[Roundtable, Wednesday 4/22 11:00 – 12:15]
From lung tissue to environmental policy: How systemic design impacts humans at the micro, personal, and societal levels
Avani is a senior from Ohio studying Health & Human Biology and International & Public Affairs. She does research in the Genomics and Machine Intelligence Lab, where she characterizes the genetic architecture of tissue microenvironments that give rise to cancer. Outside of academics, she enjoys literary fiction and has been working on a challenge to read a book from every country while in college. She is an avid Earl Grey enthusiast and can be found making tea in her free time.
Wesley Hackett – Designing for Flow: A Systems Approach to Front-of-House Composting at Brown
Born and raised in Washington State, I grew up with a deep love and appreciation for the natural world. At Brown, I’ve been studying Human-Centered Design, which I hope to utilize to design systems and processes that can protect our natural world and improve people’s lives. Natural systems also deeply inspire me, particularly their circularity and the reuse of all their elements. I hope my work with compost can bring our dining systems at Brown closer to the rhythms of nature.
Sonam Shulman – From Lung Tissue to Environmental Policy: How Systemic Design Impacts Humans at the Micro, Personal, and Societal levels
Sonam Shulman concentrates in History and an independent concentration in Socio-Environmentalism, where she investigates the intersection of social and environmental change, history, and policy. She grew up in Canada, India, Mexico, Uganda, Brazil, and the United States, which informed her interest in how colonial pasts shape the present and how diverse environments are affected by relations of power and exclusion. Her thesis, “Manipulating Musical Chairs: History, Power, and Agenda Setting in Canada’s Multi-Stakeholder Environmental Negotiations,” investigates the history of environmental policy in Canada and the ways in which historical exclusion continues to shape who gets a seat at the table to negotiate environmental outcomes today and in the future.
[Roundtable, Tuesday, April 28, 12:00 -1:15]
Dis/abilties, Education and Design
Rishika Kartik – Disability and Design in the Practice of Medicine
Rishika Kartik is a double concentrator in Biology and Accessible Design, a degree she pioneered. A U.S. Presidential Scholar and TEDx speaker with millions of views, she advances disability and assistive technology research while expanding artistic opportunities for blind communities through Touch and Create Studios, which she founded. She developed a healthy aging program at Hawaii’s leading Center for the Blind, has created public art in multiple cities and hospitals, and has spoken at institutions, including Johns Hopkins University and Johnson & Johnson. Rishika integrates science and design to support global conversations on disability, technology, and inclusive design.
Hannah Stoch – Shaping Toward the Normative: Knowledge Production and Dissemination at Private Autism Schools
Hannah is from New Jersey, studying Science & Technology Studies (neuropsychological epistemology) and Education Studies (teaching and learning). Her undergraduate thesis, “Shaping Toward the Normative: Knowledge Production and Dissemination at Private Autism Schools,” explores the role of private autism schools in shaping special education and autism research nationally and internationally. She hopes to continue contributing to educational equity, student support, and disability justice in the future. Hannah worked for 2.5 years at the Curricular Resource Center as the Digital Archives and Communications Coordinator, and is thrilled to conclude their work at the CRC by presenting at Theories in Action.
Zoe Florida – Programming Materials, Designing Systems: Translating Bioinspired Materials into Regenerative Applications
Zoe Florida(she/her) is from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and studies an Independent Concentration in Biodesign with a certificate in Entrepreneurship. Having grown up with an appreciation for the natural world and environmental stewardship, she explores how materials and production systems can be redesigned to align with natural processes. Drawing on perspectives from ecological design, making culture, and interdisciplinary collaboration, she aims to contribute to more circular economies and regenerative systems. Zoe is a Brown Design Workshop monitor and leader of Biomaterial Research and Innovation Community at Brown, and she is excited to continue exploring work at the intersection of sustainability and artistic craft after graduation.
[PechaKucha-style Lightning Talks, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 28]
Ilektra Bampicha-Ninou – No One Gets What Cognitive Narratology Is, but I Swear it Makes Sense
Ilektra Bampicha-Ninou is a senior at Brown University studying Cognitive Narratology, with additional study in Immersive Systems Design at the Glasgow School of Art. As a narrative designer and writer of AfroGreek heritage, her work explores how stories shape experience across film, performance, documentary, and digital media. She recently served as Head of VR & Immersive Competition at the Aegean Film Festival and is working on a rather ambitious literary project accompanied by a digital archive about her grandmother. Ilektra is deeply interested in the intersection of storytelling, technology, and the spaces where audiences become participants.
Harshil Garg – How Brown led me to the UN
Harshil Garg is originally from the Bay Area, CA, studying Business Economics and International & Public Affairs. Through his interest in history, he has actively mentored many other students in the field and has traveled the world doing amazing things to further develop his interest there. He recently got the unique opportunity to speak at the UN about how he developed this passion and how other students should similarly be passionate about what they do to be successful. Outside of academics, you can find him traveling, playing the French horn, or cooking new recipes.
Asya Gipson
Emily Lin – There Was Never a Right Decision
Emily is a senior concentrating in Human-Computer Interaction, an IC designed around a simple drive: to create beautiful things, turn concepts into tangibles through technology, and make things easy to use and understand. Her TiA talk, There Was Never a Right Decision, is for anyone who has ever tried to get it right—and is still figuring out what that means. She is leaving Brown not with the answers she came looking for, but with the confidence to keep asking. In her free time, she enjoys spending time at cafes, reading, and going on adventures with her dog.
Nene Mokonchu – The Democratic Dilemma: Passive Pedagogy, Elite Compliance and the War on Critical Thought
Nene Mokonchu is a Cameroonian-American Political Science senior at Brown, a 5x All-Ivy track athlete, and a commissioning 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Her research, published in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology and forthcoming in the Harvard Educational Review, investigates how institutional power and “passive pedagogy” impact marginalized communities. Currently an ACLU intake counselor, Nene is a polymathic aspiring JD/PhD candidate dedicated to legal journalism and pro bono street lawyering in the interest of Black constitutional rights. Her work is rooted in a ten-generation family legacy of philanthropy, driven by a deep love for the authors and ecosystems that foster social transformation. In her free time, she finds balance through modeling, photography, and creative narrative nonfiction, always seeking a holy contention with the sacred and the secular.
Matteo Papadopoulos – Legal Geographies of Power at Brown and Beyond
I am a senior studying Critical Human Geography, motivated by my core questions about how people navigate between and within spaces such as cities, oceans, neighborhoods, and ruins. I use tools such as ArcGIS Pro, primary-source review, demographic analysis, and investigative interviews to do this. After a formative capstone course in Legal Methods in Public Policy, I decided to center legal frameworks as the aperture through which I study human movement through space, and so apartheid, border externalization, and carcerality became vital considerations. For my capstone, I wrote a paper tracing the evolution of constitutional voting rights law and applying it to the emergence of prison gerrymandering in the rural United States following the 1980s prison boom.
Oscar Petrov – Towards a “Target Morphology” of a Human System
I’m exploring how humans and systems become more agentic—how they turn internal conflict into coordinated action across time. My work sits at the intersection of biological intelligence, collective intelligence, and machine agency, drawing on ideas from dynamical systems, morphogenesis, and AI. I build simulations and conceptual tools to understand how groups—from cells to societies—organize, align, and evolve toward shared goals. I’m especially interested in designing systems that help individuals and communities flourish with greater clarity, autonomy, and coherence.
Cal Waytana
[Posters, Tuesday, April 28, 4:30 – 6:00 p.m.]
Nikitha Bhimireddy – Understanding Skin Tone Modification: Behaviors, Influences, and Knowledge Among University Students
Hi! I’m a senior studying Medical Humanities (an Independent Concentration) and Health & Human Biology. I am passionate about exploring and better understanding the personal and cultural experiences that shape health, illness, and healing journeys, which inspired me to pursue my independent concentration in Medical Humanities. I am also interested in increasing the representation of medical conditions among people of color, as they are often inadequately included in educational materials and medical literature. Outside of academics, I enjoy playing tennis, reading, and trying new cafés!
Aidan Choi – The Move on Chinatown
Aidan Choi (he/him) is an artist, storyteller, and community organizer from Mountain View, California. A double concentrator in Ethnic Studies and Urban Studies, Aidan is passionate about histories of urban displacement and the erasure of minority populations. Through the Brown Arts Institute’s 2024 IGNITE series, Aidan curated “The Move On Chinatown,” a public art installation and panel discussion on Empire Street, where the historic Chinatown was located. As a 2025 Royce Fellow, Aidan returned to the Bay Area to support anti-displacement tenant organizing in the City of East Palo Alto. Following graduation, Aidan will remain at Brown to pursue a Master’s of Public Affairs at Brown’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
Sydney Chon – Narratives of Care: Exploring Diversity and Health Management through Children’s Books
Sydney Chon (she/her) is concentrating in Medical Humanities and Representation. Her concentration examines how medical representation shapes the care diverse populations receive. Her thesis, “Narratives of Care: Exploring Diversity and Health Management through Children’s Books,” advised by Dr. Francois Luks, Dr. Therese Zink, and Professor Daniel Stupar, studies how children’s books operate at the intersection of socialization and the acquisition of health-related knowledge, culminating in the creation of an eczema-centered children’s book.
Michael Y Clarke – Characterizing and Targeting Dysregulated Cholesterol as a Driver of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms
Michael is a senior at Brown with an interest in cancer immunology. He will begin MD-PhD training this summer to become a physician-scientist who discovers and translates personalized therapies for cancer patients.
Elizabeth Duke-Moe – The Quiet Machine: On Soft Robotics, Bio-Composite Structures and Lo-Tec Synthesizing
Eleanor Fuller – Who Holds the Power to Change? Locus of Control, Compassion, and the Path to Social Action
My name is Eleanor Fuller, but everyone calls me Ellie. I am an interdisciplinary learner concentrating in cognitive neuroscience and international & public affairs, two fields that keep asking the same question: why do people do what they do, and how do we build a world that works better for everyone? My research explores how locus of control and compassion shape the way people show up for their communities, work I started through CARE (Community Activists for Restoring Empathy) and carried into the lab. I’m drawn to research that doesn’t stay in one lane, the kind that interweaves intricately between fields and toward something actionable. This poster is part of that: I want every person who stops by to leave with a clearer sense of their own power to create change.
Junnie Kim – How Old is “Old Enough”? Examining Extended Foster Care through an Emerging Adulthood Perspective
Junnie Kim (she/her) is a senior at Brown University studying Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. From advocating for federal policies to conducting research on youth social media use, Junnie is passionate about finding systems-level approaches to improve adolescent well-being. She is excited to present at the TiA Symposium! (no photo, no invitation requests)
Huy Le – Spatial Transcriptomics and Network Analysis of Prostate Cancer: Different Perspectives from Brown and Beyond
Hi, my name is Andy, and I’m from North Carolina! I love studying biology, medicine, and random things. In my spare time, I like to play electric guitar and go on runs.
Christopher Liu – Participant Meal Delivery Preferences in Meals on Wheels: A Thematic Analysis of Survey Data from the Deliver-EE Trial
Chris is a Truman Scholar, Royce Fellow, Gamma Mu Scholar, Prism Foundation Scholar, and Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholar, double-majoring in cell & molecular biology and gerontology. Off campus, Chris has received state and Congressional recognition for his work as an elected committee chair within the RI Coalition for Elder Justice and a committee lead within the RI Elder Mental Health and Addiction Coalition. He is also an advocate for LGBTQ+ seniors, served on a committee that has raised $400k+ for arthritis research, and worked for Plans4Care, building digital platforms for caregivers of persons with dementia. On campus, Chris is the president of Brown’s Hospice Club and has published research with teams at the Brown Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, Brown Center for Advancing Health Policy Through Research, and the Brown Health Cardiovascular Institute. After graduating, he will help track and advise on federal caregiving and long-term care legislation with the National Alliance for Caregiving in Washington, DC, before matriculating at Columbia for graduate school.
Phillip Meader Yetter – A Novel Analytical Framework for Studying Chronic Pain
I grew up between the Cascade mountains and the Puget Sound in Lynnwood, Washington. I am concentrating in Neuroscience, and I also study Mandarin Chinese. I am a student manager for Brown Outdoor Leadership Training, and I play ultimate frisbee on PFunk. For the rest of my life, I want to practice medicine, learn more languages, make music, and spend time in nature. Thank you to my mentors, Dr. Chloe Zimmerman Gunsilius and Dr. Stephanie Jones, for guiding me through research in college!
Jake Regenwetter – “Hey, I’m Walking Here!”: Simulating Vision-Based Pedestrian Dynamics Models for Multiple Collision Avoidance
Hi, I’m Jake! I’m a fourth-year Sc.B. candidate at Brown University, studying Human Spatial Interaction and Design (an Independent Concentration) and Applied Math-Computer Science. I’m fascinated by how we humans engage with the world around us and how we can leverage scientific research, technological advancement, and interdisciplinary understanding to design for positive outcomes. I am a native of Champaign, Illinois, with family ties to Clemency, Luxembourg, and Harbin, China. When I’m not occupied being a student or a D1 collegiate athlete, you might find me writing (from journaling to lyrics to fiction), performing and composing music, taking lots of photos, indulging my Wikipedia addiction, drawing floor plans, and scheming my next side project.
Anita Zahiri – Deep RNA Sequencing as a Tool for Assessing Infection in Transplant Patients
Anita is a senior in the Program in Liberal Medication (PLME) concentrating in Translational Regenerative Medicine. At Brown, Anita serves as a Meiklejohn academic coach, IC DUG leader, and teaching assistant in the BIOL department. She is the captain of the Brown Shotokan Karate team and works to advance health equity in Rhode Island as a leader of Connect for Health. She is involved with clinical surgical research on campus. Following graduation, Anita will begin medical school at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
[Roundtable, Wednesday, April 29, 11:00 – 12:15]
Embodied Geographies: Land, Memory, and Transformation
Elizabeth Flores – Bridging Foodways in Providence: K’iche’ Maya Engagement with Narragansett Ecological Knowledge for Survival
Liz (she/her/ella/rija’) is a third-year, non-traditional, undergraduate student concentrating in Indigenous Environmental Science, ScB. She grew up on Muwekma Ohlone territory in the East Bay Area, CA, and is Maya Kaqchikel and Xicana. This past summer, Liz began conducting research on transnational Indigenous foodways, focusing on the experiences of K’iche’ migrants in Rhode Island and their engagement with Narragansett foodways programming. Liz also contributes to the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, where she serves as a garden caretaker, centering Afro-descendant botanical histories through plant care and research. In addition to her research, she serves as Communications Lead at CIELO (Colectivo de Iniciativas Ecológicas), a non-profit supporting environmental initiatives in Kaqchikel communities.
Amira Haileab – A Black Red Sea: Understanding the Red Sea in Black Geography through the Conscript Roundtable
Amira Haileab is a senior from Northfield, Minnesota, concentrating in Africana Studies and Data Fluency. She is deeply interested in questions surrounding space, geography, diaspora, and literature within Black Studies, which she engages with in her honors thesis project. At Brown, Amira is deeply involved with the Brown Center for Students of Color and currently serves as a
Kento Suzuki – Integral Shugendo
I am from Aichi, Japan, and a concentrator in Contemplative Studies at Brown University. My work explores how spiritual practices can be reimagined through interdisciplinary frameworks that integrate philosophy, psychology, and scientific inquiry. Growing up as an Evangelical Christian in Japan, I developed a complex relationship with religion that led me to question its nature and imagine more dynamic, creative, and liberative forms of spirituality. After a long search, I found a deep resonance with Shugendo, a nature-centered, syncretic ascetic tradition rooted in lineage and land yet adaptable to the needs of individuals and society. As a musician, I particularly enjoy exploring how sound, ritual, and embodied expression can serve as pathways for individual and collective transformation.
[PechaKucha-style Lightning Talks. Wednesday, April 29, 12:30 – 12:50 p.m.]
Charles Pliner – Bringing Sports Management to Brown, Part One (Wednesday, April 29, 12:30)
Charlie Pliner is a senior at Brown University who developed an Independent Concentration, The Global Sports Economy, and co-founded the Brown Sports Network, a platform connecting students and alumni across the sports business. He consults for FIFA and runs his advisory platform, Pliner & Co, where he has facilitated partnerships with professional sports franchises while still an undergraduate.
Nikolas Rohrmann – Bringing Sports Management to Brown – Part Two – (Wednesday, April 29, 112:40)
Niko Rohrmann ’26 is graduating with a double concentration in Applied Mathematics-Economics and an independent concentration in The Global Sports Economy. During his sophomore year, he designed and taught two student-led courses – The Global Sports Industry and Global Football Management – that ultimately became the foundation of his concentration. Niko co-founded Brown Sports Network (BSN), an organization connecting Brown students and alumni across sports and media. BSN has partnered with FC Chelsea, the Minnesota Vikings, and others to offer Brown students project opportunities.
[Roundtable, Wednesday, April 29, 1:00 – 2:15]
From S/NC factors to fiction to flies: How Brown inspires passion outside the classroom
Roya Barakzai – Navigating ABC vs. S/NC: Student Decision-Making & Faculty Perspectives at Brown University
I am a senior at Brown University, double-concentrating in Public Health and Biology. My work spans research in both fields, including an honors thesis on a digitized reentry health guide for formerly incarcerated individuals and another on barriers and facilitators that influence PAP use and adherence among pregnant and non-pregnant women with obstructive sleep apnea. My research interests center on health communication, healthcare navigation, and patient-centered approaches to improving care for underserved populations. I am also a Problem-Solving Fellow at Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, where I contribute to research on student decision-making and academic support. Invitation: christina_smith@brown.edu
Avani Ghosh – The Book World Tour: Reading a Book from Every Country
Avani is a senior from Ohio studying Health & Human Biology and International & Public Affairs. She does research in the Genomics and Machine Intelligence Lab, where she characterizes the genetic architecture of tissue microenvironments that give rise to cancer. Outside of academics, she enjoys literary fiction and has been working on a challenge to read a book from every country while in college. She is an avid earl grey enthusiast and can be found making tea in her free time.
Megan Wang – Morphological changes within a two-neuron circuit encoding alcohol preference in Drosophila melanogaster
Megan is a senior from Vancouver, Canada, double-concentrating in Neuroscience and Early Modern World. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Kaun Lab, where she aims to elucidate the structural changes that occur in fruit fly neurons after alcohol consumption. Megan is also broadly interested in 15th to 17th-century history, with particular interests in Baroque art and early modern recipe reconstruction. Outside the classroom, Megan captains the Brown Quiz Bowl team and serves as a teaching assistant for biochemistry and neuroscience courses.
[Roundtable, April 29, 3:00 – 3:50]
Arts/Culture
Cara Ianuale – Concept, Copy, Controversy: How Sherrie Levine’s After Walker Evans Challenges Legal Standards of Authorship and Originality
Cara Ianuale is a senior from New Jersey studying the History of Art & Architecture and English. Motivated by her career interest in intellectual property law, her senior thesis explores how artist Sherrie Levine’s famous solo exhibition of rephotographed images challenges the foundations of copyright.
Mariana Waller – Dicks Are for Chicks: Ungendered Flesh and Disruptive Femininity in Black Trans Theater
Mariana Waller is a graduating senior from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, concentrating in Africana Studies. Mariana is deeply interested in Black trans feminist activism, scholarship, and performance. During her time at Brown she has pursued these interests through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, John Hay Library Undergraduate Fellowship, and numerous theatrical productions. Mariana ultimately hopes to obtain her PhD in Black Studies and/or Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and become a professor. (no invitations requested)
[Bloggers/Vloggers]
Alexandra Mercedes-Santos
Alexandra Mercedes-Santos is a 5th-year Urban Education Policy master’s student in her 9th year at Brown University. In her undergrad, she took a three-year leave in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reshaped her life and her perspective on education. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science. Her next steps are to use data and education to make the world a better place, drawing on what she has learned at Brown.
Lara Gamaleldin is a senior from Cairo, Egypt, concentrating in Economics. She is interested in how private markets can support development in emerging economies through market creation, incentive design, and the building of institutional trust. Lara has interned in Cairo, Stockholm, and New York, gaining exposure to how firms operate across different market environments. At Brown, she has enjoyed connecting with alumni founders through Van Wickle Ventures and engaging with the local food scene through the Hospitality Club.
Theories in Action 