SyBBURE Annual Best Paper Award 2024

It brings us great pleasure to announce the winners of the coveted SyBBURE Best Paper Award for 2024: Ashley Fu and Dylan Conger!

Ashley is a senior majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering (and minoring in Piano Performance!) Her submission, entitled “Energy Minimization using Custom-Designed Magnetic-Spring Actuators”, reflects a thorough understanding of theoretical and applied robotics. As a member of the Braun Lab for Advanced Robotics and Control, she has honed her expertise in control systems and integrated circuit designs, microcontrollers, control theories, and simulations. In the future, she hopes to apply these skills in designing energy-efficient systems and advancing the development of cutting-edge robotic technologies.

Dylan is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Biochemistry on the pre-med track, and has been conducting synthetic biology research as a member of the Brunger Lab. His submission was titled “Rationally Designed Tau-Specific Receptors for Spatiotemporally Regulated Gene and Cell Therapies against Neurodegeneration.” Dylan has presented his work at several conferences, such as BMES and SfN, and he has also been heavily involved in the process of preparing and filing the provisional patent for this work.

The competition for this award was particularly fierce this year, and several students received honorable mention as finalists for the award:

• Daniel Liu

• Kaden Tro

• Laura Caroline Jung

• Gabrielle Beck

• Erin Davis

• Ella Weaverling

• Rincon Jagarlamudi

• Pranoy Sangowdar

• Nathan Hammond

• Olivia Noell

• Oseremhen Ewaleifoh

• Bryce Keating

• Emily Qian

• Manish Acharya

• Nabeelah Aregbe

• Sophia Dunkin

• Christina Kim

• Benjamin Estes

Congratulations to our winners and finalists, and congratulations to all the students who submitted papers for consideration on a fantastic year of research! We are excited to see what is next in store for everyone.