, creating growth lines similar to tree rings. Using these increments, we can measure how fast a tooth extended, which can be used to infer what these animals may have been eating.

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

This is the first time that enamel extension rates have been investigated in extinct mammals with ever-growing molars. Because of this, I had an amazing opportunity to delve deep into a lesser studied sector of paleontology. My favorite aspect was the ability to gain a large knowledge base about a specific, fascinating topic beyond the scope of what may have been possible in an undergraduate course. I conducted extensive literature review, formed questions, analyzed fossil teeth, and determined the best methodology to collect presentable data. In this regard, there was a lot of troubleshooting involved! 

3. Have you presented before?

This will be my first time presenting! I am grateful for the opportunity! 

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

Intersections is both a celebration of student research and an important component of learning the research process. It’s amazing to see the creativity and enthusiasm brought to Intersections each and every semester with an enormous variety of questions being asked across many disciplines. The final step in researching any question is the communication of those results to the community, whether through publication or presentation. Intersections stands out to me because students present their work for a public audience with no experience in any particular field, as opposed to an academic one. This makes Intersections a good step in developing skills in science communication. Scientists don’t just do science; they also make their studies meaningful! 

Isaac Opoku

Photo of Isaac Opoku

Fourth-year student majoring in sociology

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

This project is assessing firearm injury prevention resources that are provided through state public health department websites. We developed a firearm resource score based on the presence of public-facing safe storage information, firearm mortality statistics, additional resource materials, and visibility on the homepage. Firearm mortality and injury are significant public health concerns, with incident rates rivaling or exceeding those of many other mechanisms. Firearm violence in America has been declared a public health crisis. We wanted to examine how state public health departments have responded and have made firearm injury prevention resources available and accessible to the average resident.

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

I loved working with my mentor, Dr. Sweeney. We collaborated so much on the study design and on every stage of the process. This study required both of us to look at 51 state public health department websites, input 14 different search terms related to firearm prevention, collect each resource, use our scoring method to discuss/assess each state, and conduct analysis. We had others audit our study throughout this process to ensure similar results/scores. 

3. Have you presented before?

I have presented before. I presented in December 2023 for my wearable hydration band pilot study. It was also a project within the Population Health and Equity Research Institute at MetroHealth. 

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

It is such a wonderful opportunity to learn how to effectively communicate your study and enhance your own understanding through each step of the way: preparation, practicing and answering questions. You get to discuss in front of your peers and other curious people who only want to better understand your study and help you grow as a learner. It is definitely not as daunting as it can seem; practicing explanations at varying levels can only benefit you in the future.

Daniel Rakowsky

Photo of Daniel Rakowsky

Fifth-year student with a biomedical engineering major

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

I’ll be presenting on Bayesian optimization of aerosol jet printing. Aerosol jet printing is a relatively novel but somewhat finicky direct-write 3D manufacturing technique able to produce some interesting structures from functional inks. This project has largely focused on attempting to use this technique to print flexible silver circuits for use in biomedical applications. Students in this group have previously performed process optimization on this manufacturing technique using fractional factorial orthogonal arrays to identify process parameters leading to thin, precise, and conductive silver circuits. I’ll be presenting on Bayesian optimization, an additional optimization technique leveraged to more continuously sample the design space of aerosol jet printing to more precisely identify ideal processing parameters.

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

I have enjoyed collaborating with other students, Dr. Gbur, and others who have assisted in understanding the equipment and statistics required to design and perform these experiments. This work involved design of experiment and Bayesian optimization in Python, manufacture of silver trace specimens by aerosol jet printing, optical microscopy and SEM, electrical characterization of the specimens, and image analysis in MATLAB. 

3. Have you presented before?

I have presented previously at intersections several times for other elements of this project and for my unrelated BME capstone project. I have also previously presented related elements of this project at several microscopy ( MSNO, M&M) and materials (MS&T) conferences as poster or platform presentations. 

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

I have found intersections to be excellent practice for presenting material at larger, more professional/corporation facing conferences. Intersections is also a fantastic opportunity for students not currently involved in research to explore and find projects that are interesting or well suited to their skills. I have also seen particularly exceptional capstone projects presented at intersections lead to job or graduate education opportunities for students. 

Vani Thakur

Photo of Vani Thakur

Third-year student majoring in neuroscience with a cognitive science secondary major

1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.

My project investigates single cell brain endothelial cell morphology across development and maturation. We aim to underscore the developmental trajectories and cell fate of endothelial cells of blood brain barrier and fenestrated capillaries which will provide us with crucial information on cerebrovascular heterogeneity.

2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?

I have truly enjoyed working on this project across its numerous aspects. I have been grateful to work on this project independently under my PI which has enabled me to dedicate myself to each part of the research process across developing our protocols and methodologies, collecting data, performing our analysis, and guiding our ongoing and future investigations. This required countless long hours of confocal microscopy and even more time to analyze our scans and collect the numerous datasets across necessary parameters. Despite (or maybe because of) the time I spent with data collection it has been one of my most favorite aspects of research!

3. Have you presented before?

For Intersections, I have been fortunate for the opportunity to have presented last year, April 2024, as well as summer 2024. I was additionally grateful to be awarded a tied second place in the life sciences category when presenting in April. 

Outside of Intersections I have since presented at the Cleveland Clinic Student Poster Day (summer 2024), at the CCF HIVA: Heart and Vascular Impact Area Forum, as well as the Kent State BHRI Symposium 2024. 

4. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?

I believe Intersections encapsulates an invaluable experience for all students who can attend. It affords the learning opportunity to communicate highly technical research in a consumable way and allows you to both contextualize and distill (both for yourself and your audience) your research’s most crucial elements and importance with progressing the field. Through the experience you realize the immense progress made across your research, time and effort you have dedicated, and get to celebrate the labor of love that research is!