Cutting-edge academic research produced by undergraduate students over the summer has been exhibited at the University of Central Lancashire.
Over 50 undergraduates spent ten weeks working as paid interns with academic supervisors to produce postgraduate level research and their work was put on display at the Preston Campus.
Social prescribing, mental health, artificial intelligence, atopic dermatitis treatment, climate change and dental health care were among the topics covered in our Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme 2024 poster exhibition.
The programme gives students the chance to experience being a researcher and improve their data collection, data analysis and interpretation skills. Also, the programme provides opportunities, such as, conference attendance and experience working with the community.
The First Prize for Best Poster Presentation was awarded to Aarav Ramesh Kanar for his work, along with team member and previous winner Zain Patel, on the Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute project titled "Your Microbiome Shapes Your Future." Their research was guided by Supervisors Professor Morris Gordon and Dr Vasiliki Sinopoulou. Aarav received a £250 Amazon voucher and will now follow in the footsteps of last year’s winners, Zain Patel and Martina Ward, by presenting his team’s research at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR2025) and 'Posters in Parliament' events in 2025.
"Zain and Aarav have been amazing, it has been a challenging project, they were always enthusiastic about the topic and the work. They did their best and they helped us do a lot of work to carry the project forward."
— Dr Vasiliki Sinopoulou
The ‘Microbiome Shapes Your Future’ project aimed to characterise how variations in typical life exposures from 8 weeks to 12 months affect the development of the gut microbiome in healthy term infants. Reflecting on how it was doing the research over the summer, Aarav shared: “I really loved it, mainly because of the supervisors I had and the team we were working with.”
When asked about his next steps, Aarav said: “I plan to keep working on this project because we know it’s quite ground-breaking and we need to dig a bit deeper into it and understand how we can present it at perhaps a national level.”
Dr Vasiliki Sinopoulou spoke about the award-winning team: “Zain and Aarav have been amazing, it has been a challenging project, they were always enthusiastic about the topic and the work. They did their best and they helped us do a lot of work to carry the project forward.”
Second place was awarded to Judith Loughlin who worked with the Institute of Creativity, Communities and Culture on ‘If the world was a person she would be crying always. Empathy, emotion and creativity in climate change education.’ This project used art-based methods to understand more about how children aged 9-13 learn about climate change through empathy and creativity. Judith received a £150 Amazon Voucher and will also be a University representative for the BCUR2025 event.
Alice Freeman was awarded the third prize for the Institute for Applied Health and Wellbeing project titled ‘Defining a Collaborative Approach for a Complex Leisure Intervention. This project looked at developing an intervention that can increase stroke survivors’ participation in valued leisure activities. Alice’s research included an interactive element, where the attendee guessed whether co-production, co-design, or co-creation was being enacted in her poster.
Prathamm Surana and Victoria Babajide were awarded a Judges Prize for the Institute for Applied Health and Wellbeing’s project titled: ‘Natural hydrogel patches with antimicrobial, anti-itch and moisturising properties as an alternative to Wet Wrap Therapy for Atopic Dermatitis.’ A second Judges Prize was given to Hannah Gardiner for the Institute of Materials and Investigative Sciences project titled: ‘When animals were still people.’
A final Judges Prize was received by Iqra Hussain for her research with the Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute and Institute for Behaviour, Sport and Rehabilitation. The project was titled: ‘The Power of Music: Integrating Music into Dementia Care.’
The Undergraduate Research Internship Scheme poster exhibition has been held since 2008, with over 800 interns successfully completing the programme. Professor StJohn Crean Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, presented the students with their certificates and prizes at the event and emphasised the importance that research projects bring to both the University and the community.