From Glial Cells to Cybersecurity: CUE Celebrates Summer Research Day 2026
Edmonton, AB – On August 19, Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) held its annual Summer Student Research Day.
13 undergraduate students and two graduate students presented their research to peers, supervisors, and university faculty alike to cap off a summer spent conducting research alongside CUE faculty members. These 15 students represented a cross section of students, from across all Faculties, who spent their summer pursuing research.
The day opened with remarks from the Provost and Vice President, Academic, Dr. Barb van Ingen, and closed with remarks from the Associate Vice President, Research & Innovation, Dr. Carla Craveiro Salvado.
Among the presenters were students who travelled from Pakistan, Germany, Brazil, Tunisia, and Rwanda to spend their summer researching in Edmonton, choosing to call CUE home for the summer to grow their research experience alongside their Canadian peers.
A Summer of Discovery
This year’s presenters and their research:
| Student | Supervisor | Title of Presentation |
| Marlea Seatter | Dr. Matthew Churchward | Electrical Stimulation of Glial Cells |
| Cheryl Heidl | Dr. Jenna Congdon | The influence of biological factors and habitat on Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) behaviour |
| Juliana Lindsay | Dr. Blessing Bassey-Archibong and Dr. Wilson Ramirez-Duarte | Investigating the effects of chemical stressors in neural homeostasis across species |
| Tristin Reimer | Dr. Tanya Shoot | The Unknown Song and Dance of Female Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs |
| Rachel Jost | Dr. Makan Golizeh | Synthetic Receptors for Advanced Glycation End Products in Complex Mixtures |
| Matheus Ceola | Dr. Makan Golizeh | Next-Gen Bioassays |
| Julianna Schemerhorn | Dr. Jenna Congdon | An investigation of social structure changes and novel enrichment on animal behaviour in a zoo setting |
| Abdul Rehman Antall | Dr. Baidya Nath Saha | Typology-Clustered LLMs for the World’s Resource-Scarce Languages |
| Anusha Jhanwar | Dr. Seyma Yildrim-Erbasli | Beyond Item Development: Establishing Reliability and Validity Evidence for Newly Developed Psychological Instruments |
| Yuel Zeray | Dr. Maryam Vaziri | Effects of Serendipita herbamans on Salt and Drought Tolerance in Canola |
| Alexandra Asuchak | Dr. Matthew Churchward | The Role of KAT2 Regulation in Promoting Neuroprotection |
| Lina Abboud | Dr. Md Morshedul Islam | Securing Hierarchical Fog Federated Learning Against Data Poisoning Attacks |
| Ava Rudyk | Dr. Matthew Churchward | The role of ACSL3 in Lipid Droplet formation in microglia |
| Annick Igiraneza Mbabazi | Dr. Eslam AbdAllah | Applying NIST based Risk Management Framework for Mitigating RFID Cloning and Replay Attacks in Healthcare Systems |
| Yvan Patrick Ndizeye | Dr. Eslam AbdAllah | Autonomous Vehicle Security and Resilience: An AI-Assisted ICN-Inspired Edge Architecture for V2X Communication |
Supporting the Next Generation of Researchers
This summer’s research was made possible by Mitacs, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian International Development Scholarship 2030. Five of the presenters were international students funded by the MitacsGlobal Research Internship program, seven were CUE students who had received NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards, and two were supported through the Canadian International Development Scholarship 2030 program. The day was also supported, in part, by the Tri-Agency Research Support Fund.