The Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Symposium (VURS) provides an opportunity for our undergraduates to share their work in a campus-wide celebration of undergraduate student research.
The symposium is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education, and Immersion Vanderbilt.
The Spring 2026 VURS will take place on Wednesday, April 8. Check back for updates regarding registration and event details in the Spring.
Questions? Contact Immersion Vanderbilt via email at immersion@vanderbilt.edu.
Poster workshops for spring 2026 VURS will be announced in early 2026.
The Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Symposium Fall 2025 Poster Winners
Basic and Natural Sciences
Co-winner: Kalina Stoyanova
Title: Modality-Specific Serial Dependencies for Auditory and Visual Motion Direction
Faculty Mentor: Mark Wallace
Co-winner: Sunny Chen
Title: Investigating the Non-Neuronal Roles of SHANK3 in Choroid Plexus Endothelia
Faculty: Neil Dani
Runner-up: Isaac Tamayo-Sarver
Title: Dysplastic Progression in Gastric Precancer is Supported by Stromal Environment and SPON2
Faculty Mentor: Jim Goldenring
Runner-up: Eldaah Paulraj
Title: Plasminogen Drives Innate Immune Training Through DNA Methylation
Faculty Mentor: Kasey Vickers
Clinical and Translational Research & Public Health
Winner: Catherine Wang
Title: Investigating the Role of Tumor-Expressed Cardiac Antigens in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Associated Myocarditis
Faculty Mentor: Justin Balko
Runner-up: Cooper Donovan
Title: Superposition Allows Embarrassingly Parallel Acoustic Simulations for Multi-Element Arrays in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound
Faculty Mentor: Charles Caskey
Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, and Mathematics
Winner: Laura Caroline Jung
Title: Easy Breezy? — Design and Validation of a Low-Cost Wind Generator for Investigating the Biomechanics of Walking in Wind with an Above-the-Knee Lower-Limb Prosthesis
Faculty Mentor: Michael Goldfarb
Runner-up: Shansita Sharma
Title: Segment the Signal: Automated Physiological Quality Assessment
Faculty Mentor: Catie Chang
Social, Behavioral, Education Studies, and Humanities
Winner: Emily Benfield
Title: Seats & Status: How Classroom Placement Shapes Peer Reputations for Students with/at-Risk for EBD
Faculty Mentor: Kristen Granger
Runner-up: Shana Lee
Title: Naturalistic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Intervention
Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Biggs
Vanderbilt students who have completed research projects are invited to share their work with the campus community. Students must present work that was completed while enrolled at Vanderbilt.
