Engineering – Page 3 – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Engineering

Development of Handheld Magnetometer Prototype

Equipment for detecting magnetic fields can often be a burden to carry, calibrate, and use effectively with ease. While some handheld magnetometers are commercially available, not all meet the desired ease of use, accuracy, or price. As such, with the help of the company PNI, I, through the assistance and guidance of the Michigan Moldwin Magnetics Lab, have been working towards developing a prototype for a handheld magnetometer with these desired qualities. In order to accomplish this, I spent the first months of my research developing 3D modeling skills with the Solidworks software, as well as developing understanding of the C++ coding language and the Arudino coding software. Afterwards I spent time reading over documentation for PNI magnetic sensors to extract data collected from them, and I’m currently in the process of writing code, along with other lab members, that will allow this magnetometer to function with accuracy and ease. The current problems are: converting data into a readable format and connecting multiple sensors with one single central processing unit. Currently I have developed a basic design for the sensor housing , as well as worked with a team towards designing the circuitry and code for this magnetometer that we expect to be completed by the end of the semester. While the prototype will currently be just that – a prototype, we hope that its use in the lab is extended to the greater scientific community that deals with such sensors, and perhaps even commercializing the design through PNI.

Silicon Oxynitride Derived from Rice Hull Ash (RHA) as An Anode Material for Lithium-ion Batteries

Climate change has increased the urgency to replace current energy production and storage techniques with more eco-friendly ones. Of all efforts that have been dedicated to improving the performance of the lithium-ion batteries (LIB) present in the market, Ulvestad et al. demonstrated that LIB anodes containing SiNx exhibit significantly higher capacities than commercial graphite anodes. Herein, we explore and optimize the performance of silicon oxynitride as an anode material for LIB. Carbothermal reduction of rice hull ash, an agricultural waste that is composed of carbon and SiO2 that intimately mixed in nano-scale, was used as the production methods in attempts to access high-performance anode materials in environmental- and economical-friendly processes. Factors such as temperatures, atmosphere, heating duration were adjusted to investigate their effects on Si2N2O yields in the products . Heretofore, it was found that: 1) higher reaction temperatures (1350-1600 °C) and longer treating durations (2-8 hours) lead to higher conversion of SiO2 in the starting materials; 2) the gaseous atmosphere (N2, NH3, N2+H2) is an essential factor determining the Si2N2O:Si3N4 ratio in the products. Future plans will focus on the influence of different densities of starting materials (pellet vs. mound powders). Testing and analyzing the electrochemical performance of the optimized products would be the goal for the longer-term.

Taking a Stand: The Effect of Social Issue Stance-Taking on Human Capital Attraction

Companies can attract human capital, or potential employees, through wage incentives and non-wage incentives, such as commitments to causes like workplace diversity and environmental sustainability. This project examines the question of as these commitments to social issues become more prevalent in recruitment efforts, does this make companies more likely to support them. A data set of every job posting in the United States over the past decade is being analyzed by a code written in the program R that automatically sorts job postings based on keywords relating to specific non-wage incentives. In order to test the functionality of this code, smaller samples of the data set are being analyzed by manually searching for these keywords. The expected results of my role in this project is that by analyzing the smaller samples of the dataset, the main code will be validated in classifying job postings. We hope to find that this is a reliable way to find a company’s commitment to social issues and if so, that we can apply this technique to other demographics regarding the job market.

Aerospace Engineering Outreach

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing schools to close, effectively teaching students ages 11-18 has created two main challenges: (1) keeping the students engaged in a virtual environment and (2) adapting hands-on activities normally done in a classroom. This project aimed to tackle both of these issues by creating a video and hands-on activities on the core topics of aerospace and physics. Many high schools in Michigan have students who don’t know of any engineers in their lives and as a result these students have no interest in becoming an engineer themselves. In order to reach these students, this outreach project focused on making a video about aerospace engineering concepts related to American football to keep them interesting. Many students have an unbelievable passion for sports, and if only a fraction of that could be focused on an academic area then their futures would brighten significantly. The feedback we have received about this video shows that students were well engaged with the content created and found the hands-on activities to be simple enough to complete at home. The next step in the project is making an entire aerospace engineering course, which is normally taught to undergraduate upperclassmen, adapted to fit the needs of high school students. Ultimately we want to provide teachers with an engaging way to teach students, and to inspire students to follow a career path that elicits a similar passion in them that we have for aerospace engineering.

Aerospace Engineering Outreach

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing schools to close, effectively teaching students ages 11-18 has created two main challenges: (1) keeping the students engaged in a virtual environment and (2) adapting hands-on activities normally done in a classroom. This project aimed to tackle both of these issues by creating a video and hands-on activities on the core topics of aerospace and physics. Many high schools in Michigan have students who don’t know of any engineers in their lives and as a result these students have no interest in becoming an engineer themselves. In order to reach these students, this outreach project focused on making a video about aerospace engineering concepts related to American football to keep them interesting. Many students have an unbelievable passion for sports, and if only a fraction of that could be focused on an academic area then their futures would brighten significantly. The feedback we have received about this video shows that students were well engaged with the content created and found the hands-on activities to be simple enough to complete at home. The next step in the project is making an entire aerospace engineering course, which is normally taught to undergraduate upperclassmen, adapted to fit the needs of high school students. Ultimately we want to provide teachers with an engaging way to teach students, and to inspire students to follow a career path that elicits a similar passion in them that we have for aerospace engineering.

Modeling Cas9 efficiency in cutting Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements 1 through Biopython

Transposable elements (TEs), DNA sequences that can change their position within the genome, can result in mutations associated with somatic and heritable diseases. TEs are repetitive in the genome and are therefore hard to map. In this study, we determined definitive mapping of one set of TEs, called Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements 1 (L1), through the utilization of recent technology, specifically CRISPR-Cas9 and nanopore sequencing. However, the cutting precision of Cas9 must be deduced for efficient mapping of these elements. This study aims to better understand the cutting preferences of Cas9 in the context of the L1 sequence by exploring how Python can map transposable elements in the genome. The biological analysis and mapping of these reads through the use of Biopython will result in a better understanding of the cutting preferences of Cas9 and its efficiency. Through an RNA guide, Cas9 targets and cuts at a specific region of DNA, where nanopore sequencing will then read the L1 retrotransposons. This data will be processed through the use of Biopython’s modules. A “for” loop was used to: extract individual reads contained within the input data files; perform a local alignment of each read to L1; and obtain the positions of the alignments with respect to L1. We also accounted for reads that align to the reverse complement of the L1 sequence by comparing the two scores obtained from the local alignments. Our data demonstrates that the median starting alignment position is consistent between alignments of the reads to L1 and its reverse complement. Thus, we conclude that Cas9 cutting occurs approximately 5900 bp downstream in L1. However, further analysis of the location of PAM sites and the RNA guide is necessary to confirm Cas9’s efficiency and function.

Modeling Cas9 efficiency in cutting Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements 1 through Biopython

Transposable elements (TEs), DNA sequences that can change their position within the genome, can result in mutations associated with somatic and heritable diseases. TEs are repetitive in the genome and are therefore hard to map. In this study, we determined definitive mapping of one set of TEs, called Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements 1 (L1), through the utilization of recent technology, specifically CRISPR-Cas9 and nanopore sequencing. However, the cutting precision of Cas9 must be deduced for efficient mapping of these elements. This study aims to better understand the cutting preferences of Cas9 in the context of the L1 sequence by exploring how Python can map transposable elements in the genome. The biological analysis and mapping of these reads through the use of Biopython will result in a better understanding of the cutting preferences of Cas9 and its efficiency.

Making Learning Visible in the Clinical Team-based Simulations

In the medical field, the technique of “breaking bad news” is incredibly important for future doctors and social workers to practice and receive meaningful feedback on. Our research team transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted over 150 medical simulation videos to analyze body language, tone of voice, and responses to see how students reacted to feedback from debriefers. A methodology was employed for multimodal sentiment analysis, which consists of gathering sentiments from available simulation videos by extracting audio, visual, and textual data features as sources of information. Then, this information can be used to predict and analyze a trainee’s emotional states when receiving feedback. As this study is still in process, conclusive findings cannot be stated but thus far the findings show a range of different reactions to the feedback ranging from negative deactivating to positive activating. Overall, the goal is to optimize the feedback given in order to fully prepare future medical professionals for the critical task of delivering bad news. This research is valuable to the future of medical education, as analyzing the quality of feedback given can help to optimize these patient simulations and better prepare medical students for real-life situations.

Making Learning Visible in the Clinical Team-based Simulations

In the medical field, the concept of “breaking bad news” is incredibly important for future doctors and social workers to practice and receive meaningful feedback on. The moment a medical professional tells a family member bad news, that instance stays with the patient’s family for the rest of their life. Our team transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted over 150 medical simulation videos to analyze body language, tone of voice, and responses to see how they reacted to feedback from debriefers. Our goal is to optimize the feedback given in order to fully prepare future medical professionals for this critical task. This study was conducted on a sample of over 150 fifteen-minute videos of medical students debriefing with supervisors about their breaking bad news patient simulation.

Making Learning Visible in the Clinical Team-based Simulations

In the medical field, the concept of “breaking bad news” is incredibly important for future doctors and social workers to practice and receive meaningful feedback on. The moment a medical professional tells a family member bad news, that instance stays with the patient’s family for the rest of their life. Our team transcribed, analyzed, and interpreted over 150 medical simulation videos to analyze body language, tone of voice, and responses to see how they reacted to feedback from debriefers. Our goal is to optimize the feedback given in order to fully prepare future medical professionals for this critical task. This study was conducted on a sample of over 150 fifteen-minute long videos of medical and social work students debriefing with supervisors about their breaking bad news standardized patient simulation.

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