Sion Pizzi | CCSFP
Sion Pizzi, Ethan Zhang, Rajesh Malhan, Neda Masoud
Connected vehicle (CV) technology is being developed under the premise that it will increase safety, enhance mobility, and curb the environmental footprint of the transportation sector. However, for these benefits to be realized in reality, data-driven applications need to be developed. As the world becomes more automated, we need machines to increasingly keep us safe as well. We have several safety precautions for drivers inside a car, such as seatbelts and airbags. This project focuses on safety of pedestrians: the most vulnerable road users. The goal of this study is to predict and prevent scenarios that pose safety risks to pedestrians at intersections…
A Review of the Current Literature Regarding Best Practices for Academic Coaches
Cristian Garcia | CCSFP
Cristian Garcia
While there has been an increase in coaching literature since the 1990s, the study of academic coaching is believed by many to be in its early stages. Understanding the processes within academic coaching is necessary to properly serve students of different backgrounds and abilities. Therefore a review of the literature was undertaken to examine the most frequently mentioned attributes associated with academic coaches’ effectiveness. Articles in the existing literature on academic coaching were collected to examine the relationship between these coaching attributes and student outcomes…
Abandoned Ancient Settlements: Migrations of Eastern Crete
Francesca Tokoph | CCSFP
Francesca Tokoph
This project explores abandonment and migration in Eastern Crete by looking at Archaeological sites from the Late Bronze Age (1500 – 1200 BCE) to the end of the Roman period (600 CE) as well as written sources of more well documented polis. The polis is an ancient Greek city-state that unified different settlements into a shared identity centered on shared land. When a polis was abandoned in most parts of ancient Greece, it rarely was abandoned for long. People who occupied the settlements tend to come back if possible.
Alexander J. Davis’s Dualities of Architecture
Francisco Díaz | CCSFP
Francisco Diaz
The research project that I have been working on has been focused on examining the writing of an Early American architect who worked in the mid 1800s. Alexander J. Davis was a revolutionary architect for his time. Unlike many architects of the period, Davis had training as an artist. Many of his peers came from construction or building backgrounds. His work as an artist gave his drawings a unique and imaginative style. Davis was a great innovator, even though many of his works, like his creation of the American Bracketed style, were so imitated that they became staples used in a multitude of domestic buildings…
Anti-Predatory Behavioral Study on the Ninia hudsoni and Imantodes cenchoa
Elana Masboob | CCSFP
Elana Masboob, Talia Y. Moore
How do animals gain anti-predatory traits based on their habitat to ensure survival? How has their ecology shaped their innate response to danger? We compare two species of snake that are relatively similar in size, are in the same family (Colubridae), are both non-venomous, and can be found in different microhabitats within the same Amazonian ecosystem: Ninia hudsoni and Imantodes cenchoa. Given that there are many similarities within both species, observing their behavior works in our favor to have a better understanding of anti-predatory nature…
Biosensors
Katherine Liddell | CCSFP
Katherine Liddell
Biosensors allowing detecting one or more specific biological components (analytes) has played a crucial role in human healthcare and disease control. Currently, since many diseases are related to molecular or viral or microbial interactions in the human body, most biosensors have been developed to detect an analyte accurately to the atomic/micron /nanoscale. Furthermore, by incorporating nanomaterials related to electronics, optics, and surface chemistry, biosensors allow enhancing the detection performances of speed, sensitivity, and selectivity on such a small scale. Even though various detection mechanisms for many different analytes have been developed, there is no well-organized review and outline guiding a clear understanding of biosensors…
Comparing the Public School Calendar and Literacy Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa
Danielle-Andree Atangana | CCSFP
Danielle-Andree Atangana, James Allen, Noelle Seward
Overview: What is the relationship between the number of scheduled school days in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and student’s learning outcomes? Understanding learning outcomes in SSA is important because more than half of out-of-school primary children globally are in SSA. As of 2014, 1-in-5 primary aged children in SSA were out of school. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the number of scheduled days of school for each SSA countries and learning outcomes…
Compiling a Terrestrial Food Web for the U-M Biological Station
Taylor Brubaker | CCSFP
Taylor R. Brubaker, Kayla R. S. Hale, Fernanda S. Valdovinos
Food webs are ecological networks that describe the trophic interactions among species in a specific habitat. The most abundant, highly resolved, published food webs are of aquatic habitats. However, to date, there have been only poorly resolved terrestrial food webs. Terrestrial food webs have long been deemed too overwhelming or too ambitious due to the sheer size of the number of species found within a specific habitat. Current network analysis of food webs is constrained by the resolution of the food web itself and not by ecological factors. Here, we report a highly resolved terrestrial food web for the U-M Biological Station (BioStation)…
Differential response to simulated predation stimuli by the Drymoluber snake
Katelynn Haygood | CCSFP
Katelynn Haygood, Talia Y. Moore
What kind of predators are most threatening to snakes? Because direct observations of predation on snakes are rare, snake response to various stimuli may reveal the types of predators they find most threatening. The Drymoluber sp. is a colubrid snake and can be found throughout tropical climates such as: Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia. This genus of snake is very active and demonstrates many different kinds of behaviors. They come in a variety of colors, sizes, and weights, which is very useful, because that means more data and variables to study. To understand how Drymoluber snakes respond to different types of predators, we collected snakes caught in their natural habitats, then recorded videos of snakes reacting to various stimuli in a field-based laboratory environment…
Examining Brain-Behavior Connections in African American Women with Hypertension
Sarah Sumbulla | CCSFP
Sarah Sumbulla, Lenette M. Jones, Kayla Anne de Marco
Prolonged hypertension can result in severe health problems such as premature death. African American women make up almost 40% of all hypertension cases in the United States. Our research focuses on participant recruitment through various social media platforms. During the launch of our study, an unforeseen pandemic occurred in conjunction, forcing the shift of our study’s environment from in-person to entirely online. Through Facebook, we have informed, communicated, and engaged with participants by actively posting on three individual pages and by creating and launching Facebook advertisements. Our goal was to obtain 75 participants over the span 3 months, but within 3 weeks, we received almost 200 eligible participants. Using Facebook campaign filters, we were able to specifically target African American women with hypertension.
From Sudan to America: Echoes of Revolution
Rasheda Al-Asbahi | CCSFP
Rasheda Najib Al-Asbahi
Good with Words
Rania Baraka | CCSFP
Rania Baraka
Coursera, as you may know, as a free to use website that gives you access to hundreds of different courses for you to use however you like. The purpose of this project was to help make edits on the course sections as well as find valuable information and provide feedback that will be helpful for the Good with Sentences Coursera course…
Good With Words
Grace Murra | CCSFP
Grace Murra
The impact someone can have is astonishing when they express their thoughts, intentions, or wants in a clear and compelling way. Being good with words benefits all who attempt to learn: in school, at work, in relationships, and when trying to connect with others. There are many ways to learn and improve the way you interact with and use words; online resources, tutorials, traditional and nontraditional classes, or simply reading books and articles can help highlight where one might need improvement in their own writing or teach them a new valuable skill. The “Good With Words: Writing and Editing” course provides a look into some of the more common areas where someone might struggle in their writing. Accompanied by both Good With Words: Writing and Editing and The Syntax of Sports, Class 1, this online course provides lessons on word choice, word order, structure, organization, drafting, and revising, alongside weekly grammar and nuance specials to help improve one’s writing even further…
Good with Words
Marc Mowry | CCSFP
Marc Mowry
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, educational institutions all over the world have been forced to adapt, with many switching toward at least some form of online teaching. My project directly responds to that global change.
Under the guidance of Professor Patrick Barry of the Law School, my project members and I have been helping to fine tune a four-part series of online writing courses called “Good with Words.” Hoping to make the series as useful as possible to both undergraduate and graduate students, I have worked on an array of tasks, including helping to shape the weekly “Notes on Nuance” section and compiling a syllabus that students can use to both map their progress through the course and return to as a jumping off point for further study.
Graphical Style Assent Forms for Brain-Computer Interfaces
Brooke LeBlanc | CCSFP
Brooke LeBlanc, Jane E. Huggins
This project translated the text-based assent document for the University of Michigan Direct Brain Interface lab (UMDBI) into a graphical style depiction to improve understanding for younger participants in the brain-computer interface (BCI) research. A BCI research study can be a difficult thing for anybody to understand, regardless of age. Although we attempt to write documents in simple, age-appropriate language, large amounts of text can be difficult to understand and thus can be a barrier to participation. All the written text and talk about risks and benefits from the study can even scare potential participants away…
HEART: Understanding the Journeys of Caregiving During the COVID-19 Crisis
Elizabeth Mohnke | CCSFP
Elizabeth Mohnke, and Janeann Paratore
As of July 14, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention claims about 3.5 million people within the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19. They also estimate about 34,791 of these cases have been hospitalized between March 1, 2020 and July 4, 2020. Additionally,roughly 40% of patients who spend time in the intensive care unit will be readmitted to the hospital within one year of their discharge. The resurgence in COVID-19 cases expected in the fall will coincide with these readmissions overtaxing a health care system that is already overwhelmed. There is a strong connection between hospital readmissions and the social support structure of patients and their caregivers. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the support for caregivers to prevent rehospitalizations.
HEART: Understanding the Journeys of Caregiving During the COVID-19 Crisis
Janeann Paratore | CCSFP
Janeann Paratore and Elizabeth Mohnke
As of July 14, 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention claims about 3.5 million people within the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19. They also estimate about 34,791 of these cases have been hospitalized between March 1, 2020 and July 4, 2020. Additionally,roughly 40% of patients who spend time in the intensive care unit will be readmitted to the hospital within one year of their discharge. The resurgence in COVID-19 cases expected in the fall will coincide with these readmissions overtaxing a health care system that is already overwhelmed. There is a strong connection between hospital readmissions and the social support structure of patients and their caregivers. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the support for caregivers to prevent rehospitalizations. Our objective is to explore narratives of caregivers and care recipients to identify strengths and weaknesses of their journeys to minimize hospital readmission rates…
Higher Education Networks, Philanthropy, and the Shaping of Student Experience
Justin Connally | CCSFP
Justin Connally
How the Murder of George Floyd Sparked a Conversation to “Defund the Police”
Olivia Grantham | CCSFP
Olivia Grantham, Ataia Templeton, and Michael T. Heaney
Social scientists have long investigated the question of where new policy ideas come from. They have examined a variety of possible origins, including political leaders, policy experts, bureaucrats, mass media, and social movements. The rise of social media has brought about a new dynamic in the emergence of policy ideas. The discussion to “defund the police” provides a recent empirical case. This study examines the factors that contributed to spreading conversations on this topic in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. We examine tweets, news articles, social movement mobilizations, city council deliberations, and interviews with opinion leaders to identify the causes of this diffusion. We find that, in this case, social media interacted with city council actions to play an especially critical role in sparking this discussion.
Insidious Influence: Lobbyists and Their Allies on Capitol Hill
Jesse Goulding | CCSFP
Jesse Goulding, Richard Hall
The term ‘lobbying’ conjures images of shady backroom deals, illicit financial transactions, and quid pro quo agreements. The actual function of lobbying within the American political system has been vastly misunderstood and under- researched. By examining lobbying not as a quid pro quo agreement but rather as a resource grant that legislators use to gather information, expertise, and craft solutions with their limited time and staff, we can better understand the purpose of lobbying as well as its costs. Utilizing data on over 14,000 legislator- lobbyist pairs, covering 150 interest groups and hundreds of Congress members, this project examines the reasons lobbyists seek access to lawmakers and the reasons legislators grant that access…
Investigating Factors Influencing Variability of N2 C. elegans Lifespan
Brandon Vang | CCSFP
Brandon Vang, Yasmeen Berry, Nicholas Urban, Matthias Truttmann
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a common, inexpensive model organism. Due to its genetic versatility and short lifespan, C. elegans has proven to be a powerful tool for studying the in vivo effects of genetic targets, biological compounds, and environmental factors on aging and longevity. However, it has become apparent that wild type C. elegans (N2) as experimental controls exhibit a surprising variability in the average lifespan of nematodes among different experiments. With the cause of this phenomenon unknown, there is a dire need to understand the underlying mechanisms influencing N2 lifespan variability. We hypothesized that slight alterations in experimental setup and conditions (so-called “soft features”) are the cause of this phenomenon…
Investigating Factors Influencing Variability of N2 C. elegans Lifespan
Yasmeen Berry | CCSFP
Yasmeen Berry, Brandon Vang, Nicholas Urban, Matthias Truttmann
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a common, inexpensive model organism. Due to its genetic versatility and short lifespan, C. elegans has proven to be a powerful tool for studying the in vivo effects of genetic targets, biological compounds, and environmental factors on aging and longevity. However, it has become apparent that wild type C. elegans (N2) as experimental controls exhibit a surprising variability in the average lifespan of nematodes among different experiments. With the cause of this phenomenon unknown, there is a dire need to understand the underlying mechanisms influencing N2 lifespan variability…
Knowledge and Attitudes of Emergency Physician Medical Directors on the use of Expedited Partner Therapy for Sexually Transmitted Infection Treatment
Pauly Dudas | CCSFP
Paul Dudas and Rafael Cortes
Knowledge and Attitudes of Emergency Physician Medical Directors on the use of Expedited Partner Therapy for Sexually Transmitted Infection Treatment
Rafael Cortes | CCSFP
Rafael Cortes and Paul Dudas
Language and Its Ability to Regulate Emotions Within Moral Contexts
Jacob Foster | CCSFP
Jacob Foster
Dealing with what is and is not moral is often difficult, and that difficulty can be exacerbated when it involves someone close to us. This is especially pertinent in today’s world, where we interact on a global scale. Here, we look to identify how the effect of close others alters our moral actions and how to regulate the emotions surrounding the interactions with those close others by reviewing the current research…
Lineage tracing of Col1a2+ cells in tendon attachments
Aracely Marroquin | CCSFP
Aracely Marroquin, Megan L. Killian
Lineage tracing is a method to study cell populations and their descendants by tracking and identifying certain populations within tissue. Lineage tracing has been used to investigate various biological processes like embryonic development, tissue development, and cell properties. Our laboratory uses lineage tracing to understand what and how specific cell populations, such as Col1a2-lineage cells, establish and remodel tendon and ligament attachments. The purpose of my research is focused on using fluorescent images from the previous lineage tracing experiments to study how Col1a2+ progenitor cells populate and remodel the tendon attachment at sites in the proximal humerus…
Living on L.O.P.: What We Learned in Prison
Adam Kouraimi | CCSFP
Adam Kouraimi
Living on L.O.P.: What We Learned in Prison is a mini documentary video series which focuses on “Loss of Privileges” (L.O.P.)–a disciplinary action that strips people in prison of their extra-curricular privileges–and the lessons they learned within that Isolation. This series interviews formerly incarcerated individuals about those lessons and how they utilize them now in the midst of the current climate of isolation stemming from the Covid-19 epidemic. The goal is to inform those who are currently experiencing the same sense of isolation that is experienced within prison in the hopes of helping them find a way to deal with their own experience of isolation in a positive way.
Modeling Generational Wealth in Roman-Egyptian Villages
Sam Campau | CCSFP
Sam Campau
Complex systems are comprised of interrelated parts that evolve over time through non-linear cause and effect. These systems are difficult to model in the traditional equation-based way precisely because of this adaptability and dependency. One method used to overcome this challenge is Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), which uses discrete “agents” with simple rules to govern their behavior and interactions within the simulation…
Remapping the Abrahamic Vernaculars
Aaron Shields | CCSFP
Aaron Shields and Rebecca Wollenberg
Representing mathematics instruction in the Math Corps: Developing scenarios for studying the role of context in shaping students’ mathematical experiences
Tottionna Bushell | CCSFP
Tottionna Bushell, Amanda Milewski, and Carolyn Hetrick
In this project, we have begun the work of creating scenario-based interview instruments that will be used eventually to study how a long-standing out-of-school program, called the Math Corps, shapes students’ perceptions of mathematics and themselves as mathematics learners. The Math Corps is a 6-week summer intensive program for middle and high school students in Detroit that has not only demonstrated ways that it has improved students’ mathematical fluency but also managed to build a program in which students feel loved, like they belong, and encouraged to find and express their unique place in the community…
Repurposing Drugs to Potentially Find a Treatment for COVID-19 Patients
Jose Ortega Carcano | CCSFP
Jose Ortega Carcano and Yazan Alheresh
As of Monday (13 July 2020), the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has confirmed over 566,000 deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The confirmed number of cases has surpassed 12 million worldwide and is still increasing (W.H.O., 2020). Covid-19 is transmitted through small respiratory droplets via direct contact from person to person, or indirectly through surfaces that people may come in contact with. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine, treatment, or cure for this infectious disease. As an urgent attempt, we are developing a data driven approach to identify a drug that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients. We used the connectivity map (CMap) database, which is the biggest drugs repurposing database, to find a drug that can reverse the gene expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) COVID-19 receptors•…
Repurposing Drugs to Potentially Find a Treatment for COVID-19 Patients
Yazan Alheresh | CCSFP
Yazan Alheresh and Jose Ortega Carcano
As of Monday (13 July 2020), the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has confirmed over 566,000 deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The confirmed number of cases has surpassed 12 million worldwide and is still increasing (W.H.O., 2020). Covid-19 is transmitted through small respiratory droplets via direct contact from person to person, or indirectly through surfaces that people may come in contact with. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine, treatment, or cure for this infectious disease. As an urgent attempt, we are developing a data driven approach to identify a drug that could be used to treat COVID-19 patients…
Responsive Curriculum Design: Advanced English Language Offerings for International Undergraduates
Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos | CCSFP
Emmanuel Orozco Castellanos, Pamela S. H. Bogart
In 2019, the Executive Committee of LSA entrusted the ELI with building a new “English for Academic Purposes” (EAP) program. The project is a response to the curricular gap in the undergraduate offerings at the University of Michigan. It incorporates the insights provided by a 2019 fall survey which was administered to U-M students who speak English as an additional language. This program is designed with and for students. As a result, ELI has envisioned a suite of courses. This project contributed to two of them…
Simulating Households in Greco-Roman Egypt: A Case Study of the Antonine Plague
Evan Drow | CCSFP
Evan Drow
Over 1800 years ago, a pandemic known as the Antonine Plague devastated the Roman Empire, heavily disrupting society while taking the lives of an estimated seven to ten million people. A lack of historical documentation has made understanding the impact of this mortality crisis challenging, but recovered Roman-Egyptian census papyri from the same time period offer hope. Census return data has been utilized by Andrew Cabaniss in creating an agent-based model (ABM) in the Python coding language aimed at running simulations of Roman-period Egyptian society to examine household demography. This ABM allows users to easily customize parameters such as initial simulation burn-in period, initial population size, number of households and communities, and scheduling of life events in order to quickly test hypotheses, draw conclusions, and visualize results of experiments…
Spatial and temporal variation of harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes
Shaniqwa Martin | CCSFP
Shaniqwa Martin and Subba Rao Chaganti
The connection between second language fluency, linguistic immersion, and the language pledge.
Chris Medina | CCSFP
Chris Medina, Jessica Schrader & Lorenzo García-Amaya
Previous research has shown that not all second language (L2) learners benefit equally from a Study Abroad (SA) experience. Often, prior to participating in Study Abroad programs, L2 learners have very high expectations about the progress that they will be experiencing abroad (Fraser 2002; Freed, 1990; 2000; Hernández, 2010; Martinsen, 2011; Mendelson 2004; Vande Berg et al., 2009, Whitworth, 2006), particularly regarding their L2 fluency. However, these expectations are frequently not met (DeKeyser, 1986; Dewey et al., 2014; Rivers, 1998; Wilkinson, 1998a, 1998b; García-Amaya, 2017). One of the factors that have been recently identified is that in programs that lack an institutional language pledge, learners tend to use their L2 less throughout the progress of the program, while the opposite is true for the language they share as a group (García-Amaya, 2017)…
The connection between second language fluency, linguistic immersion, and the language pledge.
Jessica Schrader | CCSFP
Chris Medina, Jessica Schrader & Lorenzo García-Amaya
Previous research has shown that not all second language (L2) learners benefit equally from a Study Abroad (SA) experience. Often, prior to participating in Study Abroad programs, L2 learners have very high expectations about the progress that they will be experiencing abroad (Fraser 2002; Freed, 1990; 2000; Hernández, 2010; Martinsen, 2011; Mendelson 2004; Vande Berg et al., 2009, Whitworth, 2006), particularly regarding their L2 fluency. However, these expectations are frequently not met (DeKeyser, 1986; Dewey et al., 2014; Rivers, 1998; Wilkinson, 1998a, 1998b; García-Amaya, 2017). One of the factors that have been recently identified is that in programs that lack an institutional language pledge, learners tend to use their L2 less throughout the progress of the program, while the opposite is true for the language they share as a group (García-Amaya, 2017)…
Tobacco use vs Marijuana use Among Youth
Mahamed Dinki | CCSFP
Mahamed Dinki, Sydni C. Warner, Jaime Munoz-Velazquez, David Cordova
Tobacco products and marijuana are two of the most commonly used substances among young people, especially among minority populations (Juergens, 2020). While tobacco use among young adults has been declining since the 1970s, a recent surge in e-cigarette use among high schoolers has caused a slight increase in tobacco product consumption (Center for Disease Control, 2019). Marijuana use however, has been steadily increasing and has been exponentially rising after legalization. The purpose of this study is to determine if marijuana use has become more common among youth than tobacco products (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, etc)…
Too Much to Deal With: A Literature Review on Black Women Faculty’s Coping Methods to Alleviate Stress
Makayla Cager | CCSFP
Makayla Cager
Existing research (e.g. Rauhaus & Carr, 2019) shows that women faculty experience different challenges in their careers than their male colleagues. Based on societal gender roles, women are more likely to work while tending to their families. Balancing these dual roles has benefits and challenges. Moreover, women of color, particularly Black women, encounter bias due to their race and gender. In addition, balancing multiple roles and experiencing racial and gender bias daily can be stressful and Black women must find ways to cope. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss coping methods that Black women faculty use to deal with different stressors…
Words in a bilingual mind
Julio Roque Buenrostro | CCSFP
Julio Roque Buenrostro, Katherine González, Isabel Hernandez, Ioulia Kovelman
Learning to read is an important skill necessary in elementary school. It is key for academic success and for life in general. If learning to read in one language is difficult, imagine learning to read in two…
Words in a Bilingual Mind
Katherine Gonzalez Hauswedell | CCSFP
Katherine Gonzalez Hauswedell, Julio Roque Buenrostro, Isabel Hernandez, Ioulia Kovelman
Learning to read is an important skill necessary in elementary school. It is key for academic success and for life in general. If learning to read in one language is difficult, imagine learning to read in two…
