WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 20, 2022 — The annual RECAP came to a close with an in-person awards ceremony held at 3 p.m. today in College Hall.
Awards were presented to the highest-scoring participants by Dr. Robert Kreisberg and Dr. Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell, co-chairs of the event, and Dr. Raymond Holsapple, who serves on the RECAP faculty committee.
A total of 26 West Liberty University students competed in the annual RECAP symposium (Research, Creative Activity, and Performance) this spring. Students presented their work in one of five categories representing all academic disciplines.
Top prizes in each category consists of a set of Skullcandy noise-canceling headphones; second place is an Anker charging dock. Award winners, categories and titles of research include:
Best Presenter Awards
- Winner: Erin Allison “Evaluating Human Attitudes of Rattlesnakes with Two Conservation Messages”
- Runner Up: Kaine Diehl “A Behavioral Study of Lacunicambarus thomai in a field setting”
Creative Works Awards
- Winner: Jayden Conner “Honey Bee Jobs”
- Runner Up: Lexus Ficca “Energy Is What You Need”
Research Paper Awards
- Winner: Cara Campbell “Time to Widen the Lens on Huntington’s Disease”
- Runner-up: Rachelle Patterson “Role of Lipid Metabolism in VBNC Francisella tularensis”
Creative Projects Awards
- Winner: Emily Everson “Happy Hippy Brand Study”
- Runner-up: Kelsi Jones “Got You Covered – UIUX Design and Branding”
Research Poster Awards (Graduate)
- Winner: Zachary Dillard “A Night of Devastation: Natural and Life History Observations of an En Masse Single-Night Collection of Fallicambarus devastator”
- Runner-up: Ashley Vankirk “Does Water Velocity Influence Herbivory Pressure on Podostemum ceratophyllum?”
Research Poster Awards (Undergraduate)
- Winner: Chaima Araibi “Detecting Autism Spectrum Disorder with Deep Neural Networks”
- Runner-up: Taylor Wright-Brezee “Adverse Childhood Experiences at West Liberty University”
The RECAP faculty committee consisted of: Dr. Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell (co-chair), Dr. Robert Kreisberg (co-chair), Dr. Gayle Jesse, Dr. Melinda Kreisberg, Dr. Raymond Holsapple, Dr. Drew Banghart, Dr. Jason Metz, and Dr. Ronald Hulewicz.
All judging occurred remotely with judges completing evaluation rubrics provided by RECAP. Presentations were pre-recorded by the students and submitted.
For research posters, the top three submissions in each category (graduate and undergraduate research) were interviewed via Zoom by the judges to briefly present the poster and answer judges’ questions. Judging was completed by April 6.
The first RECAP was held in 2017- 2018 and despite the past several years offering a variety of formats and changes due to the pandemic, it continues to be a valuable and successful format for student research experience. A live stream of the ceremony was also provided and can now be viewed on Topper Station.
For more information, please call 1.866.937.8542 (WESTLIB), visit westliberty.edu or follow WLU on social media.