Benjamin Elder with Glenn StarkmanEvaluating the Stability of Electroweak StarsIt is believed that at extremely high temperatures a process called electroweak burning can occur wherein 9 quarks become 3 leptons. Experimental evidence of this process is desired, yet even the most powerful particle accelerators are unable to create the...
Academic Year
David Dashevsky with Dominique Durand (Biomedical Engineering)Optogenetic Muscle Fiber RecruitmentModern neural implants and stimulation devices that restore function to disabled patients utilize controlled currents that interact with voltage-gated ion channels lining a cell membrane. The recently-created field of optogenetics studies a new and alternative form of interacting with excitable...
Thomas Birkel with Walther LambrechtModeling of Semiconducting Cylindrical NanowiresRecently, advances have been made to create nanowires that are also ferromagnetic, creating the potential to apply these nanowires to spintronic technology. The crystalline structure grown this way is cylindrical in shape, thereby requiring a cylindrical model to accurately determine the...
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...
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...