Every summer, the Office of Undergraduate Research organize the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR), a nationally competitive opportunity that provides undergraduate students with an intensive 10-week summer research experience under the mentorship of a University of Utah faculty member. We are delighted to announce the SPUR 2024 faculty mentors and their projects. We encourage OUR community to share this opportunity with undergraduate researchers. Student applications are open from November 1, 2023 to January 28, 2024.

For more information, visit the Office of Undergraduate Research website.


William Anderegg, School of Biological Sciences, Science
Effects of Drought, Heat, or Smoke Exposure on Tree Seedling and Mature Forest Climate Resilience

Katherine Baucom, Psychology, Social & Behavioral Science
Adapting Diabetes Interventions to Improve Outcomes and Stop Typ 2 Diabetes in Hispanic Communities in Utah (ADIOS T2D)

Tabitha Benney, Political Science, Social & Behavioral Science
Integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge with STEM Curriculum on the Wind River Reservation

Connor Bischak, Chemistry, Science
Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors for Artificial Vision

Kanokwan Bunsawat, Internal Medicine, Medicine
Identifying Therapeutic Approaches to Improve or Reverse Disease-Related Decrements in Vascular and Autonomic Health in Heart Failure and Chronic Kidney Disease

David Curtis, Family & Consumer Studies, Social & Behavioral Science
Who is Sensitive to Exposure to Air Pollution? Physiological and Psychosocial Mechanisms to Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease

Daniel Davis, Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, Health
Leveraging Shoe Modifications to Improve Walking Capacity

Teresa DeAtley, Department of Family and Preventative Medicine, Medicine
Exploratory Design Approaches for Health Equity Research.

Shanti Deemyad, Physics & Astronomy, Science
Superconductivity at Extreme Conditions

Matthew Fry, Geography, Social & Behavioral Science
Planning and Participating in Urban Forests and Trees

Jacob George, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Utah NeuroRobotics Lab: Brain-Computer Interfaces and Artificial Intelligence for Assistive and Rehabilitative Robotics

Lindsay Gezinski, Social Work
A National Exploratory Study on Housing Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking

Kelly Glazer Baron, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Medicine
Sleep Health Disparities: Implications for Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes

Ram Gouripeddi, Biomedical Informatics, Medicine
Quantifying the Exposome for Health Research

Austin Green, School of Biological Sciences, Science
Wasatch Wildlife Watch

Sara Grineski, Sociology, Social & Behavioral Science
Resident Perspectives on Air Pollution and Environmental Injustice in Salt Lake County

Andy Hong, City & Metropolitan Planning, Architecture + Planning
Fall Risk Mapping: Visualizing Fall-related Injuries Among Older Adults Across the United States

Adam Hughes, Biochemistry, Medicine
Interrogating the Molecular Mechanisms of Mitochondrial-Derived Compartment Formation

Anne Jamison, English, Humanities
Understanding How Stories Evolve in Fanfiction Communities via Data Science

Skyler Jennings, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Health
The Brain and the Ear: How Attention Shapes the Response of the Inner Ear When Listening to Speech in Noisy Backgrounds

Nitish Khurana, Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry
Reducing Drug Adsorption in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenators for Optimal Drug Dosing

Bradley King, Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, Health
Exercise and Inhibition in the Aging Hippocampus

Vincent Koppelmans, Psychiatry, Medicine
Motoric Function in Alzheimer’s Disease: Relations to Brain Structure and Applications for Classification

Alexander Lex, School of Computing, Engineering
Understanding Cancer with Data Visualizations of Cell Microscopy

Ursula Martínez, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, Medicine
Enhancing Motivation to Quit Smoking via Self-help Intervention Targeted to Cancer Type

Rajesh Menon, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Deep-Neural Networks for Next-generation Imaging

Ed Munoz, Ethnic Studies, Cultural & Social Transformation
Construyendo Latinidad (Constructing Latinx Idenity) in the Intermountain West

Alex Novoselov, Mechanical Engineering
Simulation and Modeling of Chemically Reacting Hypersonic Flows

Olanrewaju Onigboi, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Medicine
Cigarette Smoking and Sleep Quality Among Women of Color from Racially Diverse Communities

Megan Reynolds, Sociology, Social & Behavioral Science
Economic Security Policy and Birth Outcomes Among Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Women

Jeff Rose, Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation, Health
Homelessness, Air Quality, and Park Displacement Events

Lien Fan Shen, Film & Media Arts, Fine Arts
Empowering Comic Artists with DALL-E, AI Imaging Generating Program

Claire Son, Educational Psychology, Education
Preschoolers’ Multimedia Learning of STEM Vocabulary and Concept Knowledge

Djin Tay, Nursing
Economic Burden of Cancer Associated with Long Term Treatment and at End of Life

Lisa Taylor-Swanson, Nursing
MENOGAP: Engaging in Community-Led Development and Testing a Group Medical Visit Intervention

Matt Wachowiak, Neurobiology & Anatomy, Medicine
Seeing What the Nose Tells the Brain: Exploring Sensory Coding Using Imaging in the Mouse Olfactory System

Jennifer Weidhaas, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Wastewater Based Epidemiology for Understanding Disease Burden in Communities

Melodie Weller, Dentistry
Unlocking Autoimmunity: Impact of Environmental Pathogen Exposures on Chronic Autoimmune Diseases