Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Gear Up Experience: What Leads To College?, Erik Dickamore

Student Research Symposium

Gear up is a 6-year federal grant whose purpose is to encourage and support underprivileged students to enroll in and succeed in higher education. Gear up was deployed in 11 school districts across the state 5 and 1/2 years ago. Ambiguity arises when trying to assess the Gear Up program as a whole because each student's experience within the program varies. My research focuses on using advanced statistical techniques ie. a latent profile analysis (LPA) to look at the holistic experience of Gear Up Students. Results highlight the link between different profiles of experiences within the Gear Up program and …

The Effects Of Radiation-Induced Defects On The Electrostatic Discharge Of Polymers, Kip Quilter, Alexandra Hughlett

Student Research Symposium

Test were done to see how radiation-induced defect states affect the electrostatic discharge (ESD) breakdown potential of a material. We selected five different highly disorder polymers (PEEK, PI, FEP, PP, LDEP) due to their different tolerances to radiation. By irradiating samples with 5kGy of penetrating beta radiation in vacuo, we created more localized trap states in the polymers; this is known to increase hopping conductivity. It has also been hypothesized that post-irradiation exposure to oxygen or water in air can repair these defects. ESD can be viewed as an extreme limit of conductivity and therefore is expected to decrease as …

Climate Change At Utah Ski Resorts: Impacts, Perceptions, And Adaptation Strategies, Emily Wilkins, Tara Saley, Hadia Akbar, Rachel Hager

Student Research Symposium

Utah sees over four million skier visits per season, which has substantial economic impact across the state. However, climate change may affect the operability of these ski resorts, which could also impact local businesses and communities. With warming temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, the future of Utah's ski resort industry may be uncertain. We conducted an interdisciplinary study to understand how past weather has changed at the resorts and what climate may be like in the future. We studied this using publically available weather data from PRISM, Daymet, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and climate change …

Temperature-Dependent Conductivity Of Highly Insulating Polymers, Megan Loveland, Brian Wood

Student Research Symposium

Temperature-dependent electrical conductivity measurements of polymers are compared to predictions by thermally assisted hopping conductivity, commonly used to model electron transport between defect sites in highly disordered insulating materials (HDIM). Constant voltage is applied across samples using a parallel plate geometry under vacuum, with the resulting current measured using a high resolution electrometer to calculate extreme low level conductivity. Conductivity of thin film PEEK (polyether ether ketone) and LDPE (low density polyethylene) samples was measured at temperatures ranging from 270 to 350 K to determine temperature influence on conductivity. Long time scales are needed for polymers to reach electrostatic equilibrium …

Quaternions, Octonions, And Electromagnetism, Ben Shaw

Student Research Symposium

An introduction to Quaternions and Octonions is given, and the Maxwell Equations are formulated in terms of each. The conventional, source-free relativistic theory of eight dimensional electromagnetism is introduced and examined. Similarly, the source-free Octonionic Maxwell Equations are developed, and it is shown that the seven dimensional electric and magnetic fields pure Octonions each admit plane wave solutions. An Octonionic Faraday tensor is constructed and compared with the conventional Faraday tensor, and it is shown that, in the source-free case, the conventional and Octonionic theories are equivalent.

Gravitational Anomalies & Elliptic Curves, Michael T. Schultz

Student Research Symposium

A gravitational anomaly is a special type of curvature that is important in string theory. Elliptic curves are very important and ubiquitous in mathematics - for example, it was a special property of some families of elliptic curves that was instrumental in proving the famous Fermat's Last Theorem. In the context of my research, an elliptic curve is a torus defined by a simple polynomial equation. My research shows that every suitably general one parameter family of elliptic curves (called an elliptic fibration with section) has both local and global gravitational anomalies. In my talk, I will explain these anomalies …

Wormholes - Gates To The Stars?, Samuel Shreeve, Jim Wheeler

Student Research Symposium

One of the most consistently fascinating results of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is the prediction of wormholes – astronomical objects which are, among other things, capable of serving as a connection between two distant regions of space. The simplest class of wormholes are Schwarzschild wormholes – wormholes that behave as non-rotating, non-charged black holes, except that the event horizon serves as a connection to another wormhole elsewhere, instead of a point of no return.

This research presentation analyzes the attributes that make a Schwarzschild wormhole unsuitable for human travel, and examines the conditions that would have to hold …

Mineral Physics Modeling Of The Effect Of Water On Crustal Seismic Velocity Ratios, Eric Lyman, Anthony Lowry Phd

Student Research Symposium

This poster presents the relationship between the presence of water (H2O) in the make up of rocks at different levels in the crust. The relationships were calculated using Perple_x software to adjust the level of the different chemical and mineral make up of the rock. The densities were calculated using the velocity of primary waves and shear waves as collected by Tony Lowry. This study focuses primarily on quartz content. There seems to be at least a casual link between water content and quartz content.

Opal Cubesatellite Flight And Line Of Sight Integration Modeling, Kenneth Zia, Ludger Scherliess

Student Research Symposium

Understanding the lower thermosphere, the range of 90km to 140km above the surface of the Earth, is a growing interest for many areas of research within space weather. The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission is funded by NSF to gather global thermosphere temperatures. OPAL will be able to resolve the temperature profiles through observing day-time emissions of O2 A-band (~760nm) emissions. This is done by using integrated line-of-sight measurements of the A-band through a tangential view of the atmosphere down to 90km. The OPAL instrument is on a 3U CubeSatellite (30cm×10cm×10cm) and is expected to follow the …

Temperature Recognition Algorithm For The Opal Mission, Eric Ashby, Ludger Scherliess

Student Research Symposium

The Optical Profiling of the Atmospheric Limb (OPAL) mission is a CubeSat project with aims to measure the temperature in the thermosphere between 90 and 140 km. The temperatures are inferred from the characteristic emission lines of molecular oxygen called the O2 A-band (around 760 nm). These temperatures will be used to better understand the evolution of the upper atmosphere during a solar storm and to analyze the temperature signatures of gravity waves. Multiple steps are required to retrieve temperature data from the OPAL satellite. Initially, the data must be deconvoluted from line-of-sight images. Spectral data must then be converted …

Computational Methods In Modeling Fusion Plasmas, Joseph R. Jepson, Eric D. Held

Student Research Symposium

Fusion provides an attractive potential alternative to using fossil fuels for energy. Fusion requires vastly less fuel resources than does current non-renewable energy processes (virtually a 100% reduction in the required mass of fuel needed). The fuel sources needed (mainly deuterium and lithium) are also highly abundant on the Earth and fusion generates minimal waste products. One of the biggest obstacles to practical fusion energy is how to contain the reactants long enough for energy output to significantly exceed energy input. The equations governing plasma dynamics and confinement are highly nonlinear and do not admit simple analytic solutions in realistic …

Stable Isotope And Radiocarbon Analysis Of Modern Lacustrine Stromatolites Near Great Salt Lake, Utah, Jordan L. Jensen, Dennis L. Newell, W. David Liddell

Student Research Symposium

Stromatolites are accretionary structures that form mainly from bacteria colonization in subaqueous environments and comprise mostly calcium carbonate (CaCO3). They can be found throughout the rock record (Archean-present day) and modern stromatolites are now restricted to areas that have few or no grazing animals. The hypersaline Great Salt Lake in Utah is host to numerous modern stromatolites, which are currently exposed to the air because of low lake levels. Here, we present C and O isotopic data and radiocarbon dates from a transect of a stromatolite dome (SD-1-01). Carbon and oxygen isotopic values covary strongly along the transect and range …

Observations Of Mesospheric Gravity Waves Over The Andes, Jonathan Pugmire, Michael Taylor, Yucheng Zhao

Student Research Symposium

Focusing on data from an imager and the SABER instrument aboard the TIMED satellite temperature variances are determined to quantify small-scale gravity waves. IDL software was used to extract all the temperature profile measurements that were measured by SABER within a limited geographical area, centered on our ground-based optical imager at Cerro Pachon, Chile (30.3°S, 70.7°S). Large-scale tidal waves, with wavenumbers 0-6, were removed from each profile revealing the gravity wave perturbations. Temperature variances reveal possible increased wave activity due to mountain waves. Mountain waves in the mesosphere are a relatively unexplored field in aeronomy. They are generated predominantly in …