Enter Today
Submit Your Paper Today
Facebook X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

2022 Global Winners

Zareen Tasneem Sharif

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Architecture & Design

Sahil Tiku

The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau
Art History & Theory

Katie McGrath

Durham University
Business

Oliver Hervir

Australian National University
Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Maggie Tighe

University College Cork
Classical Studies & Archaeology

Guruprerana Shabadi

École Polytechnique
Computer Science

Kenna White

Ulster University
Earth & Environmental
Sciences

Victor Sosanya

University of Warwick
Economics

Matthew Gover

University of Queensland
Education

Bailey Thompson*

Western University
Engineering

Calvin Heng

National University of Singapore
History

Julia Best

Trinity College Dublin
Law

Alex Qin

Australian National University
Life Sciences

Elaine Wai Man Mok

Nanyang Technological University
Linguistics

Dylan Chng

National University of Singapore
Literature

Vincent Sietses

École Polytechnique
Mathematics & Physics

Leighton Schreyer

Western University
Medical Sciences

Allison Kinahan

Toronto Metropolitan University
Music, Theatre & Film Studies

Seow Ting Low

Nanyang Technological University Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Healthcare

Franciszek Bryk

University of St Andrews
Philosophy

Shenali Wijesinghe

Yale-NUS College
Politics & International Relations

Alexis Wong

Nanyang Technological University
Psychology

Lynda Li

University of British Columbia
Social Science: Sociology & Social Policy

Alexander Avila

Brown University
Social Science: Anthropology & Cultural Studies

Dana Leslie

University of Dundee
Visual Arts

Get in touch

The Global Undergraduate Awards is a labour of love and we are very proud of what we do. We hope that you will take the time to learn more about our work and about the top-class research recognised by The Global Undergraduate Awards. If you have any comments, questions or ideas, please get in touch!

Stay Connected

Telephone

+353 (0)1 441 5882

Email

info@undergraduateawards.com

Address

3rd Floor, 18 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2, D02 CY65, Ireland

Facebook X-twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© Undergraduate Awards CLG. Registered in Ireland No. 463125

Disclaimer | Privacy | Cookies | Terms and Conditions

Zareen Tasneem Sharif

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Architecture & Design
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

Winning Paper: Waste in the City: Agglomerating Local Economy of Matuail Landfill

Zareen is a Bachelor of Architecture graduate from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. She was born and raised in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. During her undergraduate years, she secured several university scholarships and many national and international recognitions for her academic projects.

Zareen strongly believes in the integral design process, combining architecture with in-depth design thinking for a sustainable future of the built environment. She is currently participating in research work as well as practicing architecture. She aspires to contribute to the lives of the marginalized communities of her country.

Sahil Tiku

Art History & Theory
The University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau

Winning Paper: A Renaissance of Māoritanga: whare whakairo as novel ‘traditional’ identity.

Sahil is a Bachelor of Architectural Studies graduate from Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau. Born in New Delhi and raised in suburban South Auckland, he has developed a keen interest in urbanism, politics, architectural history and their intersection with Aotearoa New Zealand’s relationships with its indigenous Māori people.

Now studying towards a Master of Architecture (Professional) and Urban Planning (Professional) at Te Pare, he seeks to deepen his understandings of indigenous zeitgeists and their place in the wider built-environment discipline through continued research, alongside volunteer work in the architectural advocacy sphere and real-world experience in practice.

Katie McGrath

Business
Durham University

Winning Paper: The Words of Work: How the Gig Economy is using language to reshape the World of Work

Katie is a recent graduate of Durham University and holds a First Class Degree in Business and Management with Study Abroad. During her degree, she spent time in Viña del Mar, Chile, attending Universidad de Adolfo Ibáñez, focusing on Latin American studies and Spanish. She has since secured a graduate job, and is now working in Consulting in London.

In the future, Katie hopes to return to higher education and combine her passion for South American culture with her interest in Female Entrepreneurship to understand how female entrepreneurs can become the driving force behind economic development.

Oliver Hervir

Chemical & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Australian National University

Winning Paper: Fabricating and Testing Dual-Carbon Batteries to Investigate their Electrochemical Properties and Performance Characteristics

Oliver will finish his Bachelor of Philosophy {Honours} – Science, this year at the Australian National University, where he is completing his Honours project at the John Curtin School of Medical Research. He grew up in Sydney but moved to Canberra for his studies, which involved a myriad of research projects spanning biology, chemistry, public health, and medical physics. In one such project, Oliver worked under the supervision of Associate Professor Alexey Glushenkov, to investigate the properties of dual-carbon batteries. Oliver is passionate about research, and has been involved with the Australasian Council for Undergraduate Research for the last three years, most recently as the Vice President of the student committee. He hopes to pursue a career as a clinician scientist, and is looking forward to meeting other aspiring researchers in Dublin.

Maggie Tighe

Classical Studies & Archaeology
University College Cork

Winning Paper: Ovidian New Pastoral: The Transformation of the Pastoral Genre through Music in the Metamorphoses

Maggie has a first class honours degree in Music and Classical Studies and was awarded College Scholar at University College Cork. While studying, she held the position of conductor of the college orchestra and Vice President of the Ancient Civilisations society.

Maggie is passionate about her music and studies in Classics and she enjoys combining her interests through research. Maggie has returned home to Dublin and has just started an MPhil in Classics at Trinity College Dublin.

Guruprerana Shabadi

Computer Science
École Polytechnique

Winning Paper: Towards safety and fairness verification of data science software

Guruprerana Shabadi is currently a master’s student in Computer Science at École Polytechnique. Previously, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the same university. His research interests revolve around formal methods and safe automation, and his work involves building tools to verify safety and fairness properties of AI systems. His long-term goal is to build a world in which autonomous systems are both omnipresent and guaranteed to be safe, and where automation drives the march towards sustainable development.

Kenna White

Earth & Environmental Sciences

Ulster University

Winning Paper: Can aquatic plant Lemna Minor facilitate the emergence of Enterococci faecalis superbugs?

Kenna is an avid outdoorsman born and raised on the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Bozeman, Montana. During her undergraduate studies, she took her love for the environment to Ulster University, situated on the stunning Northern Irish coast. In 2022, she graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science. Kenna aims to continue her studies in environmental science and further strive to find interdisciplinary approaches to understand our world, how it’s changing, and how to move forward.

Victor Sosanya

Economics
University of Warwick

Winning Paper: The Effect of Pre-University Work Experience on Graduate Wages

Victor graduated with a degree in Economics (BSc) from the University of Warwick. He secured a graduate role as an Equity Delta One Trader at Credit Suisse investment bank, where he currently works.

Outside of work, Victor blogs about careers and personal development for Gen Z alongside hosting The Valuable Podcast.

He is a member of the FED Learners Stakeholder Council where he helps shape educational policy in the UK and has advised at No.10 Downing Street.He was selected as the 9th Future Leader out UK’s 150 most outstanding African and African Caribbean students, listed in Powerful Media Magazine.

Matthew Gover

Education

University of Queensland

Winning Paper: Investigating the Impact of Brief Psychological Interventions on Teaching Growth Mindset and Cultivating Growth Cultures in High School Science Classrooms.

Matthew Gover completed his research across a 6-week teaching placement as part of his Bachelor of Science and Education (Secondary) double degree. Since completing this placement, he has been employed as a math teacher at the same school. Matthew strives to create inclusive and safe classroom cultures within STEM, where all learners can engage and feel comfortable making mistakes.

Beyond the curriculum, Matthew finds joy in encouraging students to become inquisitive and develop skills required to learn. He looks forward to sharing the things he learns in Dublin with others.

Bailey Thompson*

Engineering

Western University

Winning Paper: Efficient Charging System for Hyperloop Application

Bailey recently graduated with a B.E.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering at Western University in Canada. She has lived across the country, including growing up in British Columbia, attending school in Ontario, and recently moving to Quebec. Bailey now works as an engineering consultant in the controls and automation industry and aspires to continue learning by seeking new experiences. In school, she held the role of Co-President in the Women in Engineering Club and enjoys forming new connections.

*This entry was a group work entry. Bailey’s project team members were Bruce Gillespie, Adam Kidd, and Parth Vachharajani.

 

Calvin Heng

History
National University of Singapore

Winning Paper: A Fray in the Iron Curtain: Locating the Aleutian Islands in the Truman Administration’s Cold War Strategic Calculus, 1950–1953

Calvin graduated from the National University of Singapore with a BA (Honours) in History and a minor in China Studies.

While his research is primarily in the field of modern Chinese intellectual history, he is also interested in Arctic sustainability, governance, and geopolitics. Ever since his teacher encouraged him to write his first poem, he has been composing them by way of capturing moments in time—as historians do. He hopes to pay it forward by sharing his passion for history as a public school teacher.

Calvin is currently pursuing a master’s in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University.

Julia Best

Law
Trinity College Dublin

Winning Paper: Bringing Article 41.2 to life: recognising the value in a reformed constitutional protection for those who do unpaid care work in the home

Julia Best is 22 and from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Julia is studying a Master of Laws at the London School of Economics and Political Science, after studying an LL.B. at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. Julia’s essay focuses on Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution, which protects the woman’s place in the home. The essay aims to highlight the value that unpaid care work brings to society. Julia hopes to continue researching the interaction between contemporary human rights issues and sections of society, including the commercial world, throughout her postgraduate degree.

Alex Qin

Life Sciences

Australian National University

Winning Paper: Molecular mechanisms of Ku70 during colorectal cancer

Alex Qin is a final year undergraduate completing his Honours year in the Bachelor of Philosophy degree at the Australian National University.

While his project mainly revolved around using traditional molecular biology tools to solve problems in molecular biology, his more recent research interests have involved using computational techniques to visualise and analyse large datasets in immunology and neuroscience, supplementing traditional molecular biology tools in life sciences. Currently, as part of his Honours project, he’s using computational techniques to analyze datasets on central nervous system pathologies generated with high throughput techniques.

Elaine Wai Man Mok

Linguistics

Nanyang Technological University

Winning Paper: Seeing the Unseen: Discourse Analysis of a Kristang Ghost Story in Singapore

Elaine is a final year linguistics undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University. With family across Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia, she is deeply connected to the many-tongued clamor of port cities. Her dedication to linguistic and cultural diversity spurs her involvement in language revitalization initiatives, including the Kodrah Kristang movement in Singapore.

Ghost stories aside, she enjoys telling and talking about all kinds of narratives — especially those that are shrouded in silence. After graduation, she hopes to work towards decolonizing discourses, detangling systems of other-ization, and bridging the gaps between the so-called Global North and South through research and community-building.

Dylan Chng

Literature
National University of Singapore

Winning Paper: An Apologia for Fragmentation: Cubism and Camouflage in Arthur Gwynn-Browne’s F.S.P.

Dylan Chng works at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a research assistant on a module about Singapore’s transcultural longue durée art history. He recently earned his BA (Hons) in English literature, with a minor in art history, from NUS. His honours thesis explored the interpersonal dynamics behind collaborative horror storytelling in social media communities; his wider research focuses on ideas about intermedial digital reading and narratology that view literary engagement from the perspective of transhumanism. He intends to commence postgraduate studies in 2023/24.

Vincent Sietses

Mathematics and Physics
École Polytechnique

Winning Paper: Entanglement Hamiltonian Reconstruction in the XXZ chain

Vincent is a recent graduate of the Mathematics and Physics Double Bachelor at École Polytechnique. In his third year he interned at the Centre de Physique Théorique in the Condensed Matter group, devoted to the theory of correlated quantum systems. During his time there in Professor Sanchez-Palencia’s group, he worked on implementing a recently discovered numerical scheme to study entanglement in short-range interacting spin chain systems.

He is currently following the MSc Applied Physics at TU Delft and hopes to continue his career at QuTech, a leading institution researching fundamentals and applications of quantum physics.

Leighton Schreyer

Medical Sciences
Western University

Winning Paper: The Discovery of an Epigenetic Signature for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Using Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Analysis

Leighton Schreyer recently received his Bachelor of Science, Honors Specialization in Neuroscience from Western University, and is now a first year medical student at the University of Toronto. During his undergraduate studies, Schreyer worked under the supervision of Dr. Craig Campbell to investigate the role of epigenetics in neuromuscular disease. Schreyer is currently interested in pursuing a career as a clinician scientist, where he hopes to combine his passions for health and social justice to explore the social determinants of health and health inequalities, and work with vulnerable communities to spearhead positive, transformational change.

Allison Kinahan

Music, Film and Theatre

Toronto Metropolitan University

Winning Paper: Performance in Confinement: Icebound Theatricals as a Means of Survival

Allison Kinahan is currently a master’s student in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Having graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Performance: Production program with a minor in History, she now researches instances of theatre and performance in times of war and confinement, particularly in prisoner of war and displacement camps during the Second World War era. Allison aims to maintain an interdisciplinary approach and hopes that continued research into the historical practice of theatre in confinement will provide a greater understanding of the therapeutic benefits of performance in modern prisons and refugee camps.

Seow Ting Low

Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Healthcare

Nanyang Technological University

Winning Paper: Leucine Dose Response on Cardiovascular Risk Factors Post 4 Wk of Alternate-day Fasting

Seow Ting is a recent graduate from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Sport Science and Management (Highest Distinction). Her undergraduate research focused on the effectiveness of Leucine supplementation in improving cardiovascular risk factors. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD at the National Institute of Education, NTU. Understanding that early childhood is predictive of multiple aspects of health and wellbeing throughout life, she aims to conduct impactful research on children’s physical activity and health, to help the next generation learn, play, and grow up healthy and happy in this digital age.

Franciszek Bryk

Philosophy
University of St Andrews

Winning Paper: Kant on the impossibility of the priority of the concept of the good to the moral law

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Franciszek developed a keen interest in history of philosophy as a high school student. He has recently graduated with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews. He is currently studying towards the degree of MSt in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford. His main academic interests are the moral philosophies of Aristotle and Kant.

Shenali Wijesinghe

Politics & International Relations

Yale-NUS College

Winning Paper: Female Political Participation in Sri Lanka: Are Women in Parliament Gatekeepers?

Shenali Wijesinghe is a recent graduate of Yale-NUS College, where she was awarded a merit scholarship to pursue a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, majoring in Global Affairs and minoring in Arts and Humanities. During her time at university, she enjoyed working on gendered research focused on the region of South Asia. Her final-year thesis, under the supervision of her advisor Professor Rohan Mukherjee, was centered on identifying the obstacles women in the Sri Lankan parliament face under a more microscopic lens, which involved focusing on the individuals themselves. Her thesis was inspired by her vested interest in her home, Sri Lanka, having had the lowest proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments for over a decade.

Shenali hopes to continue to advocate for policies that promote a future that is gender-responsive by design, which then allows for an enabling environment for the empowerment of women and girls. During her free time, she is also passionate about writing and reading poetry.

Alexis Wong

Psychology

Nanyang Technological University

Winning Paper: Adaptive Behaviours and Well-being of Higher Education Students: Does Growth Mindset Matter?

Alexis is a third-year Honours Psychology student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is passionate about the applications of psychology to the fields of education and special needs, and plans to pursue a masters in Educational Psychology. In her free time, she is involved in assisting equine therapy sessions with children and teens, and volunteers at a centre providing clinical and educational intervention for individuals with special needs.

Lynda Li

Social Science: Sociology & Social Policy

University of British Columbia

Winning Paper: From Victims to Visionaries: Representations of Older Asian Adults in Canadian News Media during COVID-19

 

Lynda is in the final year of her undergraduate degree in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, where her work focuses on the intersections between age, race, and health. Growing up in an immigrant family, Lynda is keen on using culturally responsive care to address the healthcare barriers experienced by marginalized groups. As an aspiring clinician and researcher, Lynda seeks to bridge the art and science of medicine by integrating patient-centred care with evidence-based practice. Lynda continues to advocate for health equity outside of the classroom, where she’s founded a non-profit organization providing free healthcare translation services for immigrants.

Alexander Avila

Social Science: Anthropology & Cultural Studies

Brown University

Winning Paper: The Colonization of Online Discourse: Pandemic Resistance in Advanced Capitalism

Alexander is a senior at Brown University studying sociology with a special interest in all things theory, especially the debate between critical theory and post-structuralism. His ultimate goal in life is to bring sociological theory to the general public, as he believes in theory’s ability to ignite the imagination towards creative approaches to social problems. His eponymous YouTube channel with over 350,000 subscribers where he covers queer culture through a sociological lens confirms the possibility of the project. Outside of his main projects, he is also involved in student government, on-campus fellowships, original research, and an upcoming self-produced album.

Dana Leslie

Visual Arts

University of Dundee

Winning Paper: Hope is A Form of Planning

Dana Leslie is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Dundee. Her art practice encompasses video, performance, installation, and printmaking, and often tackles feminist themes. In 2022 she graduated in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design with First Class honours, winning a publishing contract for her dissertation on gender roles and inequality in the art world. Most recently, she has participated in Scotland + Venice’s Professional Development Programme, working at the 59th Venice Biennale, and has made a digital theatre piece for False Start Productions (funded by Creative Scotland). She is currently undertaking a master’s degree in Art, Science, and Visual Thinking.