Students from the College of Media are participating in the annual University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Week, held April 20-26.

The Undergraduate Research Symposium, the signature event held on Thursday, April 24, at the Illini Union, features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus. 

Below is a list of Media student presentations as well as acknowledgements of Media graduate students and faculty who have mentored students presenting at Undergraduate Research Week.

Oral Panel

Health Modalities

“Evaluating the Persuasiveness of LLM-based Chatbots in Health Communication”

Atharva Sindwani, Sophomore, Computer Science + Advertising
9-10:15 a.m., Room 211

Research Mentor: Leona Yi-Fan Su, Advertising

Media & Culture

“Uman Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures in Sierra Leone”

Nathan Gonzales, Sophomore, Journalism, COM
Elena Cleary, Senior, Agricultural Communications, ACES
Nour Longi, Senior, Journalism, COM
Piper Pascarella, Junior, Journalism, COM
Faith Lee, Senior, Journalism, COM
Maggie Knutte, Senior, Journalism, COM
12:15-1:30 p.m., Room 211

Research Mentors: Charles “‘Stretch” Ledford, Journalism, and Alison Davis, Journalism

Social Change & Identity

“The Relations Between Cinematic Spaces and Cycles of Oppression in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame”

Rory McFadden, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies
2-3:15 p.m., Room 211

Research Mentor: Jenny Oyallon-Koloski, Media & Cinema Studies

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning II

“Navigating the Future: Investigating the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Students’ Writing”

Arianna Gandhi, Sophomore, Advertising
3:45-5 p.m., Room 209

Research Mentor: Carolyn Wisniewski, Center for Writing Studies

Poster Presentations

Humanities, Culture, & Society

Graphic Witness in Media: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and Beyond

Francesca Dumitrescu, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies
9-10:15 a.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, C and South Lounge

Research Mentor: CL Cole, Media & Cinema Studies

Social Science and Human Behavior

“Terror Discourse: Social Media’s Response to Counter-Terrorism Events”

Mihir Sharma, Freshman, Global Studies, LAS
Nina Issel, Sophomore, Journalism, COM
3:45-5 p.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, C and South Lounge

Research Mentor: Young Gong, Political Science

CS Student Ambassadors/Research Scholars (CS STARS)

Tuesday, April 22, 4-6 p.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, C, and South Lounge

“REBAR: Retrieval-Based Reconstruction for Time-Series Contrastive Learning”

Pia Robinson, Freshman, Computer Science, ENG
Prisha Thoguluva, Sophomore, Computer Science, ENG
Alexia Rendon, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM

“The Role of Social Barriers in Affecting High School Students’ Motivations in CS”

Skyla Jin, Freshman, Computer Science + Advertising, COM

“Robot Action Demonstration in Extended Reality (RADER) Unity Package”

Omosefe Edomwande, Freshman, Computer Science, ENG
Grace He, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM

Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program

The Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program offers undergraduate students with little or no research experience the opportunity to work with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on their research projects, explore the culture and process of research, and build on their existing abilities within a community of scholars.

Nina Issel, Sophomore, Global Studies (LAS) & Journalism (COM)

Media Research Mentors

Doctoral student Veranika Paltaratskaya, Institute of Communications Research, was the research mentor for Alina Huang, sophomore in communication and psychology (LAS), who is presenting “Understanding Consumer Interactions with Product Transparency Apps (PTAs) Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model” as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.

Doctoral student Alice Ji, Institute of Communications Research, was the research mentor for Ayushi Maskey, junior in statistics + computer science (LAS), who is presenting “The Effect of Message Fatigue on Attention to Mental Health Messages” as part of the Heath & Wellness poster presentations.

Kevin Wise, professor of advertising, was the research mentor for Pushti Vora, junior in brain and cognitive sciences (LAS) who is presenting “The Impact of Mindless Scrolling on Dopamine Regulation and its Parallels to Gambling Addiction” as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.