SyBBURE Annual Best Paper Award 2025

It brings us great pleasure to announce the winners of the coveted SyBBURE Best Paper Award for 2025: Alisa Shmidt, Manish Acharya, and Karina Sosa!

Alisa is a senior majoring in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry, and pursuing two independent research projects titled “Resolving hIAPP Aggregation Pathways Using 2D IR Spectroscopy and Transition Dipole Strength Reference Framework” (PI: Dr. Lauren Buchanan) and “Novel Polyurethane-Based Foams for Adipogenesis“ (PI: Dr. Scott Guelcher)

Manish is a junior majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics, and his project is titled “Learning Sliced Wasserstein Projections via Adaptive Bayesian Optimization” (PI: Dr. David Hyde)

Karina is a junior majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Physics, and her project is titled “Design and Integration of Flexible Push-Pull Robots from Four to Three Tubes” (PI: Dr. Robert Webster III)

In addition to these three winners, there were several strong submissions from students who made it as finalists for award consideration, as well as students who received honorable mention for their submissions. The list below summarizes the results from this year’s competition. Congratulations to everyone for their dedication and for the growth they have demonstrated as researchers and scientists, keep up the amazing work!

Award Winners:

• Alisa Shmidt

• Manish Acharya

• Karina Sosa

Award Finalists:

• Nabeelah Aregbe

• Ketan Hoey

• Bamlak Aklilu

• Kesney Lucas Ferro De Oliveira

• Michaela Wolfe

• Caroline Caveness

Honorable Mention:

• Ayanna Desai

• Sarah Lanza

• Soham Saraf

• Chizara Idika

• Ella Weaverling

• Nathan Hammond

• Riyanka Narasimhan

• Sarah Son

• Benjamin Estes

• Sophia Juarez