The best presentations from the 2025 Arkansas Tech University Student Research Symposium have been selected by judges and announced by the ATU College of Research and Graduate Studies.
The symposium included 71 in-person poster presentations, 25 in-person oral presentations and 18 virtual poster presentations on Tuesday, April 29. The Arkansas Nurses Association and the Omega Iota chapter of Sigma Theta Tau hosted additional presentations specific to nursing in conjunction with the symposium.
A program with information about each of the presentations is available at https://bit.ly/2025atustudentresearchsymposiumprogram.
Presentations are available through the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center Online Research Commons at https://orc.library.atu.edu/atu_rs/2025.
Winning entries are listed below.
Poster Presentations–Graduate Division
First Place: Lark Sybrant, “Using Guano to Determine Ozark Big-Eared Bat Cave Occupancy in Arkansas.” Advisor: Dr. Douglas Barron.
Second Place: Abass Adesokan and Andrew Rafferty, “Emergency Preparedness in Arkansas Institutes of Higher Education: A Resource-Based Analysis.” Advisor: Dr. Rejina Manandhar.
Third Place: Renae Taylor, “Organizational Policy Initiatives for a Neurodiverse Workforce.” Advisor: Dr. Jeremy Schwehm.
Poster Presentations–Undergraduate Division
First Place: Kaitlin Edwards and Nathan Surles, “Computational Modeling of Poly-Peptide Chains.” Advisor: Dr. Subha Pratihar.
Second Place: Zachary Giese, Avery Mahan, Joseph Gober, Samuel Grisham, Aspen White and Brayden May, “An Iterative Approach to Utility Contribution for Arc Flash Incident Energy Calculations.” Advisor: Dr. Matthew Young.
Third Place: Abby Cutsinger, “Impacts of Community Gardening on Neighborhood Crime Rates.” Advisor: Dr. Cathi McMahan.
Oral Presentations–Undergraduate Division
First Place: Gabrielle Stockand, “Plantation Museums, Public Memory and Historical Narratives: A Comparative Analysis of Slavery Interpretation at Oak Alley and Lakeport.” Advisor: Dr. Joshua Lynch.
Second Place: Aaron Brady, “Distribution of Mussels in Two Intermittent Upland Streams of the Arkansas Valley Ecoregion.” Advisor: Dr. Kyler Hecke.
Third Place: Joy Skaggs, “An Analysis on the Time Effectiveness of Speeding While Driving a Vehicle.” Advisor: Dr. Jessica Young.
Virtual Presentation
First Place: Linru Hong, Shruti Bhandari and Yu-Shan Li, “Understanding the Impact of Data Poisoning on Financial Fraud Detection: Thresholds and Feature Sensitivity.” Advisor: Dr. Tolga Ensari.
“The ATU Student Research Symposium is a testament to the vibrant academic community at Arkansas Tech University,” said Dr. Michael Bradley, dean of the ATU College of Research and Graduate Studies. “It highlights the importance of research as a high-impact practice that fosters critical thinking, enhances learning outcomes and prepares students for future academic and professional endeavors. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all faculty mentors for their invaluable guidance and support, to the symposium committee for their planning and execution and to the dedicated staff of the ATU College of Research and Graduate Studies for their unwavering commitment to student success.”
Visit www.atu.edu/gradcollege/symposium.php for more information about the ATU Student Research Symposium.
