2025 Research Topics

From May to July of 2025, 15 students representing six different schools at Quinnipiac (the the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Business, the School of Computing & Engineering, the School of Communications, the School of Health Sciences and the School of Medicine) and 10 majors (Biochemistry, Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Behavioral Neuroscience, Computer Science, Economics, Marketing, Public Relations, Medical Microbiology and Software Engineering) completed research projects alongside 13 faculty mentors. Research topics spanned from studies on Artificial Intelligence, Alzheimer’s Disease, ant communication, Drosophila development, native bumblebee and the effect of social media advocacy on gun violence reform. 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 their peers, family and community during the QUIP-RS symposium, held during Bobcat Weekend in October 2025. Dr. Rich Olson, Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Wesleyan University, presented the keynote talk. 

Awards and External Presentations

QUIP-RS participants regularly showcase their research at conferences throughout the country. In 2025, four students had the opportunity to travel and present their work, contributing to scholarly dialogue nationwide.

• Christopher Falcone ’28 and MD Fayed Salim ’27 presented the poster, "Eye-Assist: Real-Time Visual Assistance for The Visually Impaired," at the IEEE UEMCON 2025 conference in Armonk, NY from October 22-24, 2025 with faculty mentors Kruti Shah, assistant professor of software engineering, and Chetan Jaiswal, associate professor of computer science.
• Timothy Hine ’26 presented the poster, "Effect of Noise Pollution on Ant Communication," and won second place in the undergraduate Systematics, Evolution, & Biodiversity (SysEB) category at the International Entomological Society of America conference from November 9-12 in Portland, OR with faculty mentor Sarah Lawson, associate professor of biology.
• Julie Mathews ’26 presented the poster, "Maternal Separation Alters Occludin and JAK/STAT3 Expression in the Meninges of Female Rodents," at the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California from November 15-19, 2025 with faculty mentor Adrienne Betz, professor of psychology.

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

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.

From May to July of 2022, 13 students representing five different schools and 10 unique majors completed research projects alongside their faculty mentors. Research topics spanned from a study of the connection between anxiety and learning in adolescent rats to an exploration of how societies respond to plagues throughout history and a calculation for how social media influencers impact impulse buying.

In addition to their research, students met weekly as a group to discuss their progress and to participate in a variety of activities from planting a pollinator garden to a sports jamboree day and rock climbing. The program concluded with the QUIP-RS symposium during Bobcat weekend when all participants shared the final results of their work in poster presentations to the community. Beyond Quinnipiac, students also presented their research at regional and national meetings and won awards for their excellence in research.

Award Winners

• Yamna Siddiqui ’23 was awarded the 1st Place Research Award at the REMC Symposium at Netter Medical School for her research poster in September 2022.

• Hannah Jack ’24 presented her research at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington D.C. from November 11-15, 2022.

• Kushi Agnish ’22 was the only undergraduate invited to give a talk on her QUIP-RS research at the Academy of International Business Conference, held at American University on October 15, 2022.

• Riya Miller ’23 was invited to give a talk at Hopkins School on her research in November 2022.

• Kelsey Darcy ’23 presented her research on college athletes’ use of social media in the wake of NCAA name, image and likeness policy changes at the International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) in Orlando, Florida in March 2023. She was one of the only undergraduate students accepted to present.