Category: Spark Projects

Awardee: Livi HoganAward Year: 2026 In this ongoing project, I have conducted an extensive literature review on personality psychology, overconfidence and cognitive ability assessment. During my evaluation and selection of measurements, I created the Overconfidence in Cognitive Ability Scale (OCAS), a 15-item instrument adapted from the Overconfidence in Investment Decisions Scale (OIDS), assessing overplacement, overestimation,…

Awardee: Danna CerveraAward Year: 2026 My project is to understand the barriers and facilitators to yoga participation among Latine college students. Yoga is often promoted as a tool for improving physical health, mental well-being, and stress management. This research aims to contribute to broader efforts towards health equity and inclusive wellness of yoga practices in…

Awardee: Amelia ButschAward Year: 2026 While English uses a particle-verb construction in both a continuous and discontinuous order, German has a separable prefix construction. At base configuration, the German prefix is attached to the verb. However, based on factors, such as stress, modifications, or category of the prefix, it may keep its continuous order or…

Awardee: Olive RobertsAward Year: 2026 The goal of the project was to participate in the animal encounters at the Georgia Aquarium, meet and interview their animal trainers, and create large linocut portraits of the 7 different animals Georgia Aquarium offers encounters with: California Sea Lion, Sea Otter, Common Bottlenose Dolphin, Harbor Seal, Beluga Whale, African…

Awardee: Vivian AustinAward Year: 2026 Sleep during infancy is an incredibly important process that supports brain maturation, memory consolidation, and early learning, and research on environmental influences is critical to supporting these processes. This project aims to assess whether caregivers’ emotion regulation difficulties predict poorer infant sleep quality and if nighttime routines are a mechanism…

Awardee: Melyssa MunnAward Year: 2026 Our research aims to advance the knowledge of the cerebellum beyond being known simply for motor control. We examine how childhood disadvantage and stress‑related neuroinflammation shape cerebellar white matter development and the predictive models children build about their environments. We combine neuroimaging with behavioral tasks to see whether adversity changes…

Awardee: Bryce KnollAward Year: 2026 Through sociolinguistic interviews and an ethnolinguistic survey, this study seeks to understand the role that the Armenian and Spanish languages play in the identity of Armenians living in Buenos Aires. The participants were asked about their proficiency and usage of each language, as well as their perception of their cultural…

Awardee: Arwen DaleAward Year: 2026 The gram negative bacteria Achromobacter xylosoxidans is an opportunistic pathogen that utilized lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as an endotoxin. My previous project involved growing the 72 gene knockout mutants in different glucose concentrations to determine changes in the LPS by SDS-PAGE gel. I was responsible for two differing projects, the first prompted…

Awardee: Victor AlcorezaAward Year: 2026 The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most significant events of our time. Since it began, scientists around the world have worked hard to create vaccines and treatments to slow the spread and lessen its impact. The virus uses a “spike” protein on its surface to get into human…

Awardee: Larissa McPhersonAward Year: 2025 With support from the Spark Award, I explored the interconnections between found plastics, animal bone, and biodegradable 3D-printed plastics. Using scanning technology, I created 3D scans and prints of animal specimens from the Georgia Museum of Natural History. I then combined these prints with found plastics and ethically sourced animal…