Award Information
Awards range from $750-1,500. Co-presenters will split the prize in each respective category.
In keeping with the interdisciplinary spirit of this campus-wide event, PRD judges will evaluate presentations primarily on how effectively they communicate their research to a non-specialist audience. Judges include undergraduate and graduate alumni, faculty, staff and members of the community.
To be eligible for an award, videos should be three minutes or less. Presenters who received an award at a previous PRD are eligible to win awards again at future PRDs.
For more information on the evaluation criteria, you can view last year's PRD judges' rubric.
Outstanding Presentation Awards
Outstanding Undergraduate Presentation Award
Awarded to undergraduate presentations that receive the highest scores among all undergraduate submissions. Awardees will be featured during the live ceremony and will have the opportunity to discuss their research with a moderator.
PRD22 Winners:
Grace Barbara, Class of 2022
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Adviser: Steve Pacala
Title: From bare to brilliant: The migration of fish species to a newly deployed artificial coral reef in Delray Beach, FL
Emily Alexander Cruz, Class of 2022
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Adviser: Chris Greig, Ian Bourg
Title: Modeling the Carbon Emissions of Financial Institutions
Miriam Stern, Class of 2022
Linguistics
Adviser: Christiane Fellbaum
Title: "It's All in Your Head": Disparities in Colposcopy Description Between Patients and Medical Professionals
Outstanding Presentation Award
Awarded to the research presentation that receives the highest scores amongst graduate, postdoctoral or other early-career researcher submissions. Awardees will be featured during the live ceremony and will have the opportunity to discuss their research with a moderator.
PRD22 Winners:
Eric Franklin and Guanhua He, Graduate Students
Molecular Biology
Adviser: Martin Jonikas
Title: How Nature’s Tiniest Soda Could Help Feed the World: The Story of the Algal Pyrenoid
Samin Rashidbeigi, Graduate Student
Near Eastern Studies
Title: The Making of the Modern Donor
Gawoon Shim, Graduate Student
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Adviser: Daniel Cohen
Title: Can you electrically stimulate wounds to make them heal faster?
Orange & Black Awards
Orange & Black Undergraduate Presentation Award
Awarded to undergraduate presentations that receive the second-highest scores among all undergraduate submissions. Presenters who win this award will have their presentation featured on the PRD website and the presenter names will be announced during the live event.
PRD22 Winners
Jeffery Chen, Class of 2025
Politics
Adviser: Corey J. Cusimano
Title: Motivated Reasoning: facts do care about your feelings
Indu Panigrahi, Class of 2023
Computer Science
Adviser: Adam Maloof, Ruth Fong
Title: A Tale of Modern Computers and the Ancient Seafloor
Isla Dora Burrell Weber, Class of 2022
Neuroscience
Adviser: Gergely Turi, Annegret Falkner
Title: Psychedelic-assisted therapy and the importance of context
Orange & Black Presentation Award
Awarded to graduate, postdoctoral or other early-career researcher submissions that receive the second-highest scores. Presenters who win this award will have their presentation featured on the PRD website and the presenter names will be announced during the live event.
PRD Winners
Yeraldi Loera, Graduate Student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Adviser: Shane Campbell-Staton
Title: Evolution by Pesticides
Rolando Masís-Obando, Graduate Student
Neuroscience
Title: Ethical Design For The Future Internet
Bhartendu Pandey, Postdoctoral Fellow
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Adviser: Anu Ramaswami
Title: Urban Tree Cover Monitoring: Towards Environmental Equity and Sustainability
Fan Favorite
FitzRandolph Gate Award
A symbol of the University's openness to the worldwide community, the FitzRandolph Gate Award represents the presentation that is considered the “fan favorite” by the Princeton community.
Following the mainstage event, all submitted presentations will be viewable by the general public on the PRD website and shared through University-sponsored channels. The presentation that receives the most “likes” will win this award.
Award value: $1,000
PRD Winner:
Payton Croskey, Class of 2023
African American Studies
Adviser: Ruha Benjamin
Title: The Augmented Undercommons and The Path to The Sun: An Exploration of Liberatory Technology and other Revolutionary Tools
Sponsored Awards
Campus Impact Award
Sponsored by Campus Life
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student, graduate student or post-doctoral researcher whose research positively impacts the Princeton University campus community in some way. In particular, research that has a demonstrable, meaningful and potentially lasting impact on some or all campus populations can be considered for this award. This could mean positively impacting the life of other students; illuminating something important about campus or certain campus populations that may lead to action; responding to an important campus need; and/or research that connects or impacts University community members across roles.
Award value: $1,500
PRD22 Winner:
Harry Shapiro, Class of 2022
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Adviser: Lamyaa El-Gabry
Title: Optimizing Princeton’s Campus Energy Plants
Innovation and Entrepreneurial Mindset Awards
Sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council
One award will be given to an undergraduate research presentation, and another award will be given to a graduate student, postdoc or early career researcher presentation.
This award recognizes the impact that Princeton research and scholarship can have on the greater world. Impact can take many different forms – social impact, technical impact, community impact – and can be on large or small communities. The judges will evaluate the research on the clarity of the proposition value presented – and the proposition value is defined by the benefit that a customer or user group will receive from the idea proposed.
Award value: $1,000
PRD22 Winners:
Cathy Teng, Class of 2022
Computer Science
Advisers: Kyriaki Kylili, Constantinos Hadjistassou
Title: Deploying Deep Learning to Estimate the Abundance of Marine Debris from Video Footage
Sophia Yoo, Graduate Student
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adviser: Jen Rexford
Title: SmartCookie: Distributed In-Network SYN Flooding Mitigation
Graduate Student Impact Award
Sponsored by the Graduate School
Recognizes one presentation by a graduate student who clearly communicates the positive impact the research has on enriching or improving our culture, community or society. The winning graduate student researcher will have their presentation featured on the PRD website and the presenter name will be announced during the live event.
Award value: $1,500
PRD22 Winner:
Yejoon Seo, Graduate Student
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Adviser: Rodney Priestley
Title: Drugs are good, but how do they go bad?
Princeton University Library (PUL) Award
Sponsored by the Princeton University Library
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student who has clearly articulated thoughtful use of Library resources and services, including working with PUL staff (librarians, specialists, curators) to support their research endeavors. Library resources include: the Special Collections Reading Room, online exhibits, digitization services, research data management, GIS and maps or the statistical software support offered by the Library.
Award value: $750
PRD22 Winner:
Saran Touré, Class of 2022
Politics
Adviser: Leonard Wantchekon
Title: The Natural Resource Curse and Colonial Legacy in French West Africa