More than 1,000 Clemson students gathered at the Watt Family Innovation Center to share their research at the 20th annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) Poster Forum April 9-11. Projects from every college were presented on a variety of topics such as workplace stress, materials used in prosthetics, gene-editing, and local box turtle populations.
Creative Inquiry is Clemson’s nationally recognized cross-disciplinary undergraduate research and experiential learning program, that gives students the opportunity to work in small groups with a faculty mentor to answer challenging questions and solve real-world problems.
The event allows students to showcase their work, reflect on their experiences and to gain skills that will help them communicate their work to the general public. The three-day event featured 315 student projects with more than 1,000 undergraduate co-authors, making it the largest FoCI event to date.
During the culminating plenary session, Barbara Speziale, Director of Creative Inquiry, celebrated some of the program’s milestones from the past 20 years. The audience also heard from Angela Alexander-Bryant, the 2024 recipient of the Phil and Mary Bradley Award for Mentoring in Creative Inquiry, on the benefits of integrating undergraduate researchers into her research program focused on nanobiotechnology. Following the plenary address, seven projects received awards for their poster presentations.
FoCI Poster Award Winners
1st place: “Effect of Body Configuration on Peturbation Resistance Across Lizard Species”
Mentor: Richard Blob, biological sciences
Students: Amanda Kellerhals and Savannah Swisher, biological sciences
2nd place: “College Student Eating Satisfaction”
Mentor: Paul Dawson, food, nutrition and packaging science
Students: Jessica Bascio, Sophie Bigonette, Campbell Delaney, Grace Elsesser, Gabriella Gambino, Emslie Guion, Brooke Legatt, Sarah Trunkle, Jane Upmeyer, and Kayla Willis, food science and human nutrition
3rd place: “Digging for Antibiotics: Exploring Soil Microorganisms”
Mentor: Min Cao, biological sciences
Students: Emily Bechtoldt, pre-pharmacy; Harrison Hamilton, Moira Kellaher, and Paige Magill, biological sciences
People’s Choice Award
“Titan Farms Clemson Consulting Project”
Mentor: Dirk Roskam, management
Students: Ava Ambrose, Matthew Polak, and Nick Sherrer, financial management; Benjamin Conner, mechanical engineering; Kelsey Corrigan, communication; Marah Hanson, James King, Lucas Martin, and Macie Tanaka, management; and Samuel Wienstroer, accounting
Clemson Student Research Forum
The Clemson Student Research Forum is an annual poster forum held concurrently with FoCI. It is open to all graduate and undergraduate students who participate in mentored research. The winners of the Clemson Student Research Forum Awards were:
1st place: “Enterococcus faecalis Inhibits Clostridium innocuum In Vitro Under Multiple Conditions”
Mentor: Anna Seekatz, biological sciences
Student: Kristen Gulbrandsen, biochemistry
2nd place: “Development of a 3D-Printed Millifluidic Device to Study How Bacteria Alters the 3D Migration of Breast Cancer Cells”
Mentor: Adam Melvin, chemical and biomolecular engineering
Students: Riley Collins, biomedical engineering; Kathleen Doran, biochemistry; Claire Sitarski, general engineering
3rd place: “Analyzing Microplastic Abundance Around a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Clemson, SC”
Mentor: Cassandra May, biological sciences
Students: Makenzie Evans, environmental engineering, and Steven Joseph, microbiology
For more information about any of the projects presented at FoCI and the Clemson Student Research Forum, visit the digital program.
Get in touch and we will connect you with the author or another expert.
Or email us at news@clemson.edu