For Swartz (pictured presenting above), this opportunity held similar resonance for her research opportunities.
“Presenting at the Student Scholar Symposium was an incredible experience that allowed me to share the research I’ve been working on to the Chapman community while connecting with others and hearing about their inspiring work! I am so grateful for this opportunity and the resources that Chapman offers for students to learn outside the classroom,” said Swartz.

On Wednesday, May 7, and Thursday, May 8, 2025, Fowler School of Engineering (FSE) students showcased their extensive academic research at the Spring Student Scholar Symposium. At this bi-annual event organized by the Center for Undergraduate Excellence (CUE), undergraduate engineering researchers engaged the wider Chapman community by presenting their investigative journeys and discoveries. Through a series of poster sessions and oral presentations, students demonstrated their dedication, creativity, perseverance, and progress, highlighting their roles as  FSE scholars advancing cutting-edge technologies.

“I am continually impressed by the thoughtful, diverse, and innovative projects that our students undertake,” shared Dr. John Hunter, who recently rose to serve as Director of the CUE. “I hope that this Symposium serves as a meaningful event that not only honors student achievement, but also acts as a stepping stone that launches our students on a path to impactful success.”

Guided by their faculty advisors, each student explored an engineering topic that aligned with their personal interests and academic goals. The event showcased their findings across a wide range of research experiences, thanks to dedicated Fowler faculty mentorship, research funding, and the drive to make the world a better place through their discoveries. 

For Grace Swartz (Computer Engineering, ‘26) and Vanessa Sullivan (Electrical Engineering, ‘26), this meant sharing their group’s unique prototype—an assistive technology that uses tactile and thermal feedback to assist blind or visually impaired users in distinguishing colors—with an eager crowd via an oral presentation.

Mego will be graduating this May with a degree in Software Engineering.

 

“I enjoyed the Spring Symposium as it allowed me to present my work to listening ears and hear any questions that they had, which also helped present new questions to further our research,” expressed Sullivan. “Getting to this point has involved lots of hard work, but being able to summarize and present on what we have been working on has felt incredibly rewarding and motivating to keep improving upon our research!”

Getting involved with research labs and faculty-led projects allows our engineers to gain hands-on experience throughout their academic career, deepening their understanding of real-world applications and building valuable mentorship connections that enhance their professional growth. For many of Fowler’s engineers, the Symposium presents a rich opportunity to present these skills and experiences before a more formal stage.

“This experience gave me the opportunity to showcase months of research in a professional setting and receive valuable feedback from faculty and peers,” shared Daniel Mattar (Computer Engineering, ‘27). Mattar’s research—conducted with Dr. Andrew Lyon and ‘23 graduate Elif Narbay—can help us understand how proteins behave in tight spaces under pressure, which can support designing new materials for medical uses: healing wounds, building tissue replacements, or creating blood-clotting agents. 

“The process of preparing the poster also helped me better understand how to communicate my work clearly, which is something I know will help me in future academic and industry settings. I’m really grateful for the support from Fowler and especially Dr. Lyon. I am also grateful to have the chance to be part of such a collaborative, research-driven community at Chapman,” stated Mattar.

For numerous FSE presenters, this opportunity allowed them to expand upon research shared at previous symposiums, demonstrating how their project has continued to evolve throughout their time at Chapman.

“Presenting my poster at the Spring Symposium gave me the chance to showcase all the effort and research progress I made throughout the semester,” said Yanelly Mego (Software Engineering ‘25), whose research into dance-centric wearable technologies was also displayed in the Leatherby Libraries. Additionally, Mego spent the summer of 2024 participating in Chapman University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), using the time and resources to conduct her DanZens research. 

“One aspect I greatly enjoy about participating in the symposium is the opportunity to talk about my project with peers from a wide range of majors and backgrounds. It’s always interesting to hear their perspectives and questions, especially from those outside my field. Their insights helped me think about my work in new ways and appreciate the broader impact of my project,” shared Mego.

We extend our congratulations to all of the incredible Fowler School of Engineering students who showcased their undergraduate research during this Spring 2025 Student Scholar Symposium, boldly presenting their innovative work through oral and poster presentations throughout the week.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 — Poster Session 1

Student(s): Daniel Mattar and Elif Narbay

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon

Research: Shear-Induced Structural Organization in Ultra-Low Crosslinked Microgel Pastes

 

Student(s): David Giani

Advisor: Dr. Nasim Estakhri

Research: Demonstration of Mach Zehnder Interferometry in Free-Space: An Experimental Approach

Student(s): Jaime Song and Hannah Bauer

Advisor: Dr. Franceli Cibrian

Research: HoloMind: Engineering Mindfulness through Holographic Display

Student(s): Joshua Abuyog, Hatte Hamilton, and Elif Narbay

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon

Research: Investigating the Bulk Properties and Flow Behaviors of pNIPAm Microgel Pastes Using Polystyrene Particle Fluorescent Probes

Student(s): Michael Cheng

Advisor: Dr. Nasim Estakhri

Research: Near-field Control with Metasurfaces

Student(s): Noah Fuery and Chris Ton-That

Advisor: Dr. Peter Jipsen

Research: Predicting Sports Performance with Graph Neural Networks

Student(s): Pace Nelson

Advisor: Dr. Peter Jipsen

Research: Representability and Formalization of Relation Algebras in the Lean Theorem Prover

Student(s): Yanelly Mego

Advisor: Dr. Franceli Cibrian

Research: DanZens: A Toolkit for Sensing, Labeling and Visualizing Dance Movements

Wednesday, May 7, 2025 — Poster Session 2

Student(s): Alexandra Fomina, Quillan Gee, and Laurel Latt 

Advisor: Dr. Trudi Qi

Research: Toward Personalized Virtual Reality Gait Training System for Full-Body Obstacle

Avoidance Using Real-Time Motion Analysis

Student(s): Anna Harner

Advisor: Dr. Cassandra Donatelli

Research: AutoVert: Semi-Automatic Segmentation of Repeated Structures in 3D Slicer

Student(s): Brandon Lee

Advisor: Dr. Tom Springer

Research: EcoDrone: Autonomous Environmental Monitoring

Student(s): Chris Joo, Gabriel Giancarlo, Julian Carbajal, and Kevin Oropeza

Advisor: Dr. LouAnne Boyd

Research: Current Security and Privacy Challenges in Cloud Computing: A Review

Student(s): Daniel Tsivkovski and Dylan Ravel

Advisor: Dr. Maryam Etezad

Research: Development of Interactive Games on an Affordable Braille Display

Student(s): Ellie Nguyen

Advisor: Dr. Franceli Cibrian

Research: HarmonicThreads – An Interface That Supports Accessibility in Musical Interaction

Student(s): Hatte Hamilton, Elif Narbay, Megan Hicks, and Anne Marie Santich

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon

Research: Investigation of the Mechanical and Physical Properties of ULC Microgel Pastes

Student(s): Joshua Harlev

Advisor: Dr. LouAnne Boyd

Research: Exploring Human-Centered Principles to Improve Lecture Slides

Student(s): Marion Harper, Elif Narbay, and Abbygail Caine

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon

Research: Confocal Microscopy Studies of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Microgel-Collagen Composites

Not pictured

Student(s): Mason Li and Tiffany Le

Advisor: Dr. Yuxin Wen

Research: Multi-Modal Tensor Fusion for Alzheimer’s Disease Recognition

Student(s): Megan Hicks

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon, Dr. Ernesto Daniel Cardenas Vasquez

Research: Rheological Insights into Microgel Behavior: Modeling Velocity Profiles and Flow

Characteristics

Not pictured

Student(s): Paige Caskey, Radhika Puri, Angelina Dieu, Daisy Fernandez-Reyes, Hannah Bauer, and Jalen Myers

Advisor: Dr. LouAnne Boyd

Research: Designing Social Media Platforms for Collective Action

Thursday, May 8, 2025 — Oral Sessions

Student(s): Abbygail Caine

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Lyon, Dr. E. Daniel Cardenas Vasquez

Research: Collagen Assembly in Crowded Microgel Environments to Construct Tunable ECM Scaffolds

Student(s): Alexandra Fomina, Quillan Gee, and Laurel Latt

Advisor: Dr. Trudi Qi

Research: Toward Personalized Virtual Reality Gait Training System for Full-Body Obstacle Avoidance Using Real-Time Motion Analysis

Student(s): Grace Swartz, Margo Burbank, and Vanessa Sullivan

Advisor: Dr. Maryam Etezad

Research: Thermal-Based Color Detection: An Assistive Technology for Blind or Visually Impaired Users

Student(s): Mason Li and Tiffany Le

Advisor: Dr. Yuxin Wen

Research: Multi-Modal Tensor Fusion for Alzheimer’s Disease Recognition

CUE hosts their Scholar Symposium in the Fall and Spring, each with different presenters and research proposals. Students interested in getting involved with presenting at a future Scholar Symposium can get a head start by visiting the CUE website for upcoming details. For further questions, please contact cue@chapman.edu.

Read all about the Spring 2025 Scholar Symposium Abstracts here.