STUDENT RESEARCH SHOWCASE 2020 PRESENTATIONS

Human Behavioral and Social Sciences

Submit

The impact of personality, interpersonal, and other psychological factors on salivary cortisol during a stressful laboratory task
Kylee Amos, University of Idaho

The body’s physiological response to a stressful event is influenced by a myriad of factors. This study aimed to analyze the personality, interpersonal, and emotional/psychological traits which contribute to stress reactivity.

Submit

Vaccine Education in College - A Possible Precursor to Future Advocation in Healthcare Setting
Alexis Angell, Casey Wahl, and Savannah Barishian, Quinnipiac University

Our presentation analyzes the depth of vaccine education in collegiate classes while drawing parallels to public health phenomena in the world such as; vaccine hesitancy and advocation of vaccines by health personnel among others.

Submit

Can Humor Help You Tackle the SAT? An Analysis of Testing Performance with Application to Artificial Intelligence
Michael Batavia and Sadia Safa, Bronx High School of Science

The presentation's main question is whether finding something to be ‘funny’ before taking the SAT helps high school student score higher on the exam. The main purpose for the project was because of increasing competition in high schools with rising mental health implications, especially for those who can not afford SAT prep for higher education. Sample students were given a humorous video to watch after completing a mini SAT exam, followed by a second exam to note changes in scores between the tests due to the humor intervention.

Submit

Educating the Public About the Novel Coronavirus
Kristina Bento, Quinnipiac University

The objective of this presentation is to highlight what were the most often questions asked by members of my local community about COVID-19, in order to see what subjects are not being addressed thoroughly enough by the scientific community.

 

Submit

Impact of an Informative website on vaccine knowledge
Antonio D'Amelio, Quinnipiac University

In this presentation I will detail how my website, parentalplanning123.com exposed many young and future parents to information regarding vaccines. I will further detail how this information may have impacted these people and their decisions regarding the vaccination of their children.

Submit

The Effect of Anesthesia on Alzheimer's Patients
Zara Dalvi, American Heritage School Boca Delray

This presentation is about the effects that anesthesia can cause on the brain, especially the brains' of Alzheimer's patients.

Submit

Learning to read peripherally. Potential to help people with Macular Degeneration.
Puspita Dasroy, Bronx High School of Science

About 11 million people in the USA have macular degeneration, an eye disease that blinds central vision. They read peripherally, i.e. out of the corner of their eyes. Peripheral reading is slow. My project assessed how much peripheral reading could be improved through training.

Submit

Social Media Influence on Pro-Vaccine Education
Yanina De La Torre and Gabriella Cavitto, Quinnipiac University

Our project focuses on curbing the spread of misinformation about vaccines by the use of popular internet media such as blogs, Facebook, and Instagram.

Submit

Observing User Interactions with Vaccine Information through TikTok
Jassim DiPalermo and Allison Maas, Quinnipiac University

The focus of the project on presentation was to use the social media platform, TikTok to spread vaccine knowledge and create awareness for vaccines.

Submit

Understand the Regulation of Food Consumption in Drosophila Melanogaster
Maya El-Sharif, Pine Crest School

This presentation goes through the specific methods and results of each assay that drive the conclusion that flies have a near compensatory response and palatability is not the main driver of food consumption.

Submit

COVID-19 vs. Influenza
Katrina Etts and Skylar Ruiz, Quinnipiac University

We surveyed a pool of participants in efforts to provide awareness for the contagious nature of COVID-19, the ability to prevent it through washing hands effectively, and stressing the importance of receiving the flu vaccination.

Submit

The Creation of a Neural Network to Categorize Electroencephalogram Recordings of Emotional Experiences
Mandy Feuerman, American Heritage School Boca Delray

The goal of this experiment was to create a neural network that would be able to identify emotions from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. Movie clips from databases of emotion-eliciting stimuli were used in order to get subjects to feel the basic emotions of anger, disgust, fear, joy, and sadness. A minimum of ten three second EEG recordings were taken per subject per emotion. Using Matlab and the EEGlab extension, the data was pre-processed and divided into five clusters based on emotion, and then a neural network was trained on the recordings. The neural network was used to establish patterns in the data that could be used to label future EEG recordings from the dataset based on the emotion being experienced while the EEG recording was taken. After training for 1,000 iterations, a neural network that could identify EEG recordings of emotions from the subjects was created. Developments such as this could be used to assist people who cannot communicate in expressing their emotions, such as those who have had strokes, are mute, or have other conditions. This would assist professionals such as doctors or psychologists who need to understand what their patients or clients are feeling despite a communication barrier.

Submit

Corona Campus Watch: A Resource Website
Tiffany Kiako, Quinnipiac University

Corona Campus Watch was created in effort to be a resource for college students across the country to have concise access to the most up to date information regarding their campus' response to COVID-19. The site also contains a brief timeline of the outbreak, as well as resources for students during this time of quarantine.

Submit

Quinnipiac University Students Support the Option to Have the Meningitis B Vaccine on Campus
Onshalyte Lee, Quinnipiac University

My presentation will be on the research that I have done that shows that students do in fact support and want the vaccine on campus.

Submit

The association between Callous-unemotional traits and disruptions in white matter connectivity
Sophia Lehrmen, Pine Crest School

I conducted my research in a Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience lab at Florida International University. Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging I studied the relationship between white matter and level of callous-unemotional traits in children.

Submit

Participatory Design of Socially Assistive Robots to Improve Physical Activity for Children on the Autism Spectrum
Rishin Kasarla, Texas Academy of Math and Science

This research details how socially assistive robots can improve the physical activity of children on the autism spectrum by measuring factors such as imitation, which will ultimately provide practitioners a framework on how to engage ASD youth with physical activity among other benefits.

Submit

Using Feedback Training With an Instrumented Walker to Optimize Recovery in Older Patients After Open Heart Surgery
Ansel LaPier, Central Valley High School

My study looked at how well older subjects could follow the widely prescribed cardiac surgery post-operation sternal precautions of lifting, pushing, or pulling <10 lbs and whether a brief period of feedback training could help them meet this force restriction. The reasoning behind this was to see if actual open heart surgery patients were able to follow these precautions and to see if an instrumented walker could help them learn it. After testing I concluded that subjects were not able to accurately apply <10 lbs and that a period of feedback training was effective in teaching them the appropriate force.

Submit

Synchronizing the Neuronal Network in Schizophrenia: Investigating HCN1 Channel Dysregulation in the Prefrontal Cortex as a Biomarker and Developing a Biocompatible Piezoelectric Silk Neuromodulator
Emilin Mathew, American Heritage School Plantation 

The goal of the first phase was to analyze whether Hyperpolarization-activated Cyclic Nucleotide–gated (HCN) channel expression was increased in a Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CAMK2) knockout mouse model of schizophrenia through immunostaining procedures. The second phase investigated resynchronizing neuronal firing as a treatment strategy for abnormal electrical firing through developing a piezoelectric neural implant.

 

Submit

The Influence of Gender Identity and Other Socioeconomic Factors On Academic Performance
Melina Marin, American Heritage School Plantation

Gender identity is a major component of one’s identity and commonly overlooked in scientific research. This study used a survey to collect demographic data and analyze the influence of multiple factors upon the academic output of a student (seen in PSAT scores). This allows for direct application to the current educational systems, by supporting disadvantaged groups and with its relevance with the resurfacing of gender self-identification.

Submit

A New Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Fake News Using Artificial Intelligence
Arjun Mazumdar, Bronx High School of Science

My presentation highlights the lack of standardized definitions for fake news in existing scientific literature, and proposes a novel 4 step classification process to define the misinformation phenomenon. I used machine learning and artificial intelligence programming to test the performance of my classifier, and found that my new definition predicts fake news' falsity better than all other models.

Submit

Medical Student Academic Performance Outcomes at Different Columbia University Sites and Divisions [MEDS-AP]
Alexandra Musat, Bronx High School of Science

My presentation is about equal educational standards across different sites within the same medical school.

Submit

Vaccination or Evasion?
Jayan Nandagopal, Quinnipiac University

We attempt to see how the general public views vaccinations, and what effects this might have.

Submit

Hero: Novel Approach to Combat Substance Abuse Disorders via AI-based Emotion Inference, GNP-based Metabolite Detection, and Novel Biometric Measurement
Divya Nori, Milton High School

Over the past year, approximately 10,000 American teens have died due to a prescription stimulant overdose, and over 1.7 million teens suffer from a substance abuse disorder.  We currently lack a way to accurately and noninvasively detect overdose behaviors.  My project aims to create a multi-factor system named Hero to detect a prescription stimulant overdose non-invasively.  The eight factors researched in this study include mood swing detection, sweat composition analysis, measurement of four vital signs, detection of spasms, and consciousness verification.  An Artificial Intelligence-based mood swing detection mechanism was built to securely monitor a teen's outgoing SMS messages for a mood swing, a 2-factor gold nanoparticle-based reagent strip was designed to display a color change when in contact with amphetamine metabolite, and a PPG-based algorithm to measure vital signs was built and evaluated for a smart phone.  Teens can use the Hero system and paired mobile app for constant background monitoring for emotional, biochemical, and physical signs of overdose in their day-to-day life.

Submit

The Effect of Ethnicity on Academic Performance
Carolina Senhorini Seixas, American Heritage School Boca Delray

This presentation explores how different ethnicities effect a student's academic performance. In this experiment, the researcher tests whether there are psychological and social aspects that play an important role in this effect.

 

Submit

Does the recommended vaccine schedule lead to immune overload in infants?
Klaudia Toma, Quinnipiac University

This research aimed to study the general public’s perspective on the amount of vaccines given during early childhood. The research was based on a survey which examined the judgement that giving multiple vaccines at early age can overwhelm the immune system.

Submit

Community Coronavirus Updates
Rebecca Vangsness, Quinnipiac University

This project is aimed to inform communities on updates regarding the current COVID-19 outbreak. It also encourages people to continue to participate in safe community service during these unprecedented times.

Submit

Nature and Nurture: Understanding the Etiology of Substance Use Disorder among Adolescents
Adway Wadekar, Saint John's High School

Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) affect about 5% of adolescents and can lead to a host of personal and societal problems. From an epidemiological perspective, risk factors such as peer pressure, permissive parenting, and impulsiveness make SUDs more probable, whereas protective factors like community engagement and drug prevention education alleviate this risk. No single factor is a determinant of SUDs. This research builds an ensemble learning framework to predict adolescents at risk for SUDs by considering an interplay between the different factors. A data-driven model of 34 factors reflecting multiple dimensions of an adolescent’s sphere of life is derived from over 100 questions in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. These factors are split into two groups; Nature includes characteristics that are individual-centric, whereas Nurture includes environmental influences. Two ensemble classifiers, gradient boosting and random forest are trained, while applying the SMOTE algorithm to consider class imbalance. Both classifiers can distinguish between adolescents with and without SUDs exceptionally accurately, with AUC (Area Under ROC curve) over 0.9. They outperform logistic regression, commonly used in epidemiological research. The approach reveals that impulsive and risk taking personality combined with easy availability of substances results in highest risk.  These findings contribute to the nature vs. nurture debate in suggesting that SUDs among adolescents may not be exclusively attributed to natural tendencies or environmental influences but arise from their confluence. They may also offer a rationale for why SUDs are prevalent among adolescents in both low socioeconomic and affluent communities.

 

Submit