Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

STEP ONE: When you click on the link below, you will be prompted to login to your existing account or create an account in ValpoScholar. You will need to provide your email address and a password.

STEP TWO: Once you have created an account, the link will take you directly to the abstract submission form for the Symposium on Research and Creative Expression. In addition to your abstract of 250 or fewer words, you will need to have the following information available:

• Title of project;
• Name(s) of the author(s);
• Primary contact name and email;
• Faculty sponsor name and email;
• Name of the college and department/program associated with the project;
• Biographical information about the author(s) — 75 or fewer words;
• Information on whether you will be displaying a tabletop poster (tri-fold presentation board) or wall poster (printed on a large-scale printer), or if you will be making an oral presentation;
• Primary file or link to your primary file for your poster or oral presentation (optional).

STEP THREE: Once you have completed and successfully uploaded the abstract submission form and all attachments, you will receive email confirmation of your submission. If you do not receive an email confirmation, please submit your abstract again.

STEP FOUR: A few weeks after the date of SORCE, your abstract (along with any files you have uploaded) will then be published in a permanent archive of Valpo work.

SOURCE 2026 featured 110 student presentations that represented the work of more than 200 Valpo students. Faculty evaluations of these presentations led to the awards shown below. We thank the Valpo Phi Beta Kappa chapter for sponsoring the First Place Undergraduate Oral and Poster Awards!

First Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Emily Broniewicz, Sophie Novak, Kenneth Brown (mentor: Prof. Julie Peller)

• “Silicone Wristband Based Passive Sampling Methods Development and Evaluation for Use in Community Exposure Studies.”

Second Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Jackson Price (mentor: Prof. Amanda Brobst-Renaud)

• “Suffering in the Present-Eternal: Kierkegaardian Absurd Faith, Despair, and the Dark Night of the Soul.”

First Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Elijah Conklin, Evan Gustafson, Leanne Blind-Doskocil, Edward Wolff, James Goodnight, Joseph Trujillo-Falcón (mentor: Leanne Blind-Doskocil)

• “Evaluating Impact-Based Warning Guidelines for Tornado Emergency Issuance.”

Second Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Stephen Jenny, Damon Virgo (mentor: Prof. Jeffrey Pruet)

• “Design and Synthesis of Potential Antimicrobial Drugs.”

Third Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Alexis Maxey, Richard Gregory, Hadeel Ayoub (mentor: Prof. Reva Johnson)

• “Magnetonanozymes for Enhanced Remineralization and Dentin Tubular Occlusion in vitro.”

Fourth Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Bryn Anderson, Rylie Jevert, Elizabeth Lieb, Chi Onyekachi, Kate Sheridan, Hannah Wright (mentor: Prof. Laura Krepp)

• “From Concept to Gameplay: Board Game Design as Interdisciplinary Creative Practice.”

First Place Graduate Oral Presentation: Angela Blakely (mentor: Prof. Selina Bartels)

• “The Influence of Digital Communication and AI Tools on Students’ Academic Writing and Critical Thinking.”

First Place Graduate Poster Presentation: Stephanie Campbell (mentor: Prof. Selina Bartels)

• “The Impact of Play-Based Learning on Preschoolers’ Behavior.”

SOURCE 2024 featured 123 student presentations that represented the work of more than 200 Valpo students. Faculty evaluations of these presentations led to the awards shown below. We thank the Valpo Phi Beta Kappa chapter for sponsoring the First Place Undergraduate Oral and Poster Awards!

First Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Ashley Vernon (mentor: Prof. Sarah Jantzi)

• “In Plain Sight: A Curated Art Walk”

Second Place Undergraduate Oral Presentation: Abby Pintoy (mentor: Prof. Joseph Bognar)

• “Leveling Up the Leitmotif: Understanding How the Unique Medium of Video Games Explores and Develops the Leitmotif”

First Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Charles Smith and Fayol Ateufack Zeudom (mentor: Prof. Sami Khorbotly)

• “Computer Vision-Based System to Study Parking Utilization”

Second Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Alex Kagay, Micah D’Arcangelo, Joshua Mangnall, Mario Ramos, Ethan Duff, Noah Fisher, and Max Van Den Berg (mentor: Prof. Peter Krenzke)

• “Efficient Solar Thermal Electricity Unlocked: Sodium Heat Pipes in the Solar Furnace”

Third Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Gavin Forck (mentor: Prof. Jesse Sestito)

• “Automation of iterative computer aided design and finite element analysis in SolidWorks”

Fourth Place Undergraduate Poster Presentation: Makayla Mann (mentor: Prof. Lauren Sestito)

• “Evaluating Liposome Stability in Gastric and Intestinal Environments”

First Place Graduate Oral Presentation (joint): Caleb VanArragon and Matt Latzke (mentor: Prof. Tiffany Kolba)

• “Predicting Professional Golf Success Using Amateur Rankings”

First Place Graduate Oral Presentation (joint): Maria Mack (mentor: Prof. Betsy Burow-Flak)

• “Tomorrow’s Odyssey: Love, Scars, and Change”

First Place Graduate Poster Presentation: Caleb VanArragon and Lanna Sirhan (mentor: Prof. Danielle Orozco-Nunnelly)

• “Antimicrobial Activities of Several Argemone mexicana-Inspired Phytocompounds”