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Our next winter deadline is December 15, 2023 11:59pm PT. Apply today to lock in your spot!

10-session deep dive into a research topic of your choice

6-week research project with an expert and peers who share your passion

A career discovery experience with 3 expert mentors in your chosen fields

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Lucas is interested in writing a literature review that explores the relationships among various brain structures and symptoms of dissociative disorders. Specifically, he is interested in researching dissociative identity disorder and dissociative amnesia. He will also be studying neurobiological correlates of trauma since this is theorized to be one of the causes of dissociative symptoms. While drafting his paper outline, he also identified other related areas to bolster his paper arguments including MRI data and other biomarkers of dissociative symptoms. Lucas will also be identifying whether there are any gaps in the literature regarding the neurological bases of dissociative disorders. 

Abnormal psychology, health psychology/behavioral medicine, PTSD/trauma, health disparities, cervical cancer screening, substance abuse, primary care-mental health integration, reproductive and perinatal mental health, evaluating therapy outcomes, psychology theory, intersection of gender and health

A review of the neuroanatomy of dissociative disorders and their linkage to symptoms

Build a wind tunnel with simply material (computer fan, CD covers, shoebox, etc.) with the capability of measuring downforce generated by the object (using a kitchen scale). After making a functioning wind tunnel, it can be used to research different shaped and weighted objects.   The first three weeks (in India) will be used to make prototypes and finalize a design that can be made on my return to my house. Progress will be documented using video clips with in-depth explanations.

data analytics, business development, python, how to influence people and make friends, Formula 1 (in all aspects, from business, to driving)

Wind Tunnel

This children's book narrates a story between two children and the magical Sphinx they meet in their backyard. The sphinx is a long way from home, Giza, Egypt. The children and Sphinx work together to get to Egypt, embarking on a journey and discovering architectural wonders all over the world!

Architecture, Computational Design, Urban Technology, GIS Data Analysis, Building Technology

Children's Book: Exploration of Architectural Landmarks All Around the World

UV-induced DNA damage has negative consequences on human skin health as it can lead to diseases such as photoaging, immunosuppression, and skin cancer. The most common form of UV-induced DNA damage is cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs), which disrupt the bond arrangements of normal DNA and hinder normal DNA mechanisms. Humans have a DNA repair mechanism known as nucleotide-excision repair (NER), but other organisms have an enzyme called photolyase that is a part of a process known as photoreactivation that fixes CPDs. In addition, other organisms have an enzyme called T4 endonuclease V that relies on a different process but still repairs CPDs. Scientists are looking into these enzymes intending to incorporate them into sunscreens for humans who have UV-induced skin diseases. The studies that have been done so far generally show that photolyase and T4 endonuclease are effective when it comes to repairing CPDs in humans. Therefore, adding both of these enzymes to sunscreen can potentially significantly reduce CPDs and possibly be a new treatment and preventative method for UV-induced skin diseases/conditions. However, larger clinical studies are still needed to confirm the initial data and conclusions.

Molecular Biology, Genetics, Genomic Instability, Biochemistry

Inclusion of Photolyase in Sunscreen and its Effects

The phylum Cnidaria includes anemones, jellyfish, corals, and 11,000 other species. With a focus on the four main classes: Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Cubozoa, and Anthozoa, this study aims to investigate their distinctive characteristics. The Cnidarians are unique with their specialized venom delivery cells called cnidocytes. These cnidocytes have potential compounds and unique properties that could prove to be useful in cancer research. My project aims to look at the similarities and differences between the four classes. I plan to look at their life cycles, cnidocytes, and ecological impact. To provide a thorough analysis of Cnidarians, I plan to write a review paper accompanied by my own original illustrations in order to visualize and conceptualize what is already written. By reviewing and compiling all the current information about the main classes, my review will hopefully contribute to the understanding and awareness of cnidarian biodiversity.

marine biology, environmental science, ecology

An Illustrated Analysis of the Four Main Classes of the Phylum Cnidaria

Alzheimer's disease (AD) renders an unprecedented threat to global healthcare systems due to its highly progressive pathology and the lack of effective therapeutic treatments. With the increasing aging population, there is a pressing need for innovative approaches that address the pathophysiology of AD and promise some degree of therapeutic intervention. In recent years, we have come to know more about combining stem cell therapies and the utilization of nanotechnology, and their synergistic potentials present a promising strategy to combat this severe neurodegenerative disorder. 

The review highlights the critical role of stem cells in regenerating damaged neural tissues, promoting neurogenesis, and modulating inflammatory responses. It also emphasizes the immense potential of nanotechnology in ensuring precise delivery of therapeutic agents, enhancing drug bioavailability, and optioning real-time monitoring of disease
progression.

Drawing upon the available literature, we analyze the synergy between stem cell therapy and nanotechnology, elucidating the concept of how integrating these cutting-edge approaches can potentially optimize treatment outcomes for AD; as well as providing a data-driven means of prevention that is genome sequencing and targeting specific malignant genes. Additionally, we address the challenges and limitations that must be overcome to translate these promising findings into safe and effective clinical applications.

In conclusion, this review sheds light on the significant progress made in harnessing the power of stem cell therapy and nanotechnology to combat Alzheimer's disease and detection through genome sequencing. By providing a comprehensive overview of the current landscape and highlighting the potential synergies between these fields, we aim to inspire further research and development toward the ultimate goal of developing transformative therapies for AD patients in the near future.

Neuroscience, Cellular Biology, viruses, Pharmacology, Addiction, Science Communication, GABA, Dopamine, Neuropharmacology, Substance Abuse, Substance Use Disorders, Neural Circuitry, Mechanisms Underlying Disease, Cellular and molecular biology and developmental biology

Exploring Synergistic Potentials in Stem Cell Therapy and Nanotechnology to Advance Alzheimer's Disease Treatment

In many areas across the world, people have minimal access to clean water for their daily uses. Atmospheric water harvesting, where clean water is condensed directly from air, is a possible solution for the generation of clean water, where it can be implemented in remote areas to supply safe drinking water. Here we will assess the viability of atmospheric water harvesting systems and we hypothesize that an evaporative cooler coupled with a dehumidifier will provide the most cost competitive clean water by simultaneously purifying water and providing air conditioning. To investigate this technology, we will construct home-built systems to harvest water from the air and purify it and compare the capital and operating costs to commercial water production costs in remote areas. Based on our results, we will assess the conditions that must be in place for our system to be efficient and will evaluate possible improvements that can be made to our system based on an analysis of current state-of-the-art water harvesting technology.

Clean energy technologies (fuel cells, hydrogen electrolyzers etc.), electrochemistry, colloidal science, aerosol physics

Under what environmental (temperature, humidity), geographic (proximity to fresh water) or technological (efficiency of water capture system) conditions would atmospheric water harvesting be competitive with alternative water sources, and what benefits can this technology bring to society?

Iron is an essential element in blood to carry out body functions. The body uses iron to make hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to the organs. According to a study published by the NIH, iron deficiency was found in 56% of runners. So it is extremely common for endurance athletes to experience anemia at some point in their life. This condition is also called “sports anemia” as it occurs when the demand for iron due to strenuous exercise far exceeds iron intake through regular food. According to the NIH article, anemia, if left untreated, could cause serious complications that include heart failure and poor immunity.

Being a passionate endurance athlete myself, I experienced my running performance drop significantly as a result of being anemic. The harder I trained, my race performances were worse as the season progressed. I was fortunate to come across an article describing the importance of iron in running performance that resulted in me getting my blood iron count checked. My running performance improved significantly once the iron levels got back to normal. The current standard of care is for the primary care doctor to recommend the iron test and then go to the lab to get blood drawn; the results would typically be available in a day or few days. Getting the iron level checked frequently is expensive and time consuming. These tests require access to labs that may not be available to everyone. My primary motivation for this project is not only to find a solution for myself, but also help others who experience the same struggles. Thus, I would like to develop a point of care approach to measuring ferritin in blood that is readily accessible and inexpensive.

To that end, ideas based on modifications to the traditional lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) will be presented. The LFA method has been widely used as a qualitative test for a wide range of applications. This project will leverage the latest research to improve the LFA method and combine this with the developments in the field of microfluidics to provide a quantitative measurement of Ferritin that is inexpensive and can be easily done at the point of care. The second idea involves using LFA and a smart phone reader to capture the result using a phone camera. The digital image can then be processed to measure ferritin. In addition to the two proposals based on LFA, the project also includes a backup idea based on a method widely used in forensics to detect blood in a crime scene. The same principle can be leveraged and a device based on electro chemiluminescence will be presented.

infectious diseases (esp. tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS), diagnostics (e.g. COVID, breast cancer, tuberculosis), bioanalytical chemistry, single molecule techniques, other topics in biochemical/biomedical research, chemistry related to the ocean

Measuring Ferritin levels at Home

TGF-beta1, a growth factor protein, affects numerous cellular signaling and responses. Through ligand binding, the activation of serine/threonine, Smad proteins, and VEGF proteins is vital in the tumor-microenvironment. By regulating apoptosis and granulation, and inhibiting cellular proliferation and tumor growth; the Transforming Growth Factor (TGF-beta) plays a significant role in the management of immunity. However, with the dysregulation of this tumor suppressing cytokine, TGF-Beta one is no longer an anti-migratory and anti-proliferative protein. Instead,  negative regulation causes TGF-beta1 to serve as an oncogenic factor, promoting Metastasis, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis. This article explores the effects of mutations on TGF-beta1 by comparing the different genetic codes of the TGF-beta superfamily to identify the main procedure of negative regulation. This article also reviews the range of influence the TGF-beta cytokines have in the tumor-microenvironment.

Biology, aging, cancer, computational biology, stem cell biology, evolutionary biology, genetics, synthetic biology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals

How can the different regulations of TGF-β1 affect the tumor-microenvironment, both positively and negatively?

Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection (PAI) is a serious and often life-threatening infection caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. PAI is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, who are at increased risk of developing this infection due to their underlying lung disease.

Antibiotics are the mainstay of treatment for PAI, but the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of P. aeruginosa has made it difficult to treat this infection. Bacteriophage therapy is a potential alternative to antibiotics for treating PAI. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, and they can be used to kill P. aeruginosa in vitro and in animal models.

The results of this research could have a significant impact on the treatment of PAI in CF patients. If bacteriophage therapy is shown to be effective and safe, it could provide a new treatment option for CF patients who are currently resistant to antibiotics.

biology, microbiology, ecology, evolution, genomics, zoonotic disease, antimicrobial resistance, biodiversity conservation

How can bacteriophage therapy be used to effectively treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients?

Global carbon dioxide levels reached 412.5 parts per million(ppm) in 2020 and continues to grow. Global CO2 levels are expected to be 43.08 billion metric tons by 2050. Iron fertilization is the process of increasing plankton in the ocean by sprinkling iron in ocean waters. Plankton is capable of absorbing 37 billion metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, and is a natural source of carbon absorption. For every ton of iron added to the ocean, 30,000 to 110,000 tons of carbon would be removed.

Climate science, geology, oceanography, limnology, environmental chemistry, paleoclimate / paleoceanography

Efficiency of ocean iron fertilization compared to current and potential CO2 levels

Emin is working on starting a SaaS business that enables small marketing agencies to reach targeted users more efficiently at scale. Together, we are working on developing a comprehensive business plan Emin can use to submit to grant competitions, investors etc. in the future.

Business/entrepreneurship, business plans, digital marketing, brand storytelling, E-commerce, Management Consulting, History

Project Outreach Pro 

Ebube will be conducting a systematic review of the impact of video game use on ADHD in children and adolescents. He is interested in examining how video games affect ADHD symptoms and how this manifests in children and adolescents. For his project, he is following PRISMA guidelines to conducting a systematic review and is learning from sample papers of past students. Currently, he has started screening articles that he identified through a search of 3 databases - PubMed, CINAHL, and PSYCInfo. He has also started writing the introductory and methodology sections of his paper and will finalize a draft for the next meeting.

child development, cultural/social psychology, community psychology

Impact of Video Game Use on ADHD Among Children and Adolescents

Online games have to accommodate network latencies that vary across connections and time in order to maintain the illusion of a responsive and fair game. High network latencies often cause graphical stuttering (periods of limited motion followed by sudden changes) and unfair gameplay (players with higher-latency connections may be at a disadvantage independent of their skill and reaction time). In order to address these problems, this project will involve the development and evaluation of several position prediction algorithms applicable to online gameplay. These algorithms will be tested in the context of a multi-player "Snakes" game and evaluated using real and artificial latencies. The impact of the algorithms on the smoothness and fairness of gameplay will be evaluated using rigorous quantitative metrics under a variety of realistic conditions.

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Theoretical Computer Science, Mathematics, Game Design, and Procedurally-Generated Content.

Dead Reckoning Algorithms for Fairness and Smoothness of Online Games

Currently, solar cell technology relies on multiple factors for high efficiency. Within the United States, the transition from non-renewable to renewable energy is focused on implementing solar panels and farms throughout the country. It is vital that we include solar energy in our path to a fully renewable energy system. However, the question of the optimal construction and location of a solar panel remains unanswered. Here we provide a basic understanding of how solar panels work in terms most non-scientists would be able to understand. We discuss some of the factors under consideration when determining the location of a solar panel. With the goal of maximizing efficiency, we expand on calculations that are used in the field as well as the development of new materials to make solar panels more effective. Afterward, comparisons are drawn between different solar panels and locations for them in the United States. We show how the aforementioned factors affect efficiency in the real world yet still allow for solar panels to be feasible for an average income. Finally, the paper presents some techno-economic analysis illustrating the potential for long-term cost savings upon switching to solar.

Astrophysics, solar cells, semiconductor devices, optoelectrical devices

A Bright Future: Solar Panels in the United States and the Factors That Impact Their Efficiency

Transfer Learning is a consistently successful technique for adapting Deep Learning models in Computer Vision to domain-specific problems. (You Only Look Once) YOLOv5 is a massive image segmentation and object detection model that has been continuously refined into its current form since 2015 by a team at the University of Washington Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science (UDub). The original form of this Deep Net is trained on the Common Objects in Context (COCO) dataset. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef and is under threat because of the overpopulation of one particular starfish—the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS). Scientists, tourism operators, and reef managers established a large-scale intervention program to control COTS outbreaks to ecologically sustainable levels. The state-of-the-art technique (SOTA) for surveying COTS is a manual technique performed by a snorkel diver called "Manta Tow." While towed by a boat, the expert visually assesses the reef, stopping to record variables observed every 200 meters. While generally effective, this method faces clear limitations, including operational scalability, data resolution, reliability, and traceability. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation established an innovation program to place underwater cameras that collect thousands of reef images and require AI technology that could drastically improve the efficiency and scale at which reef managers detect and control COTS outbreaks. To scale up video-based surveying systems, Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, has teamed up with Google to develop innovative machine learning technology that can analyze large image datasets accurately, efficiently, and in near real-time. We are improving this technology by transferring the successful YOLOv5 model to this problem through pre-training, adversarial training, fine-tuning, and meta-learning.

Machine Learning

Using transfer learning to assist in the detection of starfish in the great barrier reef

Dark patterns are design elements in a website/app (or any online interface) that are designed to trick users into performing certain actions on the interface. With the use of human psychology and UI/UX, web engineers can manipulate users into completing an action without their knowledge. Through dark patterns, the users can often be negatively impacted, while the web publisher benefits. Dark patterns have become highly prevalent recently amongst online sites, and they are difficult to catch and avoid. A simulation of some of the most frequently used dark patterns may help online users keep themselves safe and protected. My project consists of a series of dark pattern simulations. With this project, I will create a platform in which users can be educated about dark patterns, and notice them more easily while browsing the internet.

neural signal processing, data science and statistics, AI/ML for medical applications

Online Simulation of Dark Patterns

This research paper examines India's cultural diversity, exploring and bringing to light various cultures and regions. When most people think of India, they think of Hinduism or Bollywood movies, but India is so much more. India's diverse and distinct culture evolved over thousands of years and varied by region, making us unique and distinct. I will be focusing on the Indian media's lack of representation of various groups within the country, as well as how general searches perceive India globally. Growing up in India, I have firsthand knowledge of how different types of Indians are portrayed in the media. I grew up watching movies, television shows, and other forms of media from both the North (Bollywood, Pollywood, etc) and South (Tollywood, Kollywood, etc). Furthermore, I have conducted my own research in my spare time or incorporated it into any subject (Language Arts, History, etc.) in order to learn more about the various parts of India. My research includes searching online, reading books and stories, watching newscasts, and even hearing stories. But that only scratches the surface of India's diversity. India is divided into six regions: Northern, Central, Eastern, North Eastern, Western, and Southern. Within each region, there are various states, each with its own language, culture, and traditions. Instead of spreading stereotypical views about Indians in both Western and Indian media, I want to educate others as to what India truly has been and introduce accurate representation.

Humanities, Social Sciences, Multiculturalism, Human Rights, Globalization, Sociology, Public Policy, Political Science, International Relations, Public Health, Ethnography, Religious Studies, Linguistics, Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies, Human Migration

How India represents itself within Indian media?

My solution to this problem is with a specific-activity prosthetic that can assist amputees in brushing their teeth. This prosthetic connects to the arm and allows the brush to be held horizontally and tightly so that the toothbrush doesn’t fall out. The hand of the prosthetic is designed like a wrench so it can be adjusted to the size of your toothbrush and the elbow of the prosthetic is designed so it can bend to the necessary height. This prosthetic can eliminate the problem of not being able to brush your teeth due to an amputated arm or hand. 


Biomedical Engineering, STEM in general, medical, prosthetics, Electronics, Robotics

Design of an Activity-Specific Prosthetic Arm to Aid in Playing Sitar

Sammy's project addresses the history of the Korean peninsula during the Japanese occupation. Through a series of essays, Sammy traces the origins and expansion of Japan's colonial empire and goes on to explore the experience of Korean people under Japanese rule. The project also deals with the aftermath and legacy of the Japanese occupation, as battles over historical narratives and controversies over wartime atrocities continue to erupt in scholarly circles and public discourse. The project is, in some sense, a work of public history, as the issues and events Sammy addresses in his work are typically left out of American discourse on World War II and colonialism. The essays will ultimately be published as a series of blog posts.

Japanese history and literature, German history, comparative history, history of the Second World War, history of social movements, history of science and technology, environmental history

Meet Polygence Scholars and explore their projects