The Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Symposium (VURS) provides an opportunity for Vanderbilt undergraduates to share their work in a campus-wide celebration of undergraduate student research.
Congratulations to our Spring 2026 poster competition winners!
Basic and Natural Sciences
Co-winner: Julie Qi
Title: SLC7A9-dependent stabilization of rBAT provides new insights into therapeutic approaches for type A cystinuria
Faculty mentor: Matthew Wilson
Co-winner: Eric Diao
Title: BET protein inhibition reduces upregulation of inflammation in progerin-expressing vascular smooth muscle cells
Faculty mentor: Jonathan Brown
Runner-up: Eldaah Paulraj
Title: Plasminogen as a driver of innate immune memory
Faculty mentor: Kasey Vickers
Clinical and Translational Research & Public Health
Winner: Jeffrey Eum
Title: Music perception abilities, cognition, and auditory function in older adults
Faculty mentor: Srishti Nayak
Runners-up: Raghav Pallapothu and Santosh Kudaravalli
Title: Stroke-related infratentorial microbleeds and accelerated brain aging
Faculty mentor: Roger Newman-Norlund
Runners-up: You-hyun Noh and Jamisen Wright
Title: The effect of active and passive movement on audio-tactile temporal order judgments in development
Faculty mentor: Mark Wallace
Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, and Mathematics
Winner: Manish Acharya
Title: Efficient sliced Wasserstein distance computation via adaptive Bayesian optimization
Faculty mentor: David Hyde
Runner-up: Nicholas Oberbroeckling
Title: Supplementation of NAD+ precursors with overexpression of the nicotinamide riboside kinase 1 and 2 gene in Chinese hampster ovary cells increases monoclonal antibody titer
Faculty mentor: Jamey Young
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Education Studies, and Humanities
Winner: Olivia Driscoll
Title: Spelling and segmenting words with blends: What types of errors do children make?
Faculty mentor: Melanie Schuele
Runners-up: Lily Grouf and Rowan Bullington
Title: Characteristics of the friends of students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders
Faculty mentor: Kristen Granger
The symposium is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education, and Immersion Vanderbilt.
Questions? Contact Immersion Vanderbilt via email at immersion@vanderbilt.edu.