Samford University’s Student Research Colloquia is a public forum for students across all areas of campus to present scholarship and research. On April 25, more than 160 students showcased their work on subjects ranging from the financial risks of professional athletes to the proteins released in the brain to combat sleep deprivation.
Linnea Minnema, director of grants and sponsored programs, said she is always awed by this event. The colloquia is open to undergraduate and graduate students from all 10 academic schools, and Minnema was excited to have so many disciplines represented this year.
The 4th annual event featured Quincy Crittendon, a senior computer science major from Decatur, Alabama. His project, Red-Teaming Large Language Models: An Exploration of Jailbreaks and Adversarial Attacks, examined how artificial intelligence systems can be manipulated to bypass safety mechanisms.
“This is a great opportunity,” Crittendon said. “It’s beautiful to see all these students and the hard work we’ve put in. We’re all passionate, and it’s a great feeling to see our work on display.”
This event is led by the Research Advisory Collaborative in partnership with the Office of Research at Samford. The colloquia also exemplifies three pillars of the university’s strategic plan, Fidelitas: academic distinction, community celebration and student engagement.
This type of experiential learning (students engaging in research with a faculty mentor) has value far beyond the grade they receive or the presentation they do,” Minnema said. “The challenge to think critically about a research question and have the responsibility of communicating the findings to people who are not familiar with the ideas is a lifelong skill for our students.”
2025 Student Research Colloquia Winners
Undergraduate
- Carson Jaworski, Luke Keffer (Chemistry)
- Caitlin Cline, Raney Collins, Jacob Conn (Kinesiology)
- Katie Eisenhauer, Anna Corinne Galbreath, Mary Ellis Davies (Communication Sciences and Disorders)
- Addie Hunter (Public Health)
- Hannah Warren (Human Development and Family Sciences)
- Raegan Jenkins (Business)
- Brenna Beucler, Brooke Smith, Caroline Thompson, Ella Mattingly, Kelsey Wimsatt, Lily Prout, Anna Garrett, Morgan Miller (Communication Sciences and Disorders)
- Emma McBane (Biology)
- Kirsten Jennings Norvell (Education)
Graduate
- Banks Presson (Pharmacy)
- Kaitlyn Madson (Pharmacy)
- Elijah Carswell, Adriana Salgado (Pharmacy)
- Kayla Torres (Public Health)
See below for school-specific coverage on the Samford Research Colloquia:
Howard College of Arts and Sciences
