The Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) Citizen Scholars, IE’s student organization, hosted its sixth annual Research Contest for students of all disciplines on Friday, April 28 as part of the university’s Research Week.

The contest provides current, former and prospective IE Pre Grad Interns the opportunity to showcase their research, ambitions and aspirations. A total of 10 students were accepted to present their research and all were eligible to win prizes. More than half those receiving prizes are IE Kuhn Scholars.

Several of UT’s colleges and schools were represented, including the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Fine Arts, the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Pharmacy, the Moody College of Communications, the College of Natural Sciences and the Jackson School of Geosciences. This contest was hosted by the executive officers of the IE Citizen Scholars, Amie Tran and Anisha Mehra.

The winners:

• First Place ($300): Brenda Rodriguez-Niño (mechanical engineering major ); research title: “Planar Biaxial Bioreactor for Heart Valve Stimulation Mounting Hardware Design and Development”
• Second Place ($150): Farhana Zabidi (pharmacy major); research title: “Adherence and Switch Patterns Among Children and Adolescents Newly Initiating Pharmacotherapy with Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors”
• Third Place ($125): Brittany Ikwuagwu (biochemistry major); research title: “The Effect of Birth Experience on Predicting Postpartum Depression”
• Fourth ($100): Sheldon Smith (anthropology major); research title: “A Provenience Study of Terminal Classic and Post-classic Ceramics from the Maya Site of Colha”
• Fifth ($75): Katherine Soon (psychology major); research title: “Linguistic Analysis of Parent Child Play in Relation to Vocabulary Performance and Socioeconomic Status”

Honorable Mentions ($50):

• Adraint Bereal (government major); research title: “Quench Your Thirst”
• Rui Akaike (linguistics major); research title: “The Influence of Language Mode on Monolingual and Bilingual Word Learning”
• Stephanie Suarez (geological sciences major); research title: “A UPb zircon age constraint on the oldest recorded air breathing land animal”