Chemistry
Second Award
I developed a novel process to create bamboo cellulose derived carbon fibers via Joule-heating, based on my hypothesis that Joule-heating repairs defects in carbonized bamboo fibers by provi…
Physics and Astronomy
Second Award
Ants can climb smooth walls such as glass even if the wall is vertical or overhanging. It is well known that geckos use van der Waals forces between the foot and the wall to adhere to walls.…
Physics & Astronomy
Second Award
Microwave ovens deliver heat to food via electromagnetic radiation. The radiation is absorbed by polar molecules like water. Different factors absorb how the energy is absorbed. In this proj…
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology
Second Award
Background: Rising healthcare costs and negative impacts on quality of life are challenges faced by the elderly suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, involving neuroinflammation such as…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Second Award
Obesity is a severe health problem predicted to affect one in two U.S. adults by 2030. Leptin, an adipocyte-derived satiety-inducing peptide hormone, plays a critical role in mediating food…
Mammalian Biology
Second Award
The development of human brain organoids grown from human-induced pluripotent stem cells enables scientists to study the human brain without the technical and ethical limitations of insertin…
Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology
Second Award
Today, it takes >14 years, $2B to develop a new drug. A faster, cheaper way to inhibit newly-discovered disease targets would greatly benefit patients. The purpose of this project is to test…
Microbiology
Second Award
Bats, like bees, are a keystone species benefiting the environment and saving farmers billions of dollars in chemicals. However, since 2006, millions of bats in North America have died of a…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Second Award
Neural networks are fundamentally flawed. In even the most trivial tasks like digit recognition, they require tens of thousands of training examples to achieve near-human accuracy. In contra…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Second Award
Over $10.8 billion is spent each year in various oncology clinical trials. However, only 3.4% of those trials succeed. This is because of the lack of precision in the selection of targets to…
Toxicology
Second Award
Marketed as the tobacco-free alternative to traditional rolled cigarettes, e-cigarettes use synthetic nicotine to bypass FDA standards for tobacco products. Synthetic nicotine (TFN), a racem…
Embedded Systems
Second Award
Globally, 250 million people have visual impairment, and many are unable to move around safely without human assistance due to the complexity of finding pathways, avoiding obstacles, risk of…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
Drastic increases in energy demand have led to the quest for developing efficient energy-storage devices. The main research pursuit is in fulfilling global requirements for storing renewable…
Biomedical Engineering
Second Award
Low-field (LF) MRI scanners have the power to revolutionize medical imaging by providing a portable and cheaper alternative to high-field MRI scanners. However, such scanners are usually sig…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Second Award
Cyanobacteria blooms in rivers have grown in intensity due to climate change and water pollution. During these blooms, microcystis, a type of cyanobacteria, releases toxins called microcysti…
Systems Software
Second Award
Depression is a mental health disorder that affects over 280 million people worldwide and negatively impacts mood, energy, and productivity. Despite its prevalence, misdiagnosis rates reach…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Second Award
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder that affects 18 million individuals worldwide. The debilitating condition leaves patients with severely impaired mobility due to spasticity or…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Second Award
Green hydrogen is a global need for its emergence as a sustainable, clean, and renewable source of energy. Photoelectrochemical water splitting is one technique for producing green hydrogen.…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Second Award
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant adult brain tumor. With minimal clinical innovation, the prognosis for GBM patients remains grim. However, there is a commonality between 83%…
Biomedical Engineering
Second Award
Purpose The purpose of the OctoGrasp project is to design and build a highly dexterous bio-mimetic prosthetic arm inspired by the biology of cephalopods. Typical prosthetics rely on force at…
Electronics & Electromagnetics
Second Award
Purpose The purpose of the OctoGrasp project is to design and build a highly dexterous bio-mimetic prosthetic arm inspired by the biology of cephalopods. Typical prosthetics rely on force at…
Animal Sciences
Second Award
In Brazil's Amazon region, the local population uses the extract from the pulp and the oil of the Tucum Mirim, commonly called Astrocaryum Acaule, as a home-made oil to prevent and treat art…
Chemistry
Second Award
Previous reports illustrate the feasibility of preparing superabsorbent polymers through a slow-pace and high-energy thermal polymerization process that utilizes petroleum-based monomers. Bi…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Second Award
Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) affects millions worldwide but has an exceptionally high prevalence in Hawaii, with a rate of 9% for all residents aged 18 or older. Of that 9%, 13.1% are Native Hawaii…
Plant Biology
Second Award
• Plants produce molecules, such as flavonoids, which can protect leaves from harmful UV light. My hypothesis was that plants with more sun exposure would produce more UV absorbing molecules…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Second Award
As mRNA-based therapeutics like COVID-19 vaccines rapidly evolve, degradation remains a key limiter of efficacy and distribution. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) possess a closed-loop structure, co…
Plant Sciences
Second Award
`Macrophomina phaseolina (M. phaseolina) is a soil-borne fungus that impacts many crops and can cause diseases, such as charcoal rot. Therefore, it is necessary to find a successful way to r…
Physics & Astronomy
Second Award
Transistors themselves have not fundamentally changed in decades, with all advances in the field focused on merely decreasing the size of transistors. This is a problem as soon it will be im…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Second Award
Cells have evolved the process of translational regulation to rapidly fine-tune protein expression to suit intracellular needs. Ribosome velocity during translation elongation is a key contr…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Second Award
Heart disease is the #1 global killer. Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) analysis via echocardiography is crucial for heart failure detection. However, traditional EF calculation is a…