2026 UGRS Program

Bomin Keum (she/her) is a PhD student in the International CyberCrime Research Centre and School of Criminology at SFU. She completed her B.A. Honours (Distinction) in Criminology at SFU and her MPhil in Criminological Research at the University of Cambridge. Her previous work focused on online radicalization patterns that lead to violent extremism and terrorism. Now, she studies how people navigate exit, and how best to support individuals during that process. She does so by: interviewing former extremists, conducting a Campbell Systematic Review of radicalization prevention programs, evaluating AI applications for countering violent extremism online ---and who knows what else, she's still figuring things out!

Sarra Pirmohamed (she/her) is in the second year of her Master's of Science degree in the department of BPK, where she also graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Physiology in 2024. Sarra has a passion for physical activity and a deep curiosity for it's benefits on the aging population. Her current work is looking at outcome measurement optimization for randomized controlled trials of physical activity interventions for older adults. Outside of school, Sarra enjoys playing sports, spending time outside, and exploring Vancouver's food scene!

Basil Giannopoulos (they/them) is a Master’s student in Applied Sciences, researching stretchable materials for wearable sensors. Their work focuses on characterizing dielectric properties of polymer substrates, and developing fabrication techniques for polymers based on screen printing, moulding, direct ink writing, and 3D printing for rapid prototyping of simple biomedical patch sensors. They also run a website for ITMP, a volunteer tutoring program supporting Indigenous students. In their spare time, they like gardening, hiking, and repairing old things.

Moderator: Julie Jones, Research Commons Librarian 

A Research Assistant with No Relations: Indigenous Insights on AI in Data Analysis 

Riley Williams

Converging AI Culture War Controversies: How AI Shock Campaigns Illuminate Affective Capitalism’s Absorption of Critique Into Spectacle

Zarena Puti Mohd Zaidi

Do AI Recommendation Systems Impede Personal Autonomy? A Philosophical Analysis

Justine Harris-Owen

Regret vs. Rape: Digital Sense-Making and Cultural Narratives of Sexual Violence Following the R. v. McLeod et al. Verdict

Goldie Leighton

Is Online Content within the 'Manosphere' Making Young Men More Conservative?

Charlotte Young

A Tale of Movement: Mapping the Spatial Evolution of Rural Punjab in Partition Narratives

Rajan Boyal

From Asylum to Resettlement: How Syrian and Ukrainian Refugees Navigate Long-Term Integration in Europe

Constance Ruan

A New Era of Immigration Politics: The Evolution of Right-Wing Immigration Stances in BC from 1991 to 2024

Jayson Biana

Mapping Connections in Newcomers’ Acculturation Attitudes: What Drives Their Adjustment to Canadian Society? 

Julia Mosi

Re-making a home in the wake of displacement

Nina Hoang

DC Microgrid Feasibility for a Remote Community

Ahmed Vajahath, Nalyssa Runge, Cyrus Urbanowicz, Aisha Shata

Finding Tomorrow's Floods Today: Climate Risk Analogues

Hailin Wang

Is the Bus the Solution to the 15-minute City?

Hyeonjin Kim, Ahasan Bhuiyan

Power to the People: Community Forestry and Forest Landscape Planning as a Model for Co-Management on the Sunshine Coast

Eli Hacker

Designing for Livability: Special District Design Guidelines for the Vancouver Villages Planning Program

Shaunee Kaitli, Mihai Aneculaesei, Rowan Koenig, Sebastian Coxell

Application of the Caregiver Indirect and Informal Care Cost Assessment Questionnaire (CIIQ) and the VR-12 in the Context of Spinal Cord Injury

Nicholas Tjandra

Modelling Robinow Syndrome in the Fruit Fly

Colin Fairburn

Longitudinal Monitoring of Physiological Variables during Mechanical Ventilation and Weaning in Intensive Care

Aaron John 

Development of an optical tweezers-based assay for ECM viscoelastic characterization in decellularized MSC spheroids

Ibrahim King

Inside the Storm: Visualizing Tornado Dynamics Through Virtual and Mixed Reality 

Mussaab Manzer

Perineuronal Nets effects on incentive-salience and neuronal connectivity.

Muksan Ghag

“You Need to Learn with Experience”: Parent-Child Conversations and Ethical Generative AI Use

Julien Felbur 

A tangly tale: The impact of stone fruit fermentation on the attraction of Drosophila melanogaster

Simon Tumulak, Harry Nguyen, Candela Miguel Garcia

Accessible Wheelchair Navigation in Urban Public Spaces

Therese Wong 

Burns, Bog, and Birch: The relationship between Betula spp. and bog soil conditions

Matthew Syvenky

The Effect of Varying Diagnostic Terminology Within Questionnaires on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Symptom Reporting 

Lisa Ungureanu 

The Effects of Long-Term Trazadone Treatment on Object Recognition in the APPNLF  Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Hillary Han

Decolonial Resistance Through a Critical Feminist Analysis of Activism Against Gendered and Racialized Violence in Vancouver and Guadalajara

Valeria Santos Garcia  

Did I Make a Difference? The Importance of Percieved Impact and Appreciation of Mentors Wellbeing 

Mia Tognotti

Effect of Ferry Activity on Brandt’s Cormorant Foraging Behavior

Kassandra Chavarria Sosa  

Evidence for Whom? Transparency, Sampling Bias, and Generalizability in Meta-Analyses of Psychological Interventions

Ashley Ghuman

From Procedure to Policy: The Policy Impacts of Charter Infringements

Lisa Kim 

Healthy Children, Healthy Communities: Co-Benefits of Children's Action on Climate Change and Mental Health

Caitlin Chow

How Acceptance & Rumination Support Students’ Emotional Well-being: A daily diary study

Amrit Mandair

How Parents Support Children’s Autonomy: Looking at Age-Related Differences in Autonomy-Supportive Parenting

Sheena Chahil 

Immunodominant Proteins of Fusobacterium nucleatum: Comparative Analyses in Colorectal Cancer Patients, Healthy Individuals, and Vaccinated Mice Models

Petra Jozsa

Im-perfect Sync: Autonomic Conflict and Cardiac Responses to Artistic Swimming

Christina Vassilenko

Exploring the Association Between the Timing of Sleep and Cognition in Older Adults

Tegan Soroka

SpeakSwarm: A Co-Speech Gesture Generation Pipeline for Conversational Agents using Swarm Robots

Saarang Anand

Collagen Imaging Using Fluorescent Peptides 

Shetal Bhandal and Nikki Shahram

• Open Scholarship Intiative 
• Centre for Dialogue 
• Student Learning Commons 
• SFU Grad Studies 
• Community Engaged Research Intiative 
• SFU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology
• Philosphy Nouveau 
• Confluence- ISSA Undergraduate Journal 
• Lyre Magazine 
• Gladfly
• Undergraduate Student Research Awards

Ancient DNA Analysis of Deer Remains from Curaçao

Alpha Hui

Sex-Biased Harvest of Chinook Salmon at Babine Lake? Ancient DNA Evidence from Archaeological Vertebrae

Emmet Lee

Turtles as storytellers: the potential of ancient DNA analysis to shed light on Mayan culture, life, and traditions

Yael Toyber

Encoding an 18th Century Manuscript for the “Lyon in Mourning” Project

Abigail Streifel

Ancient DNA Species Barcoding of Avian Remains from the Caribbean

Jiawei Zhang

Reversal effects of 20(R)– and 20(S)–ginsenoside-Rg3 on daunorubicin uptake in multidrug resistant leukemia cells studied in the single-cell biochip

Nandini Joshi

Activity and Inhibition of 6S RNA: A Regulatory Bacterial RNA

Yelyzaveta Kharkova

Contribution of DNA topology and primary sequence to aberrant AID-mediated deamination 

Ivan Iavorskii

Tracking the Decline of Starburst Activity in Post-Merger Galaxies

Julia Kropivny

Multi-Illumination Photography

Arlo Watts

Investigating How the Brain Allocates Attention to Spatially and Temporally Salient Stimuli Across Time

Jayden Sawada

Memes, Misogyny and Misinformation: Exploring the Re-Victimization of Women through Meme Culture within an Online Space

Brenna Parker 

Merging PET and MEG Neuroimaging Graphs to Predict Alzheimer’s Conversion in Preclinical Patients

Kevin Louie

Music and Identity: A Correlational Investigation between Music Reward and Ego Identity Statuses Among Emerging Adults

Christopher Cappelletti 

On Campus Third Places: Qualitative Research on Impacts to SFU Students' Perceived Social Interaction and Sense of Belonging

Cora Dickson

Paying Attention to Your Emotions: A Mixed-Methods Study on Alexithymia and Emotional Dysregulation in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Victoria Belway 

PINC (P4 and Intent for Network Configuration): A Prototyoe Using Large Language Models

Illia Nasiri

Public Space, Private Rules: Rethinking the Right to the City

Guneet Kaur  

Real-Time Non-Verbal Human-Robot Interaction with Reachy Mini

Quang Minh Dinh

Reliability of 3D Scanned Breast Volume Measurements Within and Between Raters

Sophia Wisotzki  

Small Bones, Big Questions: Sex Estimation in Juvenile Skeletons

Saskia Shen Thivener 

Spirit and Skill: How personality, team roles, and team culture shape skill in Ultimate Frisbee

Hiruki Arachchige, Bryan Kestelo 

Changes in Circulating Levels of Adiponectin During the Periconceptional Period

Assal Rezaei Tabrizi

Characterization of local C. difficile clinical isolates and comparisons to regional and global isolates with WGS

Ashaan Brooks  

The Mechanisms of Preparatory Attention and Visual Working Memory Capacity on Attention

Oscar Wu 

The Pie Game: A New Economic Game Exploring the Complexity of Real-World Financial Generosity

Ma Sophia Danielle Penales 

The Politics of Recognition: Explaining Divergent Legitimacy Outcomes in African Self Determination Movements

Baldeep Mundi

Touchscreen-Based Assessment of Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Models

Artemis Kohanfekr 

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions towards Israel and Palestine and Willingness to engage in Pro-Palestinian Activism 

Krystal Issa

White-collar crime: Criminal fraud in corporate settings 

Ekam Kochhar 

Beyond Suppression: How Social-Evaluative Stress Drives Testosterone Reactivity  

Shazil Bahtti 

Dr. Maite Taboada (Faculty of Arts and Social Science) is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. Her research intersects discourse analysis and computational linguistics, with a focus on sentiment analysis, social media language, and misinformation.

Dr. Andréanne Doyon (Faculty of Environment) is an Associate Professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, and the Associate Dean Undergraduate, Faculty of Environment. She is also a Registered Professional Planner and a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. Her field of study primarily revolves around planning, climate change, and resilience. Her research focuses on how cities and regions can adapt and transform to respond to environmental and social challenges.

Dr. Ouldooz Baghban Karimi (Faculty of Applied Science) is a Senior Lecturer and a Rajan Family Scholar in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. Her expertise spans data, networks, and systems, informed by experience in academia and industry, including work at Cyan/BluePlanet and Ciena. She is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion in technology and previously served as President of Academic Women at SFU (2021–2024).

Dr. Dylan Cooke (Faculty of Science) is an Associate Professor in Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology and chair of the Translational and Integrative Neuroscience (TRAIN) graduate specialization. His research examines how brain organization interacts with the environment to shape behaviour. Focusing on the motor cortex and related sensorimotor networks, he studies how neural connections underlying movement, sensory processing, and learning vary across individuals. By mapping this variation, his work aims to understand how differences in brain organization influence learning, performance, neuroplasticity, and resilience to neurological injury. 

Moderator 

Dr. Valorie Crooks (Associate Vice President, Research) is a Simon Fraser University geography professor and Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Health Service Geographies. Crooks is a health geographer by training. Her research interests are in the spatial and place-based dimensions of health and health care. She is a health services researcher with ongoing interest in understanding lived experiences of accessing needed/wanted health and social care services. As AVPR, she supports the implementation of SFU’s Strategic Research Plan that defines priority areas of research strength and focus for 2023-2028.