Summer Program Featured Projects

2025 Summer Research Program Highlights

Congratulations to the 25 students accepted to our Summer 2025 Student Research Program! The program ran from May 12 to July 18. Visit the Pitt Sustainability YouTube page to view project videos from this year's symposium, or review the list of summer research scholars, their projects, and their advisors here.

Click to view 2025 summer research videos

Featured Projects

Attendees of the annual Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium vote for the best presentations based on clarity, creativity, quality of research, and connection to sustainability.

Videos of select projects can be viewed on YouTube; featured project videos can be viewed below. 

2025 Featured Projects

Best Presentation 

Riya Kothari 
Development of a Reusable Pulse Oximeter Prototype
Advisor: Kevin Bell, Bioengineering

Best Presentation 

Keanna Marcelo
Surveying the Woody Vegetation across Powdermill Nature Reserve to Track Change Over Time
Advisor: Andrea Kautz, Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Esmee de Cortie, MCSI

Best Presentation

Sasha Roth
Additive manufacturing of nonclassical alloys with multi-principal elements for improved sustainability
Advisor: Wei Xiong, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Best Video

Nathan Cho
EvolvingSTEM: a three-dimensional laboratory evolution curriculum to increase STEM occupational identity through authentic experiences
Advisor: Cassie Quigley, Teaching, Learning, and Leading

Best Video 

Joshua Raj
Energy and Smart Data Analytics
Advisor: Kate Zettl, UPMC Center for Sustainability

2024 Featured Projects

Best Video 

Olivia Rossi
Deciphering the Impact of Sewers on Urban Street Tree Nutrition
Advisor: Emily Elliott, Geology & Environmental Science

Best Presentation 

Steven Panico
The Effect of In-Solution Particles on Reusable, Additive Manufactured Metal Filters
Advisor: Markus Chmielus, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Best Presentation 

Pocket Pizzutillo
Materials Design for Advanced Manufacturing of Cobalt-Free Cemented Carbides
Advisor: Wei Xiong, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Best Presentation 

Neeharika Kolli
Climate Inventory and Targets
Advisor: Kate Zettl, UPMC Center for Sustainability

2023 Featured Projects

Ekaterini Papazekos
Silicon Solar Module Recycling
Advisor: Paul Leu, Industrial Engineering

Paloma DiBella
Urban Permaculture
Advisors: Kevin Bell, Bioengineering, and Corey Flynn, School of Medicine

2022 Featured Projects

Rebecca Hotton 
Increasing the Energy Efficiency of 3D Binder Jet Printed Metal Filters 
Advisor: Markus Chmielus, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Molly Draper
Sustainable Forestry within the Eastern Deciduous Forest Biome: Is Salvage Logging Compatible with Healthy Forest Regeneration Following a Major Windstorm?
Advisors: Dr. Walter Carson, Biological Sciences, and  
Hannah Assour, Biological Sciences 

2021 Featured Projects

Sydney DuBose
Environmental Justice Teaching
Advisor: Cassie Quigley, School of Education

Heather Phillips
Microbial Fuel Cells for BMG Electrodes
Advisor: Dr. David Sanchez, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Natalie Britton
Assessing Environmental (In)justices in U.S. Public Housing Siting Decisions
Advisors: Michael Blackhurst, University Center for Social and Urban Research, and
Randy Walsh, Economics 

2020 Featured Projects

Frankie Fattori
Energy-efficient processors, sensors, and systems for space-based sensing and computing
Advisor: Alan George, electrical and computer engineering

Ali Carroll
Biodiversity collapse at the urban-rural interface: Consequences for the sustainability and economic viability of small, privately owned forests in PA
Advisor: Walter Carson, Biological Sciences 

Max Smith
Simulations of First Solar Cells
Advisor: Paul Leu, Industrial Engineering

Sridhar Reddy
Hardware acceleration of artificial neural network for neuromorphic computing
Advisor: Feng Xiong, Electrical and Computer Engineering