CERCA 2025
Come see how HPC impacts research at UW-Eau Claire
CERCA (Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity) is an annual event at UW-Eau Claire that gives students the opportunity to present and share their research projects and different creative activities through presentations and posters. The Blugold Center for High-Performance Computing is delighted to be able to be a valuable resource specifically for the research side of campus, and we wanted to highlight below the variety of projects we've been able to support this year. We encourage everyone on campus to stop by and learn from these students about how they used the computing clusters for their work, as well as check out all the other projects shown at CERCA.
More about CERCA| Full CERCA Schedule
Jump To Date: Mon, April 21st | Tue, April 22nd | Wed, April 23rd | Thu, April 24th | Fri, April 25th
Monday, April 21st - Mathematics Retreat
CERCA kicks off this year with the 33rd annual UWEC Mathematics Retreat, focused exclusively on research performed by students and faculty in the Math department. The following presentations by students have utilized our computing resources for their projects, which is open to everyone to attend.
9:30 am | Math Department Scheduling Using Number of Preps and Back-to-Back Courses
Hibbard Hall 322
Presenters: Brynn Bergeson
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
12:00 pm | Classifying Enzyme Substrates Using Machine Learning
Hibbard Hall 322
Presenters: Kyle He
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
Tuesday, April 22nd - Spotlight on First-Year Research
The Spotlight on First-Year Research category is all focused on research projects that involve first-year students.
2:00 pm | Enhancing IVC filter detection using agentic AI
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Mykle Buhrow, Ian Nie
Faculty Mentors: Rahul Gomes
Collaborator: Joseph Wildenberg
2:00 pm | Exploring the impact of two methane mitigation strategies on rumen microbiomes of grazing steers
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Renee Sandoval
Faculty Mentor: Bridget McGivern
2:00 pm | Predicting Species-Specific Differences in Protein-Ligand Interactions for Prolyl-tRNA Synthetases Using Machine Learning
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Mykle Buhrow, Breanna Hayden, Rivaaj Monsia
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
Wednesday, April 23rd
Posters
11:00 am | Poster 005: Retrospective Institutional Comparison of Patients Undergoing “on-pump” verses “off-pump” Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Using Machine Learning
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Samuel Morehead, Gabriel Tapia
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Collaborators: Dr. Nishant Saran, Jennifer Rich, Josh Blessing, Matt Schuldes
11:00 am | Poster 006: Integrating U-Net and LLM Agents for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Diagnosis
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Will Jerome
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Collaborator: Sushil Garg
11:00 am | Poster 007: Enhancing IVC filter detection using agentic AI
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Mykle Buhrow, Ian Nie
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Collaborator: Joseph Wildenberg
11:00 am | Poster 019: Developing A Computational Protocol for Generating Defect-Minimized Amorphous Silicon Dioxide
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Colton Dechant
Faculty Mentor: Ying Ma
11:00 am | Poster 030: Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Their Impact on Human Health
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Giulia Lelli
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
11:00 am | Poster 031: Predicting Species-Specific Differences in Protein-Ligand Interactions for Prolyl-tRNA Synthetases Using Machine Learning
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Mykle Buhrow, Breanna Hayden, Rivaaj Monsia
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
11:00 am | Poster 033: Creating a Dataset of High-Quality, AI-generated Phishing Messages to Better Detect AI-Powered Phishing Attacks
Davies Center: Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Jack Hagen, Jacob Stoltenburg
Faculty Mentor: Mounika Vanamala
11:00 am | Poster 037: Enhancing Crop Yield Prediction in Variable Rate Agriculture
Davies Center: Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Gabriel Sipos
Faculty Mentor: Papia Rozario
Open Oral Presentations
1:00 pm | Frontier Molecular Orbitals and Binding Affinities: A Case Study Involving Neurotransmitters and Antidepressants
Davies Center - Ho-Chunk Room (320E)
Presenter: Stewart Gundry
Faculty Mentors: Sudeep Bhattacharyay, Sanchita Hati
Thursday, April 23rd
Posters
2:00 pm | Poster 003: Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Biological Phase Separation and Biomolecular Condensate Formation of Globular Proteins
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Emily Brehm, Liam O'Donnell, Madi Shafman, Josh Teeter
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
2:00 pm | Poster 020: Integrated sensory behaviors of larval Aedes triseriatus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Helen Gensch, Avery De Ruyter
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
2:00 pm | Poster 024: Decoding the Secrets of Livestock Methane: A Dive Into Rumen Microbiomes
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Erin Yager
Faculty Mentor: Bridget McGivern
2:00 pm | Poster 025: Exploring the impact of two methane mitigation strategies on rumen microbiomes of grazing steers
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Renee Sandoval
Faculty Mentor: Bridget McGivern
2:00 pm | Poster 036: Investigating the role of a secreted snail peptide in Schistosoma mansoni miracidia host-seeking
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Rachel Horejsi, Saige Maasz-Seawright, Chase Nelson
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
2:00 pm | Poster 051: Developing Girardia dorotocephala as a model organism for flatworm sensory biology
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Saige Maasz-Seawright, Sophie Willett
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
2:00 pm | Poster 052: A novel device for high-throughput phenotypic screening of schistosome miracidia
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Rachel Horejsi, Saige Maasz-Seawright, Chase Nelson
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
2:00 pm | Poster 053: Transcriptomic differences between schistosome miracidia recovered from different host tissues
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Rachel Horejsi, Chase Nelson, Sophie Willett
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
2:00 pm | Poster 079: Math Department Scheduling Using Number of Preps and Back-to-Back Courses
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Brynn Bergeson, Annabelle Piotrowski, Theodore Schwantes
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
2:00 pm | Poster 080: Classifying Enzyme Substrates Using Machine Learning
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Kyle He
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
2:00 pm | Poster 087: Machine Learning Verification for Analyzing Oncogenes Associated with PDAC
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Paige Keller
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Collaborator: Rick Jansen
2:00 pm | Poster 107: Deterministic and Heuristic Analysis of Two-Dimensional Iterated Function Systems
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenters: Clara Bartlett, Finn Walker
Faculty Mentor: Chris Ahrendt
Friday, April 25th - Provost’s Honors Symposium
2:10 pm | Impact of Synthetic Polymer Crowders on Confinement, Crowding, and Functional Protein Dynamics of Escherichia Coli Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase
Davies Center - Ho-Chunk Room (320E)
Presenter: Gaona Her
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
3:20 pm | Generating reliable amorphous silicon oxides structures for atomistic simulations
Davies Center - Woodland Theatre (328)
Presenter: Colton Dechant
Faculty Mentor: Ying Ma
List Your Presentation / Poster
Did you or your research group use our high-performance computing clusters for your research project and are participating in CERCA? Please let us know right away so we can add it to the list for others to stop by and visit.