2018 Conference Gallery
Organizing Committee
Maddie Arnel
Addie Harrison
Jessica Zanatell
Smiti Kaul
Dr. John Gemmer
Maddie Arnel
Addie Harrison
Jessica Zanatell
Smiti Kaul
Dr. John Gemmer
Keynotes Speakers
."It Takes a Community: Using Transdisciplinary Research to Address Health Disparities" by Sara A. Quandt, Ph.D.
Objective: after attending this talk, students will be able to:
"Women, STEM, and a Liberal Education: Leveraging the Intersectionality of our Unique Position to Empower Ourselves and Our Communities" by Olga Pierrakos, Ph.D.
Women are underrepresented in many professional fields, certainly in many STEM contexts. STEM professionals are underrepresented in many parts of our society, certainly in areas of government, policy, and leadership. A Liberal Arts Education is underrepresented in the larger landscape of education, from K-12 to higher education contexts. As women, as STEM professionals, and as well-rounded individuals who embrace a liberal education, are we leveraging this unique intersectionality and positioning ourselves to a higher calling, to a higher influence in society, to deeper and broader positive impact in the communities we serve? The power of our collective identities, as underrepresented as they may be, is to create agency for transformation and innovation not only for ourselves but also for the communities around us. How we recognize, create, transform, and distribute knowledge becomes vital to our agency as students and professionals. In this talk, Dr. Olga Pierrakos will reflect on her journey as a woman, as an engineer, as a humanist, as a mother, and as a leader. Her journey is one that has continuously mingled and leveraged these collective identities towards transformation, agency, and innovation. Her journey tells the story of transformation and innovation achieved through interdisciplinary collaborations, inclusive excellence, broad and deep personal and professional explorations, continuous education and improvement, and a deep desire to make positive impact on the organizations and communities she belongs to. Through her work and her academic journey, she will share lessons learned to create agency for transformation and innovation.
Objective: after attending this talk, students will be able to:
- Articulate reasons why integrated approaches are needed to address many seemingly intractable scientific (health-related) questions
- Identify combinations of disciplines appropriate for study in college in order to be participate in transdisciplinary research
- Articulate why engaging the lay community in which health research can bring additional insights and resources to the research process
- Describe examples of transdisciplinary health research in which “scientific communities” have provided insight into health disparities
"Women, STEM, and a Liberal Education: Leveraging the Intersectionality of our Unique Position to Empower Ourselves and Our Communities" by Olga Pierrakos, Ph.D.
Women are underrepresented in many professional fields, certainly in many STEM contexts. STEM professionals are underrepresented in many parts of our society, certainly in areas of government, policy, and leadership. A Liberal Arts Education is underrepresented in the larger landscape of education, from K-12 to higher education contexts. As women, as STEM professionals, and as well-rounded individuals who embrace a liberal education, are we leveraging this unique intersectionality and positioning ourselves to a higher calling, to a higher influence in society, to deeper and broader positive impact in the communities we serve? The power of our collective identities, as underrepresented as they may be, is to create agency for transformation and innovation not only for ourselves but also for the communities around us. How we recognize, create, transform, and distribute knowledge becomes vital to our agency as students and professionals. In this talk, Dr. Olga Pierrakos will reflect on her journey as a woman, as an engineer, as a humanist, as a mother, and as a leader. Her journey is one that has continuously mingled and leveraged these collective identities towards transformation, agency, and innovation. Her journey tells the story of transformation and innovation achieved through interdisciplinary collaborations, inclusive excellence, broad and deep personal and professional explorations, continuous education and improvement, and a deep desire to make positive impact on the organizations and communities she belongs to. Through her work and her academic journey, she will share lessons learned to create agency for transformation and innovation.
Student Presentations
"Measuring the Cost of Avoiding Vaccinations" by Ivanti Galloway, Graduate Class of 2018
On April 10, 2017, The Minnesota Department of Health received notice about a suspected measles case in an unvaccinated child. On April 11th there was a second report of the measles. On April 13th a third case was confirmed. By May 31, 2017 65 cases of the measles, an infectious disease thought to be eliminated in the United States, were confirmed. This outbreak occurred in an area with a low vaccination rate. Improvements in medical care have far removed many in the United States from risks of such infectious diseases. Consequently, this removal of illness has given way to the anti-vaccination movements as well as the idea of spacing out vaccinations. In this research we investigate a system of ordinary differential equations that model the effect of anti-vaccination groups on the spread of infectious diseases, such as the measles, in a society as well as quantify the cost that avoiding vaccination and disease impose on a society.
"How Plants Know the Difference Between Up and Down and Do Something About it" by Elizabeth Sarkel, Undergraduate Class of 2018
My talk will describe my research on how plant roots alter their growth in response to gravity. My research specifically examines how stress signaling molecules, reactive oxygen species, modulate root gravity response. I will also describe how understanding root gravity response fits into a bigger picture of modulating root growth in response to environmental stress in agricultural crops on earth and in space.
"Tipping Points in Stochastically Perturbed Filappov Systems" by Jessica Zanetell, Graduate Class of 2018
Motivated by a recent energy flux model of Arctic sea ice thickness, this project explores the tipping time of periodically forced, piecewise smooth systems perturbed by weak additive noise. The goal of this study is to determine the most probable time of escape between basins of attraction for two metastable states as a function of the deterministic and stochastic parameters in the problem. For the parameter regimes in which the geometry of the flow clearly partitions the domains of attraction, tipping time can be directly estimated using martingale estimates. In other regimes, because of the piecewise nature of the vector field, the null-clines intersect the unstable limit cycle. Therefore, in these regimes there are sliding regions about the unstable orbit. Because tipping events are affected by this change in the geometry of the vector field, standard methods for calculating exit time are not sufficient. However, by studying local minimizers of the Onsager-Machlup functional, we provide a framework for calculating the most probable transition paths.
"Migration Properties of Cancerous and Noncancerous Breast Cells" by Josiah Low, Undergraduate Class of 2018
Breast cancer is a disease in which cells specialized for proper function in mammary structures gain te ability to survive, proliferate, and spread beyond their proper roles. Effective, specific treatment of breast cancer requires targeting properties of cancerous cells that differ from those of normal cells. Metastatic cancer cells are characterized by rapid spread throughout the body, which suggests faster migration than in normal cells. Wound healing assays were performed on both HMEC breast cells and metastatic MDA-MB-321 breast cells. MDA cells were predicted to exhibit both a higher migration rate and lower degree of coordinated movement than HMEC cells.
"Methods for Tuning Dependence of Charge Carrier Mobility on Operating Electric Field in Organic Field Effect Transistors" by Sajant Anand, Undergraduate Class of 2018
Organic semiconductors can be processed in ambient conditions, a low-cost manufacturing process compatible with substrates such as paper, plastic, or fabric. Unfortunately the electrical properties displayed by thin-film devices based on these materials do not match the performance requirements of consumer applications. While several compounds exhibit excellent performance in single crystal form, efficient charge carrier transport is mitigated in thin film devices due to the presence of electronic traps. Here we report on the study of traps in organic semiconductors by performing electric field-dependent mobility measurements in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). We were able to tune the mobility five orders of magnitude, from 0.001 to 10 cm 2 V -1 s -1 through varying device geometry and the choice of dielectric layers. We correlated the mobility value with its field dependence, quantified using the Poole-Frenkel model, and found that the field dependence is reduced with increasing mobility and that mobility is independent of the applied field when the trap-free regime is reached. We show that the devices with highest mobility display field-independent operation, while devices with low mobility display activated transport and strong field dependence.
"Associations between Percentage of Domestic Student Friends and International Students' Social Outcomes in US Universities" by Yueying "Mary" He, Undergraduate Class of 2020
International student enrollment in the United States has increased dramatically in the past decade. However, international students face many challenges that are not yet effectively addressed. Many studies have investigated obstacles for international students to achieve good socio-emotional outcomes. Among these studies, many have focused on how friendships generally influence international students. However, few studies have analyzed how percentage of domestic student friends, or the percentage of close domestic student friends international students have among all their close friends at their universities, is related to international students’ social outcomes. The current study addressed the gap in existing research and tested four hypotheses: percentage of domestic student friends is positively predictive of international students’ (1) desire to engage in social activities (2) actual engagement in social activities (3) perceived social support from domestic students, and (4) belonging. The final sample consisted of 280 international students attending 31 colleges and universities in the US (age range 17 - 38; M = 21.66; SD = 3.68). Students were recruited through emails and social media applications to complete a Qualtrics survey for an opportunity to enter into a drawing for one of the five $50 Amazon gift cards. Consistent with hypotheses (1), (2), and (3), the findings of the current research revealed that percentage of close domestic student friends was a significant positive predictor of international students’ desire to engage in social activities, actual engagement of social activities, and perceived social support from domestic students. Nonetheless, in contrary to our hypothesis (4), percentage of domestic student friends did not significantly predict international students’ sense of belonging. Interpretations and implications will be discussed.
"Listening to Bones: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Animal Bones Accumulated by Birds of Prey" by Juliana Serrano, Undergraduate Class of 2020
Zooarchaeology is an archaeological approach to reconstructing diet, food gathering, hunting technologies, and past human-animal interactions. Instead of limiting analysis to an inventory of faunal remains, archaeologists are increasingly placing zooarchaeology as central to reconstructing past human behavior. However, the presence of animal bones on or near archaeological sites does not necessarily mean the faunal assemblages are the product of human behavior. To determine whether such remains are the result of anthropogenic behavior or of natural processes is a consistent problem in the field of archaeology. Taphonomy is the study of how natural organisms become part of the fossil record, and archaeologists must apply such study to understand how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data. In my research, I am developing methodology to help discern the natural accumulation of small mammal bones in rockshelters and caves from human consumption deposits. I am studying faunal assemblages found on the surface at the Abrigo Vibora rockshelter complex, in Portugal known to have resulted from birds of prey hunting. Rabbit and rodent remains dominate the collection with smaller numbers of hedgehogs, shrew and voles present. I will be evaluating the effectiveness of metric analysis of mandibles for identifying rat species. This middle range research into assemblages created by birds of prey will contribute to more clear identification of human activity in rockshelters, an important development for zooarchaeological research.
"Explaining the Possibility of Substrate Channeling in Mycoplasma Penetrans Methionyl tRNA Synthetase" by Benjamin Weekley, Undergraduate Class of 2019
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) are critical for cellular function as they attach amino acids to their cognate transfer RNAs (tRNAs) for protein biosynthesis at the ribosome. Accurate aminoacylation is essential for correct translation of an mRNA template. The goal of this project was to examine a possible channel within Mycoplasma penetrans methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MpMetRS). This AARS has an unusually large N-terminal appended domain that exhibits aminotransferase activity. Previous experiments in the lab revealed this aminotransferase domain could effectively produce methionine from the methionine precursor 2-keto-4-(methylthio) butyric acid (KMTB) and an amino group donor (phenylalanine has been found to be the most efficient). We sought to determine the method of methionine delivery to the synthetase domain for tRNAMet aminoacylation; the three possibilities are dissociative, intramolecular, and intermolecular transfer. Three protein variants were used in this work: A Met-568 to Ala substitution removed an internal start codon to allow for purification and acted as the wild type enzyme, a Lys-386 to Ala variant eliminated aminotransferase activity, and an Asp-616 to Ala substitution that eliminated aminoacylation activity. An aminotransferase assay was developed using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) to quantify methionine production by MpMetRS and determine Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters for aminotransferase activity. Kinetic parameters were also determined for aminoacylation of 32P-labeled Mp-tRNAMet by MpMetRS We seek to understand the two domains that make up MpMetRS and how these two catalytic functions are coupled. Ultimately we seek an explanation for the evolutionary significance of the large aminotransferase domain in MpMetRS.
"Evolutionary Approaches for Resilient Surveillance Management" by Ruidan Li, Undergraduate Class of 2018
The efficient management of security cameras within a floor plan is a well-known and difficult problem that has gained attention recently. The objective is to locate the minimum number of cameras in the space to ensure all walls are within the view of at least one camera. Heuristic-based approaches have been developed for this NP-hard problem; unfortunately, most are only designed for static situations. In modern applications, surveillance management must be resilient, and adapt if the environment changes. Evolutionary-based approaches for active surveillance camera management are investigated in this research. Using an evolutionary based approach, a surveillance configuration (camera locations and orientations) is represented as a chromosome and evolutionary processes are applied to identify better solutions over successive generations. The approach has the ability to identify efficient surveillance configurations (minimum number of cameras with maximum coverage); however, another advantage is the ability to adapt if the environment unexpectedly changes. Simulation results demonstrate this type of approach can manage surveillance cameras under dynamic conditions such as camera loss and the introduction of obstacles better than traditional search methods.
On April 10, 2017, The Minnesota Department of Health received notice about a suspected measles case in an unvaccinated child. On April 11th there was a second report of the measles. On April 13th a third case was confirmed. By May 31, 2017 65 cases of the measles, an infectious disease thought to be eliminated in the United States, were confirmed. This outbreak occurred in an area with a low vaccination rate. Improvements in medical care have far removed many in the United States from risks of such infectious diseases. Consequently, this removal of illness has given way to the anti-vaccination movements as well as the idea of spacing out vaccinations. In this research we investigate a system of ordinary differential equations that model the effect of anti-vaccination groups on the spread of infectious diseases, such as the measles, in a society as well as quantify the cost that avoiding vaccination and disease impose on a society.
"How Plants Know the Difference Between Up and Down and Do Something About it" by Elizabeth Sarkel, Undergraduate Class of 2018
My talk will describe my research on how plant roots alter their growth in response to gravity. My research specifically examines how stress signaling molecules, reactive oxygen species, modulate root gravity response. I will also describe how understanding root gravity response fits into a bigger picture of modulating root growth in response to environmental stress in agricultural crops on earth and in space.
"Tipping Points in Stochastically Perturbed Filappov Systems" by Jessica Zanetell, Graduate Class of 2018
Motivated by a recent energy flux model of Arctic sea ice thickness, this project explores the tipping time of periodically forced, piecewise smooth systems perturbed by weak additive noise. The goal of this study is to determine the most probable time of escape between basins of attraction for two metastable states as a function of the deterministic and stochastic parameters in the problem. For the parameter regimes in which the geometry of the flow clearly partitions the domains of attraction, tipping time can be directly estimated using martingale estimates. In other regimes, because of the piecewise nature of the vector field, the null-clines intersect the unstable limit cycle. Therefore, in these regimes there are sliding regions about the unstable orbit. Because tipping events are affected by this change in the geometry of the vector field, standard methods for calculating exit time are not sufficient. However, by studying local minimizers of the Onsager-Machlup functional, we provide a framework for calculating the most probable transition paths.
"Migration Properties of Cancerous and Noncancerous Breast Cells" by Josiah Low, Undergraduate Class of 2018
Breast cancer is a disease in which cells specialized for proper function in mammary structures gain te ability to survive, proliferate, and spread beyond their proper roles. Effective, specific treatment of breast cancer requires targeting properties of cancerous cells that differ from those of normal cells. Metastatic cancer cells are characterized by rapid spread throughout the body, which suggests faster migration than in normal cells. Wound healing assays were performed on both HMEC breast cells and metastatic MDA-MB-321 breast cells. MDA cells were predicted to exhibit both a higher migration rate and lower degree of coordinated movement than HMEC cells.
"Methods for Tuning Dependence of Charge Carrier Mobility on Operating Electric Field in Organic Field Effect Transistors" by Sajant Anand, Undergraduate Class of 2018
Organic semiconductors can be processed in ambient conditions, a low-cost manufacturing process compatible with substrates such as paper, plastic, or fabric. Unfortunately the electrical properties displayed by thin-film devices based on these materials do not match the performance requirements of consumer applications. While several compounds exhibit excellent performance in single crystal form, efficient charge carrier transport is mitigated in thin film devices due to the presence of electronic traps. Here we report on the study of traps in organic semiconductors by performing electric field-dependent mobility measurements in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). We were able to tune the mobility five orders of magnitude, from 0.001 to 10 cm 2 V -1 s -1 through varying device geometry and the choice of dielectric layers. We correlated the mobility value with its field dependence, quantified using the Poole-Frenkel model, and found that the field dependence is reduced with increasing mobility and that mobility is independent of the applied field when the trap-free regime is reached. We show that the devices with highest mobility display field-independent operation, while devices with low mobility display activated transport and strong field dependence.
"Associations between Percentage of Domestic Student Friends and International Students' Social Outcomes in US Universities" by Yueying "Mary" He, Undergraduate Class of 2020
International student enrollment in the United States has increased dramatically in the past decade. However, international students face many challenges that are not yet effectively addressed. Many studies have investigated obstacles for international students to achieve good socio-emotional outcomes. Among these studies, many have focused on how friendships generally influence international students. However, few studies have analyzed how percentage of domestic student friends, or the percentage of close domestic student friends international students have among all their close friends at their universities, is related to international students’ social outcomes. The current study addressed the gap in existing research and tested four hypotheses: percentage of domestic student friends is positively predictive of international students’ (1) desire to engage in social activities (2) actual engagement in social activities (3) perceived social support from domestic students, and (4) belonging. The final sample consisted of 280 international students attending 31 colleges and universities in the US (age range 17 - 38; M = 21.66; SD = 3.68). Students were recruited through emails and social media applications to complete a Qualtrics survey for an opportunity to enter into a drawing for one of the five $50 Amazon gift cards. Consistent with hypotheses (1), (2), and (3), the findings of the current research revealed that percentage of close domestic student friends was a significant positive predictor of international students’ desire to engage in social activities, actual engagement of social activities, and perceived social support from domestic students. Nonetheless, in contrary to our hypothesis (4), percentage of domestic student friends did not significantly predict international students’ sense of belonging. Interpretations and implications will be discussed.
"Listening to Bones: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Animal Bones Accumulated by Birds of Prey" by Juliana Serrano, Undergraduate Class of 2020
Zooarchaeology is an archaeological approach to reconstructing diet, food gathering, hunting technologies, and past human-animal interactions. Instead of limiting analysis to an inventory of faunal remains, archaeologists are increasingly placing zooarchaeology as central to reconstructing past human behavior. However, the presence of animal bones on or near archaeological sites does not necessarily mean the faunal assemblages are the product of human behavior. To determine whether such remains are the result of anthropogenic behavior or of natural processes is a consistent problem in the field of archaeology. Taphonomy is the study of how natural organisms become part of the fossil record, and archaeologists must apply such study to understand how natural processes produce patterning in archaeological data. In my research, I am developing methodology to help discern the natural accumulation of small mammal bones in rockshelters and caves from human consumption deposits. I am studying faunal assemblages found on the surface at the Abrigo Vibora rockshelter complex, in Portugal known to have resulted from birds of prey hunting. Rabbit and rodent remains dominate the collection with smaller numbers of hedgehogs, shrew and voles present. I will be evaluating the effectiveness of metric analysis of mandibles for identifying rat species. This middle range research into assemblages created by birds of prey will contribute to more clear identification of human activity in rockshelters, an important development for zooarchaeological research.
"Explaining the Possibility of Substrate Channeling in Mycoplasma Penetrans Methionyl tRNA Synthetase" by Benjamin Weekley, Undergraduate Class of 2019
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARSs) are critical for cellular function as they attach amino acids to their cognate transfer RNAs (tRNAs) for protein biosynthesis at the ribosome. Accurate aminoacylation is essential for correct translation of an mRNA template. The goal of this project was to examine a possible channel within Mycoplasma penetrans methionyl-tRNA synthetase (MpMetRS). This AARS has an unusually large N-terminal appended domain that exhibits aminotransferase activity. Previous experiments in the lab revealed this aminotransferase domain could effectively produce methionine from the methionine precursor 2-keto-4-(methylthio) butyric acid (KMTB) and an amino group donor (phenylalanine has been found to be the most efficient). We sought to determine the method of methionine delivery to the synthetase domain for tRNAMet aminoacylation; the three possibilities are dissociative, intramolecular, and intermolecular transfer. Three protein variants were used in this work: A Met-568 to Ala substitution removed an internal start codon to allow for purification and acted as the wild type enzyme, a Lys-386 to Ala variant eliminated aminotransferase activity, and an Asp-616 to Ala substitution that eliminated aminoacylation activity. An aminotransferase assay was developed using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) to quantify methionine production by MpMetRS and determine Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters for aminotransferase activity. Kinetic parameters were also determined for aminoacylation of 32P-labeled Mp-tRNAMet by MpMetRS We seek to understand the two domains that make up MpMetRS and how these two catalytic functions are coupled. Ultimately we seek an explanation for the evolutionary significance of the large aminotransferase domain in MpMetRS.
"Evolutionary Approaches for Resilient Surveillance Management" by Ruidan Li, Undergraduate Class of 2018
The efficient management of security cameras within a floor plan is a well-known and difficult problem that has gained attention recently. The objective is to locate the minimum number of cameras in the space to ensure all walls are within the view of at least one camera. Heuristic-based approaches have been developed for this NP-hard problem; unfortunately, most are only designed for static situations. In modern applications, surveillance management must be resilient, and adapt if the environment changes. Evolutionary-based approaches for active surveillance camera management are investigated in this research. Using an evolutionary based approach, a surveillance configuration (camera locations and orientations) is represented as a chromosome and evolutionary processes are applied to identify better solutions over successive generations. The approach has the ability to identify efficient surveillance configurations (minimum number of cameras with maximum coverage); however, another advantage is the ability to adapt if the environment unexpectedly changes. Simulation results demonstrate this type of approach can manage surveillance cameras under dynamic conditions such as camera loss and the introduction of obstacles better than traditional search methods.