Abby Girman, '26, Elgin, IL
Psychology and Sociology
Tori Barnes-Brus and Steven Neese
Child-to-parent violence (CPV) is becoming a growing public health concern, with a 2025 meta-analysis of more than 25,000 participants estimating that about 34.8% of youth report some form of CPV. Even though the numbers are high, there is still limited research on prevention, especially before a young person enters the justice system. Most existing tools focus on youth after they have already been arrested, which leaves a major gap in early intervention.
During my summer internship at the Kane County State’s Attorney's Office, I worked on the development and refinement of the Adolescent Domestic Battery Typology Tool (ADBTT) Checklist. This screener is based on the original ADBTT but is designed to be used before an arrest is made. The goal is to give law enforcement a structured way to assess what is really happening in a child-to-parent violence situation, including the youth’s intent, behavior patterns, and family environment. The tool places cases into one of four typologies: Isolated Incident, Defensive, Family Chaos, or Escalating. These categories help officers understand whether the incident was a one-time emotional outburst, a defensive response to abuse, ongoing family conflict, or part of a pattern of increasing violence.
The ADBTT Checklist aligns with Illinois House Bill 3281 (Public Act 104-0290), which gives officers discretion in juvenile domestic battery cases. Instead of defaulting to arrest, the screener encourages diversion to community-based services when appropriate. Overall, this project aims to bridge the gap in early intervention for CPV by combining research, policy, and real-world practice. With continued evaluation, this tool has the potential to reduce unnecessary arrests, lower recidivism, and better support families in crisis.
Jack Rogers, '26, Cedar Rapids, IA
Mathematics & Statistics
Ann Cannon
The goal of this project was to identify whether batters perform differently during high-pressure situations after accounting for the batter’s and pitcher’s skill. Leverage measures how much pressure there is at a particular time in a game, based on the context of the game. It represents how much the win expectancy may fluctuate within a single play. Managers tend to bring in their best relievers during key moments and hitters may experience increased pressure that could negatively impact their swings. Due to those factors, the expected outcome throughout this research was that a batter’s success rate would decrease as leverage increases. However, looking at the raw data, the results showed a surprising increase in the success rate.
Plate appearance level data was extracted from Stathead Baseball along with data from Baseball Reference and Retrosheet that included pitcher and batter statistics for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons. Logistic regression models were created to predict whether or not a batter would reach base safely given batter, pitcher, and game-context variables. Throughout the models, leverage was not consistently significant, and the models struggled to perform relatively well. Plate appearances are difficult to predict even with detailed information. Overall, there was an insufficient amount of evidence to support an association between leverage and the outcome of a plate appearance. Additional research showed evidence of there being no correlation between a team's overall record and average leverage. The analysis also revealed no evidence of there being a difference in performance between star and role players as leverage increases.
Ella Henze, '26, State Center, IA
Mathematics & Statistics
Ann Cannon
This study demonstrates the changes in the proficiency of public-school students from 2014 to 2023 as measured by the state of Iowa’s yearly standardized test, with emphasis on the changes from before to after the COVID-19 pandemic. Time series analysis revealed a downward trend in the percentage of students proficient in a given subject. A difference in test proficiencies was demonstrated in relation to per capita income by county, where school districts in a county with lower per capita income on average had more students proficient in both subjects. Overall, analysis reveals that test proficiencies have changed over time, and these changes may be associated with the delayed effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ava Claussen-Tubbs, '26, Anamosa, IA
Mathematics & Statistics
Ann Cannon and A'amer Farooqi
This analysis aims to provide insight into the Cornell College website use behavior of prospective incoming undergraduate students. It is focused around three central research questions of high priority to the Cornell College marketing department: One, which promotional folders on the site are prospective students visiting, and how frequently? Two, how do areas of interest differ between stages of the application process? Three, how does website use for students who have been admitted and placed an enrollment deposit compare to website use for students who have not? The analysis uses data about individual website visits made by prospective students to answer these questions. In addition, I have created a model that predicts whether a prospective student will enroll at Cornell based on their use of the website. The model reveals that a visit to one of many various folders on the website can substantially affect a prospective student’s predicted odds of enrollment. Visiting some of these folders increases the odds that a student will enroll, while visiting others actually decreases a student’s odds of enrollment. Notably, visiting the “admissions” folder is associated with a 55% decrease in the odds of enrollment after controlling for other variables, which carries extra importance because “admissions” is the most visited promotional folder of any on the site. In general, this analysis illuminates the ways that prospective students are interacting with the Cornell College website and makes actionable marketing recommendations to inform future efforts.
Max Cahoon, '26, Naperville, IL
Mathematics & Statistics
James Freeman
Why is Lobachevsky's non-Euclidean geometry an important piece of mathematical history? In this paper, I will answer this question. To do this, I will analyze primary and secondary sources relating to the development of Euclidean geometry up to Lobachevsky's bombshell paper Theory of Parallels. This paper was among the first reports published on non-Euclidean geometry. Its significance stems from the fact that it challenged all that mathematicians understood as geometry. I will first analyze Euclidean geometry and why it was so pervasive. Most notable from Euclid's geometry is the parallel postulate, which vexed mathematicians for over 2300 years. I will go over terms and concepts that Euclid did not clearly state in the Elements and why these omissions are so problematic. I will go over how the stance taken on the parallel postulate differentiates Euclidean geometry from non-Euclidean geometries. Next, I will look at John Playfair's critiques on Euclidean geometry and why they matter. Playfair's work is relevant as his revision of Euclidean geometry is what I believe Lobachevsky used in his Theory of Parallels. Finally, I will analyze Lobachevsky's geometry and how he used Playfair's revised version of Euclidean geometry as the basis for his non-Euclidean geometry. Most importantly, I will explore Lobachevsky's stance on parallel lines and how they differ from what is intuitively understood to be geometry. I will present a selection of Lobachevsky's theorems and analyze their meaning and how Lobachevsky used Playfair's version of Euclidean geometry when coming up with his theorems. Finally, I will go over the implications of Lobachevsky's Theory of Parallels and how modern geometry wouldn't be where it is without it.
Bailey Williams, '26
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sophie Gillet
Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) is a neuroinvasive virus that infects epithelial cells and establishes latency in neuronal cells. Due to their large size, HSV-1 viral particles and virus assembly components, such as capsids and membrane vesicles, are unable to freely diffuse within infected host cells; therefore, they utilize host-cell microtubule (MT) motors to facilitate transportation. Surprisingly, a microtubule-disrupting drug, nocodazole, has little effect on virus assembly in any cell type tested. We hypothesized that infected cell MTs might be stabilized and therefore resistant to nocodazole. Two HSV-1 viral proteins, pUS3 and VP22, have previously been shown to stabilize MTs by inducing the acetylation of tubulin. We hypothesized that these two HSV-1 viral proteins stabilize MTs in infected cells and are responsible for nocodazole resistance. This hypothesis predicted that viral replication would diminish in the presence of nocodazole when HSV-1 failed to express either or both viral proteins. To test this prediction, mutant viruses were generated in which the genes encoding pUS3 and VP22 were deleted individually and together. The levels of viral replication in mutant and wild-type control HSV-1 viruses were measured in single-step growth experiments in mouse neuronal CAD cells. Both pUS3 and VP22 single-deletion mutants had similar levels of viral replication to those of WT, suggesting that neither pUS3 nor VP22 is individually necessary for nocodazole resistance in HSV-1-infected CAD cells. In contrast, the double deletion virus did show moderately depressed replication in the presence of nocodazole, suggesting that pUS3 and VP22 may function redundantly in promoting nocodazole resistance. Additionally, to test whether pUS3 and VP22 promote MT acetylation, Western blots were performed to observe the change in levels of ac-MTs in wild-type and mutant-virus-infected cells. Wild-type virus infection promoted MT acetylation, but only the deletion of pUS3 decreased levels of ac-MTs, suggesting that pUS3 promotes MT acetylation in infected CAD cells, while VP22 does not.
Elifsude Degirmenci, '26
Haley Sevenbergen, '26
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sophie Gillet
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disease characterized by cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dysfunctions, and is one of the top 15 causes of disability worldwide. Although it is estimated to be about 80% heritable, most of its genetic architecture remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of enhancer regions in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. We focused on an enhancer region predicted to regulate NKAPL, a gene important for the regulation of gene expression and cell differentiation and associated with schizophrenia through genome-wide association studies. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to remove the targeted enhancer region in a human neuroblastoma cell line, SH-SY5Y. The removal was confirmed via PCR and gel electrophoresis. We measured changes in target gene expression using qPCR and determined that the removal of the enhancer region caused an increase in gene expression instead of a decrease as hypothesized. We then differentiated the SH-SY5Y cells into neuron-like cells to observe morphological changes under the microscope using immunocytochemistry. We observed decreased neuronal differentiation following the deletion. Taken together, these results suggest that the targeted region was not an enhancer region, but possibly a silencer region for gene NKAPL. In addition, removal of this region had a negative effect on neuronal differentiation as suggested by our immunocytochemistry results. Future research should focus on the genome-wide effects of removing this regulatory region and possibly look at phenotypic impacts in an animal model.
Omorinsola Olubayo, '27, Lagos, Nigeria
Tashiaunna McGhee, '27, Minneapolis, MN
Behavioral Neuroscience
Sophie Gillet
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that develops after experiencing or witnessing an extremely stressful or traumatic event (Mayo Clinic, 2024). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified risk loci for many neuropsychiatric disorders, including PTSD, and many of these variants lie within noncoding regions of the genome. One important type of noncoding regulatory element is an enhancer, which increases the transcription of target genes. However, the specific enhancer regions that regulate genes associated with PTSD have not been extensively characterized. In this study, we investigated how a candidate enhancer region regulates the expression of PTSD-associated genes in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell lines. For simplicity, we focused on the gene nearest to the enhancer, TSNARE1. Using CRISPR-mediated deletion, we removed the enhancer region and hypothesized that its deletion would result in decreased expression of TSNARE1. We confirmed successful deletion of the enhancer using PCR and gel electrophoresis and quantified changes in gene expression using qPCR. Disruption of the target enhancer unexpectedly led to a 3.46-fold increase in gene expression, suggesting the deleted region may function as a silencer. Gel analysis confirmed that the full length fragment was found in both the control and guide samples while the guide samples also exhibited an additional band, consistent with the presence of the deleted region.The findings from this ongoing research project suggest that noncoding regions associated with PTSD can act as regulatory elements, potentially functioning as silencers rather than traditional enhancers, and highlight the complex role of these regions in gene regulation. In conclusion, understanding enhancer-gene interactions could inform therapies targeting regulatory elements in PTSD by revealing underlying molecular mechanisms.
Kiana Manson, '26, Mountain View, CA
Fiona Lawrence, '26, Frisco, TX
Gwen Schaffer, '27, Waterloo, IA
Ava Spaulding, '26, Muscatine, IA
Biology
Nicole Green
Muscle cells contain unique cellular structures that are required for contraction and generation of force to power movement. Muscle tissue is very sensitive to changes in cellular organization and these cells must have processes to maintain, rebuild, and mitigate stress over the lifetime of an individual. When muscle is damaged, or cellular architecture begins to break down, the cell’s balance—or homeostasis—is disrupted. A failure to re-establish the cellular ‘status quo’ results in a pathological state and can lead to further loss of muscle structure and function.
If we want to develop better therapies and clinical strategies for mitigating muscle damage, we must first understand key players involved in regulating muscle health. Fruit flies provide an incredible opportunity to ‘screen’ or rapidly assess individual genes and proteins involved in muscle health. In fact, Drosophila has yielded many important discoveries of cellular factors and underlying pathologies of muscular myopathies such as Duchenne's and Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophies.
Previous work in the Green lab has looked at the role of prostaglandins in regulating muscle development. Prostaglandins are short range cellular signals synthesized by the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzyme. The average person might recognize prostaglandins for their role in promoting inflammation, which can be mediated by NSAIDs, such as aspirin, to reduce prostaglandin signaling. However, the effects of aspirin can be a double-edged sword. Many studies have shown the positive effects of aspirin on minimizing inflammation following injuries, preventing strokes, or reducing a person’s risk of developing certain cancers. Alternatively, long term and high dose usage of aspirin and NSAIDs can lead to gastric ulcers or cause reversible infertility.
Despite our long history of using aspirin, we are still trying to understand why certain cell types respond differently to inhibiting prostaglandin signaling. We decided to use the versatile Drosophila model to try to understand the downstream effects of aspirin on muscle structure and function. Aspirin-fed larvae and adults had a dosage-dependent change in muscle function. Additionally, we decided to see whether aspirin feeding could mitigate muscle damage in two different mutants: the first with muscle detachment (fon mutants) and a second mimicking muscular dystrophy (thin mutants). In both models, there was less muscle damage present in mutant larvae fed with aspirin. One explanation for this effect could be a reduction in inflammatory signaling or immune-responsive activities blocked by aspirin. Future research will explore this hypothesis and continue to build our understanding of prostaglandin signaling in muscle tissue.
Jacqueline Parada, '26, Phoenix, AZ
Chemistry
Charley Liberko
Herapathite is a crystal formed from quinine that is known for its ability to polarize light because of its internal molecular alignment. It was first discovered in 1852 by Dr. William Bird Herapath while studying quinine metabolism, when iodine was added to the urine from a quinine-fed dog.
Later, in the 1930s, Edwin Land used similar materials to develop the first low-cost polarizing film used in Polaroid technology. Although herapathite has important scientific and historical applications, growing large and high-quality crystals remains difficult due to challenges in controlling crystal growth and consistency. In this project, we compare two crystallization methods, vapor diffusion and slow evaporation, to determine which method produces larger and higher-quality herapathite crystals.
Both methods were tested using previously prepared herapathite solutions under controlled settings. The vapor diffusion method allowed iodine vapor to interact with a quinine solution inside a jar, forming crystals at the surface over a period of time. The slow evaporation method involved dissolving herapathite in methanol and allowing the solvent to evaporate naturally, leaving crystal formations along the sides of a vial. Crystal growth, appearance, and polarization were observed using polarizing filters.
Results showed that vapor diffusion produced larger, needle-like crystals that demonstrated clearer polarization and could be isolated easily. Slow evaporation created visible polarization streaks but did not form individual crystals that could be collected without damage. Adjustments to washing techniques, solvent ratios, and evaporation conditions showed how sensitive crystal formation is to environmental changes.
Wybie Warmbold, '26
Behavioral Neuroscience
Steven Neese
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a significant public health concern among adolescents, with growing evidence linking them to adverse developmental outcomes. TBIs impact millions of individuals around the world every year, often resulting in long-term cognitive and behavioral changes. Beyond immediate cognitive and emotional effects, TBIs have been associated with increased risk of substance use, delinquency, and involvement with the justice system. Analyses of health records within prison populations have shown a high prevalence of adolescent TBIs amongst inmates. Youth with histories of foster care placement appear to be disproportionately affected, with prevalence rates of TBI far exceeding those in the general population. This increased rate of injury is often attributed to an increase in adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as domestic violence, neglect, or drug use in the house. This review synthesizes current research on the prevalence and consequences of TBI in adolescence, emphasizing how biological, psychological, and social mechanisms converge to elevate risk for maladaptive behaviors. This includes looking at the risks posed by decreased impulse control, increased aggression, stigma around TBIs, and a lack of resources when it comes to adolescent TBIs. Special attention is given to foster care youth, whose exposure to ACEs, placement instability, and systemic inequities may compound post-injury vulnerabilities. The collected data show an absence of trauma-informed TBI protocols in the child welfare system, emphasizing the need for more education and protective interventions. By integrating findings across general and foster care populations, this paper highlights critical gaps in knowledge and underscores the need for cross-system screening, intervention, and longitudinal research to mitigate the cascading effects of adolescent TBI.
Eric Montano, '26
Psychology
Steven Neese
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors, and sensory processing alterations, the latter present in up to 90% of individuals (Robertson & Baron-Cohen, 2017). Increasing evidence suggests that alterations in the excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) balance particularly involving parvalbumin-expressing (PV+) GABAergic interneurons may underlie these sensory symptoms (Filice et al., 2020; Sohal & Rubenstein, 2019).
This study examined the role of PV+ interneurons in tactile sensitivity modulation using a valproic acid (VPA)-induced prenatal mouse model of ASD. Male mice exposed to VPA in utero underwent selective chemogenetic activation of PV+ interneurons in the primary somatosensory cortex. Tactile reactivity was quantified via hindpaw withdrawal responses to a sequence of air-puff stimuli delivered to the plantar surface.
We observed significant differences in tactile reactivity before and after PV+ cell activation, with preliminary data suggesting sex-dependent effects. These findings support the hypothesis that PV+ interneuron dysfunction contributes to tactile hyperreactivity in ASD, potentially via cortical circuit disinhibition and disrupted E/I balance (Gogolla et al., 2014; Antoine et al., 2019). Our results underscore the importance of PV+ interneurons as a mechanistic target for investigating sensory dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Heidi Jorgensen, '26, Manti, UT
Rylee Van Dresar, '26, Newhall, IA
August Giurato, '26, Cedar Rapids, IA
Kinesiology
Kristin Meyer
Lower-extremity overuse injuries are common among physically active individuals and are frequently associated with altered gait biomechanics and neuromuscular control. Biomechanical risk factors such as increased hip adduction, excessive hip internal rotation, and asymmetrical muscle activation have been linked to injuries including patellofemoral pain syndrome, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, and Achilles tendinopathy. Growing research suggests that a lack of core strength may contribute to these movement patterns, however the relationship between core strength and gait mechanics during walking and running remains underexplored. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of core strength on lower-extremity biomechanics during walking and running gait. Twenty-four participants (12 male, 12 female; ages 14–51) completed isometric core endurance and hip strength assessments and were categorized into weak, moderate, or strong core groups. Three-dimensional motion capture, force plate data, and electromyography (EMG) were used to assess kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activation during over-ground walking and treadmill running trials. Results showed that participants with weaker core strength demonstrated increased right hip internal rotation at toe-off and greater hip adduction at initial contact, both of which are biomechanical patterns previously associated with injury risk. Additionally, moderate core strength was associated with higher peak ground reaction forces, and hip abduction and external rotation strength were significantly correlated with hip adduction and internal rotation positioning. This session will focus on the relationships observed between core strength, hip strength, and gait biomechanics.
Oskar Diyali, '27, Pokhara, Nepal
Zack Orrick, '26, Houston, TX
Data Science
Tyler George
Scottish Gaelic is a low-resource language with complex morphology, which makes tasks such as lemmatization particularly challenging. Words often appear in multiple surface forms depending on grammatical context, and the limited availability of annotated data makes it difficult to rely on fully data-driven approaches. This project presents the development of a part-of-speech (POS) aware lemmatizer for Scottish Gaelic using a primarily rule-based approach informed by linguistic structure.
The system combines a custom POS tagging component with suffix-based transformation rules that are applied differently depending on the grammatical category of each word. This allows the lemmatizer to better handle cases where similar word forms may correspond to different lemmas. In addition, the system incorporates a small irregular word dictionary and preprocessing steps to address common orthographic variations, such as prefixes and modified word forms.
This work highlights how linguistically informed, rule-based methods can still be effective in low-resource settings where large training datasets are not available. While the system performs well on many frequent forms, it also reveals limitations when handling less common or highly irregular cases.
In this session, I will walk through the design of the lemmatizer, present examples from the dataset, and demonstrate how the system processes input step by step. The presentation will also discuss challenges encountered during development and consider how similar approaches could be adapted for other low-resource languages.