If interested in any of these projects, students must contact and meet with the relevant faculty member to discuss candidacy. If successful, students must then complete the student application form on the fellowship website.
Available Opportunities
| Faculty Name | Department | Working Title | # Openings | Working Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atterberry, Adrienne | Sociology | Exploring Adolescents’ Aspirations: Schooling, Parenting, and Dreams of Success | 1 | What are adolescents’ aspirations for their futures? How do their families and schools support their aims? These questions, and more, will be addressed through this research study that focuses on middle- and upper-class high school students who attend one of two private, English-medium high schools in Bangalore, a city in southwest India. By transcribing and analyzing seven focus group interviews with high school students, and completing readings on parenting, adolescence, and schooling you will learn more about the social and cultural factors that shape adolescents’ aspirations, and how their schools and families actively facilitate their future achievement. Time will also be granted to an exploration of how the experiences of middle and upper-class adolescents is both like and different from those who come from other class backgrounds. This project will culminate in a co-authored paper that will be submitted to journals for publication consideration. This project is best suited for a student who wants experience with qualitative data analysis, has a desire to learn more about scholarly writing for an academic audience, and has an interest in reading about schooling, parenting, and adolescence among racial and ethnic minority groups. |
| Hajian, Rozhin | Mechanical Engineering | Acoustic Analysis of Porous Airfoil Design | 2 | The study of aerodynamic loads on porous airfoils, inspired by the silent flight of owls, seeks to address the challenge of reducing aerodynamic self-noise in fluid-loaded bodies through passive design structures. The trailing edge, an inherent source of such self-noise in aerodynamic constructs, has prompted extensive research aimed at modeling, measuring, and mitigating noise generated by the interaction with turbulent eddies. Efforts to diminish turbulence noise have explored altering the acoustical impedance near the edge, with numerous theoretical studies predicting the effects of edge boundary conditions on the trailing-edge noise scattering mechanism. In this project, our objective is to utilize developed mathematical models and numerical methods to predict the aerodynamic noise produced by porous airfoils. We plan to examine different porosity distributions across the airfoil to identify an optimized configuration that minimizes noise. To corroborate our theoretical findings, we will employ 3D-printed airfoils, featuring varied porosity distributions, and conduct wind tunnel tests to measure the acoustic pressure emitted from each design. This approach not only bridges the gap between aeroacoustic research and practical application but also paves the way for innovations in the design of quieter aerodynamic structures. |
| Jing, Guangming | Mathematics & Statistics | Algorithms in Graph Edge Coloring | 1 | Edge coloring and edge packing could be considered partitions of the edges of a graph under certain restrictions. For example, a proper edge coloring partitions the edges into sets such that no two edges in the same set share a common endpoint, while an edge cover packing partitions the edges into sets such that the edges in each set cover all the vertices. Optimal or near-optimal solutions to these problems have important applications in network, communication, scheduling, and other optimization problems. During this project, students will gain research experience in developing and coding cutting-edge, efficient algorithms for graph edge coloring and packing. This experience can lead to a deeper understanding of both algorithmic complexities and discrete optimization. The goal is to produce work that can potentially lead to journal or conference publications. |
| Kolias, Carisa | Library | Archives Historical Research | 1 | Using the International Institute of Lowell Collection at the Center for Lowell History, UMass Lowell, as well as other primary and secondary sources, the fellow will conduct research into the records of people who immigrated from Armenia from 1900-1920, particularly focusing on the time of the Armenian Genocide from 1915-1916. During the Armenian genocide, up to 1.2 million Armenian people, primarily Christian, were killed by Ottoman authorities and others. Many Armenian people fled before, during, and after the genocide and emigrated from their native land. Some eventually wound up in the United States, and made their home in Lowell, Massachusetts. The goal of this project is to draw out the many stories contained in the International Institute of Lowell collection in order to highlight and learn from the personal stories of Armenian refugees. In doing so, a community that is often overlooked when celebrating the immigrant stories of Lowell, Massachusetts will have its story told. It is not our intention to replicate the work done by previous researchers, or to write a paper about the Armenian community more broadly, but to draw out stories hidden within these records. To that end, the fellow will review the most recent research into Armenians in Lowell at the start of their fellowship to familiarize themselves with the community they will be researching. Expected products at the end of this fellowship are: 1) Minimum 8-10 page paper presenting the research findings 2) Educational libGuide summarizing the findings of the paper for inclusion on the University's libGuides 3) Digital exhibit focusing on three to four people or families' stories to be added to the digital exhibit page of the International Institute of Lowell on the Omeka platform, 4) Creating an interactive map to be included in the digital exhibit 5) Create a 15-minute presentation highlighting the work done in your fellowship |
| Lee, Seungeun | Schl of Crimin & Justice Stud | Understanding the Patterns, Types, and Consequences of Cryptocurrency Fraud and Law Enforcement’s Responses | 1 | Cryptocurrency fraud involves various deceptive activities that exploit users of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Common schemes include phishing scams, Ponzi schemes, and fake initial coin offerings (ICOs), where attackers manipulate victims into investing or revealing sensitive information. The decentralized and often anonymous nature of blockchain technology makes tracing these fraudulent activities challenging, increasing the appeal of cryptocurrencies to cybercriminals. Understanding these schemes is critical for investors and users to safeguard their assets and avoid falling victim to fraud in the evolving crypto market. This project explores the following research questions: - What are the most prevalent types and patterns of cryptocurrency fraud? - How effective are existing regulatory frameworks in mitigating cryptocurrency fraud, and what improvements can be made to better protect investors? - How does the anonymity and decentralization of cryptocurrencies contribute to the rise in fraud, and what technological solutions could be implemented to reduce fraudulent activities? - How do law enforcement agencies currently investigate and prosecute cases of cryptocurrency fraud, and what challenges do they face due to the anonymity and global reach of blockchain transactions? - How can existing criminal justice policies and laws be adapted to better address the unique challenges posed by cryptocurrency fraud and related cybercrimes? |
| Lewis, Sumudu | Curriculum and Instruction | Lead the Way to Discovery - Explore STEM Teaching with UTeach | 1 | Create an ad or a video that can be shown at orientations or at high schools to inspire young people to choose teaching in a STEM field. Students would need to explore what it means to be a Science teacher, perhaps interview teachers students, and come up with a creative ad campaign to attract more young people into the teaching profession. Could be a music video or something that is unique and different and appealing to the young people. Project may need to begin with some market research if we are to brand and sell UTeach as a program. |
| Long, Joshua | Financial Empowerment Class for Incarcerated Women and Program Evaluation | Jail Education Program | 1 | In coordination with the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department, we propose to evaluate the educational and rehabilitative programs offered to the incarcerated population at the Billerica House of Corrections in Billerica, Massachusetts. In addition, we are seeking permission from UMass Lowell to volunteer as teachers for a financial empowerment class provided to incarcerated women who live in the pre-release center. This class will help them learn how to balance their household budgets to improve their chances of success when they return to their communities. This combined effort is important for the incarcerated women as a way of helping them succeed post-release, it helps the community by potentially reducing incidents of future crime, it helps UMass Lowell graduate students to work in a justice system setting, and it helps UMass Lowell’s reputation as champions of education and justice system reform in Massachusetts. The project will include three phases. The first phase will include basic data collection prior to offering the financial empowerment course. During this phase, the principal investigator and UMass Lowell graduate students will receive data from the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department that includes the number of incarcerated people in their facilities, the types of programs they completed during incarceration, and their post-release recidivism records. In phase two we will conduct a focus group of incarcerated women at the pre-release center (average daily population = 12) and ask them what kinds of financial skills they already have, and what they would like to learn in a new course offered by UMass Lowell volunteers. We will incorporate their responses into the curriculum and teach a 10-week financial empowerment course, concluding with a student evaluation of the program. Phase three will include a long-term follow-up with these women 1, 2, or 3 years post-release to better understand the challenges they faced as they tried to reintegrate back into society, with an emphasis on how they managed their household finances. |
| Sajo, Erno | Physics and Applied Physics | Computational methods development for Nanoparticle Aided Radiation Therapy | 1 | Nanoparticle-aided radiation therapy is a proposed new method to treat cancer. It has significant potential to improve tumor response while reducing normal tissue complications. The Medical Physics group in the Department of Physics is one of the pioneering research groups in developing experimental and computational methods for cancer treatment at the nanoscale. For clinical translation, patient treatment planning is an essential step, which addresses radiation dose enhancement as well as inter-particle, particle-tissue and particle-organelle interactions. Our group is developing a software that simulates various aspects, including nanoparticle transport and interactions in the human body. The first version, which is for airborne particles, and can be applied for inhalation delivery, among others, is currently distributed worldwide by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We seek a Fellow with experience in C, C++ or Fortran programming who can contribute to this research, including the following: •. Creating an interactive graphical user interface that prepares the input I/O stream. •. Contribute to the coding of the main software to simulate particle transport under various conditions. •. Benchmarking and validating the code against available data and potentially against in-house experiments. This position offers an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the development of a major production code, perform limited-scale experiments, and potentially earn contributing authorship in the next release of the software. |
| Socia, Kelly | Schl of Crimin & Justice Stud | Crossing the Aisle: Understanding Recreational Marijuana Legislation in New Hampshire Using Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework | 1 | About half of the states have legalized recreational marijuana (RM), typically via ballot initiatives rather than legislative action, and other states are considering similar measures. The New Hampshire (NH) legislature came extremely close to legalizing RM in 2024 and will certainly try again in 2025. Thus, NH may become the first Republican-controlled state to ever legalize RM through rare bipartisan legislative action rather than direct democracy. This provides a timely and unique opportunity to better understand how policymakers and key stakeholders navigate the complex political environment surrounding RM legislation in its middle diffusion stage, when not all states have adopted these policies. While many issues exhibit extreme political polarization among both policymakers and the public (e.g., gun control legislation), RM legalization in NH is unique in that it has overwhelming support among the public and policymakers that crosses party lines and legislative chambers. Yet even among RM’s supporters, distinct policy disagreements have emerged between the NH House, Senate, and Governor, with many competing stakeholders seeking to influence this issue. Much of the prior research on marijuana policymaking has focused on medical marijuana (MM), and precious little is known about the policy dynamics of RM. This study capitalizes on this opportunity to better understand the current state of recreational marijuana legislation in the U.S. through a detailed case study of NH’s recent and current legislative efforts. To that end, the overall goal is to produce a nuanced understanding of legislative processes surrounding recreational marijuana in NH, through the lens of Kingdon’s (2003) Multiple Streams Framework (MSF). The part of the study specific to the Honors Fellowship project will involve an analysis of public rhetoric by NH state legislators and other stakeholders regarding RM legalization in NH between 2015 (before NH became surrounded by RM states) and early 2025. The project would run two semesters, starting spring 2025 and ending fall 2025. The data for this component comes from two main sources: a) public media, including news stories, op-eds, and press releases, and b) NH legislative transcripts. The data will be saved and imported into NVivo as OCR-readable PDFs or text files, and then qualitatively coded by the honors student and Dr. Socia. This research will answer the following questions: 1. How has NH legislators’ and other stakeholders’ rhetoric about RM changed in the last decade? 2. What are the primary factors influencing NH legislators' and other stakeholders’ attitudes towards the legalization of RM in New Hampshire, and how have these changed over time? |
| Van Dam, Noah | Mechanical Engineering | High Performance Computing for Energy Applications | 2 | The multiphase and reacting flows laboratory works on high fidelity computer simulations of multiphase and reacting flows such as fuel sprays and combustion. These flows appear in a variety of energy applications, including internal combustion engines and gas turbines. The lab always has several projects students may work on. Current primary projects are two projects funded by the US Navy. The first project is investigating the impacts of salt particles in the intake air on an atmospheric pressure burner that could be used to power future Navy vessels. In this project, students are looking at the combustion process and how the salt particles interact with the flame. Important questions include combustion efficiency, gas temperatures, and locations of salt deposits in the system. The second project is looking at using ammonia-hydrogen blends as a zero-carbon energy source for stationary power generation on remote bases. There are important questions about how the flame behavior of these blends and how to operate internal combustion engines running on these blends to maximize efficiency and minimize NOx or other unwanted combustion products. Students will run computational fluid dynamics simulations on high performance computers, and will perform post-processing of the results using several different tools, including paraview and matlab or python programs. |
| Xie, Dongming | Chemical Engineering | Research for the Immerse Fellowship in Biomanufacturing Science and Engineering Lab (BioSEL) -2024/2025 | 1 | Dr. Dongming Xie’s lab (Biomanufacturing Science & Engineering Lab, https://sites.uml.edu/dongming-xie/research/) from the department of chemical engineering is looking for a part-time undergraduate research assistant for the 2024/2025 academic year. The research projects are biomanufacturing of high-value chemicals, materials, food ingredients, and pharmaceuticals from waste materials such as CO2, waste oils/fats, and postconsumer plastics. The students will have the chance to work together with PhD graduate students for experiments in microbial cell culture and fermentation, gene editing and cellular engineering, bioprocess engineering, and product analysis. Students with academic background and experience in biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, or similar majors are encouraged to apply. For application, please send your resume/CV along with a cover letter with a brief introduction of yourself and your past research/working experience to Dr. Dongming Xie (Dongming_Xie@uml.edu). Please also submit the application form in this portal. The position will be open until it is filled with a qualified candidate. |
| Yan, Mingdi | Chemistry | Developing New Click Type Cycloaddition Reactions | 2 | The goal of project is to develop new click type cycloaddition reactions based on electrophilic azides. The project will involve testing different reaction conditions and reagent scope, as well as characterization of the products using spectroscopy techniques. The candidate will have completed organic chemistry 1 and 2 and the corresponding labs, and have good academic records. |
Previous Opportunities
| Faculty Name | Department | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adili, Abiti | Mathematics & Statistics | Autonomous Vehicles can potentially transform transportation, consumer behavior, and society at large. This is not just personal cars because marine transportation is also at the leading edge, with commercial passenger and vehicle automated ferries operating in Japan and automated boats crossing the oceans. Sailboats, in particular, are not just efficient and environmentally friendly, they allow automated boats to be at sea for extended periods, which is excellent for applications such as oil and gas pipeline monitoring, ocean mapping, and data collection. Navigation is critical, and GPS provides a great option, but it can sometimes be very inaccurate or unavailable, requiring some alternative method. Dead Reckoning is an algorithm using direction and speed to continually update a track, with errors building up over time. Dead Reckoning requires real-time accurate heading and speed information, this project will use machine learning, using the GPS to provide supervised training when it is available and accurate, with the trained Dead Reckoning taking over when it is not. This project will include the development of a Machine Learning supported Dead Reckoning algorithm in Python, integrated with a control system for an autonomous sailboat running on a Raspberry Pi. Performance will be compared with and without machine learning. | |
| Arias, Orlando | Electrical & Computer Eng | In this exploratory research fellowship, we will study various security primitives in hardware and software required to create Trusted Execution environments (TEEs), which are a secure area of a device in CPU and RAM that is also separate from the regular operating system, that ensures sensitive data is processed in a trusted and isolated environment. This technology is used in many modern applications such as creating a secure environment for fingerprint authentication on mobile phones. We will be adapting the Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment (OP-TEE), a software runtime for the ARM TrustZone (a TEE hardware primitive), to the DE1-SoC FPGA Development board which sports a heterogenous platform in which a Cyclone-V SoC provides a hard processing system (traditional CPU) as well as reconfigurable logic capabilities. Furthermore, we will prototype the other necessary hardware primitives with the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip on the DE1-SoC board. Our findings will be made publicly available through the community, to facilitate further research and development in TEEs using low-cost, accessible platforms. | |
| Atterberry, Adrienne | Sociology | We will be exploring the aspirations of middle- and upper-class high school students in Bangalore, India, and examining how their families and schools support these aims. Through the transcription and analysis of group interviews, along with readings on parenting, adolescence, and schooling, my work throughout this fellowship will also delve into the social and cultural factors that shape these adolescents' aspirations. I will also aim to compare the experiences of middle- and upper-class adolescents with those from other class backgrounds. The project will then culminate in a co-authored paper intended for publication. | |
| Beyranevand, Matthew | Mathematics & Statistics | Due to a variety of factors, UMass Lowell has had an increased number of students placing in and enrolling in precalculus as the first course for students in the Kennedy College of Sciences and Francis College of Engineering. Many of these students had previously taken and passed precalculus but still placed into the course when enrolling at UMass Lowell. The following steps/research will be taken for the project: 1. Research current UMass Lowell in Precalculus I & II as to their previous math courses. 2. Research local high schools and community colleges to learn their syllabus, curriculum, and use of technology / calculators. 3. Understand the testing process and results for UMass Lowell’s ALEKS system. There will hopefully be a follow-up opportunity to share results with local high schools and community colleges to educate and better prepare future UMass Lowell students to enroll in higher level math classes upon entering the University. | |
| Beyranevand, Matthew | Mathematics & Statistics | As discussed with professor Beyranevand | |
| Chain, Frederic | Biological Sciences | For my Honors Fellowship, I plan on working with Dr. Frederic Chain from the biology department. My project will be centered on the topic of figuring out the gendering of different stickleback species and populations to verify the sex of the organism without the use of sequencing. Currently, we have five known species of stickleback from various populations in which I will be investigating this sex chromosome genetic differentiation. To investigate this genetic differentiation in male/female stickleback I will be computationally (using R: coding language) to compare genome/transcriptomes in male vs female. I will then design a DNA primer to target the location of the sex chromosome from my computational investigation. To visualize that I have successfully designed the primer to figure out the genetic differentiation a PCR diagnosis test will be performed on the samples we have. DNA segments of the different species will be amplified by PCR and visualized through performing gel electrophoresis. This project will allow me to enhance my wet lab skills (pipetting, PCR, gel electrophoresis) and also dry lab skills (R-coding) for preparation for a biology graduate program in the future. | |
| Delhommelle, Jerome | Chemistry | The nature of the project involves using a language model, like Pro-GPT2, for protein topology to understand a protein’s structural elements. We are trying to understand how protein topologies form, and how proteins transition from one topology to another. The end goal is to utilize the understanding to engineer de novo artificial proteins for therapeutics. I am pursuing this topic because I am passionate about using machine learning for a greater cause, and developing artificial proteins for therapeutics can help alleviate disease pathology. Therapeutic protein design has faced many issues with clinical implementation due to time and efficiency costs, and I would like to help optimize the process with computational efforts so that those suffering from diseases, like cancer, can receive treatment that they need. | |
| Desgranges, Caroline | Physics and Applied Physics | The aim of this project is to create new theoretical frameworks, physics-based machine learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence techniques for biomedical optical imaging and image-guided intervention methods in cancer research. The project will require collaboration between two research groups, one experimental and the other theoretical, to use optical polarization imaging (OPI) as a screening tool for detecting cancers. More specifically, spectrally-encoded information captured in OPI will be utilized to develop a deep learning machine learning model capable of evaluating the extent of tumor spread, thus reducing the need for unnecessary surgeries. | |
| Desgranges, Caroline | Physics and Applied Physics | Working under Prof. Desgranges and Prof. Yaroslavsky to complete research on AI and OPI involving skin cancer margins. Possibly completing an Honors Project under their mentorship and supervision. | |
| Gage, Matthew | Chemistry | For this fellowship, single molecular characterization will be performed for CaM and S100A1 Proteins using phage display technique. Ultimately, the results from this experiment should drive a more complex understanding of the binding interactions present in these proteins for therapeutic applications (both in terms of disease and future drug design). The first step of this experiment would be the phage library acquisition or creation, in which a library would be designed specifically for analysis of these 2 proteins. Once a library is acquired, the phages will be propagated for assay use and other components of the binding assay (set up, material collection, etc) can be prepared. From there, the binding selection assay can be successfully performed and the results can be sequenced for later analysis. The data analysis period, once complete, can be validated with an additional assay with purified proteins (thus requiring a protein purification step). I am pursuing this topic because learning about proteins, antibodies, and other molecules through single-molecule characterization truly interests me, and after interning this summer to perform biophysical characterization, I'd love to apply my building skills to a new and long-term project. | |
| Gautam, Ramraj | School of Nursing | For my fellowship, I want to focus on the following research question: How can interested emerita/us professors and retired faculty continue to engage with the university? After briefly reviewing literature, I discovered that there are a great number of studies performed on aging in general; However, fewer studies on Age Friendly Universities (AFU’s) have been done (Montepare et al., 2020). As a result, I have discovered that there are an unlimited number of benefits that come from being part of an Age Friendly University (Montepare et al., 2020). It is important for students to be knowledgeable about aging and older adults, so that we can make our community more age-friendly and age-inclusive (Montepare et al., 2020). UMass Lowell is an AFU (Age Friendly University), and it strives to integrate the 10 AFU principles at the university. The article presented many ways to incorporate these initiatives into our university, in the form of campaign/theme for our campus (Montepare et al., 2020). From communication with HR, Dr. Karen Devereaux Melillo found that a few faculty members choose to participate in exit interviews. However, UMass Lowell has identified a need and has planned workshops on pre-retirement where we can discuss issues related to pre-retirement. These workshops on pre-retirement will be organized in Spring 2024, by the UML AFU Steering Committee. I plan to transcribe, summarize, and conduct content analysis of the table-top discussions that will be a planned part of the pre-retirement workshops. As a student, I will take the lead on some of these table-top discussions, in addition to serving as a scribe for the discussions. Also, my role is to promote awareness about the proposed pre-retirement workshops/program offered by the AFU Collaborative initiative through social media and announcements and poster announcement preparation. I will have a role in outreach to faculty and staff, such as through Departmental Chairs and ADVANCE Departmental Faculty Ambassadors. I will create a potential theme and campaign when doing so. I will be developing posters and engaging in social media messaging for pre/near-retirement faculty. Then, I will be able to offer content derived from the content analyses of the table-top discussions at pre- /near-retirement workshops for use/consideration by HR in exit interviews (Honors Student Learning Outcome #1) and for future Pre-Retirement Workshop series presentations. As I reviewed literature, I learned that AFU’s must address the needs of older adults, such as students/staff/professors/emeriti (Silverstein et al., 2019). The gerontology faculty leading these initiatives are a part of the Gerontological Society of America, both with designated Fellow status. My reading component will consist of articles from the Dropbox folder provided by Dr. Gautam. I will be doing a brief literature review on these articles (Honors Student Learning Outcome #3). My written component will be the manuscript I will write. For my presentation component, I will be presenting with the Honors College and will consider an abstract submission to the Gerontological Society of America/Mass Gerontology Association (Honors Student Learning Outcome #4). | |
| Gonzales, Joseph | Psychology | I will be helping to test a Factored Dynamic model, write-up papers using existing data sets, and learning about the application of advanced quantitative modeling methods for the social and behavioral sciences. | |
| Hajian, Rozhin | Mechanical Engineering | For this fellowship, we will be researching the silent flight characteristics of owl wings. Specifically, we will be trying to understand the noise reduction caused by porosity in their wings. To do this, we will be applying various porosity distributions to a model airfoil. The project will include a theoretical and experimental component. The theoretical component will involve finding the ideal distribution of porosity on the wing in order to balance noise reduction and lift. The experimental component will involve testing these distributions using 3D printed models in a wind tunnel. The results of the experiment will then be used to inform future theory. | |
| Jing, Guangming | Mathematics & Statistics | Edge coloring and edge packing could be considered partitions of the edges of a graph under certain restrictions. For example, a proper edge coloring partitions the edges into sets such that no two edges in the same set share a common endpoint, while an edge cover packing partitions the edges into sets such that the edges in each set cover all the vertices. Optimal or near-optimal solutions to these problems have important applications in network, communication, scheduling, and other optimization problems. During this project, students will gain research experience in developing and coding cutting-edge, efficient algorithms for graph edge coloring and packing. This experience can lead to a deeper understanding of both algorithmic complexities and discrete optimization. The goal is to produce work that can potentially lead to journal or conference publications. | |
| Johnson, William | Finance | The fellowship would consist of a proof of concept for a potential class Professor Johnson had wanted to create for UML called Blockchain Analytics. The fellowship would consist of me investigating the concept and ideas around and or the creation of a mappable program to track cryptocurrencies to see if it would be possible to create a full class around it. The purpose of the class would be to teach students how to code a program that tracks/maps decentralized securities through the use of decentralized global ledgers API's and full stack coding. The class objective would basically be for the students to learn how to create a program from scratch that can track, and or visualize (map) the movements and or uses of decentralized currencies, Tokens, and or even smart contracts that are on the blockchain. Both Professor Johnson and I are currently uncertain of what level of class it would be taken as (2000,3000, 4000 or even graduate class level), How long a class would be needed, or what prerequisites, at all, may be required if the class were to be created. So far we have a basic outline for how the class may be structured and how this fellowship may be split up work wise: The first half of the class: Introduction to coding: Roughly 3 programming Assignments: For the students to learn the basics of the coding languages that they’ll need to use in order to create the mapping program. Data interaction: 2 Assignments: After the students are familiar with the 3+ languages that will be required they will then start getting familiar with the implementation of them for the use of interacting with the blockchains global ledger and collecting data from it. Data Analysis: 3 Assignments: This portion of the class would be identifying and categorizing different types of common data (wallet and decentralized securities) interactions/structure and what they mean within the data of the global ledger. Basically the student would learn how to analyze the data of the blockchain. Second half of the class: Illegal use bitcoin Wallets: 1 Assignment This part of the class would give the student a list of wallets containing Bitcoin from various sources and require the students to apply what they’ve learnt about the basics of coding to pull data from the blockchains global ledger on those wallets and then use the analysis techniques they’ve learnt to identify which wallet if any is being used for suspicious activity. Basically find a wallet that is being used for theoretical nefarious purposes based on the analysis of the transaction history and coins within that wallet. Ethereum: 1 Assignment Almost the same as the “illegal bitcoin wallets.” But this would teach students about the Ethereum blockchain and the distinctions between it and the bitcoin blockchain. Students will be given a list of wallets that are under investigation for an exchange hack. Where “X” amount of coins have been stolen. Students will then use that they’ve learnt about the use of pulling, sorting, and analyzing data to track down and map the transactions and wallets the “dirty tokens” have interacted with in effort to relocate them and find the dirty wallets they reside in. Smartcontracts: 1 Assignment If needed the student can be given an additional assignment/ part of the class where they can build on what they’ve learnt about the ethereum network. Instead of just track and map Ethereum tokens on the blockchain. They would do a deep dive into the intricacies of smart contracts residing on the ethereum network and how they could go about tracking and mapping these as well. The reason for the uncertainty is due to the nature of the assignment. I will first have to investigate the concepts around this and then apply them in effort to see if this is even possible. If feasible for class, I will then try to create a program that will track and map transactions of bitcoin, Ethereum, ect to see. How hard for students this would be and in addition how long it would take, what the required skills, background knowledge, or courses would be required for students to have success in completing this course is created. The real purpose of the creation of the algorithm is so that I may design the class in a more efficient manner, basically backtracking all the most useful things I had to learn in order to complete the program and analysis of the given blockchain network. | |
| Kao, Pei-Chun | Physical Therapy & Kinesiology | For this fellowship, I will be conducting a literature review on current research examining how varying longitudinal bending stiffness levels of the shoe inserts impact gait kinematics. Changes in center of pressure, velocity, joint torque, shock absorption, and force production across varying stiffness levels across different walking/running speeds will be compared between studies. The equipment used and experimental setup explained in each article will also be examined and compared in order to determine commonalities among successful data collection methods. This literature review will provide background information for my honors thesis to aid in developing the experimental setup for data collection and expand my knowledge on current research on this subject. | |
| Konow, Nicolai | Biological Sciences | Anatomy of animals and people is the one thing that interests me the most. As of now I have one major goal I want to accomplish, becoming a surgeon. I want to be able to look at people, whether through X-Rays, blood tests, MRI’s, CT’s, and more, and figure out what is wrong with them and what I can do to help them. This project, even though the subjects are lungfish, will bring me one step closer to that goal. I will be able to learn how to read X-Rays and understand the movements of vertebrates due to how I will be studying lungfish. The project that I will be undertaking is examining the jaw and tongue movements of lungfish, determining how they chew and transport their food. I will be doing this by capturing X-Ray videos of the lungfish chewing and transporting their food. After capturing several trials for each specimen (N = 4), I will digitize 3D movements of implanted markers in XMAlab (Knörlein). This program is where I will be able to analyze my data and determine how the jaw and tongue moves when the lungfish are chewing and swallowing. Based on prior data collected by the Konow lab, I will be comparing my data to data about the evolution of food processing across the water-to-land transition. Did you know that lungfish can survive on land for varying amounts of time? The jaw and tongue movements are important to look at because lungfish have a unique way of chewing food when compared to other vertebrates. Not only that, but they have evolved to chew on land just like humans, which makes them fascinating study subjects. The overall goal of the Konow lab is to learn and expand our understanding of the terrestrialization of amphibians. Humans are an offshoot of this evolutionary progression. Completing this fellowship will teach me how to obtain quantitative data from X-Rays and I will learn about fundamental things such as the anatomy and biomechanics of aquatic feeding vertebrates. My intent with this fellowship would be to publish a paper that explains the way lungfish chew and transport their food and back and forth in their mouth cavity. This research requires a good deal of knowledge on muscles, joints, and bones. So, I plan on reading an article every week to help me get a deeper and better understanding of the anatomy of lungfish. That way, when the time comes, I will be able to publish an in-depth paper that dives deep into the chewing and transportation of lungfish’s food. Knörlein, B. J., Baier, D. B., Gatesy, S. M., Laurence-Chasen, J. D., & Brainerd, E. L. (2016). Validation of XMALab software for marker-based XROMM. Journal of Experimental Biology, 219(23), 3701-3711. | |
| Konow, Nicolai | Biological Sciences | One of the essential relationships for understanding a muscle’s ability to move the skeletons, the Force Velocity relationship. Traditionally, measuring this relationship for a given muscle of the body’s motion systems requires a prohibitively expensive instrument (Aurora Scientific’s 300C: Dual-Mode Muscle Lever). I will be designing and creating an experimental apparatus that utilizes commonplace materials and simple manufacturing. My apparatus will then be validated against the Dual-Mode Muscle Lever as a course module in Dr. Konow’s Biology of Muscle course. My design can then allow classrooms worldwide easy and cost-effective access to a valuable muscle physiological experiment. Along with the mechanical design, I will develop a program (either in python or IgorPro) for students to easily record and visualize the data they extract from the apparatus (which typically involve data volumes too large for Excel to handle). | |
| Kronrod, Ann | Mktg Entr & Innovation | We can learn a lot from a systematic analysis of language in business and social settings, such as customer complaint sites, advertising or social network posts. Research of the words used in these settings has proven to be insightful, providing first-hand knowledge about people’s emotions, attitudes, behaviors, decisions, intentions, and hidden motivations. Text analysis is used today in business, marketing, political science, and consumer behavior research. The project will focus on the question – what can we learn about business and people by analyzing what they say? For example, how does a fake review differ from a real review, judging only by its language? The prospect student will be able to find and read previous works that show how to analyze text in an insightful way. Students interested in experimental aspects of research will be able to take part in planning, designing and executing studies or surveys, manipulating emotions and attitudes to learn about the way these changes influence thought and language people use to achieve their goals. Students who prefer a more computational approach will be able to apply their coding abilities, to conduct text analysis depending on their level of interest and skill, and to implement it to analyze large datasets, such as Amazon reviews, health forum posts, or Twitter data. | |
| Kronrod, Ann | Mktg Entr & Innovation | For "Language and Its Effects on Business and Society," I will be researching identity. Specifically, I'll be investigating literature about what influences or helps us construct our identity. Then, I'll be conducting a study that tests if people are better able to formulate their own identities through reviewing a list of words & expressions that pertain to identity. The reason I'm interested in researching this topic & conducting this study is because my thesis is that quotes with certain types of language play a valuable part in helping us define our identities. I have interest specifically in potentially creating an app that addresses the topic of identity issues and moral issues through utilizing famous quotes and expressions from people of influence. Finding this fellowship sounds like a great opportunity to better develop the idea for this project! | |
| Kronrod, Ann | Mktg Entr & Innovation | This fellowship will focus on how to get society to understand the importance of utilizing the time they have to start investing in their future as well as providing assistance in testing an app designed to improve sleep habits. To complete the necessary research, we will collaborate with non-profits and workers to communicate about their health and retirement planning activities. I will be helping by researching specific financial institutions, writing and sending out emails, and collecting and analyzing data. | |
| Lee, Seungeun | Schl of Crimin & Justice Stud | Over the summer of 2024, I worked with Professor Claire Lee on the prevalence of cybercrime in the 21st century, specifically in the different methods of deception used to exploit users of digital currencies. I helped Professor Lee with data collection by web-scraping data using the PRAW API for Reddit and the ChainAbuse API. Expanding off of the work we did over the summer, Professor Lee and I hope to explore these research questions: This project explores the following research questions: What are the most common types of cryptocurrency fraud as reported by victims? How do the experiences of cryptocurrency fraud victims differ across various types of fraud (e.g., phishing, Ponzi schemes, ICO scams)? What patterns can be identified in the prosecution and sentencing of cryptocurrency fraud cases? What challenges do law enforcement and judicial systems face when dealing with cryptocurrency fraud cases? Through further data scraping from online forums and cybercrime report sites, we hope to find an answer to this question. I am pursuing this topic because I am big on working in computer science for social impact. Whether it be developing software solutions for developing regions or helping users stay safe on the internet through online safety programs, I strive to create a difference in the world through computer science. By researching this topic, I hope to educate myself and other people on the hazards that cryptocurrency scammers pose to society and provide potential solutions to recognize these scams. | |
| Lee, Teresa | Biological Sciences | I will be looking at a specific mutation in the let-418 gene. The LET-418 protein is a part of complex called NuRD (nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase) that is involved with regulating chromatin, which is important for turning gene expression on or off. The allele I will be looking for was originally found in the human homolog of the gene, which affected neurodevelopment of the patient. In C. elegans, I will be looking at the mutation’s effect on fertility by counting the total progeny of the worms in comparison to other alleles that I will know what the outcome should be. I will also be assessing other developmental phenotypes, like embryonic lethality, germline development, and developmental timing. | |
| Lee, Teresa | Biological Sciences | I will be working under Dr. Teresa Lee in the department of Biological Sciences on a project that is a continuation of previous work in her lab. LET-418 is a protein in the NuRD nucleosome remodeling complex, which is an important part of repairing DNA damage. CHD4 is the human homolog of let-418. Mutations have been identified from human patients for neurodevelopmental disorder and endometrial cancer, and the lab has engineered these mutations in LET-418. The lab has shown these mutations in LET-418 affect progeny production, in part because DNA damage accumulates and damages eggs. I will examine progeny size assays using different mutations in LET-418 to better understand its role in the germline. I will also examine whether there are effects on embryonic development or survival. | |
| Mendes Fakhoury, Renato | Political Science | I am looking for a student to help me in analyzing the relationship between national slogans and the way in which political administrations govern. Since the times of military dictatorship in the 1960s-1980s, Brazil has had several national slogans associated with different administrations. Some famous examples here include “Brazil: Love it or Leave it”, used during the Medici government in the military dictatorship; “Beloved Homeland Brazil”, by Jair Bolsonaro; and the current “Union and Reconstruction”, by Lula. But what can those slogans tell us about the challenges, anxieties, and opportunities different administrations saw ahead in their campaigns? And moreover, how did those slogans guide policymaking? The student would help me in gathering and analyzing data about slogans and policies put forth by certain presidential administrations in Brazil. For that reason, some previous knowledge of Portuguese is preferred, but not required. | |
| Mendes Fakhoury, Renato | Political Science | I am looking for a student to help me in analyzing the relationship between national slogans and the way in which political administrations govern. Since the times of military dictatorship in the 1960s-1980s, Brazil has had several national slogans associated with different administrations. Some famous examples here include “Brazil: Love it or Leave it”, used during the Medici government in the military dictatorship; “Beloved Homeland Brazil”, by Jair Bolsonaro; and the current “Union and Reconstruction”, by Lula. But what can those slogans tell us about the challenges, anxieties, and opportunities different administrations saw ahead in their campaigns? And moreover, how did those slogans guide policymaking? The student would help me in gathering and analyzing data about slogans and policies put forth by certain presidential administrations in Brazil. For that reason, some previous knowledge of Portuguese is preferred, but not required. | |
| Mendes Fakhoury, Renato | Political Science | We are searching for a student to help us gather and analyze data for a project focusing on Russian narratives of expansionism. Much literature on Russian foreign policy since the mid-2000s has characterized the expansionist nature of Russian behavior as part of Russia’s re-emergence from a post-Cold War slumber. However, Russian understandings of foreign policy are often based on identity constructed through space. In other words, Russia’s sense of self is based on the need for space and geography – a counterintuitive thought if we consider Russia is the largest country in the world! Rather than claiming that such an identity begins only post-Cold War, we argue that such a conception began as early as the Appanage era (860-1689) and can be traced across Imperial Russia (1689-1916), Soviet-era Russia (1917-1991), through today. This has serious implications for how we can understand how Russia narrates war, conflict, and future policy engagements – as seen more recently in the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the Russo-Georgian war of 2008. This project would be a great fit to any student interested in learning more about international relations, the history of Russia, and the standing of Russia in current (and past) international developments. | |
| Miadich, Samantha | Psychology | While there has been prior research linking sleep issues and asthma or lung function in children, actigraphy methods have only recently been applied in studies including children and adolescents (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2015; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2017; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2019; Martin et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2015; Meltzer et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2009). Furthermore, a substantial portion of the research using actigraphy methods has focused on 1)examining sleep among children and adolescents who already have an asthma diagnosis or 2) the adolescent age range (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2015; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2015; Meltzer et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2009). Few studies have examined the associations between lung function and actigraphy-assessed sleep in children with and without asthma. The goal of the study that I will be working on is to examine daily lung function and sleep associations with objective assessments among a community-based sample of children. In addition, weight-related health and positive caregiver attributes will be examined as moderators of these associations. For the Honors College Fellowship, I will be working on the Health Advancement and Wellbeing in Kids (HAWK) study in the Health Advancement and Resilience in Pediatrics (HARP) lab led by Dr.Miadich. Specifically, I intend to advance my knowledge on the associations between screen use (assessed in daily diaries) and sleep health in school-aged kids. This is important to understand because it contributes to the child’s healthy development. Sleep is essential for everyone but among children, sleep may contribute to their ability to develop certain skills, advance their cognitive ability, and build social skills. One task I will be working on through this fellowship is assisting with the actigraphy assessments including working on the software used to set up the watches and clean data. I will be assisting with all study procedures including participant recruitment and data collection and training families who are participating in the research study on how to use the spirometer and actigraph watch. I am a junior Biology major and Spanish minor on the pre-med track and I am interested in this project because it will better allow me to understand the effects of chronic conditions including sleep, asthma, and weight-related health, and how these health concerns affect a child’s lifestyle. I will also learn how to incorporate preventative actions by improving certain habits to reduce the effects of pediatric chronic health problems. This project will help me with my future career goals, by allowing me to advance my knowledge of how to interpret statistical data, relate the data to the condition being studied, and think about how to design prevention and intervention efforts to promote good health outcomes among children. To fulfill the portion of the fellowship I will participate in various writing assignments related to the study and lab. This may include editing protocols and writing study codebook entries. In addition, I will write a reflection describing my experience while working on this project, pinpointing what I learned, and explaining how this project will be useful as I continue to pursue a higher educational degree and how it will contribute to my future career. I will also complete the 15-minute presentation in person to the Honors College Community. I anticipate this fellowship to address the following Honors College learning outcome, “ Research, interpret, and evaluate information through critical reading” to demonstrate an understanding of the skills and dispositions needed for lifelong, self-directed learning: initiative, independence, transfer, reflection, and curiosity. It will also allow me to advance my skills in collaborating with peers and mentors from a variety of disciplines and communities to effectively contribute to the main objective of the research, aligning with another one of the Honors College learning outcomes. | |
| Miadich, Samantha | Psychology | Sleep difficulties and asthma or lung function among children have been associated in literature but the use of actigraphy methods have only recently been used in studies among children and adolescents (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2015; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2017; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2019; Martin et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2015; Meltzer et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2009). A large amount of research using actigraphy methods has focused on 1) examining sleep among children and adolescents who already have an asthma diagnosis or 2) the adolescent age range (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2015; Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2015; Meltzer et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2009). Only a few studies have examined associations between lung function and actigraphy assessed sleep in both children with and without asthma (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2019; Martin et al., 2017). In addition, few studies in this body of work investigate day-to-day associations among sleep and lung function (Koinis-Mitchell et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2020). The student will be working on a study examining associations between sleep, lung function, and weight-related health among a community-based sample of children with and without asthma. One aspect of this study the student will focus on is using multiple assessments to account for weight-related health (BMI, body fat percentage, and waist circumference). For the Honors Fellowship I will be working in in the Health Advancement and Resilience in Pediatrics (HARP) lab led by Dr. Miadich, specifically on the Health Advancement and Wellbeing in Kids (HAWK) Study and assisting on the Caregiver Alliance with Providers Enhancing Child Health (CAPE-CH) Study as needed. I will be helping with all aspects of the study including but not limited to participant recruitment, data collection, device training and management, data entry and cleaning, and reviewing and editing protocols. I am pursuing this topic due to my interest in pediatric health in relation to a broader community context. I am a rising junior majoring in biomedical sciences with a minor in psychology. I currently partake in a variety of child-based volunteerism activities (yoga teacher, therapeutic animal therapy, homeless shelter activities with young children); therefore, I have developed a deep passion for learning about the various mechanisms behind pediatric health. With my minor in psychology, I am intrigued by the psychological aspects of understanding sleep and lung function and moderating roles of weight related health and positive parent attributes. In addition, partaking in this lab during the Spring 2024 semester has further increased my desire to delve deeper into this research through an honors fellowship. As an aspiring pediatric dentist, I hope to one day work with young patients and help to contribute to overall well-being and health promotion. | |
| Moore, Jeffrey | Biological Sciences | Cardiomyopathies affect nearly 1 in 500 individuals and often remain undiagnosed until sudden cardiac death. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a form of genetic cardiomyopathy in which the heart muscle is abnormally thick, is associated with mutations in the thin filament (TF) proteins of sarcomeres in cardiac muscle. Heart muscle contraction-relaxation cycles of the heartbeat are controlled by changes in calcium concentrations sensed by the TF, which consists of actin, tropomyosin (Tpm), and troponin (Tn). In the absence of calcium Tpm-Tn interactions in the B-state block myosin proteins from binding to actin, causing muscle relaxation while the presence of calcium exposes binding sites and promotes muscle contractions, called the C-state. Mutations in TF proteins linked to HCM tend to decrease the population of B-state TFs, leading to increased calcium sensitivity. Our preliminary data suggests D100 and K128 of Tpm are key stabilizing residues for B-state interactions with actin and Tn, respectively. These, so-called variants of unknown significance, have been associated with disease but it is not known if they are disease-causing mutations. I will test that mutations to these residues (D100N and K128N) will destabilize the B-state and increase calcium sensitivity. I will assess Tpm-actin affinity using co-sedimentation assays and assess calcium sensitivity using in vitro motility assays. These studies will provide key knowledge for mechanistic interpretation and prediction of known thin filament mutations linked to HCM. | |
| Ross, Michael | Chemistry | This project will focus on how biomolecules, specifically intrinsically disordered proteins, interact with gold nanoparticles in certain environments, such as various pH levels. Synthesizing gold nanoparticles and protein-nanoparticle conjugates will be a part of the process, as well as utilizing spectroscopic instrumentation. At weekly group meetings with other students, there will be opportunities to present research updates or literature. I am pursuing this topic because I am interested in switching from a general chemistry major to biochemistry. I think this research is interesting and has a very promising future in the biochemistry or medical field. | |
| Ross, Michael | Chemistry | I will be synthesizing gold or silver nanoparticles with tin and POEGA polymer to observe the thermal properties of these mixtures when applied on textiles. The percentages of the tin and polymer, as well as the time under our heat source, will be varied to determine optimal heat absorbance. The main objective of this project is to supply soldiers with temperature-resilient fabric in order to support them in arctic conditions. I am pursuing this topic because it involves understanding how different transition metals react to one another and how their properties change as they are mixed. It will also be interesting for me to learn more about POEGA and its role in the synthesis, as well as learning about polymers as a whole. I have not learned much about polymer science yet, thus this will be a great learning opportunity for me. In addition to the academic aspect, I think it is very gratifying to see a very clear end goal with my research. There are so many different directions that I can already think of taking this project and I am very excited to begin. | |
| Ross, Michael | Chemistry | I am currently working on a project, observing the growth of Au-Bi nanoparticles over a period of 24 hours. There are three shapes being monitored, concave tetrahedra, star tetrahedra, and concave star tetrahedra. I will be synthesizing these nanoparticles, using a time-stop method and analyzing them by UV-visible spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, I will be keeping an eye out for any odd shapes that appear during the synthesis and imaging those for possible future research. | |
| Socia, Kelly | Schl of Crimin & Justice Stud | About half of the states have legalized recreational marijuana (RM), typically via ballot initiatives rather than legislative action, and other states are considering similar measures. The New Hampshire (NH) legislature came extremely close to legalizing RM in 2024 and will certainly try again in 2025. Thus, NH may become the first Republican-controlled state to ever legalize RM through rare bipartisan legislative action rather than direct democracy. This provides a timely and unique opportunity to better understand how policymakers and key stakeholders navigate the complex political environment surrounding RM legislation in its middle diffusion stage, when not all states have adopted these policies. While many issues exhibit extreme political polarization among both policymakers and the public (e.g., gun control legislation), RM legalization in NH is unique in that it has overwhelming support among the public and policymakers that crosses party lines and legislative chambers. Yet even among RM’s supporters, distinct policy disagreements have emerged between the NH House, Senate, and Governor, with many competing stakeholders seeking to influence this issue. Much of the prior research on marijuana policymaking has focused on medical marijuana (MM), and precious little is known about the policy dynamics of RM. This study capitalizes on this opportunity to better understand the current state of recreational marijuana legislation in the U.S. through a detailed case study of NH’s recent and current legislative efforts. To that end, the overall goal is to produce a nuanced understanding of legislative processes surrounding recreational marijuana in NH, through the lens of Kingdon’s (2003) Multiple Streams Framework (MSF). The part of the study specific to the Honors Fellowship project will involve an analysis of public rhetoric by NH state legislators and other stakeholders regarding RM legalization in NH between 2015 (before NH became surrounded by RM states) and early 2025. The project would run two semesters, starting spring 2025 and ending fall 2025. The data for this component comes from two main sources: a) public media, including news stories, op-eds, and press releases, and b) NH legislative transcripts. The data will be saved and imported into NVivo as OCR-readable PDFs or text files, and then qualitatively coded by the honors student and Dr. Socia. This research will answer the following questions: 1. How has NH legislators’ and other stakeholders’ rhetoric about RM changed in the last decade? 2. What are the primary factors influencing NH legislators' and other stakeholders’ attitudes towards the legalization of RM in New Hampshire, and how have these changed over time? | |
| Son, Seung | Electrical & Computer Eng | Recent years have witnessed a growing adaptation of time-series data in various applications as modern time-series databases (TSDB), such as Prometheus or InfluxDB, provide an efficient and scalable mechanism to collect and storage data from various sources. In this project, the student will have an opportunity to evaluate various storage modes available, such as retention time and size, compression, erasure coding, local or remote storage, etc., in state-of-the-art TSDBs and analyze the impact of each optimization parameters on performance and other relevant evaluation metrics. The specific workloads to evaluate includes the hardware performance monitoring counters with a certain application, like sparse matrix-vector operations. The student will utilize the cloud platform to implement the scope of the project. | |
| Steinel, Natalie | Biological Sciences | For my honors fellowship, I will continue my research from the summer Immersive Scholars Program in the Steinel Lab, during which I developed tools and approaches to study behavioral fever in threespine stickleback fish. Behavioral fever is an immune response that occurs in some ectotherms as they fight infection. As a result, they move to areas of higher temperatures, which allows them to internally increase their temperature. Previous studies in other fish species have seen this response increase ectotherm’s pathogen-killing mechanisms, like upregulation of anti-viral gene expression, which improves their chance of survival. No prior research has shown this response occur in species infected with parasites, just bacterial or viral infections. My ultimate goal, using stickleback as my model organism, is to study whether the parasite Schistocephalus solidus cant induce behavioral fever. This will give us more insight how parasites alter host behavior as well as other host-pathogen responses. No previous research of this subject has been conducted in our lab so I am very excited to be piloting the research. In order to conduct the research, it is first necessary to build a thermal gradient tank, which i helped design and test this summer. With the help of the Fellowship, I will finish constructing the tank and begin pilot testing on the fish using infection mimics. The tank will consist of 5 temperature zones, with a chiller and heating system on the extreme ends being responsible for creating a thermal gradient. Theoretical logistics of the tank have been completed; the next stage will include tank construction and gradient testing. Once complete, the experimental testing will begin. We will test a variety of immune stimulants, including double-stranded RNA, lipopolysaccharide, and beta-glucan. We will compare fish treated with immune stimulants to control fish. After 24 hours, they will be individually placed in the thermal gradient tank and their movements will be tracked for 2 hours. Two GoPro cameras will be set up, one aerially and one horizontally. Recordings will be taken to see how stickleback move through each zone, with grid paper along the bottom of the tank used as a scale. Afterwards, the movements will be analyzed and the stickleback’s temperature preference in the thermal gradient tank will be noted, from before, during and after injection. From these preliminary results, we will assess whether stickleback experience a behavioral fever response with immune stimulants. These pilot experiments will develop the tools and techniques necessary, for us to test next whether the behavioral fever response will occur with stickleback infected with parasites. | |
| Steinel, Natalie | Biological Sciences | For my Honors fellowship I will continue a project I started during the summer Immersive Scholars Program. This project investigates the immune system of the threespine stickleback fish, focusing specifically on the melanomacrophage centers (MMCs) that are located in the spleen. MMCs are aggregates of pigmented phagocytes that are thought to participate in the vertebrate immune response to infection. Immune systems can vary from fish to fish or human to human. That being said, this variability can be greater across geographic spaces because of numerous differing factors. These factors can be genetics, the environment, pathogens, diet, etc., but since there are so many factors within a geographical region, it can be difficult to pinpoint which one(s) are impacting immunological variation. However, to try and characterize and understand the drivers of immunological variation, the Steinel Lab is studying threespine stickleback within eight geographically distinct lakes in Alaska. I hypothesize that MMCs will vary in and across these populations due to these contributing factors. To test this hypothesis I will be studying and comparing the MMCs within and across the different spleen samples. Specifically, for each fish, I will be cryosectioning, staining/fixing, taking pictures of, and analyzing the spleen samples of stickleback from the different Alaskan lakes. During my Immersive Scholars Program I had already sectioned and stained/fixed most of the samples. For my fellowship I will wrap up this project by finishing sectioning the remaining spleen samples with a cryostat. I will then stain and fix the sections to identify the structure of the spleen and MMCs. Next, I will take clear magnified images of the stained and fixed spleens and their MMCs with a microscope. Lastly, I will analyze those images with a software to see how many MMCs there are, how much surface area they take up, and what their average size is and compare this data across and within the lakes. During my summer in the Steinel Lab I became proficient in these techniques. With this fellowship I not only want to continue honing my laboratory skills, but I also want to be able to bring a successful conclusion to this project I had begun. This data will contribute to a manuscript studying immunity in these populations and I will be an author on this publication. | |
| Steinel, Natalie | Biological Sciences | Parasites affect their host’s immune system and can impair their ability to fight off infections. In mammals it has been observed that parasites (specifically helminths) can co-opt normal host regulatory pathways. One way this can occur is through the induction of anti-inflammatory cytokines. This allows parasites to suppress the host’s immune system, thereby increasing their host’s susceptibility and severity of co-infections. We have extensive knowledge of cytokines and their role within the mammalian immune system, but their expression and role in parasite-mediated immunomodulation has yet to be explored in fish species. To address this question, the cytokine profiles of infected and uninfected threespine stickleback will be explored. Within stickleback (and humans) there are soluble proteins, known as cytokines, that aid in controlling the inflammation within the body: Interleukin-17 (IL-17) and Interleukin-10 (IL-10). Interleukin-17 promotes inflammation within the body. This is important for the defense against pathogens such as bacteria and fungi present to harm the body. Conversely, Interleukin-10 promotes an anti-inflammatory cytokine which promotes the repair of damaged tissues after an infection. From work in mice and humans, we know that helminths can use this to their advantage, as they can induce the production of IL-10, thereby downregulating the host’s immunological response, allowing parasites to persist and reproduce. However, this leads to our central research question - “How does helminthiasis affect the cytokine profiles of stickleback?”. We found that the tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus can manipulate stickleback host immunity, including suppressing Melanomacrophage centers (MMCs) and B cells. My previous work in the lab examined how parasites suppress the immunological response of their host. This was done by characterizing melanomacrophage centers (MMCs) within the splenic tissues of stickleback using fluorescence microscopy and then quantifying the data. My proposed work will expand on this study and assess parasite-mediated changes in cytokine expression. Based on previous work in mice and humans, I hypothesize that infection with the tapeworm S. solidus will lead to an increase in the number of IL-10+ cells, compared to uninfected fish. To test this hypothesis and expand our limited knowledge of stickleback cytokine profiles, I will start by conducting an antibody test called immunofluorescence. Immunofluorescence is used to detect and tag antigens within tissues with fluorescent dye called fluorophores, causing them to fluoresce allowing for easier quantification of IL-10+ cells. For the procedure, three groups of stickleback: infected with S. solidus, exposed to but uninfected and unexposed (control) will be used. Then, I will cryosection the spleens, followed by staining the slides with IL-10 antibodies. After staining the slides, they will be imaged using fluorescent microscopy. Finally, using ImageJ, the fluorescent images will be analyzed in order to quantify the number of IL-10+ cells found in each sample. If we detect significant changes in IL-10 levels, the next step will be to see if there is a correlation between IL-10 and other immune pathways that we know are suppressed in infected stickleback like MMCs and B cells. Additionally, moving on to possibly investigate the levels/expression of IL-10 in other populations of stickleback can be done. We have previously found that different populations of stickleback do not experience the same MMC suppression with parasitic infections, therefore seeing if IL-10 is differentially expressed between fish populations would be interesting to observe. Finally, if we do find that IL-10 levels change with infection, it may be interesting to investigate IL-10 expression in other tissues such as the head kidney, gills, and even intestines. | |
| Steinel, Natalie | Biological Sciences | Mucous is an important barrier in the prevention of infection, as it protects mucous membranes such as areas in the lining of the gastrointestinal tubes, sinuses, and in fish; the gills. The viscosity, content and thickness of the mucosal layers can be important factors in preventing pathogens from invading the host mucosal barriers. Intestinal mucous is a physical barrier with thick gelatinous lower layers and slippery upper layers. To successfully invade the host, parasites must penetrate both of these barriers. In addition to serving as a physical barrier, mucous also has chemical properties that make it a good defense against pathogens and parasites. Antimicrobial peptides and secreted immunoglobulins are both present in mucous that have the ability to chemically degrade and/or block pathogens. Both of these mucosal functions contribute to preventing parasite infection in mammals, but as of now, we have little insight into what role the intestinal mucous membrane plays in preventing parasite infections in fish. To determine the role of mucous in fish parasite infections, we will study the threespine stickleback fish. Sticklebacks are relatively small fish that live about two years on average. They are a good choice for this study because they have short, relatively simple digestive tracts that are easy to assess. We know that stickleback become infected with a species of tapeworm known as Schistocephalus solidus by eating infected crustaceans. Infection with S. Solidus occurs in the stomach and or upper intestine, however, worms spend very little time in the digestive tract of these fish and quickly penetrate the intestinal wall and reside in the body cavity of the fish. S. solidus susceptibility varies substantially among different stickleback populations, which we suspect may be due to differences in the intestinal mucosal barrier. Variation in intestinal mucus is likely due to a combination of genetics and immune phenotypes. My project will be the first to investigate the stickleback intestinal mucous layer and the role it plays in S. solidus infection. I hypothesize that elevated intestinal mucous and/or mucous producing cells will be associated with lower S. solidus infection rates. To test this hypothesis, I will first need to develop the skills and methods needed to carry out the research. Through this fellowship, I will learn intestine dissection, cryostat sectioning, microscopy, and image analysis software. I will also determine which stains will work best to stain both the mucosal layers and mucous-producing goblet cells. Some of the stains in mind are PAS, Alcian blue, and lectins. I will develop quantitative methods to compare mucus and mucous-producing cells. This research experience will extend beyond this honors fellowship, and will be the foundation for an honors thesis in the 2024-2025 academic year. A potential future direction for this honors thesis is to compare mucosal membranes between different stickleback populations. These populations may include individuals from different freshwater lakes, or be comparisons between freshwater and marine stickleback populations. This experience will meet all six of the honors college student learning outcomes, and Furthermore, this experience will give me skills for future work as a grad student, or for industry work. The technical, disciplinary, and applied skills learned from this experience will really help me move forward in research, school, and ultimately help meet the goal of a career in biological research. | |
| Wu, Yi | Physical Therapy & Kinesiology | For this fellowship, I plan on exploring the impact of visual occlusion on movement and its relation to Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) suits. To start my research, I will read the articles provided by my mentor, Dr. Yi-Ning Wu and expand my knowledge by conducting literature search on current research relating to the impact of visual occlusion on movement while wearing helmets such as EOD suits. This past summer, I worked with Dr. Wu to research the impact of occlusion on movement, as the helmets in EOD suits have been shown to reduce a person’s visual field. I would like to dive deeper into the impact on visual occlusion from EOD suits and its impact on movement. At the end of the fellowship, I will compile and present my research through a podium presentation. | |
| Xie, Dongming | Chemical Engineering | Dr. Dongming Xie’s lab (BioSEL: Biomanufacturing Science & Engineering Lab, https://sites.uml.edu/dongming-xie/research/) from the department of chemical engineering is looking for a part-time undergraduate research assistant for the 2024/2025 academic year. The research projects are biomanufacturing of high-value chemicals, materials, and pharmaceuticals from waste materials such as waste oils/fats and plastics. The students will have the chance to work together with PhD graduate students for experiments in microbial cell culture and fermentation, gene edit and cellular engineering, bioprocess engineering, and product analysis via gas chromatograph (GC). This position is also supported by the Casella/Honors Sustainability Fellowship. Students who are currently in the honors college and have background and experience in chemical engineering, biology, and chemistry are encouraged to apply. For application, please send your resume/CV along with a cover letter with a brief introduction of yourself and your past research/working experience to Dr. Dongming Xie (Dongming_Xie@uml.edu). The position will be open until it is filled with a qualified candidate. | |
| Yan, Mingdi | Chemistry | The fellowship project will explore cycloaddition click-reactions with electrophilic azides (PFAA) and conjugated aldehydes. It will involve exploring different reaction conditions, reagent scope, and characterization of the synthesized product using spectroscopy. Base and amine catalyzed reactions with conjugated aldehydes will first be explored, while Michael reagents are a subject for possible future testing. This project will be a continuation of my senior thesis topic during the summer break. | |
| Zabalbeascoa, Julian | Honors College | I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be in a position like this. These opportunities are critical because it allows us students to network with the other students and develop our skills that we will retain in the real world. That’s why I think I am best suited to help advance the prominence of the newsletter in terms of publicity, but also in more effectively engaging people with the actions of the honors college and all governing bodies around them, that influence their day to day lives. I chose to be a Political Science major with a concentration in Political Communication and Public Opinion because I was flustered with the reactive nature that society harnessed. Particularly, towards forms of media. Media plays a pivotal role in connecting people with the activities in their community, which is why I have strived to bring joy back to our local press, by wielding the influence for good, not offbeat stories. Whether it be working as a community volunteer for local environmental organizations and than connecting the head with state representatives in my district, collaborating with Downtown Framingham Inc. as the Vice Chair of the Framingham Youth City Council to introduce industry to non-vocational high school students (particularly the unions), to representing SkillsUSA Massachusetts, the second largest state membership of 38,000 students in CTE programs across the commonwealth, where I regularly represented them as the Student Ambassador to the Board of Directors and the State Executive Parliamentarian. I did things like discuss policy changes with Secretary of Labor Julie Su and her policy team, to make vocational students more productive on the worksite in Cooperative education opportunities, while also advocating for the continued passage of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s and Congressman Stephen Lynch’s policy staff, and with Congressman Jim McGovern himself. I know this is more than the word requirement, but I say this all to reiterate that I am not going to treat this as any old job. A passion of mine is utilizing systems that have potential to be better. Influencing people to get involved, to use the resources available to them, and to advocate for those resources to be equal and accessible to all. I’m ready to get started, and make an impact on UMass Lowell. | |
| Zabalbeascoa, Julian | Honors College | This fellowship allows me the opportunity to work alongside Mr. Zabalbeascoa to create the Honors College's monthly newsletter: Honorable Mentions. The newsletter will go out to all honors students, along with those on the friends and families mailing list. The newsletter will cover many of the ecent events within the Honors College over the past month, along with highlighting those on the horizon in order to well-inform the honors students of current and future events. |