Visit the 2022 ACURA Fair online.

Winners of the 2022 Abington Undergraduate Research Fair (ACURA)

First place Social Science division:  "Explaining the COVID-19 Pandemic"

Students: Samantha Antell and Alexa Johnson
Faculty Advisor: Judith Newman

First place Arts and Humanities division:  "What's in a Recipe? The Barclay Manuscript"

Students: Saranya Ananth, Kathryn Brodeur, Fabiana Cajamarca, Leah Davis and Emily Lang
Faculty Advisors: Marissa Nicosia, Christina Riehman-Murphy and Heather Froehlich

First place Science and Engineering division:  "Aerodynamics of airborne droplets behind the social distancing rules for COVID-19"

Students: Phuong Ho and Sean Thomas
Faculty Advisor: Andrei Blinkouski

Second place Science and Engineering division: "Microscopic Imaging Analysis"

Student: Holly Schafer
Faculty Advisors: Vinayak Elangovan  and Burcu Ozden

Honorable mention social science division: "Autistic Traits, Alexithymia and Facial Emotion Recognition of Human and Anime Faces"

Student: Bridger Standiford
Faculty Advisor: Kevin Hsu

Honorable mention Science and Engineering division: "Where Does Penn State's Academic Websites Stand on Extra-Functional Properties and Quality Characteristics?"

Students: Matthew Coutts, Luna Hatahet, and Yash Amin
Faculty Advisor:  Ishtiaque Hussain

University Libraries awards for Excellence in Information Literacy

Division of Arts and Humanities
Beating Writer’s Block: How to Write a Story Based on Real Life by Samhita Chitturi. Faculty advisor: Linda Miller, 

Division of Science and Engineering
Defects Detection and Classification on Metallic Surfaces by Kseniia Gromova and Youxin Zhuo. Faculty advisor: Vinayak Elangovan,

Division of Social Sciences
Autistic Traits, Alexithymia and Facial Emotion Recognition of Human and Anime Faces by Bridger Standiford. Faculty advisor: Kevin Hsu

ACURA is opportunity

  • Collaborate closely with a faculty research mentor on a hands-on research project and/or creative work over the course of one academic year,
  • Receive academic credit (one credit in fall; two credits in the spring) for their research activity,
  • Gain valuable research, technical, and artistic experience for more advanced levels of scholarly work, and/or for use in future careers,
  • Present one’s research findings at the Annual ACURA Poster Fair, at a research lecture at the Fall Colloquium, and/or at a local or national research conference
  • Publish one’s original work and discoveries in partnership with one’s research mentor.
ACURA Science and Engineering students win 1st Place

Abington students, Jung Eun Park and Kenjiro Lay win first place in the Science and Engineering Division at the 2019 ACURA Poster Fair and also at the Eastern Regional Fair at Penn State Hazleton. Faculty Advisor Dr. Masataka Okutsu.

Image: Penn State