Session II

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) pose a substantial global health threat, representing a significant contributor to mortality rates worldwide. TBI is brain damage caused by external force, with varying severity from mild to severe, which can be classified using the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). This study aims to investigate the impact of GCS score transitions of penetrating and severe TBI patients ... Read More

In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)–developed primarily from the knowledge of T-cell immunoreceptor (TCR) signaling–have revolutionized the treatment of various cancers, offering newfound hope to patients. However, their usage is associated with a considerable incidence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs). While ICI-induced blockage of TCR inhibitory signaling pathways can successfully bolster anti-tumor immune response, it remains that as much ... Read More

The Lysyl oxidase family of enzymes (LOXF) plays a critical role in tumor progression by promoting extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and angiogenesis. Upregulation of LOXF, particularly lysyl oxidase (LOX) and lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2), is observed in hypoxic tumor microenvironments and is associated with increased invasiveness and metastasis. In this study, we report the chemical synthesis of a probe, ... Read More

Quantum circuit gate and depth optimization is important for improving accuracy and reducing errors when running quantum computations on quantum computers. Current quantum optimization uses a number of algorithms, and heuristic brute force methods to find equivalent circuits for quantum gates Gate reduction minimizes the chance of quantum states deteriorating into mixed states, leading to better performance and fidelities. ZX-calculus ... Read More

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease endemic to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, and can cause severe harm or even death if untreated. Due to a lack of effective and affordable therapeutic methods, development of a treatment that fulfills both of these criteria is of the utmost importance. Due to the disease’s variability, many species, and treatment resistance, a ... Read More

Research into the gender gap in STEM achievement at the collegiate and high school level has shown peer groups to substantially impact performance and retention in advanced STEM classes, particularly affecting the uppermost echelon of achievement groups. This project uses records of student grades from 2009 to 2018 to determine what factors significantly influence the performance of female students in ... Read More

Stroke rehabilitation faces significant hurdles in providing continuous, real-time care, particularly outside clinical settings. Traditional approaches, while beneficial, are hampered by their intermittent nature and lack of personalized, real-time monitoring. Addressing this gap, this research is the introduction of a wearable sensor technology, designed as a user-friendly bracelet. This device leverages advanced cross-modal deep learning techniques, including variational auto-encoders and ... Read More

The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office protects Illinois residents by making smart investment choices while managing the state’s portfolio of approximately $25 billion dollars. The office is dedicated to encouraging savings plans for college or trade school, increasing financial education among all ages, and removing barriers to a secure retirement. As a Financial Products intern, I worked closely with the 529 ... Read More

The success of an investment management firm hinges greatly on its capacity to forecast stock returns, a factor crucial for garnering investor confidence and satisfying customer expectations. One approach to achieving this is through the development of linear regression models using programming languages like Python, leveraging datasets such as those provided by Fred. This methodology exemplifies a proactive strategy aimed ... Read More

The doubly charged Higgs boson is a Higgs-like scalar particle that arises in certain extensions of the Standard Model. In a search for the H++ particle at the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) we investigate the decay of the H++ particle in the context of the left-right symmetric model (LRSM) so that we might reconstruct collected data ... Read More

The research aimed to characterize hydrogen as a potential sustainable energy source for decarbonization. The first phase involved conducting a literature review that outlined the chemical and physical properties of the fuel and its end-use applications in emissions-intensive industries. The second phase involved conducting zero-dimensional and one-dimensional flame simulations through Python scripts using Cantera software to understand the characteristics of ... Read More

This poster delves into the seminal contributions of John Rawls to modern liberal political thought. Rawls' works, particularly "A Theory of Justice," significantly shapes contemporary political philosophy, creating the foundation for discussions on justice, equality, and the role of the state. Through an examination of Rawls' principles of justice, the veil of ignorance, and original position, this poster will explain ... Read More

We are investigating a series of potential cures for the neglected tropical disease Leishmaniasis through both lab-synthesized compounds and computationally derived molecules. Leishmaniasis is a disease endemic to much of the developing and undeveloped world and caused an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 deaths in the past year alone. Despite its widespread nature, current Leishmaniasis treatments are not fully effective, with ... Read More

Some patients who are initially sensitive to such chemotherapy and endocrine therapy quickly develop acquired drug resistance. We aim to explore the molecular changes and potential regulatory mechanisms during the acquisition of chemotherapy and endocrine therapy resistance in breast cancer, or further to find molecular indicators that can be used to early predict the occurrence of drug resistance or efficacy ... Read More

Following the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, 2023, there has been a significant increase in media coverage of the Israel/Hamas conflict. Given the risk of extreme polarization and the inherent unpredictability of the internet, the aim of this research is to perform a detailed examination of how media influences public perception and reaction in the context of a ... Read More

The main objective of this research was to explore the integration of machine learning algorithms, particularly the Random Forest Regressor model utilizing decision trees, in enhancing the Black-Scholes Model for options pricing within the financial industry. Machine learning is becoming more prevalent in the financial sector, so this research gives more insight into how it is directly applicable in the ... Read More

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 2 billion people are at risk of disease and death due to waterborne bacteria. Existing purification methods are costly, unreliable, or intended only for emergencies. We seek an affordable system that reduces bacterial contamination by 90%, provides 40 liters per day, and costs less than $20 annually. Biological proteins with disulfide linkages allow ... Read More

During my Internship at the Illinois State Treasury Office, I got in contact with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to conduct a vulnerability scan that they offer. This scan revealed potential vulnerabilities within the office's infrastructure and proposed solutions to mitigate risks effectively. By addressing these vulnerabilities, we fortified the organization's resilience against cyber threats. Simultaneously, I researched ... Read More

Aggregates are an important indicator of soil fertility, playing a crucial role in stabilizing soil structure and sequestering soil organic carbon (SOC). Research indicates that factors such as crop rotation and cultivation years can impact aggregate stability and SOC sequestration. However, there has been a lack of information on how these factors could influence the stability and SOC concentration of ... Read More

The purpose of this experiment was to ascertain if different fins for model rockets impact their stability, apogee and drag in order to provide an optimal design for new rockets. This experiment addresses a current gap, a lack of research into the physical components of rockets. Using the OpenRocket software, three different model rockets were designed. These were then built ... Read More

This research aims to explore the impact of local geometric constraints on the conformations of amino acid side-chain dihedral angles in proteins. The understanding of the fundamental principles that govern protein structure is essential for the development of new proteins and the analysis of mutations in natural proteins. Our specific objective is to quantify the influence of geometric and physicochemical ... Read More

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa), also known as “puberty blockers”, are used in early pubertal transgender youth who are looking to pause puberty as treatment for gender dysphoria. With pursuing GnRH agonists, the maturation of germ cells does not occur. Without germ cell maturation, future fertility is impaired. Earlier studies have focused on an older cohort of transgender and gender diverse ... Read More

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive neurodegenerative eye disorder characterized by eventual degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) leading to permanent vision loss. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have revolutionized healthcare by advancing clinical diagnosis leveraging its ability to analyze vast amounts of patient data and accurately predict future outcomes. With no definitive treatment for AMD, ... Read More

Cochlear implants have benefited hearing-impaired patients by providing a medium through which they can perceive sound. However postoperative dissatisfaction remains an issue amongst a significant proportion of patients. Studies suggest that patient dissatisfaction may be attributable to a lower top-down processing ability amongst certain patients with cochlear implants. However testing their processing ability is difficult considering that patients with cochlear ... Read More

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) remains a significant health concern that often results in long-term cognitive impairments, coma, or even mortality. Current classification methods are primarily reliant on the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and face limitations in representing the complexity and variability of TBIs. This study utilizes unsupervised learning through a k-means algorithm to cluster TBI patients at Beth Israel Deaconess ... Read More

The dark photon is predicted in an extension of the standard model to include a dark sector, to account for the mass of invisible dark matter and its lack of interaction with the standard model. This dark sector includes a massive U(1)’ gauge boson A’, or the dark photon, which can decay into standard model particles through kinetic mixing. Because ... Read More

Retroviral vectors are commonly used for generating stable cells to express transgenes. However, packaging high-titer retroviruses is technically challenging due to variations in co-transfecting the packaging cells with multiple plasmids that express genes essential for retrovirus production, leading to inefficient and inconsistent virus production and dramatic virus titer fluctuations. The objective of this study is to investigate whether or not ... Read More

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), an interruption of spinal axons, impacts millions of people, and can lead to quadriplegia and damage to essential respiratory pathways. To date, it is medically irreversible. Recent animal studies suggest that Intermittent Hypoxia (IH) and exercise training are effective treatments. IH, or exposure to low oxygen levels, has been shown to trigger phrenic long term facilitation ... Read More

Found in alveoli in the form of lung surfactants, the structure of a lipid monolayer is composed of hydrophobic tails surrounded by air and hydrophilic heads that assimilate with water. As we breathe in and out, lung surfactants expand and contract to optimize air intake volume and pressure, causing collapse under high compressive stresses and strains during exhalation. We can ... Read More

An estimated 229.76 tons of sunscreens are used annually. While the active ingredients in sunscreens are effective in blocking harmful UV irradiation, they have recently been found to be harmful to coral reefs. Sunscreen active ingredients are released into bodies of water via direct human contact, runoff from beach sand, and effluent from wastewater treatment facilities. These chemicals have been ... Read More

Many different theories of dark matter and the dark sector predict a massive dark photon of GeV scale mass, with an event signature of opposite-sign leptons (in this case, muons) forming a lepton jet (a lepton pair with a very small angle between the leptons). Calculations of lepton jet efficiency under different cuts are needed to determine the potential of ... Read More

Historically, minority populations in the U.S. have experienced disparities in access to healthcare and their corresponding health outcomes. To find out how ethnicity and location are connected to accessibility to healthcare, this paper connects geospatial data and the social determinants of health in the predominantly Asian community in the Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago. Using ChiVes, Chicago Health Atlas, the census ... Read More

This experiment developed the FlaviExplore platform with a main goal of making gathering West Nile virus (WNV) data simpler for researchers and extending phylogenetic knowledge about WNV. Currently, many researchers have to spend an excessive amount of time gathering sequences and converting them to fasta files, which could slow down the process of gaining new insights about the virus. This ... Read More

The surge of e-commerce demands innovative solutions to streamline last-mile delivery logistics. Autonomous delivery vehicles (ADVs) offer a promising avenue, also combatting the lack of delivery drivers. However, their success hinges on effectively managing the complexities arising from diverse delivery modes (e.g., aerial and ground-based) in obstructed or constrained environments. Traditional Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) approaches may not optimally coordinate ... Read More

Urban areas worldwide are bustling with activity and constantly changing. This perpetual motion is a testament to the vibrancy of city life and provides a rich basis for gathering and analyzing data. Visual analytics is crucial in urban settings, and it is supported by many frameworks to investigate urban data more effectively. I used one of these frameworks together with ... Read More

State Representative Maura Hirschauer’s District Office provides resources for constituents in the Suburban Cook, DuPage, and Kane Counties and champions legislation in the Illinois General Assembly. Over the course of six months, I worked with fellow interns to gain knowledge about government processes, communication, and issues within the District 49 community. Our responsibilities included social media management, assistance with the ... Read More

The pressing need for eco-friendly fuel sources due to limited fossil fuels and rising population elucidates microalgae including Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris) as a sustainable biofuel. Yet, high production costs hinder their commercial viability, which can be addressed by optimized lighting. However, a gap exists concerning the optimal wavelength of light to enhance biomass growth and cell size in C. ... Read More

Metformin is used to treat Diabetes, a disease that plagues people worldwide. Metformin binds to the MF8 ligand, and strengthening that binding affinity indicates that there is less need for more doses of the medication. Computational drug design was used due to its cost- effectiveness and ability to display certain molecules while also saving time for researchers. Utilizing the SeeSAR ... Read More

This research paper explores the application of Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs) to enhance the compression of neural networks. LFSRs, which employ a linear function to determine input bits based on previous states, are commonly used for generating bit sequences and pseudo-random numbers that can be used to generate pseudo-random weight approximations. Compressed neural networks offer a transformative solution by ... Read More

The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor (RB1) is a vital tumor suppressor gene. It prevents the cell from transitioning to the S phase from G phase by inhibiting E2F activity which limits cell proliferation and facilitates a stable exit from the cell cycle. Inactivation of RB1 thus allows for the expression of genes necessary for the cell cycle to progress and results ... Read More

The Illinois Kratom Consumer Protection Act aims to establish safety standards for Kratom products, safeguard consumers from adulterated goods, and regulate sales to minors. It seeks to balance public safety with individuals’ rights to access Kratom for legitimate purposes like pain management and anxiety relief. The Act defines such terms as “Certified Kratom Product” and “Processor” to clarify its scope. ... Read More

This project studies the spanwise spreading of gypsum slurry with a foaming agent under a rotating roller, a process employed by many wallboard manufacturers. Different parameters are experimented on, such as roller speed, rotation, and foam concentration. A high-speed camera records the interaction between the slurry and the roller from the side and the top. A particle imaging velocimetry software ... Read More

While progress has been made in the development of treatments for tropical diseases such as malaria, there have been few advancements in the treatment of Leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that can lead to disfigurement of death if not treated. Current medicine is hard to access, and the treatment from these medicines is not effective enough to be taken ... Read More

Biofuels play a critical role in transitioning towards a sustainable energy system. Affordable and low-carbon biofuels are especially important for hard- to-electrify transportation sectors, such as aviation. Cost and efficiency are the main challenges faced in the biofuel production process, with the separation of valuable organic acids from fermented broth accounting for 50% of the total energy use and up ... Read More

In current times, attaining a college degree has become a required step for pursuing a wide array of career opportunities. However, beyond simply obtaining a diploma, the choice of university where a person pursues their higher education can influence their future path. Guided by Dr. Carola Frydman at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, this paper addresses the question of ... Read More

Methanol transitions and Water Masers can be found in high-mass star-forming regions that are in the ionized gas. This ionized gas lets off electrons that interact with other atoms which emits photons that are then detected by radio telescopes such as the Very Large Array (VLA) on Earth. Data from this telescope was able to be accessed by connecting to ... Read More

Natural Language Processing (NLP) has witnessed significant advancements with the emergence of large language models (LLM) capable of understanding and generating human-like text. However, there remains a critical need to explore and understand their efficiency and effectiveness, especially in processing languages beyond English. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of various large language models in capturing semantic meaning across ... Read More

This paper investigates a method to detect structural irregularities in 3D prints through infrared image analysis. The study employs an infrared camera, which senses thermal discrepancies in its field of view, to monitor the thread of the material filament as it is deposited during the printing process. Images captured by the camera are processed by Python libraries such as OpenCV ... Read More

Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, I have had the opportunity to intern at a school for children with hearing loss and understand more about the methodology and function of various hearing tests. In a school setting, I worked with children ages 2 to 7 and consequently administered only specific tests relevant to their age group. Additionally, I also learned about ... Read More

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) remains a significant cause of mortality, with 150,000 deaths annually worldwide. To address this staggering statistic, a comprehensive literature review was undertaken to explore TNBC treatments, revealing phosphorylated caveolin-1 (Cav-1) expression as pivotal in breast cancer metastasis. Interestingly, human triple-negative breast cancer cells (MDA- 231) uniquely overexpress the K+ channel Kv11.1, providing a potential drug ... Read More

Alzheimer’s disease is progressive, fatal, and the leading cause of dementia (Chang et. al, 2003). Based on the amyloid-ß oligomer (AßOs) hypothesis, the brain damage that leads to Alzheimer’s is due to soluble, ligand-like AßOs (Lambert et. al, 1998; Cline et. al, 2018). This experiment aims to understand how time affects the formation of AßOs, specifically at near- physiological concentrations. ... Read More

The ProtoDUNE-ND (aka “2x2”) experiment is a prototype of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) that is designed to study properties of neutrinos and their interactions. The goal of DUNE is to uncover the properties of neutrinos to understand the mystery of matter-dominance of the universe. The ProtoDUNE-ND experiment is a smaller scale prototype of the DUNE near detector. We ... Read More

APS Data Technologies is a software development company that develops software tools to serve Aurora area businesses. The multiple projects involved market research, mobile application development, artificial intelligence model development, backend development, and web development. One team developed a mobile application engaging with Aurora’s murals through mixed reality. The application was designed with a user-friendly interface, making it easy for ... Read More

ImageJ is a software platform for open-source image analysis that has assisted researchers with various image analysis applications. Its success has been primarily attributed to supportive and cooperative developer and user communities. ImageJ is also useful for data segmentation, which assigns a label to every pixel in an image such that images with the same label share similar qualities. Segmenting ... Read More

The doubly charged Higgs Boson is a particle predicted by various theoretical models such as the Type II seesaw model. In assisting the search for possible doubly charged Higgs boson decay, we determine the lepton sign mismeasurement rate of lepton pairs reconstructed near the Z-peak mass to calculate expected background in doubly charged Higgs decay signature detection. We use data ... Read More

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many individuals and the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infections has varied significantly across age groups. Pregnant people were especially vulnerable and at higher risk of more severe infections. We investigated epidemiologic trends of SARS-CoV-2 cases in pregnant people compared to trends in children and adults in Chicago. We identified positive SARS-CoV-2 pregnancies (March 2020-November 2022) at ... Read More

Post-stroke lower limb impairments cause significant challenges in balance during gait initiation. While studies have mainly focused on behavioral impacts of these impairments, the understanding of neutral constraints persist a significant gap. This study is aimed to investigate the abnormal hip extension- adduction coupling previously found in individuals with stroke. We hypothesize that when stepping with the non paretic limb, ... Read More

Adenoviruses are frequently employed in clinical studies for oncolytic virotherapy and gene therapy, as well as for delivering genes to different cell types. The adenovirus family consists of non-enveloped DNA viruses with a linear genome of 30–38 kb. The use of human serotype 5 of species C adenovirus vectors is advantageous for delivering genes into a variety of dividing and ... Read More

The study of computer-human natural language interaction is the focus of the artificial intelligence field known as natural language processing (NLP). It entails creating models and algorithms that let computers comprehend, interpret, and produce human language. Language translation, emotion analysis, chatbots, speech recognition, and text summarization are just a few of the many uses for NLP. Natural language processing was ... Read More

The main public health initiatives to address the pandemic of lethal opiate overdoses have been to increase availability of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Despite expanded access, studies have demonstrated the existence of community-level barriers. To date, none have looked at MOUD availability in Chicago. In this project, we analyzed the availability of suboxone films, Narcan/naloxone, and naloxone standing ... Read More

Background: Some patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) experience acute kidney injury (AKI) or other conditions requiring dialysis as a treatment to support failing kidneys. Machine learning on electronic health record (EHR) data holds promise for tasks such as helping clinical teams with planning and for prognostic purposes.

Methods: Here we investigate the likelihood of a patient’s next-day dialysis ... Read More

Aging and neurological disorders lead to neurodegeneration that decreases memory function. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a potential solution by stimulating neurons with electricity to enhance neuronal activity during memory tasks. This study hypothesizes that DBS improves memory when targeted towards deficient memory encoding states due to state-dependent effects by influencing brain networks related to semantic organization. This ... Read More

Recently, a class of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms called Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) have been investigated as a promising candidate for practical near term algorithms. VQAs require quantum circuits that consist of parameterized gates, which can then be fine tuned to minimize cost functions. In practice, implementing a quantum gate requires compiling it to a sequence of pulses that can be ... Read More

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago works to advance all University of Chicago entrepreneurship and research commercialization innovation activities through the creation of new ventures and partnerships. The focus of the business project is to assist inventors and innovators in finding partnerships and funding their innovations and technologies. This is accomplished by parsing and ... Read More

Stem Cells are used in a variety of ways within the medical field with the commonality used for body repairs. In Orthopedics Stem Cells are used to improve overall function, reduce inflammation and pain, and aid in tissue regeneration. The focus of the business project for Stem Cell research in the lens of orthopedics is to dive deep into the ... Read More

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is an infectious parasitic disease caused by the bite of infected female sandflies and characterized by disfiguring, slow healing, and re-forming skin lesions that leave lifelong scars. The goal of our effort was to synthesize derivatives of a Benzoxazole to be tested by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) for their effectiveness in treating cutaneous leishmaniasis. Three ... Read More

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by parasites of the Leishmania genus. The disease is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, such as parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Leishmaniasis is caused by the bite of infected sandflies, which transmit the parasites during their blood-feeding process. It starts out with an infected sandfly biting a mammalian host, ... Read More

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare degenerative neuromuscular disease that affects motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Several recent studies have focused on a link between ALS and exposure to environmental toxins such as microplastics and herbicides. To simulate the potential effects of microplastics on a functioning nervous system, we introduced Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to the ... Read More

Bile is essential to digestion because it solubilizes fats for absorption in the intestine. The rate-limiting step in bile acid synthesis is the addition of hydroxyl at the C-7 position of cholesterol by the hepatic enzyme Cholesterol 7-alpha hydroxylase (CYP7A1). The gene CYP7A1 is regulated by the Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR), which activates the Small Heterodimer Partner (SHP) suppressing CYP7A1. ... Read More

During Porfirio Díaz’s 1876-to-1910 dictatorship over Mexico (a period referred to as the Porfiriato), the Mexican political scene was dominated by positivism. The effects of positivism on late-nineteenth Mexican politics has been fairly well-studied, but its influence on Mexican medicine—and in particular, on the relationship between the emerging biomedical tradition and the millenia-old medical traditions of Mexico’s Indigenous populations—has not ... Read More

Opioid misuse is a significant public health challenge in the US, with escalating impacts on emergency medical services and emergency departments. Patients with opioid misuse are often treated as a homogenous population when there are likely subgroups that may influence optimal clinical care. This study aims to investigate and identify these latent groups among patients with opioid misuse. A sample ... Read More