The 2025 Spring Research and Arts Conference brings ideas and innovation to UTC

Students, faculty and staff attended the 2025 Spring Research and Arts Conference in the Wolford Family Athletic Center on Wednesday, April 9. Photo by Angela Foster.

The energy was lively and the excitement contagious inside the Wolford Family Athletic Center on Wednesday, April 9, as students, faculty and guests packed the space for a day of research and discovery.

The annual Spring Research and Arts Conference at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga turned the spotlight on projects from across a handful of disciplines as UTC personnel and community members presented their work exploring nearly every imaginable topic.

Dr. Lisa Piazza, executive director of the UTC Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor (URaCE), said the conference offers an important opportunity for students to share their research and creative projects with a broader audience.

“For a lot of students, this might be their only presentation opportunity,” Piazza said. “The ability to get your work out there, to really talk about your project, to get feedback … presentation is a really huge component.”

The conference welcomed a total of 729 poster and oral presenters with each UTC college represented. It also brought 73 presenters from local high schools, including 63 from Baylor School and the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences.

Piazza said this year’s conference was especially large, adding new elements like classroom visits and the MOCS Innovate! UTC Innovators Showcase, where participants from the Fly for Researchers Faculty Pitch Competition, the Harris Chair mini-grant and the MOCS Innovate! seed funding grant program showcased their research.

“We try our best to incorporate a lot of different pieces so that everybody can feel welcome and everybody has a chance to participate,” Piazza said.

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A few of the projects from this year’s Spring Research and Arts Conference included:

Kiana Patterson (left) and Jillian Colson (colorful top) with other School of Nursing students.

Kiana Patterson, Kennie Almonor, Jillian Colson, Lauren Zoladz and Dr. Jenny Holcombe, “Loneliness in Older Adults”

Nursing students Jillian Colson and Kiana Patterson wanted to find practical ways to combat loneliness, a growing public health concern among older adults.

The group used social media to distribute an online survey for individuals 55 and older, measuring loneliness levels, demographics and participation in activities known to reduce isolation.

Colson, a senior from Nashville, said understanding this issue is essential for health care providers because loneliness affects physical, emotional and mental health.

“We wanted to gain a better understanding of loneliness in the aging population and come up with potential strategies to combat it,” Colson said. “Understanding and addressing loneliness has become an increasingly critical priority in the health care setting.”

Patterson said their direct experience caring for older patients inspired their choice of research.

“We felt like the older adult population was something we saw a lot in the hospital. Honestly, they just want somebody to talk to, and we can’t always stay there and hang out,” said Patterson, a senior from Knoxville, Tennessee. “So it’s good to know what other activities they may want to do outside the hospital.”

Kara Kimes and David Brown (part of the Jejal Bathi team)

Kara Kimes, David Brown, Landon Norman, Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi, Dr. Kidambi Sreenivas and Dr. Ashley Manning-Berg, “Field Sampling Device for Tracking Microplastics in Surface Water”

Dr. Jejal-Reddy Bathi, environmental engineering coordinator and assistant professor in civil engineering, leads the team behind the device. Collaborating with Professor of Mechanical Engineering Kidambi Sreenivas, Assistant Professor Ashley Manning-Berg from the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, and graduate students Kara Kimes and Landon Norman in civil engineering and David Brown in mechanical engineering, the group set out to solve a significant challenge in environmental monitoring.

“Oftentimes, with traditional methods, we have to carry 10 to 20 liters of water back to the lab to analyze for microplastics,” Bathi said. “If you’re trying to do 10 different sites, that becomes difficult—and rain doesn’t happen on a schedule.”

The team’s solution is a portable sampler that performs filtration on-site, eliminating the need to transport large water samples and allowing researchers to cover multiple locations during a single rain event.

Compact enough to be stored in a car trunk, the device aims to reduce errors, improve consistency and keep costs within a few hundred dollars to make it accessible to both community groups and industry users.

“Our objective is for someone to put it in the trunk of their car and carry it around easily,” Bathi said.

With funding from the MOCS Innovate! mini-grant, the team advanced from concept to prototype—acquiring tools and components to bring their design to life.

Looking ahead, the team has submitted a proposal to build a full-scale version of the sampler with plans to move toward commercialization.

Will Richmond, “Transformational Leadership & Job Satisfaction: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and Vietnam”

Will Richmond, a junior business analytics student from Franklin, Tennessee, traveled halfway across the world to better understand job satisfaction.

His research compared the effects of leadership styles on employee happiness in the United States and Vietnam, a project that came to be from his participation in UTC’s business research internship program in Vietnam.

During his eight-week internship in Ho Chi Minh City with a logistics company specializing in motorbikes, Richmond saw how Vietnamese workplace culture differs significantly from American individualism.

“Vietnam is more collectivist; they care more about the relationships between people rather than individual success like the United States does,” he said. “I just tried to see how those two were similar between the two countries.”

Richmond said that despite cultural differences, the expectations of good leadership and job satisfaction were surprisingly similar.

“I think this project could act as a way of representing how the two countries really are more similar than people think they are,” Richmond said. “They’re a strong economy and more developed than people think.”

Sara Miller

Sara Miller, “Technology and Transportation’s Role in Social Isolation in Rural Older Adults”

Sara Miller, a senior social work major from Summertown, Tennessee, presented research on the impact of technology and transportation on rural social isolation among older adults.

Growing up in a rural community, Miller witnessed firsthand the barriers older adults face in staying connected. Her study explored how limited access to internet services and public transportation can deepen feelings of isolation among rural seniors, especially as essential services increasingly move online.

“A lot of times, they’re afraid to use technology,” Miller said. “They worry if they click the wrong thing, something terrible will happen—like being charged too much for a prescription or not being able to access insurance.”

Interviewing four women from her hometown area through snowball sampling, Miller identified key themes: many older adults felt satisfied with a few meaningful connections, often through church or senior centers, but lacked broader community awareness due to spotty internet access and reliance on word-of-mouth.

She also found that while technology could theoretically bridge gaps, fear of making mistakes and reluctance to be “taught” new systems remain significant hurdles.

“Education isn’t always the answer,” she explained. “They’ve spent their whole lives having to learn new things and they’re tired of it. We have to simplify our approaches.”

Miller said her research emphasized the importance of engaging directly with older adults to understand their needs rather than assuming solutions.

“In social work, there’s no assessment without engagement,” she said. “You can’t just skip to interventions. You have to slow down and really listen.”

Katherine Johnson (right)

Katherine Johnson, Emma Gilland, Ruth V. Walker, Heather Almand and Alexandra G. Shappley, “Pretty Dangerous: The Romanticization of Grooming in Pretty Little Liars”

Psychology major Katherine Johnson grew up watching TV shows like “Pretty Little Liars.” She is now studying how the TV series portrayed grooming behaviors—or relationships involving manipulation by an adult towards a minor.

Johnson’s research compared the original series with the newer reboot, revealing shifts in how grooming was presented.

“Season one of the original series found that 90.9% portrayed the grooming behaviors as romantic,” said Johnson, a Chattanooga native. “Then in the reboot series, only 10% portrayed them as romantic, which is a really big difference.”

The reboot, she said, portrayed grooming as problematic 90% of the time, potentially influencing viewers to recognize harmful dynamics.

“This research is important because it can help adolescents better understand the power dynamics between them and their abusers and better help them stay away,” Johnson said.

Johnson and the rest of the research team will present their findings at the upcoming Southeastern Psychological Association conference in Atlanta.

Zayda Dominick

Zayda Dominick, Dr. Luis Sanchez-Diaz and Dr. Keenan Dungey, “Investigating Changes in Ampicillin Resistant Escherichia coli Cell Walls”

Zayda Dominick, a junior biochemistry major from Knoxville, Tennessee, spent last summer investigating antibiotic resistance in E. coli as part of a 10-week research project.

Dominick worked alongside Dr. Keenan Dungey, head of the Department of Chemistry and Physics, and Dr. Luis Sanchez-Diaz to study beta-lactamase—an enzyme that allows bacteria to break down the beta-lactam ring in antibiotics like ampicillin and survive treatment. Her research explored whether non-resistant strains of E. coli could develop resistance when exposed to ampicillin.

“In our most concentrated strain with ampicillin, we noticed the highest beta-lactamase activity—and we didn’t introduce beta-lactamase to that strain,” Dominick said. “It must have mutated to get it.”

Dominick’s role in the project centered on studying the biochemical properties of the bacteria, complementing a colleague’s focus on biophysical properties. Their findings offered insight into how antibiotic resistance can spread quickly through bacterial colonies, even if only one strain acquires resistance.

“What’s especially concerning is that beta-lactamase from one colony can protect others around it,” she said, “so if one becomes resistant, they all do.”

Dominick—who called research “a passion that fuels curiosity” about how microscopic changes can have global impacts—is now pursuing her thesis under Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science Professor Jose Barbosa, examining how Lipocalin proteins impact oxidative stress responses in cells.

“I hope to bring that thesis project to this conference next year,” she said.

Nicholas Kincaid, Nick Mao, Jake Dunleavy, Damion Daniels, Holland Hunneke, Logan Pendergrass and Dr. Cecelia Wigal, “Scream Room”

When Jacob Dunleavy thought of possible research projects, he was inspired by his mom’s experience teaching special education at Howard Connect Academy.

Dunleavy and his group decided to create a “scream room”—a safe, soundproof, portable space where students could express themselves without disturbing their peers.

“We’re building an all-inclusive scream room so that students who use screaming as a way of stemming or just letting out frustration can go into the room that will fit into a classroom … so they don’t feel like they’re being punished,” Dunleavy said.

Mao said the room, lined with acoustic foam, easily moves between classrooms and splits apart to fit through doors.

“It’s portable and can be moved from room to room depending on who needs it,” Mao said. “It blocks most of the sound so it doesn’t distract other students or teachers.”

Dunleavy and Mao said the goal is for the scream room to be used in more local schools.

“I think we all agree that this would be really nice to have in multiple different schools, not just Howard Connect Academy,” Mao said. “Coming from a place where there are a lot of students that have disabilities like this, it would definitely be something that helps everybody.”

Areej Alghoul, Amy Guinac and Michael Martin

Areej Alghoul, Amy Guinac, Michael Martin, Basim Saeed, “The Assistive Guitar Pick Holder: The Pick-Grip”

Areej Alghoul, a sophomore computer engineering major from Chattanooga; Michael Martin, a sophomore computer engineering major from Memphis; and Amy Guinac, a sophomore mechatronics engineering technology major from Chattanooga, were part of a team that developed the Pick-Grip—an assistive guitar pick holder designed to help a client with peripheral neuropathy continue playing the instrument he loves.

Their invention recently won first place in the lower division team design poster competition at the 2025 American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section (ASEE SE) Conference held at Mississippi State University—besting entries from across the Southeast.

The team created the Pick-Grip for a client named John—a 79-year-old guitar enthusiast whose condition causes hand tremors, chronic pain and numbness in his fingers. Previous assistive devices he tried were bulky, breakable and inconvenient.

“We wanted something comfortable, durable and easy to use,” Alghoul said. “His old holders were made out of wood and they would end up breaking.”

The team explored a variety of designs, including an exoskeleton glove and banana-shaped grip, before settling on a two-ring concept that balanced stability with ease of use. They 3D-printed the holder using flexible TPU 95A filament and incorporated magnets to allow the pick to swivel into any position, giving their client the ability to adjust for comfort and playing style.

“You can also take off the magnets to replace whatever pick you want,” Guinac explained. “If you want to switch out different picks for different playing styles, you can do that.”

For Martin, the experience felt like a genuine step into the engineering world.

“It was nice waking up to texts from family and friends saying, ‘Congratulations,’” he said. “It felt very real, like what you’d expect in the industry.”

Beyond the win, the team took pride in creating something that made a difference.

“Our client had been working on this for 15 years, trying to find the perfect design,” Alghoul said. “We’re proud to say we found it for him—and winning at the conference in Mississippi just made it even better.”

Briana Mayes (left), Tyler Lynn and Diya Patel

Diya Patel, Anastacia Koslofsky, Tyler Lynn and Briana Mayes, “Design of a Flexible Raw Material Delivery System”

Along with their group, chemical engineering seniors Diya Patel and Briana Mayes collaborated with the Chattanooga facility of global chemical company BASF—the world’s largest chemical producer.

The team designed a flexible delivery system to solve cross-contamination issues during latex production.

“They needed a flexible raw material delivery system because they have to switch out many different soaps, and they’re using the same system and having issues such as cross-contamination,” said Mayes, who hails from Clarksville, Tennessee.

Their system, which BASF plans to implement, costs around $17,000, which is an economical solution considering the plant’s overall production scale.

Patel, who is from Gujarat, India, praised the support from BASF.

“We had our mentor, Ellie; she was constantly in touch with us, helping us design our process and getting in touch with vendors,” Patel said.

The Idiopathic Scoliosis Brace team (from left): Arwen Moss, Hailey Henderson and Lynsey Lawson (photo courtesy of Dr. Cecelia Wigal).

Hailey Henderson, Lynsey Lawson, Arwen Moss, Braden Burba and Army Eckles, “Idiopathic Scoliosis Brace for Children”

Hailey Henderson, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Memphis; Arwen Moss, a senior mechanical engineering major from Rossville, Georgia; and Lynsey Lawson, a sophomore mechatronics engineering technology major from Mountain Grove, Missouri, were part of a team that designed a modular scoliosis brace for children—and recently earned top honors at the ASEE SE Conference for their work.

Their project claimed the event’s highest student recognition: Best Overall Student Poster, outperforming undergraduate and graduate-level teams from across the Southeast.

The team set out to create a brace that was not only affordable but adaptable, offering a customizable fit for children with varying scoliosis curves. Made from thermoplastic material, the brace can be heated and reshaped, allowing for adjustments as the child grows or as their treatment needs change.

“It’s really just to provide a cheaper, quicker option for younger kids who need bracing for treatment,” Lawson said.

The team’s design also emphasized comfort and breathability—qualities they tested firsthand.

“It’s kind of humane to wear it,” said Henderson, displaying the brace. “It lets me know how it feels and it’s really breathable.”

For Moss, learning their team was the overall winner during the ASEE SE Conference was an unforgettable moment.

“We didn’t know there was an overall presentation win, so it felt really good knowing we beat out not only fellow undergraduate students but also graduate students,” she said. “It felt really good just being able to bring home multiple wins for UTC. It’s like, Mocs on top all the time.”