Kirmser Undergraduate Research Award 2022 winners selected
Thursday, May 12, 2020
Kirmser Award winners with their awards. From left are Ceci Schmitz, Grace Schieferecke, Kaylee Bynum, Claudia Filinger and Tamara Brinkley. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — Excellence in research has earned several students at Kansas State University recognition through the ninth annual K-State Libraries Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards.
The awards committee, made up of faculty from varying disciplines, recognized outstanding undergraduate research in topics ranging from microbiology to fashion studies. The award recognizes the use of library materials to complete research for projects.
Grand prize awards were given in three categories: individual freshman, individual non-freshman and group. The individual grand prizewinners received $1,000 each and the group grand prizewinners shared a $3,000 award. Honorable mentions were also named in two categories. The awards are made possible through a gift from the Philip and Jeune Kirmser estate.
Both grand and honorable mention prizewinners are invited to archive their projects in the university's institutional repository, the K-State Research Exchange, or K-REx, so that they are available online to the public.
The grand prize in the group research category was for the project "The Human Understanding of Garments: An Exploratory Study on Technology Inspired Clothing Design for Young Adults with Anxiety" for the Pre-Production Technologies class taught by Yingying Wu, assistant professor of fashion design.
The following students were recognized through the Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards:
Tamara Brinkley, senior in fashion studies, Berryton, grand prize, group research project; Claudia Filinger, senior in fashion studies, Cottonwood Falls, grand prize, group research project; Kaylee Bynum, senior in fashion studies, Derby, grand prize, group research project; Grace Schieferecke, freshman in medical microbiology, Eudora, grand prize in the individual freshman research category for her project, "Friend or Foe: The Importance of Identifying Bacteria With Biochemical Tests," completed for a microbiology class taught by Martha Caldas, professor of biology, and Brett Nave and Debolina Dasgupta, graduate students in biology; Aidan Quinn, sophomore in kinesiology, Lenexa, honorable mention, individual non-freshman research project; Jade Tonjes, senior in economics, Lenexa, honorable mention, group research project; Annaleigh Hobbs, senior in economics and marketing, Overland Park, honorable mention, group research project; Olivia Barrett, freshman in park management and conservation, Reading, honorable mention, individual freshman project; Ceci Schmitz, senior in electrical engineering, Topeka, grand prize in the individual non-freshman research category for her project, "Integrating Sensory Feedback into a Neural Bypass Device," completed for the Written Communication for Engineers class taught by Roger Friedmann, instructor of creative writing and English literature.
From out of state: Suzanne Roggenkamp, junior in economics, Indianola, Nebraska, honorable mention, group research project.
