Research is an integral part of the Case Western Reserve University experience. From the day they enroll on campus, undergraduate students have the chance to pursue answers to vexing questions and contribute to high-level research, no matter their fields of interest.
At the end of each semester, many choose to showcase their advances during Intersections, a research symposium that gives members of the campus community the chance to meet student researchers from across disciplines.
Spring Intersections is tomorrow (April 18) from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center.
To give you a preview of what to expect, we spoke with several student presenters to learn about their work and find out what they’re looking forward to during Intersections. Get more details and view the presentation schedule.
Answers have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Ammar Sulemanjee and George Merrifield
Third-year students Ammar Sulemanjee, who is majoring in economics, and George Merrifield, who is majoring in accounting, partnered for their research on “Locked in and Losing out: A Supply Side Analysis of Noncompete Agreements’ Impact on the Healthcare Industry.” They will both be presenting at Intersections for the first time.
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
Sulemanjee: We are looking for the impact of noncompete agreements (NCAs) on physician wages. With the FTC attempting to ban NCAs for all workers across the country back in April 2024, we were really interested in looking to see the potential impacts for a ruling of this nature.
Merrifield: NCAs prohibit physicians from working for competitors and impose other similar restrictions. Because of their anti-competitive nature, we hypothesize that banning NCAs at the state level will lead to higher physician wages. To test this, we employ a relatively new econometric method coined by Brantly Callaway and Pedro Sant’Anna, which lets us capture how wages respond in states that introduce NCA bans at different times.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
Merrifield: I enjoyed the opportunity to apply the skills I developed in my econometrics, data visualization, and statistics courses to a personal research project. While I gained a robust skill set through my coursework, I never had the chance to truly put those concepts into practice. Through this project, I had to tackle both familiar and newer econometric techniques, which really boosted my confidence and challenged me in new ways.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Sulemanjee: I believe Intersections is a great way to develop skills in presenting research for a public audience. Intersections provides an environment where you can explore other students’ work as well, allowing you to learn across disciplines and/or learn more about your own area.
Merrifield: Universities like CWRU are hubs for cutting-edge research, and Intersections gives students the chance to engage with that environment early on in their academic careers. Presenting at this event not only refines research skills but also teaches students how to communicate their findings effectively. It’s a valuable way to grow academically and professionally while sharing your work and learning from others.
Camille Prescott
Camille Prescott, a fourth-year student majoring in psychology, will present on her research, titled “Art and nature-connectedness.” This is her first time presenting at the event.
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
My research looks at art creation and interpretation in helping people feel connected to the natural cycles of the Earth. I conducted a pilot study with a group of ecopsychology students at MoCa. My research intersects ideas from humanist psychology and cognitive science methodology to propose a design for collecting future meaningful research about art as a medium to promote acceptance and connection to the Earth. My project aims to understand how artistic experiences can ease feelings of ecological disconnection and support emotional engagement with climate change.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
The most rewarding part of this project was seeing it come to life during the MoCa class I helped lead after months of preparation (shoutout to MoCa for opening to accommodate us!). This included students drawing on and destroying handmade paper they had a hand in collecting/shredding, and in-depth engagement with the exhibits at MoCa, including an insightful slow-looking collaboration with art history and studio art student Car Aldana, all elements symbolizing natural cycles.
My mentor, Professor [Fey] Parrill, has been a great help throughout the process and very rewarding to work with. Our shared enthusiasm led to exciting insights along the way. Since conducting the class, I have had the opportunity to learn a lot from the students’ insights in the data I collected, which has informed my presentation and made me consider their unique and valuable perspectives.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Intersections gives students the freedom to shape their projects in personally meaningful ways. Being able to fully focus on my specific interests with support along the way has made the process rewarding and very special. Intersections is also a great opportunity to engage people’s intellectual curiosity by finding different ways to explain a large or complex project, a skill useful for anyone!
Kemal Ozdemirli
Kemal Ozdemirli, a fourth-year student majoring in mechanical engineering, will present on his research, titled “Optical Brain Machine Device for Mouse Spatial Navigation.”
At Fall Intersections in 2023, Ozdemirli presented his project developing computational machine learning tools to efficiently analyze large-scale behavioral and imaging data. He also presented in the Human Data category at the 2024 Society for Neuroscience Conference in Chicago.
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
I’m presenting a preclinical optical brain-machine interface that integrates virtual reality (VR), large-scale imaging, and optogenetics to study how specific brain regions control behavior during navigation. This device allows us to collect the necessary data to both read and write brain activity—meaning we can observe neural dynamics and perturb them in real time to see how behavior changes. By identifying which regions are vital for locomotion and spatial navigation, this system holds promise as a potential therapeutic tool for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
I really enjoyed the interdisciplinary nature of the work—combining engineering, neuroscience, and behavior analysis in one system. The project involved building and optimizing VR, imaging and optogenetics setups, running behavioral experiments with mice, and analyzing large-scale imaging and behavioral datasets to uncover patterns. It was exciting to see how small changes in light power or stimulation frequency could have such distinct effects on behavior and brain dynamics.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Intersections is a fantastic opportunity to connect with other researchers, share your work and get feedback from different perspectives. It helps you practice explaining complex ideas in an accessible way and boosts your confidence as a communicator and collaborator. Plus, it’s inspiring to see what your peers are working on and how diverse student research can be across various academic disciplines.
Hannuo Xie
Hannuo Xie, a fourth-year student majoring in chemical engineering, will present on his research, titled “Discovery of Unusual Amino Acids in Cyanobacterial Metabolites and Corresponding Alterations in Biological Activity.” Xie has previously presented at Summer Intersections.
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
My project focuses on elucidating the structure of novel cyanobacterial metabolites with unusual amino acid residues and assaying the changes in their respective biological activities. Cyanobacteria are typically known in the environmental/public health spheres as toxin producers, and this project came about when the Bertin Lab obtained these underexplored compounds that possessed therapeutic potential, such as anti-inflammatory effects, instead of harming the cells.
Through comprehensive analytical chemistry techniques, we isolated and discovered never-before-seen residues within micropeptins (a class of cyanometabolites). We then revealed significant alterations in their biological activities with enzyme assays, prompting structure-activity-relationship (SAR) investigations.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
I enjoyed how streamlined the entire process was and how wide a range of techniques I acquired throughout the project. From employing analytical chemistry methods to characterize these metabolites to conducting biological assays for assessing their activities, this project allowed me to grow holistically as a researcher and challenged my ability to think methodically. Furthermore, the nature of the project itself is rewarding, as I get to work closely with my PI, Dr. Matthew Bertin, and conduct paradigm-shifting work on these molecules typically known to have a negative connotation.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Intersections is a great platform for honing students’ abilities in science communication; given the scale and interdisciplinary nature of Intersections, it is fundamental that students understand and articulate our work in a way that can be comprehended by someone outside of our discipline.
With that said, it is also less of a daunting experience since students are in a familiar environment, so Intersections can serve as a nice stepping stone for individuals whose aspirations involve some degree of presenting their work.
Solomon El-Ghannam, Yaodan Zhang and Andres Dickson Alarcon
Solomon El-Ghannam, a fourth-year student majoring in electrical engineering, Yaodan Zhang, a fourth-year student majoring in mathematics and electrical engineering, and Andres Dickson Alarcon, a fifth-year student majoring in electrical engineering, will present on their research, titled “Receiving GPS-Timed Acoustic and Radiofrequency Costas Array Sounding Signals.” El-Ghannam, Zhang and Dickson Alarcon composed their answers together. The group presented the first part of their project at the Fall 2024 Intersections,
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
Our project is about creating a research tool to help gather information about the ionosphere, the layer of the atmosphere where radio waves travel. The system we’ve designed allows us to simultaneously measure the time of flight and Doppler shift that affect a signal that propagates the ionosphere. Most ionospheric measuring systems can extract one parameter at a time, but with the use of the mathematical properties of Costas arrays, we can create a second-order state observer for ionospheric conditions.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
The most enjoyable part was connecting with volunteers from other universities to test-run our prototype and seeing successful connections between our campus radio station to others. And seeing this project gain some experience and evolve from sending out a constant 1000 hertz signal from a board made out of separate components loosely connected on a circuit board to a formally designed PCB that can transmit and receive an encoded signal and decipher measurements like doppler shift and time of flight. Being able to achieve these results has been made possible with the help of advisors like David Kazdan and John Gibbons who have provided insight and support to progress in this project.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Intersections is a great opportunity to build confidence with presenting to an audience and it’s much less pressure since your peers are there to experience the event for the first time as well.
Rachel Son
Rachel Son, a third-year student majoring in biology, will present on her research, titled “Gut-Microbial Production of Aromatic Carboxaldehydes and Their Association with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.” Son presented at the Spring 2024 Intersections event as well.
1. Tell us about the project you’ll be presenting.
My project is about whether gut microbes have an ability to produce aromatic carboxaldehyde metabolites from aromatic amino acids and whether the levels of these metabolites are related to host disease phenotypes, specifically inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As gut microbes play a significant role in maintaining human health by modifying available nutrients and producing metabolites, this research aims to better understand how microbial metabolism may influence disease progression or serve as a potential biomarker for IBD.
2. What did you enjoy most about working on this project? What kind of work went into it?
What I enjoyed most was the hands-on aspect of combining microbiology, biochemistry and analytical chemistry to investigate a real-world bioactive sample. I worked with Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) data to identify and quantify microbial metabolites and conducted statistical analyses to look for patterns between metabolite levels and the gut microbes. I also appreciated the opportunity to contribute to a field that connects basic science with human diseases, which aligns with my goal of pursuing medicine.
3. Why do you believe students should get involved with Intersections?
Intersections is a great platform for students to share their research, celebrate the diverse work happening across campus, and be inspired by peers. It also provides a valuable opportunity to get feedback and build communication skills. Whether you’re just starting research or finishing a long-term project, presenting at Intersections is a valuable way to grow as both a scholar and a future professional.