Ankit Ghimire, Prasanthi Sreekumari

The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a critical threat to traditional cryptographic systems, which currently secure much of the world's digital communication. This study aims to analyze the fundamental differences between traditional cryptography built on mathematical hardness assumptions and quantum cryptography, which leverages physical principles such as the No-Cloning Theorem and quantum uncertainty to ensure secure key distribution. The research will be conducted through a comparative review of classical algorithms like RSA and ECC, quantum-based methods including Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), and emerging post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) standards such as CRYSTALS-Kyber and CRYSTALS-Dilithium. The findings indicated that traditional systems are increasingly vulnerable to quantum attacks, while PQC and quantum cryptography offer more resilient alternatives, highlighting the urgent need for transitioning to quantum-safe security mechanisms.

Samarpan Koirala, Prasanthi Sreekumari

To address the need for scalable and efficient patient engagement, this project presents the design and implementation of a production-grade Health AI Voice Assistant built using a microservices architecture. The objective of the study is to enable intelligent, real-time medical interactions over standard phone calls by integrating traditional telephony with modern AI technologies. The system is conducted by routing calls through FreePBX and a LiveKit SIP Bridge to a Go-based Agent Worker Service, which manages a full-duplex pipeline involving speech-to-text (STT), Large Language Model (LLM) reasoning, and text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. To ensure context-aware accuracy, the study leverages a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework and a vector database for semantic search over clinical knowledge. Our results demonstrate that a containerized, gRPC-based architecture utilizing PostgreSQL, Redis, and Kubernetes can deliver a high-availability platform capable of handling concurrent calls with low-latency, HIPAA-aware responses. This project ultimately shows how cloud-native microservices can be combined to provide a secure and extensible foundation for next-generation healthcare automation.  

Noble Agyeman-Bobie, Anjan Biswas, Milisha Hart-Simmons

This research is about the retrieval of the optical solitons for the perturbed resonant nonlinear Schrodinger’s equation that appears in quantum optics as well as in quantum fluids. This model is typically studied in monomode optical fibers. The traveling wave hypothesis is employed to recover the bright 1-soliton solution. Subsequently, the conservation laws are recovered for the model by implementing the multiplier approach. The conserved quantities are obtained from the conserved densities with the usage of the bright soliton solution. These conservation laws will allow the retrieval of the quasi-monochromatic parameter dynamics of the solitons in presence of perturbation terms. Moreover, the phenomena of optical soliton cooling can be formulated. 

The recovered soliton solution will be beneficial when this model is applied to additional optoelectronic devices such as optical couplers, magneto-optic waveguides, Bragg gratings, optical metamaterials and metasurfaces and other such. The model also paves the way for additional research in optical fibers with diverse forms of self-phase modulation structures, along with nonlinear chromatic dispersion. The retrieval of quiescent optical solitons in this case would be possible with linear temporal evolution as well as with generalized temporal evolution. The study of solitons with fractional temporal evolution for the model is possible. This is one of the various possible means to mitigate the internet bottleneck effect.

David Kordahl

When electrons in high vacuum pass near a material surface, electromagnetic interactions can destroy the interference pattern observed downstream—a quantum phenomenon called decoherence. While decoherence in open quantum systems is typically formulated using density matrices, this approach can be difficult to connect with the wavefunction-based descriptions familiar to experimentalists. We present a mode-decomposed model that isolates the essential physical mechanisms responsible for fringe visibility loss in electron interferometry. After examining a simplified model without dissipation, we show how experimentally validated expressions from electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) can be incorporated, clarifying the role of dissipative surface modes in producing decoherence. This framework bridges a gap between subfields, connecting fundamental decoherence theory with practical electron interferometry by incorporating surface-loss models traditionally used in spectroscopy.

Gerard Blanchard

In Fall 2023, my students and I tested ChatGPT-3.5 with 38 end-of chapter questions selected randomly from Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics by Tipler.  ChatGPT answered 12 (32%) of the questions completely correctly.  With partial credit, it scored 74%.  In Fall 2025, I repeated the test with ChatGPT-5.1.  This time, ChatGPT answered 34 (89%) of the questions completely correctly, and was 99% correct with partial credit.  For comparison, the solutions manual for the textbook only answered 32 (84%) of the questions completely correctly.  To address the possibility that ChatGPT-5.1 had been trained on the solutions manual, I followed this test by giving my completely original Quantum Mechanics II final exam to ChatGPT.  The AI answered 10 out of 12 questions correctly. 

ChatGPT is clearly highly proficient with the type of questions that appear on undergraduate physics homework and exams.  This raises the question:  How do we instruct our students to use this tool effectively?  I evaluate ChatGPT’s aptitude as a tutor and as a teacher.  I present my observations and I welcome discussion.

Mohamed Zeidan, Zayne Zezulka, Jonathan Baio

This project explores the use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), specifically Biochar, to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions while also creating a sustainable concrete mixture. Manufacturing of Portland cement makes up around 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions which is primarily from clinker production. This research focuses on ways to reduce the cement content in concrete mixes by replacing it with a greener alternative like biochar. Additionally, including the biochar in the mix will lock the carbon generated from agricultural waste in an inert form inside the concrete structure. The experimental program aims to investigate the use of biochar made from sugar cane waste as a cement replacement. This project includes testing various mix designs  incorporating biochar along with other SCMs and testing the performance of these mixes, besides their economical and environmental aspects. These tests include compressive strength, surface resistivity, slump, air content along with other tests. The results should lead to a better understanding of biochar as a SCM and see if it could be a possible long term solution for the concrete industry reducing its carbon footprint."