Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mercyhealth Internship: It As A Unit, Frenz Joshua Hayag

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

This is a CSIS 494 Field Experience paper about an internship in a healthcare organization called MercyHealth. My internship would be described as generalized. The paper will be mainly talking about the different aspects of IT and how they all come together to create progress, and cohesiveness in the organization. I had the opportunity to see different aspects of their IT department by sitting down in project meetings. I was able to job shadow multiple staff from admins to PC techs to network engineers. I was able to see first-hand how an organization, and IT respond to disaster, and how …

Elaia 2018, Stephen Case

ELAIA

Volume 1

Over the years, the Program has continued to grow and flourish, and the depth of its research continues to increase. This inaugural journal represents the fruits of that development, containing capstone research projects from the 2018 Honors Program senior class and their faculty mentors. The Table of Contents is diverse, and in that way it is a crystal clear reflection of our program’s community of scholars.

I, along with the members of the Honors Council, am gratified by the work of each student and faculty mentor printed within these pages. Congratulations, everyone!

- Stephen Lowe, Honors Program Director

Iot Feeder, Jorge Felix

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

No abstract provided.

Using Principle Component Analysis Of Spectral Mixtures To Analyze Tertiary And Four End-Member Mixtures Containing Carbonates And Olivine, David Burnett

Pence-Boyce STEM Student Scholarship

CRISM images from Mars are expected to contain carbonates such as magnesite [1]. Prior research has been successfully able to determine the approximate percent composition of phyllosilicates in binary lab mixtures using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) [2]. In order to expand this model to work on CRISM images, one of preliminary steps is allowing the algorithm to work on mixtures with more than two components.

Foraging Behavior Of Red-Headed Woodpeckers In Endangered Black Oak Savanna Habitat, Mike J. King

Pence-Boyce STEM Student Scholarship

The objective of this study was to determine the role of black oak savanna habitat on red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) foraging behavior. Through the development of a foraging ethogram, the recording of foraging behavior times, and the collection of habitat data we were able to assess if any patterns existed between foraging and black oak savanna habitat. Comparison of our data in black oak savannas to that of others in woodland suggests that foraging behavior may differ between habitat types. Tree species did appear to impact the proportion of certain foraging behaviors, however further study is needed to more fully …

Hexavalent Chromium Toxicity On Human Epithelial Cells And Protection By Ascorbic Acid And Epigallocatechin Gallate, Timmy Mayotte

Pence-Boyce STEM Student Scholarship

Hexavalent chromium or Cr(VI) is a known carcinogen in human beings, though the exact mechanism of carcinogenicity is still unknown. The same chemical compound is also found at varying levels in the water sources of more than 200 million Americans. While the government currently regulates total chromium levels, they have yet to determine a permissible exposure limit for Cr(VI). There is currently no method of preventative treatment for the chemical. The focus of this study was to determine the mechanism of carcinogenicity of Cr(VI) as well as confirm the viability of antioxidants as a preventative treatment. Because of Cr(VI)’s strong …

3d Printed Filar Micrometer, Emily Rull

Honors Program Projects

Background

Double stars are celestial objects that allow for calculating the mass of stars by assessing their orbits. Stellar mass affects every current model of stellar evolution, but the most accurate double star orbits can take decades to record. Due to the long-term nature of such observations and lack of groundbreaking research in double star studies, professional astronomers are no longer focused on making these measurements, so amateur astronomers can pick up where professionals have left off. Amateurs can only do this if they can get the equipment that they need at prices they can afford. A personally-manufactured filar micrometer …

Ranking Matthiessen State Park Trails By Hazard Rather Than Difficulty, Levi S. Gambill, Danielle N. Conrad, Joshua A. Woodard, Max Reams

Student Scholarship – Geology

Matthiessen State Park offers differing perspectives of the geology of the area, from the stunning views of bluffs and floodplain of the Vermilion River to the deep, winding canyons of the park’s Dells Area. A numerical system was used to rank the severity of hazards along the various park trails similar to the work of Ross, who pioneered the ranking of trails by hazard, specifically for Starved Rock State Park. Ross showed that ranking trails by hazard may be more useful for visitors than simply ranking trails by degree of difficulty. Ranking of trails for Matthiessen State Park proved somewhat …

The Urban Black Male: Early Indicators Of Algebra 1 Failure, Roy Harris

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The meager mathematical performance of the Black male student has been a well-documented event that was well over 30 years in the making. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature on 9^th grade urban Black male algebra performance and to identify the existence of any early predictors of high school algebra 1 failure. Specifically, the study sought to identify any difference in the preferred learning styles, mathematics self-efficacy scores, and standardized test scores, among urban Black males 14-16 years who passed high school algebra 1 1^st semester of the 2016-2017 school year and urban …

Spectral Mixture Modeling Using Principle Component Analysis, Joseph S. Makarewicz, Heather D. Makarewicz

Scholar Week 2016 - present

A method for modeling mixtures between two end-member spectra using principle component analysis and linear regression was presented. The presentation included results from three binary mixture data sets including orthopyroxene-clinopyroxene, kaolinite-montmorillonite, and nontronite-ferrihydrite.

Effect Of An Arginine-To-Isoleucine Active Site Mutation On Escherichia Coli Malate Dehydrogenase Enzymatic Activity, Jon Zatorski, Bruce J. Heyen

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Citric acid cycle enzymes function in an environment with numerous substrate analogues and therefore contain active site residue organizations that confer high substrate specificity. Extensive research into the catalytic mechanism of Escherichia coli malate dehydrogenase (eMDH) has identified arginine81 as being crucial to catalysis. In this investigation, an engineered eMDH having an Ile81 rather than an Arg81 (R81I) was isolated using a hexahistadine (His6) tag. Enzymatic activity of the R81I mutant with respect to malate, lactate, and pyruvate was explored. The R81I mutant did show significant activity toward malate, but did not show significant activity toward lactate or pyruvate. Investigations …

Design And Evaluation Of 3d-Printed Filar Micrometer, Emily Rull

Scholar Week 2016 - present

This project sought to design and 3D-print a filar micrometer for double star measurements that amateur astronomers could produce cost effectively.

Double stars are celestial objects that allow the mass of stars to be calculated by assessing their orbits. Stellar mass affects every current model of stellar evolution, but the most accurate double star orbits can take decades to record. As a result of the long-term nature of such observations and lack of groundbreaking research in double star studies, professional astronomers are no longer focused on making these measurements. This allows amateur astronomers to pick up where professionals have left …

Saving Olivet Money With Creation Care, Nicholas Boros

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Universities throughout the United States are searching for ways to reduce overhead costs, to help combat rises in tuition costs. Typically, one would think that installing solar panels on campus to help generate electricity would cost Olivet money, especially since the University is located in the Midwest. While such an undertaking would require an upfront investment, we will discuss how solar panels could save the University as much as $500,000 to $800,000 per year after an approximate 10 year break even point. We will also briefly discuss how similar approaches could be applied to other businesses and homes for a …

Best Practice For Computer Imaging And Maintaining A Database, Olawunmi Babalola

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

For my field experience class CSIS494 I did an internship where I mostly learned about computer lab imaging and worked on researching the best practice for database updates/maintenance. This paper documents all the work was done during my internship as well as the number of hours spent on my project. I worked on this project for a total hour of approximately 280hours, i.e., about 25 hours, each week for 14 weeks, which was during the fall semester of 2017.

This paper gives an introduction of both topics I have worked on, and the technology I have learned about which is …

Xamarin Forms Vs Native Platform Development, Austin Borop

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

This research compared the development process of different technologies. These technologies were native iOS, native Android development, and Xamarin. Each of these technologies were testing using their recommended development tools. Each technology was used to create calculator application to meet a minimum specification. These specifications were that the calculator would have basic arithmetic functionality. The application needed to do all of these things through button presses and be able to display the output as well. The data analysis was time based and the duration necessary to complete each application. The research concluded with some interesting results. The expected results of …

Lsat Practicum: An Application Of Human Based Computation, Seth Rivett

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

Human-based computation can be applied to solve problems too hard for a single computer. Crowdsourcing can be applied to ethical modeling by splitting ethical situations among humans. In this senior research project, the crowdsourcing method is applied to produce an ethical model for what web crawlers are allowed to do on websites. By evaluating questions about terms of use on a website, users provide context for the robots. An obstacle to this project is getting the right crowd to participate in the problem. The crowd of potential law students was selected as students typically answer questions to study for a …

Nesynth Project, John Falco

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

This project was designed to create a program that can interface with user input through a keyboard to produce sounds through the use of the MIDI protocol. The goal functionality was to have the unit be able to interface with a Nintendo Entertainment System to produce synthetic sounds along with sampled sounds through the MIDI protocol. However, this goal was not able to be achieved due to technical limitations. Due to this, the sound of the A203 chip was emulated through use of sampled instruments using MIDI. The goal of this project initially was to also include a USB keyboard …

Selection Methods Of Genetic Algorithms, Ryan Champlin

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

The goal of the paper is to exhibit how four different types of selections work within genetic algorithms. It goes through what a genetic algorithm is, how the different forms of selection work, and how they were tested. I ran each of the four selection methods by creating three programs that tested different aspects. One showed the difference between brute force, one showed how they solved a NP problem, and one showed how they solved a game theory problem. Each of the selections performed well.

Machine Learning And Threat Intelligence, Jacob Vangore

Student Scholarship – Computer Science

Machine learning plays a role in a wide variety of fields. It can be used for predicting stock prices, identifying diseases, and even teaching Mario how to avoid mushrooms. This project explores the use of machine learning in realm of threat intelligence. There are many sources for professionals to keep up to date on the latest threats to software (NVD, PacketStorm, Twitter, etc.). However, it can become over cumbersome for individuals to monitor all of these sources manually. Building an automated string match system is a good first step to tackle this problem, but many false positives may be returned. …