Quinnipiac iQ Career and Experiential Learning Lab
Quinnipiac iQ Career and Experiential Learning Lab
Student conducts an experiment in a classroom lab environment.

QUIP-RS

Interdisciplinary Program for Research and Scholarship

Hands-On Workshop | In the Community

Open to students of all majors, QUIP-RS provides up to $5,000 in funding for undergraduate students to conduct research or complete creative projects alongside faculty mentors. This intensive 8-week program enables students to develop scholarly skills while encouraging discussion about successes and shortcomings with fellows and mentors.

QUIP-RS Benefits

In addition to hands-on experience in developing scholarly skills, QUIP-RS offers:

  • A $4,000 stipend and $1,000 for research supplies and conference travel.

  • A research poster for presentations.

  • A 50% discount on on-campus housing during the program.

  • Opportunities for students in all undergraduate programs.

  • Eligibility for seniors in accelerated dual-degree programs to complete projects.

  • Weekly interdisciplinary meetings to discuss project updates, successes and challenges.

  • The option for multiple students to collaborate on the same project, sharing the stipend and research funds.

2025 Research Topics

Student Project Major School Mentor
Colby Muse ’26 Survival of the Frugalist: Understanding Worldwide Food Waste Marketing School of Business Tilottama Ghosh Chowdhury
Timothy Hine ’26 Effect of Urban Noise on Ant Communities Biology College of Arts & Sciences Sarah Lawson
Christopher Falcone ’28 A.I. For the Visually Impaired: Real-Time Object Detection with YOLO and Grounding DINO Computer Science School of Computing & Engineering Kruti Shah & Chetan Jaiswal
Giana DiLemme ’26 From Hashtags to Legislation: The Impact of Social Media Advocacy on Gun Violence Reform Media and Public Relations School of Communications, College of Arts & Sciences Katie Place & Candice Travis
Jenna Visich ’27 Investigating Brain Development via RNA-Seq Using ADNP Mutant Zebrafish Medical Microbiology School of Health Sciences, School of Medicine Paul Wolujewicz & Carter Takacs
Julia Mathews and Payton Sack ’26 Investigating the Effects of a Double-Hit Developmental Stress Model on Behavioral, Physiological and Microglial Outcomes Behavioral Neuroscience College of Arts & Sciences Adrienne Betz
Sarita Nagesar ’26 Knockdown of Lgr4 and CCAP-R GPCRs to Assess Cell Migration in Germ Cells and Salivary Glands of Embryonic Drosophila melanogaster Biology College of Arts & Sciences Caitlin Hanlon
Elena Hogan-Perez ’26 Finding ways to help give more representation to artists and entrepreneurs who are most affected by the digital divide Economics School of Business David Tomczyk
Antonio (TJ) Therrien ’26 Performance and Security Analysis of the PISTOL JavaScript VM Obfuscator in the Current Threat Landscape Software Engineering School of Computing & Engineering Ruby ElKharboutly
Alexander Whitney ’26 Effect of tau on expression and aggregation of AŒ≤ in C. elegans models of Alzheimer‚Äôs disease Biomedical Sciences School of Health Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences Alexandre de Lencastre
MD Fayed Salim ’26 customAIze: AI driven image customization Software Engineering School of Computing & Engineering Kruti Shah & Chetan Jaiswal
Jesse Matijevic ’26 Investigating Genomic Assembly of Borrelia Burgdorferi in both Ixodes Scapularis Vectors and Cultured Pathogen Samples Biochemistry School of Health Sciences Paul Wolujewicz
Dominic Chappell ’26 Increasing Habitat Suitability and Connectivity for the Native Bumblebee Biology College of Arts & Sciences Sarah Lawson

 

View 2024 Research Projects

Student Spotlight

Photo of a student speaking into a microphone in the podcast studio.
Student discovers passion for science communication through research podcast

March 17, 2025

Leveraging her research experience at Quinnipiac, Teddi Matthews ’24, MS ’25, was inspired to start her podcast, Bobcats with Beakers, leading her to a newfound passion for science communication.
Read More

From May to July of 2024, 15 students representing five different schools at Quinnipiac (the Schools of Computing & Engineering, Communications, Health Sciences, and Business, and the College of Arts & Sciences) and 10 majors (advertising, biology, communication, engineering, international business, microbiology, neurobiology, political science, public relations) completed research projects alongside 17 faculty mentors. Research topics spanned from studies on Artificial Intelligence, non-coding RNAs on Alzheimer’s Disease, the color preferences of native pollinators, the Political Extremism and online radicalization. In addition to their research, students met weekly as a group to discuss their progress and to participate in a variety of activities including clean-up of Valley service road in North Haven and sports jamboree day. Participants shared the final results of their work in poster presentations to more than 500 community members during the QUIP-RS symposium, part of the Exploratorium held during Bobcat Weekend.

Read the QU Today article

A professor posing with a student and their project at the exploratorium.
A biology professor posing with a student at the exploratorium.
Student in a brown sweater points to her research board while talking
Student in a red button up shirt looks to his research with a stern look
Student talks with his hands as he talks about his research to a spectator

Past Research Topics

  • 2024
  • 2023
  • 2022
  • 2021

Student Project Major School Mentor
Hunter Axelrod ’25 Investigating the Expression of the Learning Proteins PKA and Synapsin in Tau KO Drosophila after Olfactory Associative Learning Behavioral Neuroscience College of Arts and Sciences Adrienne Betz
Louise Bacon ’24, MS ’26 Observing the Color Preferences of Native Pollinators Biology College of Arts and Sciences Sarah Lawson
Ana Carlos ’25 Exploring Color Magnitude Diagrams for AGN Accretion Disks with Red Shifts between 1.5-1.75 Health Science Studies College of Arts and Sciences Nicolle Granucci
Chelsea Enabosi ’25 The Effects Of The Over expression Of YDJC On The Growth And Proliferation Of Breast Cancer Cells Biology Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine Jerrica Breindel
Andrew Fiocco ’26* Assessing the efficacy of extracted anthocyanins in iron determination compared to currently used reference methods Biochemistry College of Arts and Sciences Robert Hansen
Alexandra Kendall ’24, MS ’25 Keeping the Crown: How Industry Leaders Can Remain Ahead of AI Advertising and Integrated Communications School of Communications Katie Place and Victoria Reid
Stephen Kotfila ’25 Investigating the Role of the cp32 pac Site in Phage Packaging Dynamics Medical Microbiology and Immunology School of Health Sciences Christian Eggers
Caitlyn Marrs ’24, MHS ’26 Cloning and Localization of Novel Coxiella Burnetii Effector Protein CBU410 Biomedical Sciences School of Health Sciences Shawna Reed
Tressa Pantalena ’25 Investigating the Role of the Paraventricular Thalamus to Nucleus Accumbens Pathway in Pavlovian-Conditioned Approach Behavior Behavioral Neuroscience College of Arts and Sciences Joshua Haight
Kaylee Pettengill ’27 Structural Variation in Spina Bifida Genomes Biomedical Sciences School of Health Sciences Paul Wolujewicz
Sana Quadri ’26^ Connecting Emotional Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: A Cross-cultural Comparison of China and the US International Busines School of Business Mohammad Elahee and Tilo Chowdhury
Bineeth Reddy ’25 ASL insight: Real-Time Hand Gesture Recognition with MediaPipe and Deep Learning Computer Science School of Computing and Engineering Chetan Jaiswal
Anthony Siteman ’26 Political Extremism and Online Radicalization: Understanding the Threat and Crafting Communication Strategies Political Science and Public Relations College of Arts and Sciences Candice Travis
Hailey Tolson ’25** Characterizing GPCRs Mist and MsR1 in salivary gland and germ cell migration during Drosophila development Biology College of Arts and Sciences Caitlin Hanlon
Alexander Whitney ’26 Investigating the Influence of miRNA-71 on tir-1 Expression and Aβ Aggregation in C. elegans Models of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomedical Sciences College of Arts and Sciences Alex de Lencastre

Award Winners

* Andrew Fiocco ’26 was awarded Best Undergraduate Presentation in the chemistry category at IFoRE (International Forum on Research Excellence), hosted by Sigma Xi in Washington, D.C. from November 14-17, 2024.

^ Sana Quadri ’26 was the only undergraduate student invited to present in a competitive session at the Academy of International Business U.S. Northeast Chapter 2024 Annual Conference in Boston from October 4-5, 2024.

** Hailey Tolson ’25 presented her research at the American Society of Cell Biology (ASCB) meeting that was hosted in San Diego, CA from December 14-18, 2024.

 

 

Our Work and Research

Student handling baby birds during a field-study.
Biology student Joseph Battaglia ’21 handles baby swallows during a fieldwork session at Lake Chamberlain in Bethany, Connecticut.
Baby bird being examined during a class field study.
QUIP-RS 2021 featured 15 students who conducted original research in 14 different projects.
Student examining baby birds in a bird house built by their class.
Biology student Arlynn Hernandez ’22 (Q-STEP) retrieves baby swallows during a fieldwork session at Lake Chamberlain in Bethany, Connecticut.
Student handling a baby bird during a field study.
In addition to weekly research meetings students also participate in a variety of activities – including sleeping giant guided hike, sports jamboree day, and rock climbing at Prime Climb in Wallingford. 
Students examining a bird house for swallows during a field study.
Biology student Sabrina Escobar ’21 (Q-STEP) retrieves baby swallow eggs during a fieldwork session at Lake Chamberlain in Bethany, Connecticut.
Students work with their professor in the pollinator garden.
Professor Sarah Lawson has helped establish a pollinator garden on Mount Carmel Campus to invigorate native pollinator biodiversity.
Flower in the pollinator garden.
The garden contains eight themed beds hosting 200 varieties of native plants. Plants were chosen to bloom in succession for year-round growth.
Students work with their professor in the pollinator garden.
Students plant greenery in a pollinator garden
The research explores the role of nutrition in shaping the native bee community, the impacts of floral resource availability on foraging habits, and the effects of nutritional availability on pollinator physiology.
Students come out of a river after collecting water samples for a field study.
The research project entails collecting water samples from locations in Wallingford, Hamden and North Haven, CT. 
Students come out of a river after collecting water samples for a field study.
The students analyze the samples via gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) for the presence of pesticides, phthalates or plasticizers. 
Students come out of a river after collecting water samples for a field study.
The project addresses the need for water-quality monitoring along the Quinnipiac River to inform and support decision-making around actions targeted at water-quality improvement.
Students come out of a river after collecting water samples for a field study.
Professor Courtney McGinnis leads river testing with students during the summer in the Quinnipiac River. The lab examines the river by gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) for the presence of phthalates and plasticizers with external grand support from the Quinnipiac River Foundation. 
Student collects a water sample from a river during a field study.
Biology students are involved in all aspects of the research — from collecting samples and preparing them for analysis to analyzing samples via GC-MS and presenting their findings.
QUIP-RS students and faculty enjoy a social event.
QUIP-RS students play volleyball on the Mount Carmel Campus.
QUIP-RS students take a group photo hiking the Sleeping Giant.
QUIP-RS students participate in rock climbing.
QUIP-RS students gather on the Mount Carmel campus for a meeting.
QUIP-RS students posing for a group photo on the Mount Carmel Campus.

Social Enrichment

QUIP-RS is open to students from all disciplines at Quinnipiac from computing and technology to business and the humanities. Research experiences are coupled with a high degree of interaction between all faculty and student participants. With opportunities to unwind during hikes, field trips and sporting events alongside career development events like speaker panels, resume workshops and coaching sessions, QUIP-RS provides a rich interdisciplinary foundation that defines what it means to be a lifelong scholar.

Our Faculty and Staff

  • Co-Chairs
  • Committee
  • Mentors

QUIP-RS Co-Chairs