Eleven awards recognizing excellence in research innovation were presented at BioInspired Institute’s annual symposium last week.

More than 100 undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty members from Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry presented their research at the event. Leaders from regional businesses and industry partners also attended.

Winners were selected in five categories:

Sensing, Actuation, Intelligence and BioInspired Systems

First Place: Rohit Jakkula
Graduate researcher, College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS)
Zhenyu Gan, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, adviser
“Transformable Modular Robots”

Second Place: Silverio Johnson
Postdoctoral scholar, College of Arts and Sciences (A&S)
Mirna Skanata, assistant professor of physics, adviser
“Quenching Variability of Drosophila Larval Behavior Using Multi-Sensory Stimulation”

Development and Disease

First Place: Anthony Watt
Graduate researcher, ECS
Zhen Ma, associate professor, Samuel and Carol Nappi Research Scholar and biomedical and chemical engineering graduate program director, adviser
“Machine Learning Analysis of Multimodal Waveforms and Synthetic Data Augmentation for Predicting Cardiotoxicity in Single Cell hiPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes”

Second Place: Anton Jayakodiarachchige
Doctoral student, A&S
Sarah Lucas, assistant professor of biology, adviser
“Investigating the Dual Role of Mediterraneibacter Gnavus in the Small Intestine: Friend or Foe?”

Honorable Mention: Arpan Banerjee
Doctoral student, SUNY Upstate Medical University
Audrey Bernstein, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, biochemistry and molecular biology and cell and developmental biology, adviser
“The Role of USP10 in Corneal Angiogenesis via YAP/TAZ Signaling”

Designer Biology

First Place: Daniel Fougnier
Doctoral student, A&S
Pranav Soman, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering, adviser
“Voxelated Assembly of Large-Scale Tissue Constructs”

Second Place: Paul Sagoe
Doctoral student, ECS
Era Jain, assistant professor of biomedical and chemical engineering, adviser
“Tailoring Polymeric Nanoparticles Properties for Enhanced Targeted Delivery to Macrophage Subpopulation”

Function Without Form

First Place: Nirbhik Acharya
Postdoctoral scholar, A&S
Carlos Castañeda, associate professor of biology and chemistry, adviser
“STI1 Domain Engages Transient Helices to Drive Phase Separation of Yeast Ubiquilin”

Second Place: Jess Niblo
Postdoctoral scholar, A&S
Shahar Sukenik, assistant professor of chemistry, adviser
“Profiling Structural Sensitivity Across Human Transcription Factor”

Adaptive Energy and Infrastructure Materials

First Place: Vanshika Vanshika
Doctoral student, A&S
Weiwei Zheng, associate professor of chemistry, adviser
“Turn on the Lanthanide NIR Emission of Non-Fluorescent Lanthanide-Based Double Perovskite Nanocrystals by Incorporating a Fluorescent Sensitizer”

Second Place: Ruosi (Joyce) Qiao
Doctoral student, ECS
Changmin Shi, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, adviser
“Binder-Free Dry-Processed Electrode Enabled by a Porous Carbon Current Collector for Lithium-Ion Batteries”

BioInspired supports research on complex biological systems and the development and design of programmable smart materials to address global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation.  Associated faculty come from life sciences, engineering, physics and chemistry.