CERCA 2026
Come see how HPC impacts research at UW-Eau Claire
CERCA (Celebration of Excellence in Research and Creative Activity) is an annual event at UW-Eau Claire that gives students the opportunity to present and share their research projects and different creative activities through presentations and posters. The Blugold Center for High-Performance Computing is delighted to be able to be a valuable resource specifically for the research side of campus, and we wanted to highlight below the variety of projects we've been able to support this year. We encourage everyone on campus to stop by and learn from these students about how they used the computing clusters for their work, as well as check out all the other projects shown at CERCA.
More about CERCA| Full CERCA Schedule
Interested in seeing what happened at a prior CERCA event? Check out our schedule from 2025.
Jump To Date: Mon, April 27th | Tue, April 28th | Wed, April 29th | Thu, April 30th | Fri, May 1st
Monday, April 27th - Mathematics Retreat
CERCA kicks off this year with the 34th annual UWEC Mathematics Retreat, focused exclusively on research performed by students and faculty in the Math department. The following presentations by students have utilized our computing resources for their projects, which is open to everyone to attend.
11:30 am
In how many ways can you fold a strip of stamps?
Hibbard Hall 320
Presenter: Briar Weston
Faculty Mentor: Allison Beemer
Tuesday, April 28th - Spotlight on First-Year Research
The Spotlight on First-Year Research category is all focused on research projects that involve first-year students.
2:00 pm
Analysis of Bi-2212 Superconducting Filament Joining using Deep Learning Methods
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Evan Rosenick, Jayson Rugg
Faculty Mentor: Matthew Jewell
Refining the Decoding Algorithm SASH for the Optimization of Community Detection
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Taylor Presler
Faculty Mentor: Allison Beemer
Schistosomes detect differences in light wavelength
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Declan Algrem, Sonja Olson, Bailey Stuart
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
Influence of Data Provenance on Anatomical Representations in Pancreas CT Segmentation Models
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Lando Dierkes, Caleb Smock
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Wednesday, April 29th
11:00 am
Poster 002: Developing Machine Learning Force Fields for Amorphous SiOx as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Sam Chinault, Nick Ziegler
Faculty Mentor: Ying Ma
Poster 010: From Data to Drug Design: Exploring the Molecular Hardness of G-Coupled Protein Receptors Active Sites
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Chase Nelson, Avery De Ruyter
Faculty Mentor: Sudeep Bhattacharyay
Poster 012: A novel device for high-throughput phenotypic screening of schistosome miracidia enables identification of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels modulators that impact miracidia behavior
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Rachel Horejsi, Saige Maasz-Seawright, Chase Nelson
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
Poster 013: Schistosomes detect differences in light wavelength
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Declan Algrem, Sonja Olson, Bailey Stuart
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
Poster 021: Environmental Effects on the Structural Properties of CH3CN-SO3 Complexes
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Kimberly Jacobs, Alex Jarchow
Faculty Mentor: James Phillips
Poster 026: Optimizing Math Department Scheduling with Prioritized Constraints
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Theodore Schwantes
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
Poster 027: Refining the Decoding Algorithm SASH for the Optimization of Community Detection
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Taylor Presler
Faculty Mentor: Allison Beemer
Poster 029: Diabetes Coach: An Agentic, Human-Centered AI System for Supporting Type 2 Diabetes Management in Rural Communities
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Clara Bartlett, Emily Hopke
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Poster 030: How Retrieval-Augmented Generation Systems Improve Accuracy and Transparency in Diabetes-Related Clinical Responses
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Evan Biesterveld, Aaron Fraser
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Poster 031: Deep Learning–Driven Assessment of IVC Filter Strut Penetration on CT
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Mykle Buhrow, Ian Nie
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Poster 032: Influence of Data Provenance on Anatomical Representations in Pancreas CT Segmentation Models
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Lando Dierkes, Caleb Smock
Faculty Mentor: Rahul Gomes
Poster 060: Bridging Theory and Practice in Machine Learning: An Empirical Study of Gradient Descent Convergence Bounds
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Jacob Diamond, James McCormack
Faculty Mentor: Jim Seliya
Thursday, April 30th
10:15 am
High-Level Computed Vibrational Frequencies of Gamma-Pyrone in Its Lowest Triplet Excited State
Davies Center - Ho-Chunk Room (320E)
Presenter: Stewart Gundry
Faculty Mentor: Stephen Drucker
10:30 am
Utilizing Machine Learning Embedded Tools to Predict the Species-Specific Interactions in Dynamic Prolyl-tRNA Synthetases
Davies Center - Ho-Chunk Room (320E)
Presenter: Breanna Hayden
Faculty Mentor: Sudeep Bhattacharyay
2:00 pm
Poster 017: The Effects of Stellar Winds on the Orbits of Planets Around Massive Stars
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Grace Mullikin
Faculty Mentor: Nathan Miller
Poster 019: Classifying Enzyme Substrates Using Machine Learning
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Kyle He
Faculty Mentor: Abra Brisbin
Poster 046: Creating a Dataset of Realistic AI-Generated Phishing Emails to Better Inform Phishing Defenses
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Jack Hagen, Jacob Stoltenburg
Faculty Mentor: Mounika Vanamala
Poster 122: Analysis of Bi-2212 Superconducting Filament Joining using Deep Learning Methods
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Evan Rosenick, Jayson Rugg
Faculty Mentor: Matthew Jewell
Poster 135: A Computational Study to Explore the Physicochemical Properties of FDA-Approved Fluorinated Pharmaceuticals and their Distribution in the Brain
Davies Center - Ojibwe Ballroom (330)
Presenter: Soren Lesperance, Marcus Pollard, Jack Servais, Mara Zimmer, Grace Zurawski
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
Friday, May 1st - Provost’s Honors Symposium
1:00 pm
Examining the Link between Molecular Hardness and Binding Affinity for use in Drug Design
Davies Center - Woodland Theater (328)
Presenter: Mac Wick
Faculty Mentors: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
2:10 pm
Computational Modeling of Protein Kinase Inhibitors Using Molecular Hardness
Davies Center - Ho-Chunk Room (320E)
Presenter: Austin Lerch, Alyssa McGlade
Faculty Mentor: Sanchita Hati, Sudeep Bhattacharyay
Deep learning–based pose tracking of Aedes aegypti larvae reveals chemosensory behaviors and functional anatomy
Davies Center - Woodland Theater (328)
Presenter: Helen Gensch
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
Streamlining Creating Computational Models of White Dwarf Stars
Davies Center - Menominee Room (320F)
Presenter: Izak Carney, Elaina Plonis
Faculty Mentor: William Wolf
Tissue-specific origin of eggs in the definitive host drives transcriptomic and behavioral differences in Schistosoma mansoni miracidia
Davies Center - Woodland Theater (328)
Presenter: Sonja Olson
Faculty Mentor: Nicolas Wheeler
List Your Presentation / Poster
Did you or your research group use our high-performance computing clusters for your research project and are participating in CERCA? Please let us know right away so we can add it to the list for others to stop by and visit.