Each panel session features 3-4 student presentations (detailed below). Attendees are asked to stay for the whole session and not to walk in and out during or between student presentations out of respect for the presenters.

Panel Session 3: 1:15pm - 2:30pm

  • Session 3A: Language - Room A147
  • Session 3B: Animals & Ecosystems - Room A149
  • Session 3C: Health - Room A151
  • Session 3D: Neurobiology & Pharmacology - Room A155
  • Session 3E: Parkinson's & Alzheimer's - Room A113
  • Session 3F: Medicine - Room A115
  • Session 3G: The Heart - Room A117
  • Session 3H: Science I - Room A119
  • Session 3I: Searching Through Space - Room B108
  • Session 3J Engineering & Design - B101
Schedule

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2017
Friday, April 28th
1:15 PM

Session 3A: Edward Soja's Spatial Theory in Asian American Literature: Constructing Space in the Margins to Better Explore the Multiplicity of Gender

Rebecca Xun, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A147

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

While traditional modernist cultural politics can essentialize identities to the point of political divisiveness instead of working towards a radical conceptualization of agency, action, and identity, we can apply Soja's spatial theory and bell hooks's analysis on occupying the margins to analyze the spaces that Asian American women occupy in three texts: Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong, The ... Read More

Session 3A: Effects of Pitch and Intonation on Vocal Perception

Abigail Munsen, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A147

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

In the courtroom, how words are said can be just as important as what words are said. Perceptions of vocal characteristics influence outcomes of Supreme Court cases. Just from a voice sample, people create ideas of a person as more or less aggressive, attractive, confident, intelligent, trustworthy, and masculine. We are studying what characteristics of speech, such as differences in ... Read More

Session 3A: Love Independent Study

Krishi Korrapati, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Sneh Patel, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A147

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

In this year-long Independent Study, we have read and analyzed literature about romantic love from many different cultures. In our studies, we have approached questions including: Why has love always been integral to humanity? How do different cultures define love? Is there any agreement about what love is across culture? How do modern definitions of love derive and deviate from ... Read More

Session 3A: Task difficulty, mood, confidence, and language similarity influence vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language

Aimee van den Berg, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A147

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Words similar to the learner’s first language (L1) are often used to support second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Additionally, adapting instruction to the individual learner can help to maximize learning success. In this study, we investigated how L1 influences L2 acquisition and how mood and confidence interact with task difficulty to influence vocabulary learning. We created an artificial language and ... Read More

Session 3B: Holocene Rodent Evolution in the Nullarbor Plain of Australia

Walker Weyland, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A149

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

The Nullarbor Plain of Southern Australia hosts a number of caves that preserves small mammal fossils that originally accumulated through the activities of owls. The goal of this study is to use this unique fossil record to examine how rodent species responded to environmental changes over the past 20,000 years. We used geometric morphometrics to quantify mandible shape in four ... Read More

Session 3B: Quantifying the Benthic Habitat of Queen Conch (Lobatus gigas) in The Bahamas to Guide Conchservation

Thomas DeMastri, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Michelle Guo, Illinois Math and Science Academy
Sargam Panapaliya, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Kate Rabideau, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A149

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Marine populations are connected through larval exchange between otherwise isolated habitats. A network of marine protected areas connected by larval flow are a tool that can replenish and conserve threatened marine populations. However, before a network can be created, the most valuable habitats need to be identified for a given species. Queen Conch is an ecologically and economically and culturally ... Read More

Session 3B: SENSEI-Panama: Visualizing and Analyzing GPS Data on the Island of Barro Colorado Using MachineLearning

Shyam Sai, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A149

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

This project was created to visualize, model, and analyze animal movement on the Island of Barro Colorado. Using the longitude, latitude, and heights of 23 animals over the span of 3 months, this project was able to create several 2D visualizations. One, a map, showed the longitude and latitude movement of the animals, with a user interface to select animal, ... Read More

Session 3B: The Evolutionary Mechanisms of Batoidea Body Structure

Jasmine Shi, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A149

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

This research investigates the developmental process of elasmobranch body in order to understand evolutionary mechanisms of benthic body by analyzing the cellular [behavior] of a skate and shark embryos (stages 29 and 30). Understanding this developmental process of Batoidea will allow us to explore and comprehend the evolutionary mechanisms of how skates evolved from sharks, which is a field that ... Read More

Session 3C: Effects of Functional Electrical Stimulation Cycling on the Physiological Functions, Walking Performance, and Body Composition of Persons with Severe Multiple Sclerosis

Irisa Myint, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A151

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Advanced MS patients experience severe ambulatory impairments and require specialized exercise equipment. One option is functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling, which electrically stimulates leg muscles to elicit movement on the leg-ergometer. Methods/Design: The randomized controlled trial recruited 11 people with severe MS (EDSS 6.0-6.5). Participants were randomized into either the FES cycling condition or the passive cycling condition in which ... Read More

Session 3C: Healthy Access for Healthy Places: Analyzing the Role of Spatial Access to Community Resources in Public Health

Irena Gau, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A151

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

When it comes to preventive healthcare, place matters. It is increasingly clear that social factors, particularly access to resources such as healthy nutrition and safe housing, are as determinant to health and health equity as medical care. We investigate the significance of access to community resources to the social determinants of health in Humboldt Park, Chicago. In our approach, we ... Read More

Session 3C: Identifying Pre-Clinical Alzheimer's Disease Motor Impairments and Efficient Re-teaching Methods

Ishita Bhattacharya, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A151

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Alzheimer's Disease is currently the primary cause of dementia throughout the world. Many patients tend to undergo a pre-clinical phase of mild cognitive impairment before onset of the disease. A variety of motor impairments, such as bradykinesia, characterizes both mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s. Motor skills that are impaired may be re-learned through the practice of implicit learning with visual ... Read More

Session 3C: Using GPS data as a Measure of Community Mobility among Individuals with Lower Extremity Orthotic Devices

Colin O’Reilly, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A151

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Often, people afflicted with neurological, neuromuscular, or orthopedic impairments such as spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or trauma are prescribed a knee-ankle-foot orthosis (KAFO) for walking. KAFOs, however, cause abnormal gait and extended use leads to chronic pain among other problems. Other orthotic devices, specifically the stance controlled orthotic device (SCO) and the microprocessor controlled C-brace, have sought to ... Read More

Session 3D: Effects of Genetic Polymorphisms in the BDNF Gene on Long Term Response to Traumatic Brain Injuries

Simon Su, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A155

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are responsible for most cases of death and disability in the civilian and military populations under the age of 35. In spite of the importance of this public health problem, there is little information on long-term consequences of TBI. The Vietnam Head Injury Study (VHIS) is a long term (40 years+) follow-up study of penetrating TBI ... Read More

Session 3D: Longitudinal Processing of Subcortical and Cortical Structures of HIV Individuals Treated with Antiretroviral Therapy

Mounisha Kovour, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A155

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

HIV AIDS is a prevalent disease that affects about 1.2 million people just in the United Stated and about 36.7 million people worldwide. Since this disease can be transmitted directly from person to person it affects many people. Though this is mainly seen as an immune system disease, there are also affects that HIV has on the nervous system. In ... Read More

Session 3D: Nerve Degradation and the Correlation with Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Herschel Gupta, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A155

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Diabetes is a widely spread disease that affects millions of individuals around the globe. One of the main symptoms that arise with the diagnoses of diabetes is a tingling sensation in the extremities. Although the disease significantly impacts the lifestyle of individuals, little is known about the reasoning behind this onset of pain. While previous studies have made efforts to ... Read More

Session 3D: The Effect of Shared Emotional States on Helping Behavior in Rats and its Basis in Empathy

Rongzhen Zhou, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A155

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Empathy is a complex psychological phenomenon that motivates the occurrence of helping behaviors. Four experiments were performed to examine the effects of motivation, lack of social interaction, and decreased emotional contagion on helping behavior in rats. In our experimental paradigm, two rats were placed into an arena, with one rat in a restrainer and the other free to move around. ... Read More

Session 3E: Detecting AB, ABO, APP, p-Tau, and t-Tau in Chick Retina

Wasan Kumar, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A113

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

The purpose of this investigation was to detect AB (Amyloid beta), ABOs (Amyloid Beta Oligomers), APP (Amyloid Precursor Protein), p-Tau, and t-Tau in the chick embryo retina. This would determine if the chick embryo was suitable for Alzheimer’s disease research. In this investigation, chick eggs were incubated for 12-13 days, after which they were dissected and the brain and retina ... Read More

Session 3E: Innervation of Pathway-Specific Striatal Spiny Projection Neurons by Npas1+ Neurons of the External Globus Pallidus

Neha Verma, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A113

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

The external globus pallidus (GPe) and dorsal striatum are two structures of the basal ganglia, which are a set of subcortical, movement related nuclei in the brain. The GPe projects into the striatum and provides an inhibitory input. However, the magnitude of this input and locations of pallidostriatal synapses have not yet been described. Because the GPe has been shown ... Read More

Session 3E: LKB1 in Pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis and Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (Mouse Model of MS)

Naga Harshita Degala, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A113

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurodegenerative disease that targets people from 10-80 years of age. Our lab previously showed that a mutation (variant) in the gene STK11 increased the risk of getting MS. However, the mechanisms of action of the SKT11 gene and its role in MS is not clearly understood. We demonstrate here that knockout (KO) of ... Read More

Session 3E: Striatal Input to the External Globus Pallidus in Parkinson’s Disease

Darius Hong, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A113

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Convincing evidence indicates that pathological activity of the external globus pallidus (GPe), a nucleus in the basal ganglia, contributes to the motor symptoms of movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The GPe’s activity is regulated by other basal ganglia structures, including the dorsal striatum (dStr), which forms the principal inhibitory input to the GPe. Despite the clinical importance of the ... Read More

Session 3F: Identification of a Clinical Score to Estimate the Risk for the Development of Incident Resistant Hypertension

Sona RoseAnne Fokum, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A115

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Uncontrolled resistance hypertension referred to patients taking three or more antihypertensive medications with at least one being a diuretic and BP above threshold values (140/90 mmHg). The purpose of this study was to predict an empirical baseline variable that discriminated hypertensive patients who did or did not eventually develop resistant hypertension over a 150 day period using receiver operating characteristics ... Read More

Session 3F: MR Microscopic Phenotyping of the Pancreas in Mutant Kras Mouse Models of Pancreatic Cancer

Jesse Yan, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A115

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

There is a need to better understand the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), commonly known as pancreatic cancer, in the early stages. The purpose of this investigation is to determine how MR microscopy, an advanced imaging technology, can be used to track the onset and development of pancreatic cancer. MR imaging was performed ex vivo at 14.1T on pancreas ... Read More

Session 3F: The Development of Bayesian Randomized Rules in Phase I Dose-Finding Clinical Trials

Pranav Upadhyayula, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A115

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Phase I dose-finding clinical trials are utilized to optimize patient benefits at a specific dosage level of a drug. In the Toxicity Probability Interval (TPI) design, if the central tendency of a clinical trial’s beta-distribution falls in a safe interval, physicians will Escalate (“E”) their dosage. If the central tendency falls in an equivalence interval, physicians will Stay (“S) at ... Read More

Session 3F: The Difference between PTEN, EC-Confetti, and STIM1 Mice through Genotyping

Abinaya Ramakrishnan, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A115

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

With molecular biology starting to focus more on specific mechanisms and mutations, different types of mice are being generated. The question, thus arises, how to differentiate between these mice. Previous studies indicate the mechanisms behind breeding and creating certain specific- gene targeting -mice. However, there are few cost effective methods that are available in order to check whether mice have ... Read More

Session 3G: Drug Discovery for the Treatment of Heart Failure

Rishi Modi, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Caitlin O’Callaghan, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A117

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Heart failure (HF) affects about 6 million adults in the United States each year. However, the cellular mechanisms of developing HF are poorly understood which hinders the development of treatment. The purpose of this investigation was to further research the correlation between T-tubule density and the development of HF. Left ventricle myocytes of both HF and normal hearts were sliced ... Read More

Session 3G: Finding the Best Method to Wound the Hearts of Drosophila melanogaster larvae

Shriya Chennuru, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A117

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Myocardial infarction is a very common cause of cardiac injury in humans. Unfortunately, the human heart cannot regenerate the cells that die as a result of cardiac disease. Progressive loss of these cardiac cells can eventually lead to heart failure. A solution to this problem could be to use regenerative methods to replenish the myocardial cells. Drosophila melanogaster is a ... Read More

Session 3G: Neurobehavioral Biomarkers as a Potential Gateway for Offsetting Early Coronary Heart Disease Risk in Adolescents

Sonya Gupta, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Nabeel Rasheed, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A117

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Neurological research has yet to fully link socioeconomic status (SES) disparities to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) risk. Numerous studies have attempted to show the relationship between adult CHD risk and SES, but little is still known about adolescent CHD risk and the cerebral origins of these SES disparities. We collected structural magnetic resonance imaging (T1MRI) data from a pool of ... Read More

Session 3G: Treating Heart Failure by Inhibiting PLCB-1 in Rat Ventricular Cardiomyocytes

Vainius Normantas, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A117

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

One of the most prevalent chronic heart diseases in the United States, heart failure is the process wherein heart muscles slowly function worse until the heart fails. Many believe heart failure is caused by the loss of the T-tubule structures which are attacked as a result of the activation of PLCB-1. We are looking to find a compound which will ... Read More

Session 3H: Effects of TLR4 and HMGB1 in the Liver

Sivam J. Bhatt, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A119

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Toll Like Receptors are responsible for activating innate immunity in response to microbes. One such Toll Like Receptor is TLR4. TLR4 primarily senses lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from bacteria, but its response to LPS can be increased in the presence of the host stress response protein high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1). Bacterial LPS and HMGB1 have both been implicated in diet-induced ... Read More

Session 3H: Healthy Individuals Have a Higher Forced Vital Capacity than Dialysis Patients

Snigdha Sharma, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A119

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Six healthy individuals and six hemodialysis patients were tested for Forced Vital Capacity. Hemodialysis is used for those Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients who are acutely ill and require short term or long term dialysis. Obstructive disorders due to CKD can lead to vital capacity becoming impaired as the lungs become engorged and turgid with blood subsequent to a failing ... Read More

Session 3H: Optical Transmission Properties of Tissues in the Mid-Infrared

Kyle Feliciano, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A119

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

The intensity and spot size of any beam of light delivered to tissue is impacted by scattering, absorption, and reflection. The wavelength of light, the type of tissue, and the tissue thickness determine how much the properties of the light beam change. To successfully construct a cochlear implant that stimulates auditory neurons with light, these characteristics must be investigated, and ... Read More

Session 3H: The Effects of Phenol on Locomotor Behavior and Aging on Drosophila melanogaster

Shriya Chennuru, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Blair Hu, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Chandana Tetali, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room A119

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

In today’s world, there is a constant threat of environmental pollutants which negatively affects the daily lives of humans. One of these known pollutants is phenol, which is found in common consumer products such as mouthwash, lotions, and ointments. It has been found to accelerate senescence and decrease lifespan when introduced during early development. We utilized Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit ... Read More

Session 3I: Bayesian Statistics and Estimating Stellar Masses in the Blind Cosmology Challenge and the Dark Energy Survey

John DeMastri, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B108

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

The purpose of this investigation was to update, refine, and apply the techniques and strategies developed over the course of the last two years to produce a new cluster richness proxy, called M*, based off of stellar masses derived through Bayesian statistical methods. Bayesian models derived from Simha et al (2014) and Conroy and Gunn's FSPS were updated to incorporate ... Read More

Session 3I: Search for Gravitationally Lensed Quasars in the Dark Energy Survey

Pranav Sivakumar, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B108

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

We report results from an automated method to identify lensed quasars from the Dark Energy Survey using a PSF-difference-based algorithm aimed at identifying close-separation lens candidates. The PSFdifference algorithm utilizes the difference between PSF magnitude and model magnitude, as well as image segmentation, to deblend and identify close-separation candidates. In total, the algorithms identified 156 final lens candidates and also ... Read More

Session 3I: Searching for Primordial Black Holes and Other Exotic Dense Objects

Mishelle Mironov, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B108

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Dark matter is nonluminous material in the universe that is only known to interact through gravity, but may also interact via the weak or strong force. Although it is widely hypothesized that dark matter is weakly interacting massive particles, the recent detection of merging black holes by LIGO has brought forth the idea that dark matter takes the form of ... Read More

Session 3I: Searching for the Ninth Planet: Studying the Characteristics of the Trans-Neptunian Object DeeDee

Jack Mueller, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B108

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) represent the final frontier in research of the solar system. One recently discovered object, nicknamed “DeeDee” by researchers, has unusual orbit characteristics which could suggest the plausibility of a ninth planet the size of Neptune beyond the Kuiper Belt. This ongoing investigation aims to determine the characteristics of DeeDee via analyzing the photometric spectrum of DeeDee and ... Read More

Session 3J: A Light Review of Swarm Engineering

Ankit Agarwal, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Jack Messina, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Rohit Mittapalli, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B101

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

We conduct a light review of the field of swarm engineering, describing the field’s development, methodologies, and applications. Top-down, bottom-up, and middle meeting methods of swarm design are described. We discuss the Hamiltonian method of swarm design, biomimetic systems, and physicomimetic systems. We address open problems within the field and future areas of research.

... Read More

Session 3J: Exception Handling in Java Programs

Melissa Mu, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B101

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

This project looked at the exceptions used in Java programs, specifically throws and catches. When something unexpected occurs during program execution, the throw block triggers an exception and the catch block responds to the exception in a variety of ways, such as long chain recovery attempts or printing an error message. Exception handling is widely used and crucial to all ... Read More

Session 3J: RNNintendo: Music Composition with Neural Networks

Austin Choi, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
William Tong, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Room B101

1:15 PM - 2:30 PM

A fledgling technological with extraordinary potential, artificial neural networks have risen to prominence in the field of machine learning. Loosely inspired by their biological counterparts, neural networks function as computational systems composed of interconnected neurons. By exploiting certain architectural and computational properties of the system, neural networks are capable of a dizzying array of tasks, encompassing everything from computer vision ... Read More