Celebrating student research, the Elliott School hosted its annual Student Research Showcase on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Featuring dozens of projects from Elliott undergraduate and graduate students, the event offered students an opportunity to visually highlight their research through poster presentations to an audience of scholars, practitioners, and fellow students. Students sharpened their presentation skills and engaged in meaningful dialogue with attendees regarding the significance of their research findings.
Congratulations to Zhijun (Walden) He, Lily Shanmugasundaram, and Nicolas Gangi-Saroukhanioff, who took top prize for their individual research projects. Zhijun's research looked at: "Economical Samaritans: Assessing the Impact of the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative on Inclusive Development of Ghana and Zambia." Lily examined: "Balancing Gender Equality and the Environment to Combat India’s Menstrual Waste Issues." And Nicolas offered insight into: "Writing the Revolution: Literature and Communism in Mao's China and the German Democratic Republic."
A group of graduate Security Policy Studies students took top prize for team research. Jana Ondrášková, Emily Moussa, Kellan Nedwick, and Maddie Whitfield's presented their project on: "Guarding the Depths: Countering Hybrid Threats to Undersea Infrastructure in the European Arctic." The work began as the group's Capstone project in which they conducted seminar-style simulations in Washington D.C., Helsinki, and Oslo to identify capacity-capability gaps in responding to hybrid threats against undersea infrastructure in the European Arctic.
Winners of the Elliott Showcase, as well as Cricket Baldwin and Ethan Wertleib, who presented on: "Climate Change Impacts on Energy Infrastructure Along the Red Sea," later represented Elliott at the university-wide GW Research Showcase on May 1. Lily Shanmugasundaram's work was later featured in GWToday as an outstanding example of the showcase.
Special thanks and congratulations to all the students who showcased their work and to all those who attended in support of the students' tremendous research.