Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The Determinants Of College Graduates’ Salaries In The Us: A Data Analytics Approach, David Nunez, Puneet Agarwal Ph.D., Samuel Gray

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

In this project, we will explore a range of factors that influence the salaries of US college graduates. Demographic variables such as gender, race, and ethnicity; educational variables such as fields of study; and professional variables, including job and employer characteristics, will be examined to understand their impact on salaries. Our research will extend to a spatial and temporal analysis, offering a deeper understanding of how these factors vary across different states and over time, revealing critical disparities linked to gender, race, and ethnicity. The study will provide valuable insights that can help individuals make well-informed decisions regarding their career …

Computer Vision In A Robotic Arm, Jack Maxwell

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

We used a machine learning-based object detection algorithm to give a robotic arm the ability to "see" with its camera.

Computational Modeling Of High Yttrium Refractory High Entropy Alloy Microstructures, Kaleb C. Ryan, Marissa M. Baker

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) are advanced metals made up of five or more principal elements in roughly equal amounts. The microstructural effects of alloying with yttrium as a principal element for RHEAs are currently not well understood. This project compared RHEA microstructures from literature with simulations using the High Entropy Alloy Predicting Software (HEAPS), which computes 10 screening criteria to predict the microstructure of a RHEA composition. The accuracy of HEAPS predictions was assessed by comparing them with experimentally validated microstructures found in literature. A combination of criteria was found to have a 95.8% accuracy rate, and a new …

Attitude Control Of A Flexible Flapping Wing Uav Based On Fuzzy Logic, Reed M. Paulson, Tyson Chen, Diego Del Real, Nico Morrison

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project revolves around creating an a attitude controller for a hovering flexible flapping wing UAV that is based on a flying hummingbird. We based our model from a paper by Banazadeh and Taymourtash1 , First replicating the open-loop results using the nonlinear dynamic model and the equations of motion (seen below) while considering aerodynamic loads. Once replicated, we then used fuzzy logic to model the dynamic model. Subsequently, we designed a fuzzy controller to stabilize the hovering mode. We then considered and detailed future work needed to make further progress in this area.

Seismic Resilience Of Timber Homes, Melia R. Costa

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The vast majority of residential buildings in California are wood-frame structures. A home is typically a very large investment for families, and damage to the home can be detrimental to a family’s economic success. Thus, reducing the economic impacts of an earthquake on residential timber housing is crucial. A full scale, two-story section of a residential timber house is in construction in the Parson’s Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering Laboratory on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, California. Once built it will be put through earthquake simulation tests on a shake table with various magnitudes of seismic activity. Next, …

Leveraging Tradespace-Exploration For A Senior Project Team Formation Application, Miguel Saenz

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project revolves around the development of an app in MATLAB that leverages the VASSAR rule-based system and a genetic algorithm to form groups of teams for the Mechanical Engineering Senior Design project class. We leveraged the iterative design process to eventually attain a functional app with a reasonable runtime that works provided correctly formatted rulesheets describing student project preference and member preference.

African Californios.Org: Reconstructing The African Past Of Spanish & Mexican California, Anthony Colin Herrera

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

AfricanCalifornios.org is a research project dedicated to highlighting the significant contributions of Afro-descendants in Spanish and Mexican California. Historical colonial census records reveal that 19% of California's population had African ancestry, yet many individuals concealed their identities to enhance their social standing. This project uses modern NLP and Data Science techniques to construct family trees, shedding light on their overlooked stories. The work has been published and presented at the 2024 Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations conference.

Design Of Ballistics Armor Using Additive Manufacturing Of Kevlar Composites, Jedidiah D. Jimenez, Roha Y. Ali, Jack C. Bride

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This project evaluates the effectiveness of various geometries created using advanced additive manufacturing (AM) of Kevlar fiber, chopped carbon fiber-reinforced filament for ballistic protection applications. This study expands on sandwich panel designs with woven Kevlar face sheets and investigates an optimal fiber reinforced filament core structure design. A unit cell workflow was developed in nTop to take advantage of its custom cell modeling and FEA capabilities. Unit cell types were simulated and tested from the hexagonal honeycomb, gyroid TPMS, and re-entrant auxetic cell families. Core structure thickness and cell size were additive manufacturing parameters that were varied to assess the …

Supporting Neurodivergent Students, William W. Toll

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Prior work—a 2019 study by Schreffler, Vasquez, Chini, et al.—investigated the efficacy of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in supporting students with disabilities (SWD) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (STEM). SWD are somewhat more likely than the general population to enroll in STEM majors, but for some disabilities, students are less likely to graduate with those majors. Nonetheless, the authors found a paucity of prior work involving the use of UDL for SWD in STEM. In addition to highlighting the need for future quantitative research overall, the authors noted that it would be interesting to investigate which UDL …

Sex Differences In The Association Between Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein And Cognitive Performance In Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer’S Disease, Taryn Gordon

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The rising incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease and its disproportionate prevalence in the female sex has led to a growth in research focused on preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease and the histopathological brain changes. However, limited research has focused on preclinical changes in Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer’s Disease populations and sex differences within these unique populations. This study aimed to address gaps in the literature by examining biological markers of neuroinflammation, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), in preclinical Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer’s Disease mutation carriers and non-carriers, and its relationship with cognitive function and sex. Archival data was utilized from the Colombia-Boston biomarker study of …

Blind Grading Gives Law Schools 20/20 Vision, Amy H. Soled

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

There has been a big push to revamp legal education. Many have argued that after years of doing things the same way, it is time to change. While there is validity for the need for reform, educators should embrace the one thing legal education has gotten right: anonymous or blind grading. This Essay makes the case that blind grading should not only remain in legal education, but every law school course should adopt it, including writing and clinical courses. Only through blind grading can law schools better succeed in the ABA mandated goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Grades are …

Vertical Restraints In An Amazon World, Martin Edwards

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Vertical restraints are a peculiarity, even among the dizzying array of contracts subject to antitrust scrutiny. While current law treats vertical restraints permissively, antitrust reformers have added this permissive treatment of vertical restraints to their list of proposed reforms. The reformers have softly proposed that courts apply a presumption of illegality standard for vertical restraints— greater scrutiny than the current standard, the rule of reason. This Article argues that doing so is inadvisable.

Producers and their consumers both want the same thing: the best overall product experience for the money. The critical economic functions of vertical restraints are to enable …

Contempt: The Original Judicial Cheat Code, Ryan L. Scott

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The judicial contempt power challenges the fundamental rights enshrined in America’s Constitution. Imagine spending eight years in federal prison with no right to a jury trial or a court appointed attorney. Your only reprieve is the discretion of the judge who is imprisoning you. Meaningful appeals and even habeas corpus actions are generally not available remedies. Instead, what was originally justified as an inherent power of the court, necessary to maintain order and decorum, is increasingly used for trivial offenses or to incarcerate individuals for far longer than their possible crimes would otherwise warrant.

Despite widespread instances of abuse of …

Command Responsibility And The War In Ukraine: Can Customary International Law Hold Russian Commanders Accountable For War Crimes?, Nicholas J. Nizinski

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Currently, neither Ukraine’s Constitution nor its criminal code establish the principle of command responsibility as a mode of criminal liability within the country. Key international statutes like Article 28 of the International Criminal Court and international case law, like the recently decided Case of Milanković v. Croatia, have firmly established the doctrine of command responsibility as a fundamental principle of customary international law applicable in the context of an armed conflict. Furthermore, the Milanković court affirmed a conviction based on command responsibility even in the absence of a clear domestic governing statute at the time the crime was committed, …

Chilling Victims’ Rights: The Supreme Court Creates A “Pride Of Place” For True Threats, Ana Maria Matovic

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Living in the Information Age means that information is literally always at our fingertips. This also means that keeping tabs on one another is as easy as a tap on a screen. The effortless ability to follow another’s life on the internet has led to a sinister phenomenon: cyberstalking. Prosecuting cyberstalking cases poses complex constitutional challenges. Specifically, prosecuting these cases may clash with a perpetrator’s First Amendment right to free speech. However, the First Amendment does not protect all categories of speech. One of those unprotected categories is the category of “true threats.” If a perpetrator’s conduct constitutes a “true …

The Outer Limits Of Digital Privacy Protections: A Review Of The Privacy Fallacy, Michael Conklin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

An Updated Practical Guide To Taking And Defending Depositions, Gary S. Gildin

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The deposition offers a singular opportunity to handcuff the deponent to an irreversible script. Consequently, both the attorney taking the deposition and defending counsel must prepare for and conduct the deposition with equal if not greater care than the trial.

Traditionally, lawyers have used the deposition to discover facts relating to the legal elements and the credibility, perception, and recollection of the witness. However, recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as to how the brain makes decisions have revealed a different genre of evidence that will drive how the trier of fact will decide the case. Today an attorney taking a deposition …

Analysis Of Mybl1,Vxn, And Ccne2 Gene Relationships In Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Sahia M. Bryant

Theses (2016-Present)

Accounting for 15-20% of all breast cancers, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), is the most aggressive subtype, with the worst prognosis. In previous studies, the MYBL1 gene, which is associated with several events that are key to tumor progression, has been identified as a powerful transcriptional activator that is overexpressed in TNBC. In earlier research, our lab knocked down MYBL1 expression in a TNBC cell line and identified a subset of genes impacted by the knockdown process. MYBL1 gene is located on the chromosome 8q locus. In addition to MYBL1 we identified 2 genes, VXN and CCNE2, also located at the …

Investigation Of The Operational Benefits Of Flipped Left Diamond Interchange, Nazmus Salehin Asif,

Theses (2016-Present)

Interchange is an important element to accommodate the critical movement between arterials and freeways. To operate efficiently, innovative interchange designs have been suggested by transportation professionals. Recently, an innovative interchange design called flipped left diamond interchange (FLDI) design has been proposed. That aims to increase capacity and improve efficiency by flipping the left-turn lanes in opposing directions, eliminating conflicts between opposing left-turn movements. So, the signal timing of the left turn movements and through movements are independent which indicates the signal timing of these movements can be determined based on their volume. Due to this independence, any signal timing sequences …

Analysis Of Isoforms Associaated With The Mybl2 Gene In Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Taylor Allen-Boswell

Theses (2016-Present)

Nearly every gene exists as transcript variants and protein isoforms. Variations of a particular gene are generated by small nuclear ribonucleoproteins which in many cases remove introns, so that exons can be joined together in varying configurations. Transcript variants are formed, which are then translated into protein isoforms. The resulting transcript variants have substantial sequence similarities; and the isoforms have substantial sequence similarities. Studies show that isoforms generated because of these processes can have different start sites and/or sizes that can lead to generations of different proteins with different biological roles in a cell. The isoforms might have different functions …

Characterization Of Developmentally Downregulated Nfe2l3 In Retinal Ganglion Cell Survival And Axon Regeneration, Lucy Homer

Holster Scholar Projects

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are central nervous system projection neurons essential for transmitting visual information from the eye to the brain. Damage to RGCs, caused by conditions such as glaucoma and traumatic optic neuropathy (TON), may lead to vision loss or blindness, as adult RGCs lack regenerative capacity. This study focuses on Nfe2l3 (Nrf3), a developmentally downregulated transcription factor known to mediate cellular responses to oxidative stress, a key pathological event following optic nerve injury. We hypothesized that overexpressing Nfe2l3 in RGCs would enhance their survival and promote axon regeneration after optic nerve crush (ONC) injury. To test this, we …

Understanding Human Statistical Learning In Language Acquisition: Insights From Neural Networks, Anna Kopec

Holster Scholar Projects

This project explores how the cognitive mechanisms associated with human statistical learning in language acquisition align with computational processes in three kinds of neural networks: feedforward networks (FFN), simple recurrent networks (SRN), and long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent networks. Prior research in infants has provided evidence of statistical learning in discovering word boundaries within continuous spoken speech. Replicating statistical learning tasks using neural networks could allow for a better understanding of the fundamentals of these parallel processes in our brains and neural networks alike. This project tested the ability of FFNs, SRNs, and LSTMs to make syllable-by-syllable predictions from sequential …

Engineering Ceramic Ductility Into Aluminum Oxide, Krish Bhuva

Holster Scholar Projects

This project explores the enhancement of ductility in Aluminum Oxide (Al₂O₃) ceramics through microstructural engineering. The goal is to combine the hardness and stability of Al₂O₃ with enhanced ductility for diverse industrial applications. Inspired by the naturally occurring Itacolumite rock, known for its complex microstructure, this research aims to replicate similar microstructural features in engineering ceramics. By doping Al₂O₃ with Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂), Boron Nitride (BN), and a pore former, while employing innovative sintering techniques, we hypothesize that these modifications will lead to a measurable increase in ductility. Despite early challenges in achieving homogeneity in sintering, promising results were observed …

Importance Sampling To Learn Vasopressor Dosage To Optimize Patient Mortality In An Interpretable Manner, Anshul Rastogi

Holster Scholar Projects

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from an improperly compensated bodily response to infection. There is a high urgency among clinicians to develop a set of real-time explainable treatment guidelines and tools to address the high mortality rate of sepsis patients. We present a reinforcement learning approach for vasopressor drug dosage in intensive care unit sepsis patients to achieve a better-than-expert treatment policy. We preserved interpretability with a prototype learning layer and learn actions in an off-policy manner with importance sampling. We evaluated our design on the MIMIC-IV deidentified electronic health record dataset with an 80%-20% training-validation split for …

Understanding The Influence Of Bone Marrow Endothelial Cells On Primary Human Megakaryocytic-Erythroid Progenitor Cell Fate, Vedaamrutha Reddy

Holster Scholar Projects

The human bone marrow is a complex microenvironment comprised of hematopoietic, stromal, and bone marrow endothelial cells (BMECs). This study builds on previous findings to explore the regulatory role of BMECs in influencing the expansion and lineage choice of megakaryocytic-erythroid progenitors (MEPs). Understanding these interactions has the potential to advance transfusion medicine and improve treatments for conditions like thrombocytopenia and anemia. Due to complications with isolating human BMEC, we transitioned to a murine model. Murine BMECs were isolated and magnetic cell separation was employed to enrich for endothelial cells (ECs), which were then cultured over a 20-day period using standard …

Using Statistics In Church-Based Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

Although the proper use of statistics is challenging for most people, including researchers, aggregated numeric data is often the strongest evidence that a researcher can present to support an idea. This is because statistics is such a powerful tool for detecting trends that can be observed in complex contexts such as churches. Church researchers need to understand two classes of statistics: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics describe the different variables that are measured in a study and include the mean, the standard deviation, and confidence intervals. They also include correlations showing how these variables are related to each …

American Society For Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Best Practice Statements On The Sharing Of Endoscopic Images And Videos On Social Media, Walter Chan, Rashmi Advani, Mohammad Bilal, Aline Charabaty, Karl Kwok, Janese Laster, Alexander Perelman, Shazia Siddique, Judy Trieu, Mfoniso Umoren, Austin Chiang

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

Palliative Care And Advance Care Planning Intervention Fidelity Monitoring: Methods And Lessons Learned From Pcori-Funded Large-Scale, Pragmatic Clinical Trials, Manisha Verma, Corita Grudzen, Seiko Izumi, Neil Wenger, Areej El-Jawahri, Deborah Ejem, Rebecca Aslakson

Einstein Health Papers

Over the past decade, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded multiple large-scale, comparative effectiveness clinical trials evaluating palliative care and advance care planning interventions. These are complex multicomponent interventions that need robust but flexible fidelity monitoring. Fidelity is necessary to maintain both internal and external validity within palliative care intervention research and to ultimately evaluate the real-world impact of high-quality interventions. Different trials not only took varying approaches to fidelity monitoring but also uncovered both unique and common challenges and facilitators. This article summarizes 8 of these trials and highlights approaches, adaptations, barriers, and facilitators for intervention fidelity monitoring. …

Healthy From The Start: Co-Designing Sleep, Nutrition And Physical Activity Resources For Young Shiftworkers—Novel Implementation And Evaluation, Alexandra E. Shriane, Sally A. Ferguson, Gabrielle Rigney, Charlotte C. Gupta, Tracy Kolbe-Alexander, Madeline Sprajcer, Cassie Hilditch, Robert Stanton, Matthew J.W. Thomas, Jessica L. Paterson, Jamie Marino, Grace E. Vincent

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Introduction: The increasing prevalence of shiftwork among young adults poses significant health risks, primarily due to its disruptive effects on sleep, nutrition and physical activity. Addressing these risks necessitates the development of tailored, evidence-based resources to support these key health behaviours. Participatory research approaches, engaging those with relevant lived experience (i.e., co-design) are a novel and effective approach in developing these resources. As such, the aim of the present study was to explore whether sleep, nutrition and physical activity resources for young shiftworkers could be developed using participatory, co-design approaches and how co-designers would rate both the approaches used and …

Mixed Methods Study Protocol: Language Identity, Discrimination, And Mental Health Among Multilingual 1.5 Generation Asian/Asian American Immigrant Young Adults, Chulwoo Park, Mark Edberg, Janet Yougi Bang, Avizia Yim Long

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Language identity, an understudied factor, can influence isolation and discrimination, leading to disparities in well-being and mental health among immigrants. This study aims to investigate the role of language identity on structural racism and discrimination among 1.5 generation Asian/Asian American immigrants in a diverse U.S. state. We developed a three-step sequential approach: Stage 1—qualitative analysis (1A, focus group discussion; 1B, in-depth interviews); Stage 2—quantitative analysis (2A, language identity measurement scale; 2B, cross-sectional online survey; 2C, multivariate multiple linear regression); Stage 3—another round of qualitative analysis (3A, follow-up in-depth chronological interviews). Therefore, this study will contribute to the field by introducing …