Fall 2026: Virtual Talks

AI has become a daily conversational partner for many young people, possibly influencing narrative identity, the stories people construct about themselves. As a new type of listener, AI may shape both how individuals tell their stories and what they expect from social interactions. We frame it by the constructs of agency and communion, as these are the two most validated components of narrative identity for predicting psychological well-being.

AI may support agency by encouraging people to view challenges as opportunities for growth and mastery. Noteworthy, AI primarily serves as a scaffold for agency rather than a source of it.

Narrative identity develops through relationships with others. While AI can provide immediate validation, it often lacks the probing questions, disagreement and feedback that foster deeper self-understanding. As a result, over-reliance on AI may reduce the social interaction and negotiation that support healthy identity development. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Cade Mansfield, Department of Psychology.

RotationSlicing is an Astropy-affiliated Python package that enables interactive exploration of galaxy clusters using custom coordinate systems and arbitrarily oriented sky slices. In this talk, we will demonstrate how RotationSlicing can be used to visualize and investigate the structure of galaxy clusters from different perspectives. We will introduce the new RotationSlicing documentation website, demonstrating how users can access tutorials, API references, and executable examples to learn the package and make the most of its visualization capabilities. We will also showcase the SkystripExplorer interface, which combines multiple visualization tools into a single interactive figure, allowing users to explore sky slices and coordinate transformations dynamically in Jupyter Notebook and Google Colab. Through these demonstrations, we will highlight how RotationSlicing can make the exploration of complex astronomical structures more intuitive while providing users with the resources needed to effectively incorporate the package into their own research. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Elizabeth Praton, Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Obsidian is a volcanic glass that forms when lava experiences an undercooling, such as by rapid cooling or decompression. When analyzed for its whole-rock and mineral chemistry, obsidian preserves a “geochemical fingerprint” of its formation. A 2014 Keck Research project examined New Mexico obsidian samples from Mt. Taylor, the Mule Creek Complex, and the Jemez Mountains, which are all located in distinct physiographic provinces with different underlying tectonic processes. This study examines how geochemistry and mineralogy differ between these eruption centers. Obsidian glass and minerals were prepared as grain mounts and thick/thin sections which were then analyzed for chemical composition via scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Coupled with experimentally-calibrated models from the literature, intensive parameters such pre-eruptive magmatic temperatures and melt H2O contents can be determined. Differences in these parameters, coupled with varying mineralogy and geochemistry, reflect distinct processes influencing the formation of these lavas. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor James Jolles, Department of Earth & Environment.

Europe has embarked on rearmament following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the priority is to militarize given the geopolitical realities, rearmament has important economic consequences as well. Many view Europe’s increased spending on arms as a way out of the two-decade stagnation following the Global Financial Crisis. At the same time, there are calls for cutting European “welfare states” to be able to “pay for” the militarization. In this project, we explored whether European states are taking concrete actions to cut their welfare states to finance their military spending, echoing a zero-sum game approach to public finance. We also studied whether governments have to cut spending in some areas to be able to afford to spend elsewhere. Lastly, we evaluated whether military Keynesianism is a productive way out of economic stagnation or whether there are better avenues such as green investment. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Yeva Nersisyan, Department of Economics.