At �첥��Ƶ’s Faculty of Science’s annual Science Summer 2024 Undergraduate Research Conference, students competed and received awards in recognition of oral and poster presentations on summer projects that covered topics like dark matter, mathematical disease modelling, antibiotic resistance and beyond.

More than 40 students conducting summer research in York’s Faculties of Science, Environmental & Urban Change, and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies attended the conference.

Participants – including two Queen's University students working with �첥��Ƶ professors – had received funding earlier in the year for their summer research positions from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Summer Research Awards, the Earle Nestmann Undergraduate Research Awards or the York Science Scholars Awards.

The projects culminated at the conference, where each student gave either a poster or oral presentation that was judged by faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students.

The conference – and the work leading up to it – are meant to give students hands-on opportunities to engage in research, noted Rui Wang, dean of the Faculty of Science, at the event. He stressed other benefits, too. “Sharing your ideas and findings with fellow researchers, and building connections that lead to fruitful friendships and collaborations, are an important part of being a scientist. Enjoy these moments and use them to learn about yourself and grow as a researcher.”

The students who received awards for their oral presentations were:

• Harry Parmar, a health sciences student at Queen’s University, won first place for the project “Examining Functional Properties of Frontal Eye Field in the Macaque Monkey,” supervised by Jeffrey Schall, a biology professor in the Faculty of Science.
• Vesta Tajik, an environmental biology student in York’s Faculty of Science, won second place for the project “Documenting the impacts of an inter-basin river diversion on Lake Nipigon (Ontario, Canada),” supervised by Joshua Thienpont, a professor in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change.
• Alrishia Agard, a biomedical science student in York’s Faculty of Science, won third place for the project “Assessing the impact of road de-icers on the osmoregulatory physiology of Chironomus riparius larvae,” supervised by Andrew Donini, biology professor in the Faculty of Science.

The students who received awards for their poster presentations were:

• Yash Shrestha, a health sciences student at Queen’s University, won first place for the project “Probing Late-LTP following selective inhibition of TrkC-PTPσ complex in a mouse model,” supervised by Steven Connor, a biology professor in the Faculty of Science.
• Michael Petosa, a biomedical science student in York’s Faculty of Science, won second place for the project “A New Route to Pyridine-Substituted Piperidines,” supervised by Arturo Orellana, a chemistry professor in the Faculty of Science.
• Shahen Alexanian, a computer science and mathematics student in York’s Lassonde School of Engineering, won third place for the project “Evaluating the Introduction of a Variational Autoencoder into a Multi-omics Workflow,” supervised by Xin Gao and Hannah Jankowsi, mathematics and statistics professors in the Faculty of Science.

Read more about the students and their projects in the conference program booklet.

Courtesy of YFile

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Four undergraduate students from �첥��Ƶ’s Faculties of Science and Health were among 17 individuals selected from across Canada to participate in the 2024 Ward Family Summer Student Research Program at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.

The 12-week program offers students an opportunity to work alongside leading scientists in the field of pediatric disability and developmental differences.

The York students and their summer research projects are:

Vivien Ayllon-Kovacs

Ayllon-Kovacs is entering her third year in biomedical science (honours). Her research focuses on the relationship between brain activity and connectivity and language impairments across neurodevelopmental disorders. Her summer project explored the use of the Oral and Written Language Scales, 2nd edition (OWLS-II) tool to determine the relationship between oral language and brain measures in neurodivergent children compared to typically developing children.

The study found that the OWLS-II is effective for measuring language functionality, and that some brain regions may have a different influence on language functionality in both subject groups.

Huda Jirreh

Jirreh recently graduated with a BSc in biomedical science (honours) from York. She is interested in exploring the clinical applications of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology as a means to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities. During the Ward research program, she designed a BCI-controlled music instrument in collaboration with other researchers, clinicians, and music therapists.

Following the completion of the summer program, Jirreh will conduct a case study to analyze the effectiveness of using the instrument in music therapy to improve attention in children with cerebral palsy.

Sajeela Rana

Rana is entering her third year of biomedical science, minoring in psychology. During the Ward summer program, she conducted a systematic chart review of patients from Holland Bloorview’s psychopharmacology clinic, allowing her to gain a deeper grasp on the holistic aspects of client and family care. This work inspired her research question examining the relationship between financial barriers to care and burnout for caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders

She hopes that, in the near future, comprehensive care can consist of support for caregivers’ mental health, respite access and financial resource navigation to reduce caregiver strain.

Zahra Wakif

Wakif is a third-year student in psychology (specialized honours). She is interested in accessible care with a focus on mental health, and aspires to recognize and alleviate inequities in healthcare. Much of her work is around children’s health, development, resilience and social inclusion, with a focus on children with developmental delays or differences. Wakif’s summer research project focused on identifying the current diagnostic facilitators and barriers that community pediatricians across Ontario face in conducting autism assessments. The research aims to help develop toolkits for clinicians that would encourage more assessments and improve diagnosis and care access for families.

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At the Faculty of Science’s annual undergraduate summer research conference, students received awards in recognition of oral and poster presentations they gave on summer projects they worked on.

More than 60 students from the Faculties of Science, Health, and Environmental & Urban Change attended the Faculty of Science Summer 2023 Undergraduate Research Conference to present their projects, reflecting work ranging from bee conservation and biochemical innovations to quantum computing and more.

The conference was an opportunity for recipients of other summer undergraduate research awards (including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Summer Research Awards, the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards, the Earle Nestmann Undergraduate Research Awards and the York Science Scholars Awards) to share projects they have worked on. Students’ presentations were judged by faculty members as well as postdoctoral and graduate students, and the winners for best presentations were announced at the end of the event. Health students were announced in a separate category.

The following science students received awards for their oral presentations:

• Hannah Le, a third-year chemistry student, won first place for the project “Value-Added Vat Orange 3 Dyes for Functional Materials Development,” supervised by Thomas Baumgartner, professor of chemistry;
• Chiara Di Scipio, a third-year biology student, won second place for the project “Investigating the signaling cascade of a CAPA neuropeptide in the Malpighian tubules of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster,” supervised by Jean-Paul Paluzzi, professor of biology; and
• Isaac Kogan, a first-year biology student, won third place for the project “Using Machine Learning to Interpret LFIA Results,” supervised by Sergey Krylov, professor of chemistry.

The following science students received awards for their poster presentations:

• Jessica Latimer, a fourth-year chemistry student, won first place for the project “Practical Accuracy Assessment of Equilibrium Dissociation Constants,” supervised by Sergey Krylov, professor of chemistry;
• Sarah Powell, a fourth-year physics student, won second place for the project “Theoretical particle physics on quantum computers,” supervised by Randy Lewis, professor of physics and astronomy; and
• Yash Shrestha, a second-year biology student, won third place for the project “Exploration of altered synaptic pruning in an autism model mouse,” supervised by Steven Connor, professor of biology.

Within the Faculty of Health, the following students received awards:

• Patrick Hewan, a psychology student, won best oral presentation for the project “Microstructural integrity of the Locus Coeruleus is related to decision-making in older adults,” supervised by Professor Gary Turner; and
• Mira Bhattacharya, a second-year cognitive science student, won best poster presentation for the project “Neuronal Correlates of Flexible Decision Making,” supervised by Professor Liya Ma.

Read more about the students and their projects in the conference program booklet.

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Buzzing with undergraduate researchers, faculty members and staff, the conference was an opportunity for recipients of NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Awards (USRA), Dean’s Undergraduate Research Awards (DURA), and York Science Scholars Awards (YSSA) to present their summer research projects and to meet other awardees.

Fifty-five students from the Faculties of Science, Health, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and Environmental & Urban Change, and the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design attended and shared their research projects and findings through talks and poster presentations.

The event opened with welcoming remarks from the Faculty of Science Associate Dean of Students Michael Scheid and the Faculty of Health Associate Dean of Research Chris Ardern.

“I hope that your research experiences have given you a deeper perspective of what frontline research is all about, helped you learn new skills and more about your interests, and led to new friendships and collaborations,” said Scheid.

The first talk of the day was presented by Professor Jane Heffernan, who delivered a keynote address on modelling immunity, focusing particularly on COVID-19. Ten students then presented talks in a morning session, and the remaining students presented posters in an afternoon session. The student presentations were judged by faculty members, postdocs and graduate students and the winners for best presentations were announced at the end of the event.

The following students received awards for their poster presentations:

• Minoosh Fathi – First place (tied) for the presentation “Phylogenetic history and molecular evolution of vertebrate opsins,” supervised by biology Professor Ryan Schott
• Mahya Rezaeifarimani – First place (tied) for the poster presentation “Synthesis of Monodisperse Silica Nanoparticles and the Incorporation of Fluorophores,” supervised by chemistry Professor Jennifer Chen
• Selin Tahir – Third place for the poster presentation “A scoping review of the literature on malaria statistical models and development of a cross-country predictive model for malaria in the Global South,” supervised by Professor Jude Kong in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics

The following students received awards for their oral presentations:

• Aleeza Qayyum – First place for the presentation “The Hyperphosphorylation of Amyloidogenic Tau,” supervised by chemistry Professor Derek Wilson
• Areeba Chaudhury – Second place for the presentation “Generation of Xeno Nucleic Acid (XNA) Aptamers Against Human α-Thrombin using T3 Ligase-catalyzed OligOnucleotide PolymERizations (LOOPER),” supervised by chemistry Professor Ryan Hili
• Claire Del Zotto – Third place for the presentation “Analysing Plant-Pollinator Interactions Along an Urbanisation Gradient,” supervised by biology Professor Sandra Rehan

The event closed with remarks from Faculty of Science Associate Dean of Research & Partnerships Vivian Saridakis and Associate Vice-President of Research Jennifer Hyndman.

“Students, it has been an honour to listen to your presentations today,” said Saridakis in her closing remarks. “I know a lot of hard work went into your research projects and putting together your abstracts and presentations for today’s event. Bravo and thank you to everyone for participating.”

Read more about the students and their projects in the conference program booklet. Event photos are available on the Faculty of Science .

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