Inaugural 2025 MS-CC Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium
Wednesday August 6, 2025
8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
In the final week of the internship, students will showcase their research during an Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium hosted at Fisk University. The symposium will provide a platform for student interns to present their research projects and share their experiences. Please see the agenda below for more information.
This symposium is a fantastic opportunity to witness the culmination of hard work and dedication from 14 talented students representing various Historically Black Colleges and Universities. These interns have successfully completed the 2025 MS-CC Undergraduate Research internship at Fisk University in collaboration with Meharry Medical College and will be showcasing their research and achievements.
Join Us Online
Space is limited for in-person attendance, but we invite the community to join us virtually. You can register here.
Note: You’ll receive confirmation and Zoom meeting details within 24 hours of registering. Registration is required to attend.
Please note that the Student Research Showcase session, scheduled from 4- 5:30 p.m., will not be available via Zoom.
We’ll also share the students’ presentations on this page, so check back for updates.
Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium Agenda
| Time | Agenda | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30–9 AM | Breakfast & Registration | |
| 9-9:30 AM | Welcome |
Dr. Sajid Hussian Meharry Medical College Dr. Karl Walker Fisk University |
| 9:30-10 AM | Opening Keynote | Dr. Nadine Shillingford Meharry SACS |
| 10-10:30 AM | Deep Learning for Wildfire Risk Prediction (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Uttam Ghosh, Mentor Meharry Medical College Debashis Das, Co-Mentor Meharry Medical College Koi Cooks Dillard University Caleb Maxie Dillard University |
| 10:30-11 AM | XERA: Smart Conversational Agent for Advancing Planetary Health Education and Public Awareness (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Pushpita Chatterjee, Mentor Meharry Medical College Victoria Franklin, Co-Mentor Meharry Medical College Michael Paul, Co-Mentor North Carolina Central University Donovan Banks Dillard University Niaja-Amarri Mitchell Tuskegee University |
| 11-11:30 AM | Break & Networking | |
| 11:30-12 PM | Geospatial Prediction of Climate Change Hotspots: Identifying Areas Most Affected by Climate Change using AI (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Hina Raja, Mentor Fisk University Charisma Harris Fisk University LaRon Foster Jr. Alabama A&M University |
| 12-12:30 PM | Predicting Regional Climate Patterns Using Graphic Neural Networks (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Ning Zhang, Mentor Fisk University Jordan Johnson Texas Southern University Mya Tolbert University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff |
| 12:30-1:30 PM | Lunch | |
| 1:30-2 PM | Predicting Global Temperature Anomalies (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Lei Qian, Mentor Meharry Medical College Michaela Robinson Fisk University Chloe Banks Alabama State University |
| 2-2:30 PM | EcoPredictML: Understanding and Predicting Ecosystem Disruption Impacting Mammals through Machine Learning Models (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Sajid Hussain, Mentor Meharry Medical College Loni Taylor, Co-mentor Meharry Medical College Asmah Muallem, Co-mentor Meharry Medical College Juliet Alozie Fisk University Justin Freeman Alabama State University |
| 2:30-3 PM | Evaluating Climate Change Effects on Agricultural Yield Using Deep Learning (Presentation with Q&A) |
Dr. Firdous Kausar, Mentor Fisk University Raven Mott Virginia State University Calvin Kamara Bowie State University |
| 3-3:30 PM | Closing Remarks |
Adrian Lockwood 2024 MS-CC Intern |
| 3:30-4 PM | Presentation of Certificates |
Alexia Jones, Sr. Program Mgr. MS-CC |
| 4-5:30 PM | Student Research Showcase & Poster Session | MS-CC Undergraduate Student Summer Research interns and local student researchers |