2022 Summer Research
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Chinese Investment in East African Countries
O'Malley School of Business
Paris LeClair ’24 is a global business major studying whether the United States should be worried about China's growing influence in African nations. Under the guidance of Grishma Shah, Ph.D, professor of management and marketing, LeClair is examining how China’s addition of ports has prompted the nation to invest heavily in developing countries such as Kenya and Sri Lanka. She is exploring what Kenya can learn from Sri Lanka’s recent experiences with China. -
Calculating Power Produced by Wind Farms
School of Engineering
Mechanical engineering major Dylan Carter ’23 and professor Ehsan Atefi, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering, are creating a platform that calculates the amount of power produced by any proposed wind farm layout. This platform will help calculate potential profits from offshore wind farms in the preliminary design phase.
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Standardizing a Stair Climbing Wheelchair
School of Engineering
Emily Peters ’23 and Notking Tang ’23, alongside associate professor of mechanical engineering Peyman Honarmandi, Ph.D., researched the design and manufacturing of a stair-climbing wheelchair. Individuals who need a wheelchair are constantly on the search for ways to avoid stairs or other obstacles that normal wheelchairs cannot traverse easily or safely. These mechanical engineering majors are hoping to create a universal stair-climbing wheelchair that can be used on any set of stairs without the need for additional equipment. -
Teaching an Agent to Play the Atari game, Pong
School of Science
Computer science major Samuel Skinner ’23 and Arafat Abu Mallouh, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, incorporated deep reinforcement learning to teach an agent to play the Atari game, Pong. In order to improve and optimize the performance and time spent learning, Skinner is tweaking different hyperparameters that determine how long the agent explores the environment before it exploits it, how many past agent experiences are stored and used for training, and many more. Also, he is analyzing how the environment's difficulties impact the agent's learning process. -
Increasing Voter Turnout Among Young Adults
School of Liberal Arts
Political science major Jessica O’Brien ’23 researched increasing voter turnout among young voters with ranked choice voting as a superior electoral system. Margaret Groarke, Ph.D., professor of political science,and Nuwan Jayawickreme, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, helped the statistical analysis. O’Brien believes that voter participation will increase in student government elections following the implementation of ranked choice voting. Young voters that have participated in a ranked choice voting election at the university level are more likely to participate in state or federal elections that may or may not have used ranked choice voting. The habit of voting created by a more engaging ranked choice system will generalize to other elections, even if they are not decided by ranked choice voting. -
Risk Factors for Vertical Jumping in Division 1 Athletes
School of Education and Health
Exercise science major Lauren Pantalone ’23 researched how video analysis of a vertical jump can be used to determine anterior cruciate ligament risk and mitigate injury in Division I athletes.The evaluation of knee mechanics can help female athletes better understand their risk factors and possibly prevent future injuries. Lauren and Lisa Toscano, Ed.D., professor of kinesiology, reviewed the videos of each participant in the study jumping and landing and analyzed the potential risk factors for each student athlete using the risk factor checklist.