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SURE Students Tackle Real-World Challenges

ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ undergraduate students presented their summer research findings at the Dr. James Girard Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) 2026 Symposium on August 3 on the Romeoville campus.  The symposium was the culminating event of the collaborative experience for ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ students from multiple disciplines who engaged in undergraduate research over the summer. ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ SURE students are tackling real-world challenges that affect everyday life through innovative undergraduate research, from improving healthcare and fighting antibiotic resistance to advancing clean energy, safer transportation, artificial intelligence, and disease prevention. Working one-on-one with a faculty mentor, students receive program funding for the summer and benefit from an experiential learning environment that accelerates their research careers, with many presenting their outcomes at conferences and/or in publications. The following students presented their research.  Md Mehedi Hasan – Data Science - Role-Stability Analysis for Transportation Networks: Quantifying Disruption in Chicago’s Transit (CTA) System Javier Romero – Physics - Engineering Novel Si-MOF Hybrid Photocapacitors for Green Energy Storage Alanna Marie San Luis – Cybersecurity - Analysis of the Correlation Between Wind Direction vs Flight Direction for eVTOL Route Planning Maxim Cilek – Computer Science - Examining Choking and Clutch Performance in Professional Tennis Jo Jarmuz – Mathematics and Applied Physics - Combinatorial Descriptions of Kostka-Foulkes Polynomials Michael Mihailov – Computer Science - Mathematically Modeling C. difficile Transmission Across Healthcare Facilities Dylan Street – Cybersecurity - Security-Aware Virtual Machine Placement Using Reinforcement Learning for Enhanced Cloud Security Sara Ryan – Biology - Assessment of Macrophage Cell Viability and Gene Expression upon Hydrogel Co-Culture Samantha Hebrard Flores – Biology - Characterization of Microbial Community Metabolism with Biochar Marwa Khanani – Data Science - Deep Learning-Based Reconstruction of Missing Volume Using 3D Partial Convolutions Reese Capion – Biochemistry - Targeting the New Delhi Beta-Lactamase: AI-Driven Molecular Design of 8Hydroxyquinoline Analogues to Overcome Microbial Resistance Quoc Thai Dinh - Aviation Maintenance Technology - Training AI to Make Money, Not Just Predictions: Decision-Focused Learning for Battery Storage Arbitrage Allyson Boehm – Psychology - Beyond the Treatment Plan: Developing Clinical Adaptation in Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students Anasemon Botros – Biology - Optimizing Oligonucleotide Sequence and Chemistry to Promote ATXN3 Exon 10 Skipping as a Potential Treatment for Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3   

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