Session II

One of the longest-standing fundamental questions in physics is the nature of dark matter. To address this problem, the Dahl Group's goal, in collaboration with the Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) Collaboration, is to introduce and develop new nuclear recoil detection technology that combines two existing technologies: bubble chamber electron recoil rejection and liquid scintillator event-by-event energy resolution. This technique searches ... Read More

The doubly charged Higgs boson (H++/H--) is predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model. When searching for the doubly charged Higgs, we look for its decay through a distinctive signal of a same sign lepton pair, which can appear in 6 unique combinations, ignoring combinations containing tau leptons. The rate at which each of those 6 appear relative to ... Read More

The City of Naperville has many talented engineers that are constantly working and bettering the city of Naperville. Thanks to their various projects, this business project was able to focus on replacing a water main in a small roundabout in Naperville. Over the course of six months, the company and mentor provided the needed knowledge which was required for designing ... Read More

The use of machine learning (ML) algorithms to test effectiveness and expand applications in environmental engineering has become increasingly successful. ML algorithms have the advantage of being able to address nonlinear data successfully. Furthermore, environmental engineering has become increasingly data intensive, a challenge that has been met by rapid progress in the development of computational techniques for handling large data ... Read More

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa) are considered standard-of-care treatment for gender dysphoria among early pubertal transgender youth. GnRHa suppress endogenous puberty, preventing the development of gender incongruent secondary sex characteristics. However, treatment with GnRHa also prevents the maturation of germ cells. Germ cell maturation is necessary for fertility. While GnRHa does not permanently impair fertility, as discontinuing GnRHa treatment would result ... Read More

The phenomenon of dark matter has perplexed physicists for decades, and, in an attempt to find it, some physicists hypothesize a dark sector of particles. These particles interact little with Standard Model particles and have a new force analogous to electromagnetism carried by the dark photon. If this dark photon has enough mass, then it could decay into a tightly ... Read More

As a barrier to the external environment, the skin serves as the body’s primary mechanism for physical and chemical defense, thermoregulation, and fluid retention. In both tissue homeostasis and wound repair, layers of skin form as cells migrate upward following proliferation and differentiation in the basal layer. Metabolism maintains physiological activity, with inhibited function in diseases including diabetes leading to ... Read More

With AI’s endless capabilities, humans have found numerous applications for AI to assist in both complex and simple tasks to improve efficiency and productivity. After extensive research on AI and its uses, we created our bot using Google’s Dialogflow CX Console. The purpose of this bot was to assist users in ordering food. This bot would be able to greet ... Read More

Authorities all across the world are trying to minimize carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and this decarbonization step is necessary if the global climate issue is to be resolved. Researchers at Argonne have modified a natural gas-burning microturbine to burn natural gas-hydrogen fuel blends with the aim to reduce CO2 emissions. Emissions and efficiency data are obtained via experiments performed at ... Read More

My research aims to look at the biomechanics behind a baseball pitch. The focus of the study is not on the results of the experiment, but to prove that scientific research can be conducted using this software. FreeMoCap is a free online software in the alpha stage of development. Omitting the need to purchase equipment costing thousands of dollars, FreeMoCap ... Read More

Saprotrophic fungi decompose organic matter in soil microbial communities. Fungi break down organic matter into individual compounds via extracellular enzymes. Next, the fungi absorb these nutrients for use and growth. We researched saprotrophic communities in a tallgrass prairie restoration. We looked to see if they differed between monoculture or polyculture plots and whether they differed across the years since restoration, ... Read More

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects the production of hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. Knowledge of sickle cell is very little even though it is a very common disease and research about sickle cell isn’t always prioritized which led us into doing our own research to discover ways ... Read More

Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCCs) classify a diverse family of cancers that constitute the sixth most common type of human cancer in the world, with approximately 900,000 new cases annually. Current HNSCC treatments are highly toxic and carry significant side effects, so it is imperative we explore less invasive potential future drug targets. Nuclear-binding SET Domain 1 (NSD1) ... Read More

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a bacterial pathogen that attacks macrophages by puncturing the membrane resulting in cell apoptosis, has been known to be drug-resistant, leaving many patients at risk for a worsening condition. Cycloserine is a second-line treatment for Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in which the cyclic analog to D-alanine targets alanine racemase and D-alanine ligase, blocking the formation ... Read More

The Mayor’s Office of Economic Development is currently working on implementing an EV-Ready Code in the City of Aurora Zoning Code that would require new buildings and homes to be equipped with charging infrastructure. This policy is a critical development in the City Govt.’s plan to position themselves as leaders in the green economy and therefore attract additional investment and ... Read More

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) have experienced extensive population decline across their range in the western United States and Canada due to habitat degradation and loss largely associated with land use change, including the development of clean-energy projects. Modeling the life history and habitat suitability of the species is a key tool in understanding how landscape changes could affect sage-grouse ... Read More

Presequence protease (PreP) is encoded by the Pitrm1 gene which is an essential gene in mice and the defect in the Pitrm1 gene is linked to several human diseases. Presequence Protease (PreP) is a 117kDA M16C metalloprotease that cleaves presequence peptides and degrades amyloid ꞵ(Aꞵ). PreP has a C and N domain connected by a linker region together. There is ... Read More

A variety of exotic models predict a doubly charged Higgs-like particle that can be pair-produced in hadronic interactions via a Drell-Yan-like mechanism. The H++ and H-- can each decay to a pair of like-sign leptons (muons or electrons in this study) with TeV-scale mass, providing a distinctive event signature. Within Monte Carlo Drell-Yan events, there is a substantial amount of ... Read More

Using a tool called Aircrack, along with another called Cain and Able, I aim to demonstrate the importance of ethical hacking in professional environments. Many times, organizations do maintain proper document security which, along with staff turnover, can introduce critical, password protected documents to security vulnerabilities; some of which could cripple an organization. My goal is to demonstrate the importance ... Read More

After stroke, patients experience a significant loss in performing activities of daily living (ADL). For example, with loss of voluntary control and abnormal joint coupling in the upper extremity, stroke survivors have great difficulty performing daily activities such as reach-to-grasp. The paresis mainly affects the side of the body contralateral to the lesion and slight deficits to the ipsilesional side, ... Read More

Previous versions of the codebase developed by the IMSA-CMS group have only allowed for data processing of Monte-Carlo events. The structure of the old codebase was built so that the analyzer object would receive a root file and process all events within the file. To implement the analytics of collision data within the codebase, the analyzer needed to be restructured ... Read More

Breast cancer (BC) patients have better outcomes when cancer is detected early, but metastasis remains a major cause of mortality. High levels of the Notch ligand JAGGED-1 (JAG1) has been linked with poor BC prognosis, and is associated with drug resistance and tumor recurrence. Furthermore, JAG1 is associated with lymph node (LN) metastasis, which is a reliable prognostic indicator. While ... Read More

Historians have explained how Indigenous Mexican society changed throughout the colonial period: Indigenous people, particularly the Nahuas, adopted Spanish practices which were “close enough” to preexisting Indigenous practices. In language, Nahuatl initially acquired words for new, Spanish concepts by broadening the meaning of existing words through a “mistaken identity.” Similarly, Nahua political and religious systems which were “close enough” to ... Read More

This research project endeavors to investigate the efficacy of video advertising on consumer behavior for non-perishable, everyday consumer goods such as groceries. In light of the growing adoption of digital media, businesses have amplified their video content output to promote their products or services. Therefore, it is imperative to discern the impact of these advertising techniques on consumer behavior and ... Read More

Enzymes assays are highly valuable in biochemistry as they offer a method of measuring enzyme activity, which is an important factor when measuring soil quality and health. An important factor when running enzyme assays is the incubation process. In order to make sure that an enzyme is giving an accurate reading of its potential enzyme activity, the enzyme needs to ... Read More

Matrix metalloproteinase plays an important role in wound tissue regeneration, altering the wound matrix and mediating important responses to growth including angiogenesis and vasodilation. In specific, MMP2, MMP9, and MMP14 play major roles in wound healing through the regulation of angiogenesis and activation of proangiogenic cytokines as well as regulating the influx of immune cells. To test and see how ... Read More

We are conducting experiments to investigate the effects of overexpressing a long-non coding RNA, known as PNCTR, in cells that typically exhibit low expression levels of PNCs, a metastatic cancer marker. Our objective is to determine whether augmenting the expression of PNCTR in these cells can increase the number of PNCs present. Our research is motivated by a prior study ... Read More

Pancreatic cancer is a dangerous and disproportionately lethal cancer. This is largely a result of its late diagnosis and difficulty in detection and treatment. In order to alleviate this, the applications of physics in pancreatic cancer screening and treatment must be further understood and explored. Of all the current imaging methods, CT and MRI have important connections to physics, and ... Read More

A common underlying factor in many cases of eczema, atopic dermatitis, is a weakened skin barrier via damaged barrier proteins such as filaggrin which causes a greater risk for infection. While treatments including Tofacitinib have already been developed, many of them are topical steroids that do not provide permanent recovery and can trigger side effects such as skin thinning. This ... Read More

Caffeine has been known to benefit human health when taken in recommended dosages. With that information, the idea of possibly using caffeine to help people with different types of diabetes began to come about. If caffeine was taken at a dosage as “golden ratio” by diabetic patients, would it be able to help the patients in their daily life by ... Read More

The goal of the study is to research current technology being used to monitor heart rate patterns and learn how to incorporate machine learning to make current methods more effective and cost efficient.

This study utilizes a dataset containing records of patients’ age, weight, height, etc. along with typical electrocardiogram (ECG) test data. The first analysis approach involved the use ... Read More

The nucleolus is the center for ribosome production as well as a host of other cellular functions including genomic organization, cell cycle regulation, and cellular senescence. Previous anti-cancer drugs targeting the nucleolus are known to halt ribosomal transcription machinery, which is correlated with the disruption of nucleolar structure. To determine the key players that maintain the nucleolar structure and to ... Read More

Painful Diabetic Neuropathy (PDN) is a debilitating complication that manifests in 25% of diabetic patients and is characterized by neuropathic pain, small-fiber degeneration, and the hyperexcitability of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. In recent years, blood plasma exosomes (BPEs) have developed an emerging role as prominent intercellular messengers with a potential involvement in disease progression, but their study in ... Read More

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is a species of concern in the southwest region of the United States, and is noted as declining in recent years. Successful conservation requires an understanding of the species’ population dynamics. However, this collection of information is scattered throughout studies and models regarding the tortoise’s life history does not exist. Thus, I developed conceptual life ... Read More

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). During infection, Mtb secretes a variety of proteins to confuse the host's immune system including Zinc Metalloprotease 1 (Zmp1). Zmp1 inhibits phagosome maturation and host cell inflammation activation, both of which are vital during M. tuberculosis virulence. It has a hollow catalytic core in which peptides bind and ... Read More

How did Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, a relative of some of the most controversial figures in Roman history, and a woman actively engaged in the political and cultural struggles of her day, become a universal icon of motherhood and morality in the Roman Empire? She was honored by the Roman people with the only publicly voted statue of a ... Read More

Danistab has demonstrated a quick molecular response and has proved itself to be useful in treating many cases of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) and Acute Lymphatic Leukemia (ALL). However, there has been no published research on how the alteration of the structure of Dansitab could increase binding affinity as well as the efficacy of its synthesis in our bodies. Using ... Read More

With recent developments in healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to become a tool in bedside care faster than many might have imagined, especially within the field of substance use treatment. Recommendations have already started to arise for how to utilize the tool to cut down on physician workload, but in making those recommendations, considerations were not made for the ... Read More

The p53 gene plays a crucial role in regulating the cell cycle and preventing the development of cancer. In renal cancer, the p53 gene is often mutated, leading to uncontrolled cell growth and proliferation. Targeting the p53 gene with gene knockdown techniques has shown promise as a potential treatment for renal cancer. Adenoviruses have been used as a delivery method ... Read More

The job of the office of the State Treasurer is to oversee the cash, debt and

investments of the state while simultaneously cultivating good financial decision making among the constituency. I worked with the Illinois State Treasury’s financial products team to learn about and contribute to the evaluation of different financial products and related services. The project(s) given to me ... Read More

Research into STEM achievement for female students at the collegiate and high school level has shown that peer groups have a substantial impact on both performance and retention in high level STEM classes. The central question of this project is what factors significantly influence the performance of female students when measured against their male peers at IMSA, with a specific ... Read More

The epidermal barrier is essential for maintaining skin homeostasis, yet the cellular signaling mechanisms that lead to its formation and function are relatively unknown. Perturbations in the epidermal barrier cause many different skin diseases, including atopic dermatitis. Our investigations will help define signaling mechanisms impacting the barrier in atopic dermatitis using a 3D human skin organoid model made from primary ... Read More

Environmental justice advocates for the fair distribution of environmental benefits and harms among communities. To determine whether environmental justice is being upheld in a specific geographic region, it is necessary to identify any disparities in the spatial distribution of environmental degradation. In this study we implement a web-based visualization method to evaluate the spatial distribution of environmental burden and vulnerability ... Read More

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are instrumental to a renewable future, but environmentally friendly methods of recycling must be developed. Aluminum foil is used as the current collector, and it must be removed prior to hydrometallurgical recycling to ensure the recovery of valuable metals. Current methods use organic solvents to remove the organic binder, which serves as an adhesive link between the ... Read More

Online repositories host data collected for research purposes in multiple formats to align with the researchers’ current data format. MIT’s Madrigal Repository for upper atmospheric sciences has many sub-repositories that store data on specific regions of research. The CEDAR subrepository hosts some GNSS scintillation data, similar to data collected by Illinois Institute of Technology receivers in Poker Flat, Alaska. Observing ... Read More

Proposed beyond the Standard Model theories, such as various SUSY frameworks, posit the existence of non-Standard Model particles detectable in accelerator experiments through distinct event signatures. The object of our analysis concerns two such non-SM theoretical particles: the doubly charged Higgs boson (H^±±), a scalar boson with Drell-Yan and vector boson fusion production mechanisms, and the dark photon (γ_d), a ... Read More

Nearly seven million adults in the United States experience bipolar disorder. Symptoms of this mental illness include extreme mood swings rapidly ranging from depressive episodes to periods of mania. Currently, mood stabilizers such as antidepressants and antipsychotics are used for the treatment of bipolar disorder alongside therapeutic options. One such treatment is the antipsychotic risperidone and its active metabolite 9-hydroxyrisperidone ... Read More

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in 88 countries, a majority of which are located in the tropic or subtropics, earning it the title of a neglected tropical disease (NTD). The disease is primarily characterized by fevers, enlarged spleens, weight loss, and swollen glands. This study was done in collaboration with the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) and the ... Read More

Coagulopathy is a medical condition in which the body's blood clotting mechanisms are impaired or disrupted. This can result in abnormal bleeding or clotting, which can be life threatening if not promptly diagnosed and treated. This is especially true in serious injuries such as intracranial hemorrhaging for penetrating brain injuries. The intent of this analysis is to determine what variables ... Read More

Bloodstream infections (BSI) represent approximately 40% of hospital-acquired (HA) cases and 20% of ICU-acquired cases. Furthermore, bloodstream infections are known to be associated with higher mortality, as one study showed a 14% increase in mortality in HIV patients with positive blood cultures. Due to the widespread susceptibility to BSIs, it requires a way to properly and quickly diagnose and identify ... Read More

The Shinnery Oak (Quercus havardii) is an endangered short clonal deciduous shrub native to the Great Plains of North America. The species play a keystone role in its community, yet over one million acres of the Shinnery Oak have been eradicated. The species’ restoration is vital to biodiversity, the well-being of endangered species in the community, erosion control, and livestock ... Read More

Metformin is one of the oldest drugs that is still currently used, and it is the most prescribed drug for treating diabetes. While Metformin is incredibly inert (as a result of it being a biguanide), it does not bind to its binding site too strongly. Through my research, I have developed hundreds of alternatives to Metformin using computer aided drug ... Read More

The purpose of this design experiment was to attempt to determine the accuracy/possibility of using Kalman filters to approximate a human’s location when blocked by an occlusion/obstacle. This could potentially be implemented in the field of human-robot interaction to allow humans and robots to collaborate without interference. The outcome of this research project could similarly result in more accurate measurements ... Read More

Ten-Eleven Translocation (TET) enzymes play a critical role in DNA demethylation, which is essential for mammalian development and differentiation. Recent research suggests that the absence of TET enzymes is associated with an increased risk of malignancies. Among the TET enzymes, TET2 is the most commonly mutated and the focus of our investigation. Using gene editing techniques based on clustered regularly ... Read More

Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a nasal disease characterized by inflamed mucosa and paranasal sinuses for at least 12 consecutive weeks. The disease requires 12+ weeks of characteristic symptoms, nasal endoscopy, and/or a computed tomography scan which are frequently inaccessible in primary care. This project introduces an easier method to screen for CRS using a patient’s speech patterns, signal processing algorithms, ... Read More

The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office runs the ABLE program which allows individuals with disabilities to build financial wellness without losing federal benefits. However, many people who use the ABLE program require assistance to navigate technology and this assistance does not always come from those who are sufficiently technologically literate. People with disabilities are targeted digitally as they are often overlooked ... Read More

Effective identification of dark photon-generated lepton jets has always been difficult to perform through standard cuts-based procedures. The possibility of solving this problem using multivariate analysis (MVA) methods has been tested. The initial list of input parameters included the total transverse momentum, azimuthal angle, pseudorapidity, number of particles, and jet width of each jet. The leading particle transverse momentum and ... Read More

Eumycetoma, or fungal infections of mycetoma, plague third world countries. The symptoms of this disease include lesions with fistulae and abscesses filled with pus on the limbs, which sometimes need amputation. The current treatment methods of antifungal antibiotics and antifungal therapy of eumycetoma are currently not very effective. This project’s intention is to synthesize derivatives of Fenarimol, an antifungal agent, ... Read More

The purpose of this study is to analyze patterns of Twitter to determine the existence of influence operations and their relation to the current narrative of Uyghur oppression in Xinjiang. Our analysis focuses on the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium (TMRC) of flagged accounts marked as spam, or “persistent platform manipulation campaigns,” consisting of over 2,048 accounts and 31,269 tweets. We ... Read More

The dark photon is part of a dark sector beyond Standard Model theory that aims to explain dark matter. The dark photon can interact weakly with the Standard Model via kinetic mixing, allowing the dark photon to decay into leptons. These leptons form lepton jets, pairs of opposite-sign, collimated leptons, because of their relativistic boost, gamma, from the dark photon’s ... Read More

Runtime, one of the crucial metrics for evaluating program performance, differs between Java and Python programs due to their inherent differences, where Java is statically typed and both compiled and interpreted, while Python is dynamically typed and only interpreted. Our study investigates the extent to how features of Java and Python impact execution time of four programs with algorithms of ... Read More

The UIC Urban Health Program Urban Health Club (UHC) is an initiative that aims to bridge the gap between high school students and healthcare careers. The program's primary objective is to expose students to various health professions and career pathways. Through in-person community events, interviews, and research, students participating in the program have the opportunity to identify health disparities within ... Read More

Bladder augmentation cystoplasty has been the gold standard for treating pediatric patients with developmentally abnormal urinary bladder. This procedure functions by using bowel tissue to increase bladder capacity while reducing spasticity for the patient. The rigorous surgical procedure poses unwanted long-term issues such as malignant transformation, excessive mucus production, electrolyte imbalances, and perforation. The method, considered effective, still reports a ... Read More