2020-2021 Projects

I will be researching the levels of Generation Z's social media use and how that might influence Generation Z's level of physical political activism. This information is crucial for political scientists to be able to predict future outcomes (from Generation Z) in elections as a result of political participation.

Discrimination in America has been fought for years, yet discrimination in the beauty industry is rarely talked about. Large multinational corporations have taken advantage of this by promoting white superiority through skin bleaching products. The best remedy to this problem is to promote diversity in magazines and advertisements and stop the oppression of the black race in the beauty industry. By doing so, less people of color would feel the need to lighten their skin and skin bleaching creams would no longer be in high demand, so companies could stop the production of them.

I will be conducting research on how the application of the REV-ERB agonist SR9009 impacts embryonic development in zebrafish embryos. REV-ERBs are proteins which regulate the circadian clock, and are often disrupted in cancer cells. As this drug continues to be explored in the hopes of developing a new cancer therapy, it is important to determine whether it may have an effect on development. This research will contribute to the conversation surrounding SR9009's potential as a cancer drug.

My project is aimed to investigate many different experiments with a meta-analysis of each to find out good experimental techniques and bias reduction methods. Technological advancements have always interested me and I wanted to focus my study towards virtual reality so I could learn more about that as well. I got recommended from one of my classmates to investigate the medical industry and that's how I thought of investigating how effective surgeons might be in surgeries if they used a VR training method instead of traditional methods.

My research explores Baudrillard's philosophy on simulacrum and simulations within the Blade Runner franchise. I will be comparing the ideologies presented in Simulacra and Simulation within the thematic analysis of Blade Runner. This will be a philosophical research project regarding the blurring of the lines between reality and fiction.

There is a problem with the drastic difference in the number of men versus the number of women in STEM fields. A variety of factors including the lack of representation of women in STEM and the way boys and girls are raised differently from a young age. Even when adolescent boys and girls have similar STEM test scores, boys are more likely to pursue a STEM career. My research aims to determine why there is an extreme difference in gender balance in STEM. By researching these two variables, solutions to instill confidence in young girls to pursue their future career plans as well as the meaning behind the United States' ranking on the Gender Gap Index can be determined.

Developing countries unfortunately have low-quality healthcare and a lack of doctors because of the poor working environment. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has shown to help with areas in healthcare. However, there have been instances where the data used by these AI algorithms don't sufficiently represent minorities. This can lead to misdiagnosis within patients of color which has already been shown to have harmful effects in the United States. I will be looking at how the representation of race in the datasets impacts medical systems in developing countries. I will do this by analyzing existing studies to determine the correlation between the race of a person and the accuracy of AI.

In the United States, homicide has always been an ongoing occurrence from the past till now in the 21st century. This is where innocent lives have been lost. Despite these crimes growing in large cities, there has been questioning and debate over how an individual becomes a "killer." One theory would be the psychological behaviors differing from that of a normal person. One solution that could determine the origin of this aggression is looking into the past by examining childhood experiences. In my research, I will find the correlation between childhood experiences (trauma, abuse) corresponding to adulthood personalities, that as a result, influence the behavior to commit murder.

Problem Statement: There is a problem in or with Human Cloning. Despite critique and challenges discussing the ethics/morality of Human cloning, continuous steps towards human cloning are occurring. This can be seen in therapeutic cloning and recent advancements in reproductive cloning. This problem has negatively impacted people who have natural beliefs and those of human dignity because it is unnatural. My research is going to look into the ethical perceptions and boundaries of human cell cloning, while also analyzing the medical benefits of human cell cloning.

I am analyzing the implications and representations of the philosophy of absurdism in the Netflix original animation, Bojack Horseman, to further commentate on the nature of morality.

My topic of exploration relates to the representation of female interaction with the criminal justice process in US entertainment television and how that relates to program popularity. I aim to identify variables included in crime dramas that contribute to stigma and stereotypes that surround female involvement in order to suggest a solution that opens the door for change.

I am excited to introduce to you my research: Injustice to the Sixth Amendment: How an Undercompensated Public Defense System is Failing Indigent Defendants. This year, I will be combining case-study research and content analysis to develop solutions on the best ways to fix the under-compensation in the public defense system. In time I hope to produce some well developed methods that will aid both overworked public defenders and the indigent clientele they represent.

Climate Change is something that everyone knows is happening. It destabilizes our planet's natural ecosystem affecting all living organisms. Climate Change must be issued and specifically the factors that are causing climate change Greenhouse Gasses. Since 1970 there has been an increased awareness about the planets ecosystem but with a rapidly growing population it is hard to create any change. But recently a sudden drop in global Greenhouse Gasses has maybe brought about solutions to something scientists have been fighting form over 50 years. In my research I will be looking at the trends of Greenhouse Gasses specifically Carbon Dioxide and Nitrous Oxide to see what kind of sudden changes have caused this drop and if any of those sudden changes could be implemented into long term solutions to fighting Climate Change

My research project will be centered around the recently new- kindled topic of police reform. My topic is not researching the Black Lives Matter movement nor the police brutality crisis but rather the misconception of different types of police reform, and how this misconception can be compared with the debates going on in the United States today. These opinions are centered around what is the common thought of what should be done with police reform in terms of ratifications that will end up satisfying both the public and the police force. Although my research is not directly about the Black Lives Matter movement or police brutality, they will play very important political factors in my research because of the recent events going on in our country regarding those two aspects. The end goal of my research project is to be able to make a generalization about either the general population or different subgroups of people (woman, men, young, old, etc.) and what their thoughts are about police reform in terms of ratifying that constitute.

DNA identification is currently one of the most used tools for identifying a criminal directly from a crime scene. When it was first introduced, DNA identification was revolutionary, but as it has become more common, criminals have also learned how to evade detection by not leaving DNA at a crime scene. A person's microbiome is their unique mix of bacteria and fungi, similar to a fingerprint that can't be covered by a glove. It is considered to be a potential future aspect of forensic identification (Hampton-Marcell, Lopez, & Gilbert, 2017). I plan to study the reliability of oral microbiome identification by collecting two samples from my participants and analyzing how similar the samples are.

My research topic is on the societal and cultural influences that are responsible for South Korea's dominance in esports. For my research, I am going to be examining numerous societal and cultural factors present in South Korea, and treating them as variables that could be responsible for South Korea's overall success in esports to ultimately determine which factors have had the greatest impact on South Korea's global esports dominance.

I am looking at individualized cancer treatment. My initial research question looked at which treatment option would have the best outcome on death rates. However, as my research progressed, I shifted to how the process of creating an individualized treatment for cancer patients can be improved. I am focusing on meta-analysis, which means that I will be analyzing and reviewing research done by others. I will also be interviewing people that survived cancer and including their personal experiences in my paper. I believe these are the best research types to approach my topic in the time given.

Millions of people across the world use various different streaming platforms as their main source of listening to music. Services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora are currently shaping the way in which people access music. Additionally, they serve an important role in recommending new music that people would, otherwise, never hear. As these become more prevalent in our lives, many people are using these various platforms as their primary source of music discovery. This emphasis on recommendations from these sites makes it so important for the recommendations provided to be as fine tuned to every user as possible. That is why I will be conducting research to investigate the ways in which current music recommendation algorithms can be improved upon through an analysis of all the different types of algorithms in use.

Breast cancer is the most prominent types of cancer in the United States. About one in eight (12%) women in America are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Women in America have the option to get a mastectomy to decrease the chances of getting breast cancer or get one due to the fact that they have breast cancer. 3D biological printing introduces the creation of a breast scaffold used for implantation. This creation can contain stem cells which ensures cell growth, meaning the regeneration of tissue in the breast. This project hopes to examine a future option for post-mastectomy woman. In this project I will engineer a breast scaffold using a 3D biological printer as well as examine stem cells which will then be put into the scaffold.

As populations continue to grow, so do low-income populations, and the number of people who find difficulties in accessing affordable and adequate housing will only increase. Poor housing conditions lead to poor health conditions, among other issues, which in turn becomes a burden on society.

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, “is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a computer-aided design model. As it specifically relates to housing, dozens of companies based throughout the world are currently attempting to build inhabitable structures out of concrete, using building sized printers. A promising example emerged in 2018 a fully functional 600 square foot home was 3D printed in Austin, Texas, for $10,000, in under 24 hours. The lower cost of additive manufacturing will be impactful for low-income housing economically, scientifically, culturally and socially. However, a gap currently exists, because this technology has yet been mass-implemented and made readily available to the public, specifically low-income residents. This has led me to ask the question, "How can an adequate additive manufactured home be designed to be affordable for low-income residents?"