April 15, 2025
Update May 29, 2025: Congratulations to the students who presented 鈥淯man Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures in Sierra Leone鈥� for receiving an听听at the Undergraduate Research Symposium from the听Office of Undergraduate Research! Some of these students previously won an award in 2024 for Outstanding Exhibit on this same research topic, which they continued work on in 2025.
Updated April 28, 2025
Students from all four majors in the College 糖心vlog传媒 participated in the annual University of Illinois , held April 20-26.
The Undergraduate Research Symposium, the signature event held on Thursday, April 24, at the Illini Union, features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus.
Below is a list 糖心vlog传媒 student presentations as well as acknowledgements 糖心vlog传媒 graduate students and faculty who have mentored students presenting at Undergraduate Research Week.
Oral Panel
Health Modalities
鈥淓valuating the Persuasiveness of LLM-based Chatbots in Health Communication鈥�
- Atharva Sindwani, Sophomore, Computer Science + Advertising
Research Mentor: Leona Yi-Fan Su, Advertising
Media & Culture
鈥淯man Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures in Sierra Leone鈥�
- Nathan Gonzalez, Sophomore, Journalism, COM
- Elena Cleary, Senior, Agricultural Communications, ACES
- Nour Longi, Senior, Journalism, COM
- Piper Pascarella, Junior, Journalism, COM
- Faith Lee, Senior, Journalism, COM
- Maggie Knutte, Senior, Journalism, COM
Research Mentors: Charles 鈥溾�楽tretch鈥� Ledford, Journalism, and Alison Davis, Journalism
(From left to right: Elena Cleary, Maggie Knutte, Piper Pascarella, Faith Lee, Nour Longi. Not pictured: Nathan Gonzalez.)
Social Change & Identity
鈥淭he Relations Between Cinematic Spaces and Cycles of Oppression in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame鈥�
- Rory McFadden, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies
Research Mentor: Jenny Oyallon-Koloski, Media & Cinema Studies
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning II
鈥淣avigating the Future: Investigating the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Students’ Writing鈥�
- Arianna Gandhi, Sophomore, Advertising
Research Mentor: Carolyn Wisniewski, Center for Writing Studies
Poster Presentations
Humanities, Culture, & Society
Graphic Witness in Media: 鈥淭hree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri鈥� and Beyond
- Francesca Dumitrescu, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies
Research Mentor: CL Cole, Media & Cinema Studies
Social Science and Human Behavior
鈥淭error Discourse: Social Media’s Response to Counter-Terrorism Events鈥�
- Mihir Sharma, Freshman, Global Studies, LAS
- Nina Issel, Sophomore, Journalism, COM
Research Mentor: Do Young Gong, Political Science
CS Student Ambassadors/Research Scholars (CS STARS)
Tuesday, April 22, 4-6 p.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, C, and South Lounge
鈥淪alesperson-Product Matching Recommender System鈥�
- Alexia Rendon, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
鈥淯nderstanding High school Students’ Experiences in a Culturally Responsive Computing Program鈥�
- Skyla Jin, Freshman, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
鈥淰irtual Reality Game for Interactive Motion Planning鈥�
- Grace He, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
- Omosefe Edomwande, Freshman, Computer Science, ENG
Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program
The offers undergraduate students with little or no research experience the opportunity to work with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on their research projects, explore the culture and process of research, and build on their existing abilities within a community of scholars.
- Nina Issel, Sophomore, Journalism (COM)
Media Research Mentors
Doctoral student Veranika Paltaratskaya (above right), 糖心vlog传媒, was the research mentor for Alina Huang, sophomore in communication and psychology (LAS), who presented 鈥淯nderstanding Consumer Interactions with Product Transparency Apps (PTAs) Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model鈥� as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.
Doctoral student Alice Ji (above right), 糖心vlog传媒, was the research mentor for Ayushi Maskey, junior in statistics + computer science (LAS), who presented 鈥淭he Effect of Message Fatigue on Attention to Mental Health Messages鈥� as part of the Heath & Wellness poster presentations.
Kevin Wise, professor of advertising, was the research mentor for Pushti Vora, junior in brain and cognitive sciences (LAS) who presented 鈥淭he Impact of Mindless Scrolling on Dopamine Regulation and its Parallels to Gambling Addiction鈥� as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.