Research Experiences for Undergraduates 2014-Participants

Research Experiences for Undergraduates 2014 Home Logistics Forms Surveys Participants Mentors Schedule Slides Photos Project Presentations Final Papers After Hours Restaurant Guide Resource Guide

Asterix = Non NSF Funded Undergraduate Intern

Randy Andrews

Bio: My name is Randy Andrews, and I am an Engineering Physics student at NMSU in Las Cruces. I chose this degree path because of the way it ties together laws and principals of physics with concrete application. Specifically, I concentrate on mechanical engineering because it opens up doors in research, development, and analysis. Outside of class, I stay involved on my university's campus. I am active in the Outdoor Leadership Program, Phi Delta Theta, and the Society of Physics Students. Having grown up in Albuquerque, I love the desert. Summer is my favorite season because it is the best time for long boarding and backpacking. As hobbies, I am also interested in fitness, theater, and logic games.
My Science Hero: Ludwig Boltzmann
My Favorite Science Quote: "The universe works on a math equation that never even ever really even ends in the end." - Modest Mouse. "Never Ending Math Equation." Building Nothing Out of Something.
Why Science Inspires Me: Science never ceases to surprise me; one moment, everything makes sense, and the next it's found we were only almost right the whole time.

Jess Banks

Bio: Jess is a third year mathematics major at Oberlin College with research experience in graph theory and quantitative cultural geography. Born and raised in Madison, WI, Jess is a songwriter and jazz guitarist with a passion for running, overalls, and the work of Pablo Neruda, Leonhard Euler, and Erykah Badu.
SFI MENTORS: Cris Moore, Pan Zhang, and Ruben Andrist
SFI SUMMER PROJECT ABSTRACT:
Community detection is a fundamental problem in network science, with broad applications across the biological and social arenas. A common approach is to leverage the spectral properties of an operator related to the network (most commonly the adjacency matrix or graph Laplacian),though there are regimes where these techniques are known to fail despite the existence of theoretically detectable community structure [1]. Krzakala et. al demonstrate in [1] that a novel operator|the so-called \nonbacktracking matrix" B|is in fact amenable to spectral clustering methods in where other operators fail. This project, in collaboration with Cris Moore, Pan Zhang and Ruben Andrist, will explore yet another matrix, the \z-Laplacian" Lz = zA - D, which has been observed to share important spectral properties with B [2]. We hope build on prior work by Moore and Zhang on Lz, in particular using techniques from the theory of random matrices to facilitate further analytic and numerical study of this matrix and it's use in community detection. References [1] Florent Krzakala, Cristopher Moore, Elchanan Mossel, Joe Neeman, Allan Sly, Lenka Zde- borov�a, and Pan Zhang. Spectral redemption in clustering sparse networks. Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, 110(52):20935{20940, 2013. [2] Alaa Saade, Florent Krzakala, and Lenka Zdeborov�a. Spectral density of the non-backtracking operator. arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.7787, 2014.

Riley Burkart

Bio: I was born in a National Forest in the great state of Colorado, where I grew up before graduating one year early to attend Central College in Pella, Iowa. Because I couldn't decide which subjects I liked most, I decided to major in as many as I could: mathematics, physics, history, and German. When I have free time, I pursue hobbies including drawing, thinking, playing guitar, hiking, writing, and reading. I also occasionally find time to sleep.
My Science Hero: James Clerk Maxwell
My Favorite Science Quote: "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing" - Wernher von Braun
Why Science Inspires Me: Science is an exciting puzzle with many problems to solve, the applications of which can be both beautiful and powerful. Studying it is not only fun, but gives a great insight into understanding the world.
SFI MENTOR: Tanmoy Bhattacharya
SFI SUMMER PROJECT ABSTRACT:
Linguistic Divergence in Timor
The island of Timor, located in South East Asia, experienced a wave of migration from the neighboring islands several thousand years ago, resulting in its domination by the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages. The spread of these Languages and their relationships to each other remain poorly understood. Using statistical tools and computation, a data set comprised of words from 53 languages will be analyzed in order to determine how long ago the languages diverged from one another. Regular sound correspondences will be inferred and cognates will be identified to estimate the amount of time that has passed since the languages split. These new methods, incorporating linguistic knowledge, will hopefully compare favorably with current computational strategies and will contribute to a deeper understanding of the movement of the Austronesian people in Timor.

Alexander Daniels

Bio: Alexander Daniels is a physics major at the University of Delaware. His research interests include system dynamics and meta-mathematics. His hobbies include singing, writing, and hiking.
My Science Hero: Richard Feynman
My Favorite Science Quote: "God does not play dice with the universe" - Albert Einstein
Why Science Inspires Me: Because science gives me a reason to imagine, -- the one thing that gave mankind power over life upon earth -- it inspires me to envision, to dream, and to continue dreaming.
SFI MENTOR: Dr. Alfred H?ubler
SFI SUMMER PROJECT ABSTRACT:
Arbortrons
Several systems or networks display self-organizing behavior that is characterized by a state with the maximum production of entropy. Such systems are complex in that they are open, i.e. they are not thermally isolated and therefore, the system has access to a continuous supply of energy, and dissipative, i.e. they output energy to external energy reservoirs. The nature of entropy production in these systems is explored by analyzing an example rst proposed by Prigogine. An expression for the rate of entropy production in an R-C circuit will be used to demonstrate the behavior of entropy production observed in experiment. The insight provided will then be applied to the phenomena of arbortrons - a selforganizing collection of conducting particles due to an imposed electrical current.

Haedi DeAngelis

Bio: I was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM before I moved to the Chicago area for college. At Trinity International University I am currently a junior studying mathematics and bio-ethics. Some favorite pastimes include skateboarding, coffee, and homework.
My Science Hero: René Descartes
My Favorite Science Quote: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” ― Isaac Newton
Why Science Inspires Me: I get inspired by the brain-picking collaboration necessary in science's pursuit uncover some new knowledge.
SFI MENTOR: Ben Althouse
SFI SUMMER PROJECT ABSTRACT:
Recent evidence suggests that the current acellular Bordetella pertussis vaccine (aP) protects against whooping cough disease, but not against secondary transmission of the B. pertussis bacterium. It is likely that the aP vaccine allows for asymptomatic B. pertussis infections, allowing people to unknowingly transmit infection to other vaccinated and un-vaccinated individuals. Importantly, this includes neonatal infants too young to be vaccinated, where the mortality rate from whooping cough can be up to 3 times that of adolescents and adults. My project aims to explore the possibility of switching back to the highly effective, yet side-affect prone, whole-cell pertussis vaccine (wP). To do this, we must answer the question: is the potential increased transmissibility associated with aP vaccination more or less costly to the population than the side-effects associated with wP vaccination? We will build a model of pertussis transmission and compare the costs of using each vaccine. Our current hypothesis is that a switch back to the wP vaccine will be economically and ethically beneficial for the population. The first step to answering this question is a literature review on B. pertussis, its vaccines, and cost-benefit analyses in general. Such a review will reveal important details for the different wP and aP vaccines and will help us to create a model of transmission incorporating different vaccine strategies. Next, we will build and run the model to determine the excess number of pertussis cases in scenarios where an aP vaccine is used, and the number of adverse events where a wP vaccine is used. Then, using literature-derived estimates of costs of infant mortality and vaccine-associated adverse events, we will run a cost-benefit analysis to determine which vaccine is more cost-effective for the population as a whole. We will test the robustness of our many modeling assumptions in a series of detailed sensitivity analyses. Finally, we will write up the results in a manuscript for submission to a scientific journal.

Madeleine Fort

I'm born and raised in Santa Fe and went to Santa Fe Prep. For the past year, I have been attending Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Boston Mass. I hope to graduate with a degree in Electrical Engineering. My passions include soccer, projects (large and small), and the occasional good book.

Marcus Levine

I hail from sunny South Florida, but attend college at Columbia University in New York City. To facilitate my broad academic interests, I chose to double major in astrophysics and philosophy. My elective coursework focuses on the intersection between physics and philosophy, employing critical reason to make sense of foundational issues in physics ranging from the arrow of time to the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Outside my formal studies, I have worked as a professional theater technician since high school; my speciality is lighting. Since freshman year I have been an active member of Columbia's swing dance club, along with the wider NYC swing dance community, and I look forward to seeking out the Santa Fe swing dance scene. I also volunteer occasionally with the Columbia Astronomy department's public outreach program, operating rooftop telescopes for public observing. I am happy to go stargazing with anyone on a clear night — I imagine the skies in Santa Fe are much darker than New York's!

Jonah Nonomaque*

Although I am a Texas native, I have long looked upon Santa Fe in the light of a second home. I am currently a sophomore at Marlboro College in Vermont, where I intend to pursue a degree in anthropology. Chief among my subjects of interest are cultural anthropology, history, religion (specifically religious change), identity, and politics. I am particularly interested in south-central Vietnam and hope to conduct work among the Cham and such upland-dwelling minorities as the Raglai, Jarai, Sre, and Sedang. My primary geographic areas of focus include Indochina, Malaya and the Malay Archipelago, sub-Saharan Africa, Myanmar, the Baltic States, and eastern Germany. In my private life, I enjoy traveling, writing, reading, seeing films, creating thematic maps, collecting African and Oceanic art, hiking, and spending time with family, friends, and pets.

Cody O'Farrell*

I am from California, but I currently live in Santa Fe, where I attend St. John's College. My current interests are 3D printing and daydreaming about difficult math problems. In my free time, I like to go hiking and read. My research interests are broad, I hope to solidify questions that will lead into lines of inquiry that span multiple disciplines. I am excited to study at SFI because the collaborative and mixed culture will help me generate new ideas and new questions.

Emily Robertson

Hi, I'm Emily, an economics major and math minor at Portland State University. I'm currently in my junior year. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, and have lived in Portland for the last five years or so. I'm all about the "social" aspect of social sciences, and I'm interested in exploring the ways that our social habits and connections are connected to our financial ones. I've also been a professional baker for the last 8 years, and am totally on Team Cake. In my spare (ha!) time I enjoy hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and wandering around antique shops. While in Santa Fe, I plan on eating about a million sopapillas.

Bryan Wilder

I’m studying computer science at the University of Central Florida, with a minor in math. My interests lie in simulations of cultural evolution, as well as models of how evolvability and complexity come about in biological systems such as gene regulatory networks. Generally, I want to use simulation to study the emergent properties of biological and social systems with an emphasis on the role of evolution and network dynamics. Outside of academics, I enjoy fencing, video games, and sci-fi/fantasy novels, as well as coaching high school debate.

Emma Wolinsky

Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I am now a student at UC Berkeley. I am interested in studying biological systems through computation, and learning as much as I can. I like roller skating and spicy food.