Presenter Resources
- Check out Duke’s Undergraduate Research Support Office’s compilation of resources for presentation design, data visualization, poster printing, branding, and more!
- CEE printing resources are also available right in Hudson Hall! For more information or help printing, please email Rocky Rothrock (rocky.rothrock@duke.edu)
- SympoCEEum Presentation Awards will be determined by CEE faculty judges who will evaluate your presentation following this rubric, which emphasizes effective organization and confident delivery
| Criterion | Needs Improvement (1-3) | Fair (4-7) | Excellent (8-10) | Weight |
| Problem Context | Little to no discussion of how research connects to existing broader field | Explanation of context is given but lacks some clarity or depth in connections within the field | Clearly articulates what the problem is and why it is significant/important within the field. Effectively connects work to key questions, challenges, knowledge gaps, and implications | 20% |
| Approach & Analysis | Little to no discussion of hypotheses, methodology, or analysis | Some details about methods are unclear or lack depth; hypotheses are stated but are vague or not testable | Clearly defines testable hypotheses and research approaches that answer the problem/question, including thorough analysis and interpretation methods; discusses strengths, limitations, and potential improvements (as is applicable) | 20% |
| Outcome Broader Impacts | Little to no discussion of results/expected outcomes, broader impacts, or future directions | Outline of results/expected outcomes is present but unclear; some broader impacts lack depth | Provides a strong, clear, and relevant vision for results/expected outcomes, implications, next steps, potential challenges, or applications (as is applicable) | 20% |
| Logic Organization & Structure | Difficult to follow due to poor logic flow, missing key sections, or confusing or distracting visuals | Some lapses in organization, transitions, or design hinder message delivery | Logic flow clearly frames the topic, objectives, and significance with seamless transitions between sections; slides and visuals are compelling, readable, professional, and enhance understanding | 15% |
| Presenter Communication & Clarity | Difficult to follow due to frequent unclear explanations, poor pacing, or lack of engagement | Some issues with pacing, terminology, technicality, or engagement hinder message delivery | Conveys ideas exceptionally clearly, concisely, and engagingly; language is professional and accessible to an interdisciplinary audience; confident stance and well-paced speech enhances audience understanding | 15% |
| Presenter Q&A Management | Avoids engagement or provides unclear or incomplete responses to questions | Some responses lack depth, clarity, or confidence in delivery | Responds to questions confidently and thoughtfully; engages in discussion and demonstrates strong grasp of topic | 10% |
- If an Award based on these criteria is not your primary goal (which is totally fine!), we recommend that you designate a separate slide/section/moment to tell your audience what you hope to gain from your presentation experience and what kind of feedback you want (e.g., you’re practicing for an investors pitch and want insight on how it would be received)
- Poster presenters! You will be hanging your poster on easel boards that are 4 ft wide and 3 ft tall, so size and print your design accordingly.
- Oral presenters! Your presentation should be around 10-12 minutes, so organize your slides accordingly.
Presentation Lineup
Poster Presentations: 10:15am-11:30am @ Gross Hall Atrium
| Name | Study Track | Presentation Title | Keywords |
| Amelia Foley | Environmental Health Engineering | PAH degradation by encapsulated environmental microbes: improving inoculant survival and performance in bioaugmentation | Bioremediation, PAHs, encapsulation |
| Cameron Moore | Systems, Risk, and Decision | Developing Standardized Metrics for Inter-Utility Water Rate Comparison in California | Utility, water rates, conservation, affordability, cost recovery |
| Crissy Massimino | Environmental Health Engineering | Phage Therapy for ESKAPEE Pathogens in the Built Environment | Bacteriophage; Phage therapy; ESKAPEE pathogens; Built environment; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Biofilms; Quorum sensing; Hospital-acquired infections; Phage-host interactions |
| Darryl Taylor | Mechanical Engineering and Material Science | Heterogeneous Nanocellulose Hydrogel | Hydrogel, Nanocellulose, Heterogeneous, Polymer, Material Science |
| Erica Babusci | Environmental Health Engineering | Testing the Efficacy of Microblaze Detergent on PAH Removal from Firefighter Uniforms | PAHs, degradation, firefighters |
| Gavin Duffy | Environmental Health Engineering | Detection and Identification of Fungi and Mycoviruses in the Built Environment for Potential Biocontrol Development | Built environment microbiome, Mycovirus, Fungal biocontrol, Whole genome long-read sequencing |
| Geng Niu | Engineering Environmental Geomechanics and Geophysics | Mechanical Performance of Accelerated Carbonated Concrete | Carbonated Concrete; Mechanical Performance |
| Jake Richardson | Environmental Health Engineering | Chitosan Hydrogels in Environmental Engineering | Hydrogels, Materials, Environmental |
| Kaina Rodrigues Vieira | Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing | Optimization of Autogenous Self-Healing Mechanisms in Portland Cement Materials | Sustainability, Self-healing, Portland Cement, Concrete, Carbon Sequestration |
| Karin Brett | Environmental Health Engineering | Establishing the dynamics of environmental influenza virus loads during human infection in a tightly controlled indoor setting | Influenza virus, aerosol, environmental contamination, sampling |
| Kobi Talma | Environmental Health Engineering | Evaluation of Plastic Leaching using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and TOC/TN Analysis | Plastic leaching, XPS, TOC/TN |
| Lan Nguyen | Environmental Health Engineering | Evaluating Factors Affecting Cyanobacterial Species and Toxin Production | Microbiology, genomics, environment, community, cyanobacteria |
| Lisa Shao | Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing | Computationally design a heterogeneous medium that exhibits a desired diffusion pattern | Inverse Problem, Diffusion, Machine Learning |
| Miranda Zhong | Cellular and molecular biology | Revolutionizing Sanitation: Waterless Toilets and Decentralized Wastewater Management for Sustainable Infrastructure | Decentralized Sanitation, Sustainable Infrastructure, Circular Economy, Greywater Recycling |
| Sai Thejaswini Pamuru | Environmental Engineering | A Liposomal Carrier to Reduce Leaching of Ionic Nutrient Loads and Improving Plant Yield | Nutrient use efficiency, leaching, carriers, plant growth |
| Soniya Tiwari | Geophysics and Geomechanics for Engineering and the Environment | Evaluation of Entrained Air Void Structure in Fly Ash Concrete Using Foam Index Test and 4D X-ray Micro-CT | Coal combustion ash (CCA), air entraining admixtures (AEA), freeze-thaw durability. |
| William Stiffler | Environmental Health Engineering | Community vs. Species-Level Probiotic Approaches: Engineering Pathogen-Resistant Sink Ecosystems | Built environment microbiome Opportunistic pathogens Probiotic intervention Pathogen exclusion Microbial community resilience Biofilm dynamics Colonization resistance |
Slide Presentations: 1pm-3pm @ Wilkinson Building
Wilkinson Building Room 130
| Time Slot | Name | Study Track | Presentation Title | Keywords |
| 1-1:15 | Chenbo Shen | Systems, Risk, and Decision | Mapping Heatwave Drivers to Sector-Specific Risks Using Data-Driven Tools | Data-driven models; random forests; boosted classification and regression tree analyses; heatwave impact threshold |
| 1:15-1:30 | Rayehe Karimi Mahabadi | Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science | Model-free optimization of viscoelastic lattice metamaterials | Data-Driven, Optimization, Viscoelastic, Metamaterial |
| 1:30-1:45 | Andrew Johnson | Climate and Sustainability | Development of a Public Catastrophe Model Methodology for Local Wind Risk in North Carolina using CONUS404 Reanalysis | Wind Risk, Insurance, Infrastructure |
| 1:45-2 | Trailokaya Raj Bajgain | Systems, Risk, and Decision | How many air quality sensors do you need? Fewer than you think! | Air quality sensor network, PM2.5 measurement variance, minimum sensor count |
| 2-2:15 | Sterling Knight | Environmental Health Engineering | Persistence of pleomorphic influenza virus in respiratory droplets | Environmental Microbiology, Virology, Viral Persistence, Viral Inactivation, Influenza A Virus, Pleomorphism, Bioaerosol |
| 2:15-2:30 | Shannon Plunkett | Environmental Health Engineering | Stratification and Underestimation of Methylmercury Risk in Peruvian Amazon Mining Ponds: Implications for Bioaccumulation and Ecosystem Risk | Mercury, tropics, contamination, bioaccumulation |
Wilkinson Building Room 136
| Time Slot | Name | Study Track | Presentation Title | Keywords |
| 1-1:15 | Jesen Tanadi | Systems, Risk, and Decision | PINN-based Multimodal Approach to Solving the EIT Inverse Problem | Physics-informed neural networks, scientific machine learning, electrical impedance tomography, inverse problem, non-destructive evaluation, structural health monitoring |
| 1:15-1:30 | Emma Tian | Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing | Using Domain Knowledge with Deep Learning to Solve Applied Inverse Problems | Inverse problem, deep learning |
| 1:30-1:45 | Zachary D Calhoun | Systems, Risk, and Decision | Big, noisy data: how scalable Gaussian processes can leverage personal weather stations to improve spatiotemporal coverage of urban climate networks | Heat stress, urban climate, machine learning, environmental health |
| 1:45-2 | Patrick Faught | Environmental Health Engineering | Colloidal fluorinated side-chain polymer nanoparticles are a significant source of PFAS contamination in textile wastewater | PFAS, Environmental Chemistry, Textiles, Wastewater, LC-MS, Analytical Chemistry |
| 2-2:15 | Isaac Musaazi | Environmental Health Engineering | Optimizing predictive models for early detection of extreme flows to wastewater treatment plants using different synthetic sampling methods | High flows, water resource recovery facilities, wet weather events, machine learning, ADASYN, SMOTE |
Wilkinson Building Room 221
| Time Slot | Name | Study Track | Presentation Title | Keywords |
| 1-1:15 | Bryan Boyd | Systems, Risk, and Decision | Design and Application of a Cloud-Supported LTE Wireless Sensor for Remote Monitoring Applications | Structural health monitoring, wireless sensors, LTE, cloud-based services |
| 1:15-1:30 | Josh Miller | Environmental Health Engineering | Polyurethane foam wristbands as personal passive samplers of environmental lead exposure | Exposure, lead, passive sampling |
| 1:30-1:45 | Jujian Zhang | Computational Mechanics and Scientific Computing | The Thermo-mechanical Analysis of Brain Tumor Treatment by High Intensity Focused Ultrasound | HIFU, brain, tumor treatment, heterogeneity, anisotropy, thermo-mechanical coupling, pollution effect |
| 1:45-2 | Yuchen Zhang | Environmental Health Engineering | Internal Carbon Storage by Heterotrophic Denitrifying Bacteria for Enhanced Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment | Denitrification; Internal carbon storage; Metagenomics; Metatranscriptomics; Wastewater treatment; Sustainability |
| 2-2:15 | Jiaxuan Cai | Hydrology and Fluid Mechanics | Towards subgrid horizontal tracer transport in the lower atmospheric boundary layer for land surface models | HydroBlocks, lower atmospheric boundary layer, subgrid transport |
