Category: Oral Presentation

Creation Myths and Science Fiction: The Human Urge to Structure the Unknowable

Presenter: Hayden Stewart – History

Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Andrea Goering

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

In his introduction to “Sun Songs: Creation Myths from Around the World,” Raymond Von Over writes, “The myths of ancient mankind attempted to resolve such profound and confusing questions, and therefore when reading myths we experience not so much an emotional insight as a sensation of watching something marvelous grow in the mind of early mankind.” It is my belief that science fiction, in its most scientific and cerebral form, is the evolution of the creation myth. A story that symbolizes the question of “where are we going?” rather than “from where did we come?” It is that same growth of something marvelous growing in our minds, but now instead of then. My presentation includes a story that I wrote. It takes place during the Heat Death of the Universe, on the final abode of humankind. It is meant to be a meditation on how far away storytelling can take us, and what it can show us capable of achieving. Much like how the creation myths of our past told of what was before us, and how and why we came to be, this story aims to tell what will come after us, how, and why we should care about so distant a future. Along with the aforementioned text by Raymond Von Over and the myths it contains, I’ll be drawing from works by Isaac Asimov and Ursula K. Le Guin, and consensus timelines of the eventual fate of the universe. It’s my hope that this collection of ideas can add to the conversation of the importance of art for human self-conception and scientific/philosophical progress.

Optical Based Sensing of Shear Strain using Reflective Color Patterns

Presenter: Maryam Shuaib – Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Mike McGeehan, Keat Ghee Ong

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Stimuli and Response, Poster Presentation

There is an increasing need to measure shear force in biomedical applications. Many shear force sensors exist, but are often impractical as they can be bulky, require large amounts of power, and are sensitive to electromagnetic interference. The goal of this project is to apply new optoelectronic sensing principles to measure shear strain. Optoelectronic sensors have various advantages including a smaller design that is able to measure multi-axial shear strain. This particular sensor functions through optical coupling of an LED that emits red, green, and blue (RGB) light, which is then reflected off of an adjacent surface displaying a color pattern consisting of randomized color pixels (Figure 1A). Shearing between these surfaces is measured using a photodiode, which senses changes in the RGB light intensities due to the shifts in the color pattern’s position. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of various color patterns and classification algorithms to determine multi-axial shear strain. The optimal sensor configuration was found to be Pattern 3 (Figure 1B) with a Weighted K-Nearest-Neighbor algorithm with an accuracy of 98%, and a misclassification cost of 0.07 millimeters. The accuracy and robustness of the sensor-derived measurements, along with the practical and scalable design, support the use of this sensor in a multitude of biomedical applications.

Emasculation of the Other: Meiji Ukiyo-e War Prints and Japanese Identity

Presenter: Eun-Jai Shin – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Akiko Walley

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Read, Speak and Act

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was one of the most monumental moments of East Asian history, featuring Japan’s rise as an imperial power. Rigorous nationalistic development helped it achieve its first victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). However, these feats were not without insecurities, and Japan as the new ‘Empire of Asia’ necessitated validation of its reformed identity and influence. Ukiyo-e, woodblock printing from the Edo Period, was revitalized during this time and served as a new form of reportage, providing a popularly consumable and replicable source of current events. Furthermore, its realist agenda- assured credibility- enabled it to become an ideal platform for propaganda. This presentation will focus on marginalization- specifically the emasculation– of subaltern others during the First Sino-Japanese War- and how its compositional, figural and symbolic depiction of China and Korea assisted in the Japanese assertion of superiority and dominance.

Sportswashing: The Expensive Image Laundering Conspiracy Sullying Sport and Foreign Relations

Presenter: Christian Sardar – Business Administration

Faculty Mentor(s): Corbett Upton

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—The More You Know (in depth looks and prevention)

Sportswashing refers to a sovereign entity such as a nation buying a sports team in another country and using it to improve their image. In my research paper I posit that sportswashing, specifically that done by the countries of the Persian Gulf, is not only damaging from a foreign policy perspective but also from a sporting perspective. Most of the teams being bought as soccer teams from Western European nations and their governments seem ambivalent towards the situation. By looking at the exact level of investment by countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE I found a whole lot of money being poured into teams which yielded little to no money for the nations that bought them. It also took next to no research in order to discover the vast number of heinous human rights violations being committed in these wealthy countries, yet they are able through sportswashing to redirect public opinion off of themselves. Simultaneously, their name remains untouched or in many cases elevated. Manchester City is right now one of the best soccer teams ever seen and its name is nearly synonymous with the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Similarly the upcoming World Cup is taking place in Qatar in stadiums mostly built by migrant workers living in conditions akin to slavery. This issue is immensely pressing for our current sporting climate and world as this topic really speaks to how nations are trying to spread their soft power across the globe. This research assesses the damage done so far.

The Relationship Among Parental Stress, Child Well-Being, and Routines During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Presenter: Ciera Sanders – Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Sihong Liu

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Health and Social Science, Poster Presentation

Children are the beacons that will carry their knowledge, ideas, and voices into the future. It is crucial we ensure children are given ample opportunity to develop into healthy adults. Parental stress can negatively impact child well-being. Could the impacts be mitigated by consistent use of family routines? Using data from the RAPID-EC national survey that began in April 2020 and is still ongoing, I compared pre-pandemic ratings of parental stress and child well-being to assessment levels during the pandemic. Then, I examined how parental stress influences child well-being. I completed my analysis by examining the impact family routine has on parental stress and child well-being. I found that parental stress has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and child well-being was significantly and negatively impacted during the pandemic. Parental stress levels prior to the pandemic were significantly linked to increased levels of behavioral problems from pre-pandemic to during the pandemic. Further analysis determined family routines were not protecting children from the negative impacts of parental stress; however, family routines were significantly associated with lower levels of behavioral problems. Although family routines were not indicated as a source of protection from parental stress, managing family routines, and other tools for stress reduction could promote optimal developmental outcomes among young children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic and Political Aspects of Peruvian Immigration in the US during the Late 20th Century

Presenter: Kai Angel Augusto Sanchez-Pajuelo – Economics

Faculty Mentor(s): Iker Saitua

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Read, Speak, and Act

“Not in Luxury, But to Get Along:” Economic and Political Aspects of Peruvian Immigration in the United States during the Late Twentieth Century”

The present paper studies Peruvian immigration to the United States during the late twentieth century. More specifically, it analyzes emigration from Peru caused by the sociopolitical and economic instability of the 1980s. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Peruvian economy went through a series of deep and prolonged economic crises that affected the country’s economic growth. The great depression of the Peruvian economy was mainly due to the negative effects of external shocks, political instability, limited national entrepreneurial capacity, and the lack of capacity to develop new export economic activities. Such depression pushed many Peruvians to emigrate to the United States to make a new start. Motivations of those immigrants were not limited to economic needs, but were framed in a wider context of lack of prospects in Peru. This wave of immigration into the United States was characterized by professional, qualified and semiqualified immigrants, remarkably working either in the service or clerical sectors. Educated people and skilled workers migrated from Peru to the United States during this period rather than unskilled labor force from rural areas. Furthermore, this immigration wave was characterized by family reunification and an occasional wave of refugees.

Unremembered: The Misattributions of Clara Peeters and Judith Leyster

Presenter: Morning Glory Ritchie – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Maile Hutterer

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Herstory Rediscovered, Poster Presentation

Clara Peeters and Judith Leyster were still-life painters prominent during the 17th-century. These still-life genre paintings were of a popular Dutch style which included painting of the interior domestic household and food items. During this era, women faced extreme challenges to receive an art education and to enter the market. Often, these women would have to have a male family member, such as husband or father, be the one to give the art education. These artists have all had a lack of recognition in art historical scholarship, with several of their works misattributed to other male artists of their time. Several 17th-century works created by women were often misattributed to men. Works by female painters were also attributed to their husbands or fathers, as was the case for several works by Judith Leyster who was unknown for almost three centuries. Many still-life works from this period also lack clarity and evidence for attribution leaving many works without name. Several women artists were extremely prominent and successful with their still-life compositions during the 17th-century. Therefore, it is time to start the search for women painters in order to better understand Early Modern culture and the impact of women in the arts. When not much is known about the life of a female artist due to restraints of the women’s role in the domestic household during the 17th-century, their legacy, reputation and contributions to the art world and history eventually fade away.

Burn Notice: Using Changepoint Detection Algorithms to Improve Wildfire Tracking

Presenter: Sabrina Reis – Mathematics and Computer Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Weng-Keen Wong

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Fuel, Fire, Grass and Compost

The ability to detect anomalous data is a critical component of any useful statistical analysis, but the process for identifying anomalies can prove time-consuming and arduous. To address these challenges, researchers often delegate data processing to an algorithm, which analyzes data with more speed, efficiency, and accuracy than manual calculations, enabling earlier detection of anomalies. The property of early detection is especially critical when monitoring spatio-temporal events such as wildfires. The critical impact of these events necessitate data sources that provide current and complete information. This need is often met by networks of sensors–for instance, air quality sensors–that collect real-time, localized data. When processed with an anomaly detection algorithm, the comprehensive data collected by sensor networks can reveal aberrations indicative of a spatio- temporal event. To explore how anomaly detection algorithms can facilitate early detection of events of interest using sensor data, we gathered historical data from open-source Purple Air sensors to build case studies of past wildfires. We then applied various types of changepoint detection algorithms to the data in hopes of identifying changes in the distribution of data that indicated a wildfire had broken out. The toolkit of detection methods produced by the project offer a cost-effective and portable way of enhancing our ability to monitor the formation and spread of wildfires.

A Homeodomain Protein Generates Neuronal Diversity and Connectivity in the Drosophila Lamina

Presenter: Tyler Ramos – Human Physiology

Faculty Mentor(s): Chundi Xu

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Daily Dose of Proteins

How we perceive and integrate our experiences is the result of an intricate network of diverse neuron types, each with specific connectivity. To generate different neurons, signals in precursors give each neuron its unique neuronal fate. Subsequently, a combination of proteins called homeodomain transcription factors (TFs) grant neurons proper synaptic connectivity. The processes of fate selection and synapse assembly are sequential actions that have been characterized separately but are deeply connected. It is unknown if a common regulator exists between these two developmental steps. Our purpose is to test if a homeodomain TF can function as a regulator of both neuronal fate and synaptic connectivity. To pursue this, we use the lamina neurons (L1-L5) of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We show that homeodomain TF Brain-specific homeobox (Bsh) is expressed in lamina precursor cells, which suggests it may play a role in establishing lamina neuron fate. Using cell- specific knockdown and tracing methods, we found removing Bsh generates L1 and L3 neurons at the expense of L5 and L4 neurons, respectively. In L4 neurons, Bsh activates another protein, Apterous (Ap). Knockdown of Bsh and Ap in L4 neurons resulted in the loss of a synapse recognition molecule and altered synaptic connectivity. We propose that the homeodomain TF Bsh functions as a regulator of both neuronal fate and synaptic connectivity, which may be a conserved developmental mechanism across organisms.

Evaluating Responsive Caregiving Behaviors within the FIND Intervention

Presenter: Heather Ralph – Biology, Psychology

Faculty Mentor(s): Andrea Imhof, Phil Fisher

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Connection and Community

Interventions that emphasize responsive caregiving can reverse the negative effects of early life stress exposure on development in early childhood. Despite this knowledge, there is a lack of consensus in the field about which behaviors define “responsive caregiving”. The Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND) Intervention is a responsive caregiving intervention that guides caregivers towards serve and return interactions that follows the child’s lead. Preliminary evidence from pilot trials suggest that the FIND intervention may significantly impact both caregiver and child outcomes, but it is not yet known how FIND changes the way caregivers and children interact. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether FIND increases the frequency of caregiver “following” behaviors during a dyadic freeplay tasks. Results from a pilot trial using 18 mother-infant dyads (9 FIND families and 9 control families) will be presented, highlighting ways that the FIND intervention changes the nature of dyadic interaction. Implications for analyzing responsive caregiving behaviors, limitations, and next steps for evaluating the FIND intervention will be discussed.