Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Biochar As A Means Of Water Purification In Haiti, Caolan Keenan

Honors Projects

Our research set out to determine if biochar, a compound made by burning organic plant matter in a low oxygen environment, would be a suitable means of removing E. coli populations from contaminated water collected from the Grand River in Allendale, MI using simple materials to construct a filter that could be constructed and used in Haiti. Previous research has shown biochar to be effective at trapping bacteria and other contaminants in the porous surface and by binding other non organic contaminants. We constructed multiple iterations of these filters using gravel, sand, and biochar and ran three live tests with …

Improving 3d Printed Prosthetics With Sensors And Motors, Rachel Zarin

Honors Projects

A 3D printed hand and arm prosthetic was created from the idea of adding bionic elements while keeping the cost low. It was designed based on existing models, desired functions, and materials available. A tilt sensor keeps the hand level, two motors move the wrist in two different directions, a limit switch signals the fingers to open and close, and another motor helps open and close the fingers. All sensors and motors were built on a circuit board, programmed using an Arduino, and powered by a battery. Other supporting materials include metal brackets, screws, guitar strings, elastic bands, small clamps, …

Species Determination Of Ulvoid Algae Through Genotyping; What Are The Environmental Implications?, Kora S. Krumm

Honors Projects

Ulva is a genus of marine green algae native to many of the world’s coastlines and is especially difficult to identify via traditional methods such as dichotomous keying. This project aims to streamline taxonomic classification of Ulva species through DNA sequence analysis. Local samples of Ulva were obtained from Puget Sound, Seattle, WA, and two target genes (rbcL and its1) were amplified via PCR and sequenced for comparative analysis between samples. Ulvoids have a detrimental impact on marine ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest due to their role in eutrophication-caused algal blooms, and reliable identification can help inform conservation …

The Spectroscopic And Computational Exploration Of Sulfur Hydrogen Bonding, Andrew Yoonkeun Lee

Honors Projects

Hydrogen bonds are a subset of non-covalent interactions that occur between X-H — Y, in which X and Y are the very electronegative atoms. In our research, we examine the more unconventional hydrogen bond-like interactions of thiol (SH) containing molecules using vapor-phase infrared (IR) spectroscopy and ab initio computational chemistry. When the SH hydrogen bond donor complexes to a hydrogen bond acceptor, a red shift of the SH stretching mode emerges. An anharmonic oscillator local mode model is applied to the ethanethiol-trimethylamine dimer, and we determine that any IR evidence of dimerization in our experiment is likely obscured by the …

Inquiry In Inquiry: A Classification Of The Learning Theories Underlying Inquiry-Based Undergraduate Number Theory Texts, Rebecca L. Butler

Honors Projects

While undergraduate inquiry-based texts in number theory share similar approaches with respect to learning as the embodiment of professional practice, this does not entail that these texts all operate from the same fundamental understanding of what it means to learn mathematics. In this paper, the instructional design of several texts of the aforementioned types are analyzed to assess the theory of learning under which they operate. From this understanding of the different theories of learning employed in an inquiry-based mathematical setting, one can come to understand the popular model of what it is to learn number theory in a meaningful …

Ab Initio Calculations Of Changes In Sulfur’S Orbital Energies And Sizes With Oxidation State As A Means Of Explaining Hypervalency, Anton V. Taraskin

Honors Projects

The energetics and orbital sizes of sulfur’s valence 3d and fluorine’s valence 2p orbitals were measured using a closed active space self-consistent field calculation to determine the degree of possible bonding available to sulfur’s 3d. It was determined that for orbital energies, the cc-pVXZ and aug sets converged hyperbolically onto a single energy value as X increased and that for both fluorine and sulfur orbital energies scaled down linearly with oxidation state. This resulted in a 0.47 hartree difference between the sulfur 3d and fluorine 2p orbitals at S0.6+ and F-0.1, far exceeding the energy gap between 3p and 2p …

Synthesis And Characterization Of A Homogeneous Cobalt Catalyst For The Hydrogenation Of Acetone To Isopropanol, Joselyn G. Molina

Honors Projects

To lessen environmentalstrain and decrease dependency on noble metals for catalysis, first-row metals are continuously being explored as alternative catalysts for reactions of interest, particularly those that close the carbon cycle or promote fuel production. Recently, homogeneous cobalt catalysts have been shown to be viable options for effective hydrogenation of C-O double bonds, with cobalt-triphos being of particular interest. Here, we report the characterization of synthesized a cobalt-triphos complex by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy. Analysis of the electrochemistry of the cobalt-triphos complex suggests promising electrocatalytic capability for the hydrogenation of acetone to produce isopropanol.

Kinematics And Dynamics Of Lead Climbing, Arik B. Espineli

Honors Projects

The goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the kinematics and dynamics involved with lead climbing. Digital accelerometers, load sensors, and slow motion cameras were used to conduct both small and large scale testing of different factors of that might effect a climber and belayer during lead climbing. Rope elasticity and belayer movement were the two factors that were looked at for this research. Small scale testing was done using rigid masses, cords with different levels of elasticity, and a pulley system to simulate anchor points. From the small scale testing it was found that a …

Market Research On Student Concert Attendance At Bgsu's College Of Musical Arts, Mary Solomon

Honors Projects

Bowling Green State University boasts a well established College of Musical Arts which holds concerts performed by esteemed faculty, prestigious guest artists, and students. The school hosts these events in Kobacker Hall and Bryan Recital Hall which can accommodate up to 800 and 250 audience members, respectively. However, performances in Kobacker hall only fill one- fourth of the 800 seats, on average. Why is this so? This project aims to investigate the factors that influence students’ decisions to attend concerts at the College of Musical Arts (CMA). By methodology of survey research and statistical analysis, this project will look into …

Black Swamp Pub And Bistro Analysis, Sara Aniol

Honors Projects

The Black Swamp Pub and Bistro is a full-service restaurant located in the Union on the Bowling Green State University Campus. We mainly do sit-down service, but we also do take-out orders and have a full bar with draft beers as well as mixed drinks. Our menu tends to change a lot, with new additions as well as some of the items being deleted. My goal of this project is to try to give some insight on the patterns that are too big to see with day-to-day operations as well as give some recommendations for the future that is backed …

Code4her Spring 2019, Aidan White

Honors Projects

CODE4her is a mentorship program for girls in grades 5-8. Participants are paired with a BGSU student who acts as their mentor for the duration of the session. The goal of the organization is to give the girls a welcoming environment where the participants are able to learn about computer science.

Examining The Relationship Between Pre-Collegiate Educational Experiences And Religious Affiliation, Erica Augustyniak

Honors Projects

This paper explores the relationship between the type of school students experienced before college and how that schooling affected the students’ religious affiliation. The specific types of schools examined are public and private schools with private schools being further divided into religious and non-religious private schools. I explore the differences in religious importance among several groups including students who attended Catholic schools and those who did not, students who attended religious schools for varying lengths of time (low, medium, high, and no involvement), and students who had a choice in the schools they attended and those who did not. I …

Teaching Computers To Teach Themselves: Synthesizing Training Data Based On Human-Perceived Elements, James Little

Honors Projects

Isolation-Based Scene Generation (IBSG) is a process for creating synthetic datasets made to train machine learning detectors and classifiers. In this project, we formalize the IBSG process and describe the scenarios—object detection and object classification given audio or image input—in which it can be useful. We then look at the Stanford Street View House Number (SVHN) dataset and build several different IBSG training datasets based on existing SVHN data. We try to improve the compositing algorithm used to build the IBSG dataset so that models trained with synthetic data perform as well as models trained with the original SVHN training …

Gem-Pso: Particle Swarm Optimization Guided By Enhanced Memory, Kevin Fakai Chen

Honors Projects

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is a widely-used nature-inspired optimization technique in which a swarm of virtual particles work together with limited communication to find a global minimum or optimum. PSO has has been successfully applied to a wide variety of practical problems, such as optimization in engineering fields, hybridization with other nature-inspired algorithms, or even general optimization problems. However, PSO suffers from a phenomenon known as premature convergence, in which the algorithm's particles all converge on a local optimum instead of the global optimum, and cannot improve their solution any further. We seek to improve upon the standard Particle Swarm …

An Alternative Almost Sure Construction Of Gaussian Stochastic Processes In The L2([0,1]) Space, Kevin Chen

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Terahertz Absorption Spectra Of Silicate Cosmic Analog Dusts Using A Novel Spectrometer, Binh Phan

Honors Projects

Metal-containing amorphous silicate grains are expected to be a major component of interstellar dust. Amorphous silicate grains containing magnesium, iron, and calcium have been synthesized in the IWU chemistry department. I have contributed to the construction and testing of an instrument that will be used to measure terahertz absorption spectra of cold samples at astronomically interesting temperatures.

To study cosmic dust analogs, we installed dust samples, embedded in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) pellets, in a sample-exchanger and cooled it down within a cryostat to 3.0 Kelvin. Using a blackbody radiation source, we measured the transmission of terahertz light through those samples …