UT Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry

UT Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry Research at UT allows students to make important contributions to their fields while delving into subjects that they are passionate about.

Summer research update! Madison Calla, Secondary Biology in Education '27, has continued her curriculum development proj...
08/21/2026

Summer research update! Madison Calla, Secondary Biology in Education '27, has continued her curriculum development project through the summer under the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She has fully developed all hands-on activities and lab experiments with high-level equipment for high school students on the topics of osmosis, water structure, plant structure, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration. Throughout this process, she has collaborated with participating teachers in Hillsborough County to ensure her resource kits will be as realistic, engaging, and easy-to-implement as possible for these teachers. In the following fall months of September and October, she will implement these kits into the classrooms of participating teachers and use tests before and after use to test their effectiveness for students. This will help her understand the difference that hands-on learning makes in everyday science classrooms.

Summer research update! Gavin Flowers, Marine Science-Biology & Environmental Studies ’28, has found there are slight va...
08/20/2026

Summer research update! Gavin Flowers, Marine Science-Biology & Environmental Studies ’28, has found there are slight variances in the track direction of Hurricane Carlotta (2024) between simulated tracks with changing sea surface temperatures (SSTs). He plans further investigation into why these changes are occurring and the potential impact SSTs are having on these changes. This will be done by similarly testing other storms in the Easter Northern Pacific (ENP) basin to see if these results hold
true. If a pattern is recognized, this could be used to make improvements to hurricane forecasting in the ENP basin which is especially useful as SSTs continue to rise due to global warming.

Summer research update! Danielle Robinson, Biology '27, was granted the SURF award and is currently conducting fruit fly...
08/19/2026

Summer research update! Danielle Robinson, Biology '27, was granted the SURF award and is currently conducting fruit fly neurodegenerative research, investigating a gene that has been linked to Alzheimer’s. Thus far she has focused on silencing this gene in the brain and the effects it has on the fruit fly. It has been found in past and present SURF research that the flies are severely impacted by the gene being turned off, resulting in a shortened life-span and direct impact to their motor skills. To better understand what is happening, she has done a series of dissections and staining to take a closer look at what’s happening in the brain, hopefully leading to a better understanding of this genes role in Alzheimer’s.

Summer research update! Volodymyr Zabolotnyi, Computer Science & Mathematics ’27, is constructing a novel instrument for...
08/18/2026

Summer research update! Volodymyr Zabolotnyi, Computer Science & Mathematics ’27, is constructing a novel instrument for random number generator analysis aimed at identifying the device's drift from its desired parameters. He has completed tests on assessing the unfairness of a random number generator's output, along with input processing functionality. The test will be able to provide engineers with an easy way to interpret a random number generator's probability distribution to determine if their device appears to produce random numbers as desired. The instrument is soon expected to have two different mathematically sound ways to quantify the level of uncertainty in the analyzed data, one best suited for small sample sizes providing best error bounds with high computational cost and the other best suited for large sample sizes being computationally efficient without providing the tightest error bounds.

Summer research update! Anthony Lane, Mathematics '26, and Dr. Doug Pfeffer are creating 3D manipulable calculating tool...
08/17/2026

Summer research update! Anthony Lane, Mathematics '26, and Dr. Doug Pfeffer are creating 3D manipulable calculating tools (see final photo for an example!). Solid shapes similar to a tripod can be used to solve specific mathematical formulas in extreme environments where things like electricity and computers may not be readily available. This technology (referred as a nomograph) has existed since the late 1800s but hasn't been looked at in a 3D sense until they began working on this project. The hope is to create a framework that allows for higher fidelity calculating tools to be available to emergency/humanitarian workers without relying on computers.

Summer research update! Brooke Marti, Marine Science-Biology ’27, is studying the light preferences of two species of se...
08/17/2026

Summer research update! Brooke Marti, Marine Science-Biology ’27, is studying the light preferences of two species of sea slugs. She is working alongside Dr. Middlebrooks to investigate how these slugs respond under different light intensities, and whether their light preferences change after a period of starvation. In the laboratory, Brooke places the sea slugs in jars with high and low light intensities. She records their behaviors over a 12-hour period. She is analyzing the results between a photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic species of sea slug. By comparing this data, she can further understand how photosynthesis may influence their responses to light. So far, slugs tested before starvation have not shown a strong preference for either light intensity. Brooke’s study will further contribute to the baseline knowledge of their biology and behavior.



Summer research update! Dylan Johnson, Biology '27, is studying red blood cell abnormalities in brown anole lizards infe...
08/12/2026

Summer research update! Dylan Johnson, Biology '27, is studying red blood cell abnormalities in brown anole lizards infected with malaria. With 24 samples collected, 2 possible cases of malaria have been found. In addition to the blood samples, qualitative and quantitative measurements were collected along with details on where each lizard was caught. Now knowing that malaria is likely present in the sampled ecosystem, the next steps are to collect additional samples and further confirm positive and negative samples to allow a comparison to be made on the red blood cells of the infected an uninfected lizards.

Summer research update! Victoria Burghardt, Marine Science–Biology & Psychology ’26, received a Summer Undergraduate Res...
08/10/2026

Summer research update! Victoria Burghardt, Marine Science–Biology & Psychology ’26, received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship with Dr. Rose Hilmo to describe blue whale reproductive song off the U.S. West Coast. Blue whales play a critical role in regulating atmospheric carbon and circulating nutrients, making conservation a priority. To support the population’s recovery from whaling, Victoria is mapping trends in song characteristics to get clues on reproductive behavior along their migratory track. Preliminarily, she has found the most energetically taxing songs are produced in November in the region, with longer rest periods found further along the migration corridor.

Spotlight on summer research: Connor Hipp, Marine Science – Biology ‘28, received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow...
07/27/2026

Spotlight on summer research: Connor Hipp, Marine Science – Biology ‘28, received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship with Mr. John Ambrosio to work on Pacific blue whale song changes over time. This data is used to monitor population health and changes in reproductive behavior. This work specifically looks at changes in patterns, which signal reproductive fitness, and this can impact conservation strategies for this endangered population.

Many UTampa students take their research beyond the boundaries of our campus. Lexi Smith, Marine Science-Biology '26, pa...
07/16/2026

Many UTampa students take their research beyond the boundaries of our campus. Lexi Smith, Marine Science-Biology '26, participated in the University of Southern Mississippi's Summer Field Program at the Gulf Coast Research Lab. While there, she was a research intern for the Center for Fisheries Research and Development, where she aided in a continuous Bull Shark age and growth study. She also joined CFRD in collecting stomach content and go**ds from different species from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic.

Address

Tampa, FL
33606

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18132533333

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when UT Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The University

Send a message to UT Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry:

Shortcuts

Share

Category