Trevor Allen with Silvia Prina, Dept. of EconomicsMacroeconomic Effects of Cell Phones in the Developing WorldThe project will estimate the macro-economic effects, in terms of annual GDP growth, of mobile-phone penetration in developing countries. Telecommunications networks can have various beneficial effects on economic efficiency, such as easy dissemination of...
All projects
Cody Allen with Prof. Anthony Jack (Dept. of Cognitive Science)
Quantitative Metrics for Describing Topographic Organization in Individuals
Visual areas in the brain of both monkey and man contain organized maps of the visual field. These maps can be measured using fMRI while participants view visual stimuli presented at different locations...
Andrew Balko with Glenn Starkman
Controlling Eclipses to Improve X-Ray Angular Resolution
To improve X-ray angular resolution of existing and future telescopes, it is possible to use the properties of natural eclipses. An occulting satellite would facilitate the study of a wide variety of sources especially in the X-ray spectrum. The...
Frederick Davey with Charles Rosenblatt
Surface Memory Effect for Liquid Crystals
Samples of liquid crystals are prepared by sandwiching two pieces of glass coated with a polymer, and inserting the liquid crystals in between. The polymers act to orient the liquid crystal molecules relative to the glass surface, however not all...
Michael Ding with Timothy Atherton
Liquid Crystal Configurations from Conformal Mapping
The method of conformal mapping can be applied to solve Laplace's equation in complicated 2-D geometries. First approximations for nematic liquid crystals obey Laplace's equation and so we may apply a conformal map to determine the configuration of liquid crystal,...
Steven Ewart with Andrea Romani (SOM, Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics)
Role of Cellular Mg2+ in Modulating Collagen Deposition and Interleukin Release in Ito and Kupffer Cells
Introduction: Magnesium ion (Mg2+) is the second most abundant cation after potassium within mammalian cells, including liver cells. At the cellular level, Mg2+ has...
Matthew Hakes with Corbin Covault
Design and Construction of Optical Concentrators
When ultra high energy particles strike the upper atmosphere, they emit Cherenkov radiation. By studying the radiation, we hope to determine the direction of their travel and ultimately where they come from which is currently unknown. Optical concentrators are used...
Michal Usowicz with Volodimyr Duzhko
Self-Assembled Solar Cells of Nanostructured Architectures
(started in spring 2009 for completion in fall 2009)
Currently the most efficient solar cells are made of silicon and are not a viable technology due to high device fabrication costs. It is hoped that organic semiconductors and hybrid systems with...
Kyle Helson with John Ruhl
Sapphire Half-Wave Plate Characteristics
The polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) contains imprints of gravity waves from the early universe. The Spider telescope is a balloon-borne telescope designed to extensively investigate this polarization. Using six rotating sapphire half-wave plates, the light from the CMB...
David Jones with LeShanda Korley (Macromolecular Science & Engr.)Exploring barrier properties of liquid crystalline multilayer films(started in spring 2010 and finishing in fall 2010)The objective of this project is to examine the gas barrier properties of co-extruded polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs). The PDLCs will be included in layers...