Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Using Graph Theory For Design And Safety In Railroad Systems, Kaleigh R. Poirier

Honors Projects

Trains, a method of transportation for people and/or goods, are different than other methods of transportation, such as boats or trucks. Trains can only travel in a railroad system, specifically upon tracks. If something is prevent ing the train from moving on the tracks, then that whole line of railroad is shut down. If boats and trucks cannot travel on a particular route, there are alternative routes that can be taken. The design of the railroad system may appear to be created by chance, in that no trains crash into each other or into stations, but there is an application …

Monty Hall Meets Game Theory, Jamie Lynn Dobson

Honors Projects

I explored the Monty Hall game scenario and how to calculate the chances of winning by staying or switching doors using a probability and game theory approach. I also calculated how these chances change when there are 4, 5,..., n doors.

Fair Trade: The Successes And Failures As Seen Through The Sustainable Development Goals, P. Alison Macbeth

Honors Projects

In this paper I seek to understand fair trade as a social movement and the relationship of fair trade to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals created by the United Nations. I look at the history of the fair trade movement in the context of alternative trade organizations and the sustainability movement during the precipitous rise and stature of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the 1990s. I analyze the growth and scalability of fair trade in the U.S. since 2015 through three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 1: Ending Poverty; SDG 5: Gender Equality; and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and …

Rendering Hypercomplex Fractals, Anthony Atella

Honors Projects

Fractal mathematics and geometry are useful for applications in science, engineering, and art, but acquiring the tools to explore and graph fractals can be frustrating. Tools available online have limited fractals, rendering methods, and shaders. They often fail to abstract these concepts in a reusable way. This means that multiple programs and interfaces must be learned and used to fully explore the topic. Chaos is an abstract fractal geometry rendering program created to solve this problem. This application builds off previous work done by myself and others [1] to create an extensible, abstract solution to rendering fractals. This paper covers …

Differential Self-Presentation Across Multiple Social Network Sites, Joshua M. Amaral

Honors Projects

This study investigates the ways in which users of multiple social network sites (SNSs) differ their self-presentation across the various SNSs that they use; as well as analyzes how SNS users alter their self-presentation on SNSs based on their perceived audience. This study was granted permission by participants to follow their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts and to perform content analysis on the artifacts that they generated during the phase of observation. A grounded theory approach was implemented and was effective in coding and analyzing both the ephemeral and non-ephemeral content observed in this study. Results indicate that participants …

Monitoring Of Dna Polymerase Theta Movements Through Fret Analysis, Ashley Rebelo

Honors Projects

DNA polymerases are enzymes used for DNA replication during cell division and can be specialized for DNA repair. DNA Polymerase Theta (Pol θ) is the predominant polymerase involved in alternative double-stranded break repair and is upregulated in breast cancer. It is errorprone as it does not accurately match the nucleotide on a DNA template with the correct complementary base. This inaccuracy affects the overall fidelity of the enzyme, a biochemical process that looks at the ability of a polymerase to “read” the template DNA and select the right nucleotide before polymerization. Polymerization for most DNA polymerases involves a global conformational …

Apocalyptic Rhetoric And Subversive Framing In "The Uninhabitable Earth", Louisa A. D'Orvidio

Honors Projects

Capturing the public's attention with messages of climate change is immediately important in the face of the threat of global warming. As science communicators and climate scientists struggle to effectively communicate the risks of climate change to the general public, a cross-disciplinary understanding of exemplary communication events is essential to furthering the field of climate change communication. By applying theories of rhetorical criticism to the arguments in the viral, and controversial, New York Magazine cover piece "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells, this study evaluated the dominant frames, appeals and persuasive narratives utilized in the article. The analysis drew conclusion …

Solving The Rubik's Cube Using Group Theory, Courtney Cooke

Honors Projects

While he was working in his mother's apartment in 1974, the professor of architecture from Budapest, Erno Rubik, had no idea he was inventing one of the most popular toys in history, the Rubik's Cube. As an estimated 350 million Rubik's cubes have been sold, and approximately one in every seven people have played with one (which is about 1 billion people) it is not surprising to see that the algorithm of solving the Rubik's cube has been applied to the eld of mathematics. By using abstract algebra and more specially, group theory, the Rubik's Cube, no matter what the …

Visualizing Sorting Algorithms, Brian Faria

Honors Projects

This paper discusses a study performed on animating sorting algorithms as a learning aid for classroom instruction. A web-based animation tool was created to visualize four common sorting algorithms: Selection Sort, Bubble Sort, Insertion Sort, and Merge Sort. The animation tool would represent data as a bar-graph and after selecting a data-ordering and algorithm, the user can run an automated animation or step through it at their own pace. Afterwards, a study was conducted with a voluntary student population at Rhode Island College who were in the process of learning algorithms in their Computer Science curriculum. The study consisted of …

Crossing The Line, Cameron Bryce

Honors Projects

In The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, author H. Porter Abbott defines narrative as “the representation of an event or a series of events” (13). Given this broad definition, narrative events can be represented in a number of ways, as seen in different storytelling mediums like literature, film, television, paintings, video games, or even daily oral storytelling. Narrative is the way in which one communicates a story. In literature, writers must use text and the placement of text on a page or a screen in order to convey a series of events. Writers can utilize narrators in literature in a number …

Knotswithstanding!, Erik S. Nestor

Honors Projects

Knotswithstanding! is an internet based application built using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. It is a pedagogical utility that facilitates the construction and analysis of mathematical knots, as well as the demonstration of knot theory fundamentals. It uses a "stick based" tile layout system, allowing a user to draw a knot by dragging the mouse pointer across a grid. Once a knot is complete, functionality is available to check for validity, identify the number of crossings, and determine other invariants including tricolorability and Dowker notation. It features 500 iterable storage banks, and functionality for a sequence of knot renderings to be …

The Mathematics Of The Card Game Set, Paola Y. Reyes

Honors Projects

SET is a card game of visual perception. The goal is to be the first to see a SET from the 12 cards laid face up on the table. Each card has four attributes, which can vary as follows: 1. Shape: oval, squiggle, or diamond 2. Color: red, green, or blue 3. Number: the number of copies of each symbol can be 1, 2, or 3 4. Filling: solid, unfilled, stripped Each card has a unique combination, for a total of 34 = 81 different cards in a deck. A SET consist of three cards for which each of the …

Graph-Ene, James E. Torres

Honors Projects

GRAPH-ENE is a rich internet application for building and manipulating undirected, simple graphs. It is intended for use as a classroom teaching aid, plus as a tool for students to interactively manipulate graphs for assignments. Being web based, it is portable—it can run anywhere a browser is available. Since it is interactive, it provides problem-solving capabilities that are not available using pencil and paper.

Geodesic Circulant Graphs Embedded On The Flat Torus, Cameron Richer

Honors Projects

In this paper, we will investigate graphs that arise from the intersections of geodesics embedded on the at torus. For any size collection of geodesics, the number of unique intersections is countable via their slopes. As well, any embedding of two geodesics gives rise to a circulant graph for which its chromatic number can be calculated from their respective slopes. Furthermore, the previously described circulant graphs embedded on the at torus are self-dual. This provides an effective face coloring of any graph arising from the embedding of two slopes on the torus.

Generalized Ordered Whist Tournaments For 6n+1 Players, Elyssa Cipriano

Honors Projects

In this project, we worked to see if it would be possible to extend the idea of an ordered whist tournament to a generalized whist tournament on 6n or 6n + 1 players. We focused on tournaments where the players are divided into n games of size 6 each consisting of two teams of size 3. We aimed to balance the 3 occasions where the players meet as opponents.

(4,8) Ordered Generalized Whist Designs - Existence Results, Nicholas Leveilee

Honors Projects

Ordered Generalized Whist tournaments are a new design. In this

study, we establish that ordered generalized whist tournaments exist for

tournaments with 8n + 1 players, n odd, with 4 players per team.

Teaching Statistics To Elementary Children: Using A Problem-Solving Approach To Enhance Learning, Kayla Lee Botelho

Honors Projects

When teaching statistics (or data analysis) to elementary children, it is beneficial to use a problem-solving approach that incorporates meaningful tasks to enhance the students' learning. This was determined through a careful review of literature, observations of elementary teachers, and the creation and instruction of data analysis unit. The unit required the students to collect data on heights, organize the data in charts, and display the data in line plots. In addition, the students analyzed the data to recalculate the average and other measures of central tendency and to answer questions that arose through the implementation of the lessons. In …

Inter Spem Et Metum, Fiat Lux, Michael A. Mota

Honors Projects

Explores the design and development of a simple, 3D flight simulator. The resulting application allows users to pilot an abstract human avatar and to create free-hand strokes and physically-based explosions onto the environment through a ball discharge meta-game feature. Uses the C++ language, and the ancillary programming API libraries, OpenGL, GLEW, and Win32.

Proe: Pseudo Random Optimized Encryption, Louis J. Ricci

Honors Projects

Examines the development and testing of the PROE encryption algorithm, including design decisions ensuring security and speed. Demonstrates implementation in the x86-64 assembler.

Rhode Island College Mobile Course Catalog, Lianne Elsner

Honors Projects

Consists of a suite of computer programs written in Visual Basic.net and embedded Visual Basic 3.0, whose purpose is to display the RIC course catalog on a Pocket PC device running Windows Mobile. The program package allows major course requirements and information to be viewed on a single screen. Included is a desktop computer program which allows faculty and staff to make changes to the database of courses.