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2017 Undergraduate Research Conference

2017 Undergraduate reserach conference prizewinners Tristan Kosciuch, Katarina Kuhnert, Lauren Thompson, Jade Sauvé, Dean Bruce Lennox, Edward Chernysh, Andrei Lupu, Chelsea Kim, Johanna Hoshizaki, Hamza Ahmad.

On Thursday, October 26, 2017, fifty students presented their research projects at the thirteenth annual Faculty of Science Undergraduate Research Conference (URC). McGill judges had the arduous task of choosing the victors (see below). The prize ceremony took place in McGill's elegant Moyse Hall, and was followed by a very special keynote address (see also below). The day culminated with a reception for students, friends, and alumni, where everyone celebrated the accomplishments of McGill Science students.

Keynote address

The Faculty of Science was honoured to welcome distinguished scientist Professor Doina Precup to deliver the keynote address at the thirteenth annual Undergraduate Research Conference. Her talk was entitled:

"Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century"

Prof. Doina Precup

Professor Doina Precup (School of Computer Science, McGill University) holds the Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning at McGill, and serves as Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science. Professor Precup will lead DeepMind’s new AI lab in Montreal. She also serves as Associate Scientific Director of the Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives research initiative which aims to reduce the human and socio-economic burden of psychiatric and neurological illnesses, and improve the mental health, quality of life, and productivity of Canadians and people around the world. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning (especially reinforcement learning) and applications of these methods to real-world problems. CIFAR, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, has recognized her as the Senior Fellow for Learning in Machines & Brains. In recognition of significant accomplishments within the field of artificial intelligence, Doina Precup was granted Senior Member status by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 2015.

Prizewinners

First and second prizes were awarded in six categories as follows:

Biological Sciences	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Tristan Kosciuch Project: Population and diet dynamics of an invasive predator Supervisor: Prof. Lauren Chapman Nominated by: Department of Biology
2nd prize: Lindsay Burns Project: Host-cell mediated modification of bacterial virulence factor NleA Supervisor: Prof. Samantha Gruenheld Nominated by: Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Photo not available
Earth & Environmental Sciences	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Jade Sauvé Project: Response of Antarctic Sea Ice to Climate Change: Role of Oceanic Mesoscale Eddies Supervisor: Prof. Carolina Dufour Nominated by: Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
2nd prize – TIE: Katarina Kuhnert Project: Arctic and Subarctic Sea-Level Change and Policy in Northern Canada Supervisors: Prof. Natalya Gomez, Dr. Leonard Tsuji Nominated by: Department of Geography
2nd prize – TIE: Lauren Thompson Project: Effects of long-term fertilization on dissolved matter in an ombrotrophic bog Supervisor: Prof. Tim Moore Nominated by: Department of Geography
Mathematical & Computational Sciences	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Andrei Lupu Project: Imitation Upper Confidence Bound for Bandits on a Graph Supervisor: Prof. Doina Precup Nominated by: School of Computer Science
2nd prize: Edward Chernysh Project: Weakly Monotone Decreasing Solutions to Elliptic Schrödinger Systems Supervisor: Prof. Jérôme Vétois Nominated by: Department of Mathematics & Statistics
Medical Sciences	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Johanna Hoshizaki Project: Using bioinformatic analysis and CRISPR gene editing to develop attenuated strains of Leishmania as a potential vaccine Supervisor: Prof. Greg Matlashewski Nominated by: Department of Microbiology & Immunology
2nd prize: Chelsea Kim Project: Deciphering the molecular mechanisms used by LPP to regulate cell migration through experiments and mathematical models Supervisors: Prof. Claire Brown & Prof. Anmar Khadra Nominated by: Department of Physiology
Physical Sciences	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Vincent Trudel Project: Synthesis of Thiazolo [5,4-d]pyrimidine-based Bisphosphonates as Inhibitors of the Human Geranylgeranyl Pyrophosphate Synthase Supervisor: Prof. Youla Tsantrizos Nominated by: Department of Chemistry
2nd prize: Haoran Liao Project: Investigating the Clustering Behaviour of Nanoparticles with Confinement Microscopy Supervisor: Prof. Sabrina Leslie Nominated by: Department of Physics	Photo not available

Psychology & Neuroscience	Photo (click for larger image)
1st prize: Dasha A. Sandra Project: How Much Does My Thinking Cost? Individual Differences and Sensitivity to Reward in Cognitive Performance Supervisor: Prof. A. Ross Otto Nominated by: Department of Psychology
2nd prize: Hamza Ahmad Project: Processing of somatosensory information by the central nervous system Supervisor: Prof. Theodore Milner Nominated by: Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education (Faculty of Education)