Undergraduate Research

Generac is supporting the expansion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programming at USCA’s Ruth Patrick Science Education Center through a $23,500 contribution. The funding will help grow educational programs and sponsorship opportunities throughout the year while furthering the center’s commitment to innovation and sustainability.  The power systems company presented the donation during a check presentation with Dr. Daniel Heimmermann, chancellor of USCA, and Dr. Phil Bridgemon, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.   The new funding will enhance several key initiatives, including the Science Education Enrichment Day (SEED) STEM Festival, the Full STEAM Ahead summer camp and student program sponsorships for both the physical science and mathematics content series.  “The RPSEC has a foundation built on partnerships and relationships with organizations like Generac,” said Senn. “Without the support of these partnerships, we would be unable to inspire a love for STEM throughout our community, and the RPSEC would not be the STEM education leader it is today.”  According to Kelly Skindzelewski, community programs manager for Generac, the partnership between the company and the center began shortly after Generac opened its facility in Trenton, South Carolina, in 2021.  “When Generac first opened our facility in Trenton, we began searching for local STEM programs we could engage with and discovered the nearby Ruth Patrick Science Education Center,” Skindzelewski said. “The center offers a variety of programs that align with our interests and continue to provide meaningful ways to engage with local schools and the community.”  Skindzelewski said Generac and the Generac Foundation view education and innovation as critical drivers of economic growth and career development.  “Giving back to the community where our employees live and work is an important part of Generac’s culture,” she said. “The RPSEC provides unique opportunities for us to support educational programs that help prepare young people for future careers.”  She added that Generac sees opportunities for continued collaboration with RPSEC in areas ranging from science and cybersecurity to business administration and electrical engineering.  “Middle and high school students are looking for hands-on experiences that help guide their future career paths,” Skindzelewski said. “We’re excited to continue supporting programs that introduce students to those possibilities.”  Skindzelewski added that supporting STEM education is critical to developing future leaders who will solve problems and drive innovation. By investing in youth STEM programs at the Ruth Patrick Science Eduation Center, the company hopes to spark curiosity and create meaningful “light bulb moments” that inspire students to explore future careers in STEM.  

USCA celebrated students’ research during the 18th annual Scholar Showcase in April to kick off weeks of focus on student achievement just prior to commencement.  This year’s Scholar Showcase featured the research of approximately 100 students and 40 faculty. The day-long event highlighted the collaboration between students and faculty from all disciplines.  “The importance of scholarly activity, including undergraduate research, cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Bill Jackson, chair of the Department of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences and organizer of the event.   “Faculty-mentored research is an immersive experience in which a student focuses on a problem and uses the knowledge obtained in the classroom to problem solve, think creatively and critically, and better understand the nuances of their chosen field of study.”  He adds that the benefits of the collaboration are enduring, far beyond the publication of the research in academic journals.  “Student-faculty interactions are powerful and often create a lifelong connection to the university, the department, and most importantly, to the faculty member,” Jackson said.  Much of the students’ research efforts were funded through grants, such as the Magellan Scholars Program, National Institutes of Health’s INBRE program and numerous scholarships made possible by generous supporters of USCA. Others are supported by regional partners, which may include government agencies or private industries. Specifically, UCSA’s engineering capstone projects are industry sponsored, yearlong design projects. “Each project has an industry mentor that works directly with our student team. These mentors provide current projects from their respective companies with problem statements, constraints, and design goals,” said Dr. Bethany Fralick, engineering program coordinator.   “The students interact weekly and are often on site at the local industries. The mentor provides guidance and advice for the projects through real-life, professional experience. Without the industry-sponsored capstone projects, our students would not have as much professional exposure prior to graduation. The interactions with industry mentors give our students an advantage in the job market post-graduation.”  Students who participate in Scholar Showcase gain more than just experiences to highlight on a resume. They also learn soft skills, which will benefit them in the professional setting. These include teamwork, oral and written communication, working against deadlines and with prescribed parameters, translating complicated concepts, and presentation organization and delivery.   “These are benefits that cannot be obtained by sitting in a classroom,” Jackson said.  “Scholar Showcase is a low-stress environment within which our students can learn how to generate an impactful presentation.”  Caroline Wright, a history major, has conducted research related to the Graniteville Company, which shaped the economic growth in the university’s backyard and across the state. She explored labor relations and is currently transcribing the personal diaries and almanacs of William Gregg for the Gregg-Graniteville Archives. She made a couple of presentations during Scholar Showcase.  Some of the presenters are taking their research on the road. For example, Alexa Carnahan, a nursing student who graduated May 6, will present her research at the 37th International Nursing Research Congress for Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society this summer in Toronto. She and her co-authors collaborated with a professor in Germany when exploring people-pleasing tendencies among nursing students.  Several USCA students participated in the 10th annual Discover USC event, which celebrates and showcases students’ research, scholarship, creativity and leadership from across the USC system. More than 1,000 undergraduate and graduate, medical scholar and postdoc presenters shared their projects. Almost 30 USCA students participated in Discover USC.   As the semester winds down, students and faculty are already gearing up for the next phase of their research, as Magellan Scholar awards were recently announced. This program allows for up to $2,500 per recipient for salary, materials or travel for projects in collaboration with a faculty mentor. While many students will take a much-deserved break the next couple of months, several Pacers will continue conducting research. The USCA Center for Research Excellence recently announced members of the 2026 Summer Scholars Institute. As part of the program, students and their faculty advisors receive a $3,000 grant to support their research collaboration from May 25-July 31. The effort is funded by grants from the Department of Energy WORC program, National Institutes of Health INBRE awards, ADP and the USCA College of Sciences and Engineering.  “Undergraduate research projects are typically smaller portions of a faculty member’s overall research plan,” Jackson said.  “Our students are co-authors on faculty published research. This includes research publications and conference presentations.”  Pacers who earned special recognition at Discover USC    First Place, “Developing mPing-based Constructs for Transposase Assisted Target Site Integration”   Madison Hamlin, biology, mentored by Dr. C. Nathan Hancock   First Place, “The Trophic Stage of Egg Development in Livestock Pests”   Isabella Cardenas, biology, mentored by Dr. Mary Mills   First Place, “The Association Between Childhood Emotional Maltreatment, Identity Disturbance and Sexual Functioning in Emerging Adults”   Sam Keats, psychology, mentored by Dr. Bridget Cho   First Place, “Moments that Matter: A Student Nurse Approach to Communication with Patients Living with Dementia”   Ja'Daiza Johnson and Laura Boquist, nursing, mentored by Dr. Lachean Kimbrough and Professor Sarah McDaniel from USC Sumter   Second Place, “A closer look into egg development within Culicoides sonorensis midges”   Lucero Rodriguez, biology, mentored by Dr. Mary Mills   Second Place, “Bluetooth Low Energy Communication Security in Wearable IoT Devices: A Fitbit Sense 2 Case Study”   Andrew Bishop and Adriel Sosa, applied computer science, mentored by Dr. Hala Strohmier   Second Place, “Regulation of egg development in the livestock”   Madelyn Smith, mentored by Dr. Mary Mills   Second Place, “Genetic Analysis of the ‘Dwarf’ Soybean Mutant”   James Burns, biology, mentored Dr. Nathan Hancock   USCA Magellan Scholar Awards for Summer and Fall 2026   Tamea Chappelle and Emma Trotter, mentored by Dr. Dakoda Trithara for “Developers Assemble”    Addisen Alvanos and Sophia Collins, mentored Dr. Todd Hagstette and Deborah Harmon for “William Gregg Digital Edition”    Cassidy Green, mentored by Dr. Adam Pazda for “Examining Causality Between Cultural Mindsets and Help-seeking in Young Adults"     August Beltran, mentored by Dr. Mary Moussa Rogers for “What is Keeping Immigrant Families Resilient?”     Chloe Elizabeth Grigsby, mentored by Dr. Macie Kerbs for “Write to Read: An Encoding-centered Approach for Teaching Students with Dyslexia”    Summer Scholars Institute participants   Daniel Holton, mentored by Dr. Michelle Harmon  Tully Perkins, mentored by Dr. Titan Paul  Silas Martin, mentored by Dr. Bryan Borders  Micah Woodsmall, mentored by Dr. Brian Parr  Kaydee Croom, mentored by Dr. Ken Roberts  Hayley Stack, mentored by Dr. Laura Swain  Harrison Durrant, mentored by Dr. Derek Zelmer  Elisha McCanick, mentored by Dr. Yilian Zhang  Clayton Isgett, mentored by Dr. Derek Zelmer  Alyssa Godfrey, mentored by Dr. Kristina Ramstad  Aharon Nesbitt, mentored by Dr. Teiling Chen  Valerie Ruvalcaba, mentored by Dr. Della Sirizi  Ronit Deepak Sawant, mentored by Dr. Eslam Hasan  Skye Ese Oduaran of North Augusta High School, mentored by Dr. Ken Roberts  Arnav Nikhil Patel of Lakeside High School, mentored by Dr. Ken Roberts  Ian Sarbin of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. Neil Miller  Penelope Carr of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. Laura Swain  Prisha Bhavsar of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. Nathan Hancock   Clark Orton of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. Yillian Zhang  Camille Walls of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. April Delaurier  Ella Kanitar of Lexington High School, mentored by Dr. Della Sirizi  Richard Knight of Aiken Scholars Academy, mentored by Dr. Titan Paul   

“As a teaching library, our focus is on helping students navigate the ever-evolving information environment by teaching them not only how to find information, but how to think critically about it and use it effectively,” said Dr. Lisa Ennis, dean of the library. “The University Library Committee created these awards to recognize students who have gone beyond finding information to truly engage with all aspects of the research process, such as Alexa and Caroline.”  The Undergraduate Library Research Award aims to recognize and celebrate academic excellence among USCA students who demonstrate significant use of the Gregg-Graniteville Library’s collections, resources, and services. This award seeks to highlight students’ abilities to engage in scholarly or creative projects, showcasing their critical analysis and research skills through a reflective essay on the research process.  “The award celebrates the integration of library resources into the research process of our students,” said Dr. Ángel Rañales, Spanish professor and chair of the Library Committee.  Each recipient will be recognized during the Academic Honors Ceremony in May and will receive $250. The Gregg-Graniteville Endowed Library Fund supports the award.  Wright earned her award for the research she conducted for a paper written for an anthropology course. “The Graniteville Manufacturing Company’s Textile Worker Strike of October 1933” highlighted social movements and change at a local mill not far from the university.  “Searching the Gregg-Graniteville Archives’ finding aids supplied me with an absolute gold-mine of information: a scrapbook of newspapers from the time period chronicling the events of the strike,” she said.  “I found a plethora of primary source material, including firsthand accounts from individuals on the front lines of the protests. I used the information in this scrapbook as a framework around which to build my case. To do this, I worked to prove the legitimacy of the information provided in the scrapbook by finding corroborating information in other Graniteville Company administrative documents.”  Wright combed through the archives for accounting records from the time period to compare the average Graniteville Company worker’s pay with the average pay for textile workers at the time.   “What I ended up finding provided more insight than I could have hoped for,” she said.  “I would have been completely incapable of completing this assignment if not for the materials made available by the Gregg-Graniteville Library and Archives.”  While working on her senior capstone project, Carnahan explored people-pleasing tendencies among prelicensure nursing students through a cross-sectional survey-based study.   The research process required gathering background literature, creating and distributing an original survey, data collection, analyzing descriptive statistics, group differences, identifying correlations of variables, and will conclude with dissemination and possibly publication.   “The Gregg-Graniteville Library's collections, databases, workshops, tools, and academic librarians were invaluable at every stage of conducting high-quality, evidence-based research,” she said.  “I relied on the library's access to nursing and health sciences databases. Nursing liaison librarian Professor Deborah Harmon made support easy and consistent. She visited all our writing-intensive nursing classes in person, offered on-the-spot help, held office hours in the nursing building, and was always available for one-on-one appointments.”  Carnahan credits the library’s workshops, drop-in availability, and welcoming staff for her research confidence, which has strengthened during her time on campus.  “They showed me how to find, evaluate, and use information effectively — skills essential for evidence-based nursing. In short, the university library turned a complex capstone into a structured and well-supported project.   “I am beyond grateful for the Gregg-Graniteville library’s guidance and empowerment to apply strong research habits throughout my academic and professional nursing career.”  A panel of Library Committee members and one representative from the library evaluates the award submissions.  They examine the project's quality, research depth, library resources used and students' reflections on the research process.  

USCA is now a proud member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) as announced in the Aug. 2025 edition of SIGNAL Magazine. This acknowledgment marks a meaningful step in the university’s expanding role in national security and cybersecurity workforce development. In addition, USCA exhibited at the 2025 TechNet Augusta conference, a premier event hosted by AFCEA that brings together military, government, industry, and academic leaders to focus on cyber and electronic warfare challenges facing the U.S. Army and Department of Defense. TechNet Augusta is especially important to the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA), reinforcing the region’s identity as a cybersecurity hub. As a local institution, USCA’s participation highlights its commitment to: Supporting the regional cyber ecosystem through education, training, and public-private partnerships. Connecting students and faculty to real-world missions tied to the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. Building pipelines from K-12 to workforce that align with national security needs and economic development priorities. These milestones complement other recent achievements, including: NSA Center of Academic Excellence–Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) designation. New cybersecurity degree programs and the launch of the MCIS Cybersecurity program in Fall 2024. $70,000 in scholarships funded by Steelgate LLC to support local high school cybersecurity competitions. Ongoing work with Savannah River National Laboratory and SRNS through the USCA Cyber Workforce Pipeline. USCA remains committed to strengthening national defense through workforce readiness and regional collaboration and proudly represents South Carolina's cyber and STEM corridor on the national stage.

“Learning Beyond the Classroom” wasn’t just a slogan; it came to life at the 2025 Summer Scholars Institute Symposium, where a group of standout students demonstrated the power of hands-on learning and research. Twenty-seven high school and college students, including University of South Carolina Aiken (USCA) participants, presented research spanning diverse fields from psychology and biology to public health. Among them were Casey Vojcek, a senior psychology major at USCA, and Breanna Schults, a senior at the Aiken Scholars Academy. Together, they explored The Effects of Acute Mindfulness on Emotion Regulation and Theta Power in Parents. Guided by USCA faculty members Dr. Laura Swain and Dr. Bridget Cho, the pair investigated how brief mindfulness practices might help parents manage emotions, using electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure neural responses. “We were interested in whether a short, targeted mindfulness session could create real-time benefits for parents under stress,” Schults said. “You don’t always have time for a full yoga session, but something quick and effective could make a difference in a parenting moment.” Another standout, Brenden Bogar, a junior biology major at USCA, presented research on transposable elements, segments of DNA that can move around within a genome. Working in Dr. Nathan Hancock’s lab, Bogar contributes to the ongoing effort to understand better how these elements affect gene expression and mutation. “I love the process,” Bogar said. “The methodology, the lab works it’s very therapeutic for me. And this is something I want to keep pursuing, especially with yeast and plants.” Gillian Gregory, a senior majoring in Clinical Laboratory Science at USCA, took on a challenging project involving HIV-1. Her research focused on how the HIV Tat and Rev proteins influence the expression of GFP (green fluorescent protein), with potential applications in gene therapy. “HIV remains a critical area of study,” Gregory noted. “This project could help in targeting infected cells while sparing healthy ones something that’s essential for the future of HIV treatments.” Download the complete  SSI 2025 participants list 

The Hancock Lab in the University of South Carolina Aiken’s College of Sciences and Engineering has received a significant boost in research funding to support lab work and student training in cutting-edge plant biotechnology. Awarded by the National Science Foundation, the grant will provide $451,139 over three years to advance research in plant genome engineering. The goal is to develop innovative tools that can be leveraged to create improved rice, soybean and maize. “The main goal of the project is to create tools that help develop better crop varieties,” said Dr. Nathan Hancock, professor of biology at USCA. “This technology could benefit agriculture by producing DNA modification to plants without using foreign DNA.” The funding will directly support lab research, the purchase of essential materials, and the hiring of undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students for hands-on experience. “We plan to bring on post-baccalaureate students for year-long lab positions to help prepare them for real-world scientific careers,” Hancock said. “The most important part of this grant is training the next generation of scientists.” For decades, crop improvement relied heavily on traditional plant breeding to enhance traits like disease resistance. More recently, transgenic methods, where DNA from other species is inserted into crops, have led to major advances, such as pest- and herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans. These technologies have significantly increased agricultural productivity in the U.S. However, developing transgenic crops is costly, time-consuming, and heavily regulated. The approval process can take nearly a decade, and there is ongoing public concern around genetically modified organisms (GMOs), particularly those involving foreign DNA. To address these challenges, Dr. Hancock and his collaborator, Dr. Keith Slotkin, professor of biological sciences at the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, are pursuing an intragenic approach. Instead of adding genes from other species, they modify or combine existing DNA elements from within the same plant species. This approach retains the benefits of genetic modification while minimizing regulatory hurdles and increasing public acceptance. “That means we can get better crops to farmers faster, strengthening food security and supporting the bioeconomy,” Hancock explained. The project is already having an impact on students. Gabby Peak, a senior biology major at USCA, has been working in the lab and says the experience has been both valuable and inspiring. “It’s been easy to pick up because everyone in the lab is so helpful, and the techniques aren’t too hard to understand,” Peak said. “As long as you have some guidance, it’s actually fun to learn.” She added that the hands-on experience has deepened her interest in research and will help prepare her for future lab-based work in the sciences. ust last year, Hancock coauthored a paper published in Nature titled “Transposase-assisted target-site integration for efficient plant genome engineering.” Nature is one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific journals publishing the world’s most impactful scientific research.