URSI Symposium Highlights Impactful Student-Faculty Summer Research
Nearly 100 students and faculty members involved in this year’s Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) gathered in the Villard Room on September 17 to celebrate 10 weeks of scientific inquiry. Topics discussed at URSI’s annual symposium ranged from the search for an elusive prime number to the study of tiny worms placed in a near-zero-gravity environment to the ongoing construction of a robot that will one day be able to shake your hand or share a high five.
In his opening remarks, URSI Director and Associate Professor of Psychological Science Hadley Bergstrom said 71 science majors collaborated this summer with 26 faculty members on 36 projects. “What is perhaps a little less well-known about the URSI experience is that URSI is a summer community, where fellows can not only conduct scientific research but also learn important lab safety, technical skills, and career advice via workshops led by faculty members, librarians, and Center for Career Education professionals,” Bergstrom said. “This year we had an especially high degree of participation in putting on workshops. We had a total of nine faculty workshops, and there was even a workshop on techniques for collecting and pinning insects—which I thought was quite esoteric and cool.”
Bergstrom saluted the faculty members who took part in the URSI program, and he called the symposium “the culmination of one of the most wonderful experiences students and faculty can have, namely working side-by-side in the pursuit of new knowledge.”
Dean of Faculty Demetrius Eudell opened the event by congratulating all who had participated. “These projects are impressive and wide-ranging,” Eudell told those gathered at the event. “URSI reflects the importance of collaboration in higher education and sets a high bar for teaching and learning. You should be very proud of your accomplishments.”
Three teams of students made oral presentations of their projects, and the formal part of the symposium concluded with a talk on memory by Dr. Sheena Josselyn, a Canadian neuroscientist and Associate Professor of Psychology and Physiology at the Hospital for Sick Children and the University of Toronto.
In a talk peppered with references to her 15-year-old daughter’s favorite performer—Taylor Swift—Josselyn explained how memory is stored in the brain, specifically focusing on the concept of “the Engram.” Engrams are small, sparse, populations of neurons that scientists believe are required for remembering. She was one of the first to experimentally demonstrate the existence of engrams. In her talk, she showed engram involvement in a number of different memory types, including memories of something fearful or even rewarding. To demonstrate this phenomenon, Josselyn used many different molecular genetic techniques to turn engrams on and off. When she turned engrams on, mice remembered; when she turned them off, mice forgot.
“The study of engrams has profound importance for our basic understanding of memory storage in the brain with implications for our understanding of memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease or post-traumatic stress disorder,” Bergstrom said.
Following Josselyn’s talk, the those attending the symposium adjourned to the College Center and Multipurpose Room to view posters the URSI students had prepared about their work. It was here that URSI participants Isaac Rudnick ’26, Nicholas Misko ’27, Isabelle Borgstedt ’26, and James Hatch ’26 displayed the arm they are in the process of building and programing to act like a human arm. Rudnick, who began working on the project during the 2024 URSI program, noted that the act of recognizing a voice-activated request and knowing exactly how to move is extremely complex, but he said he expected the team to continue its work during the fall and spring semesters.
Rudnick said he valued the opportunity to take a deep dive into the project for the past two summers. “I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to focus on this single project,” he said. “All of us involved in the project enjoyed doing work you just don’t get to do during regular school time.”
Hugo Reyes-Cardozo ’27, a biology and physics double major, said he too enjoyed working on a single project for 10 weeks—examining the effects of microgravity on a tiny species of worm called C. elegens, in collaboration with fellow student Olivia Trader ’27 and Professor of Physics Jenny Magnes. Reyes-Cardozo said the experiments his team performed this summer showed the worms engaged in vigorous activity early in their two-week lives, then became quieter toward the end of their lives. “We were able to inject the worms with dye and observe neuron activity,” he explained, noting the study was potentially useful in unlocking some clues to the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Another URSI student, Alexandra Tapia ’26, said her URSI experience observing the effects of feeding rats citrus nutrients had led her to consider conducting scientific research as a career. “URSI is an amazing program,” Tapia said, “and I can now see myself doing this kind of work for a living.”