Biomedical and Health Sciences
Third Award
Background: Peanut allergies are an epidemic with no cure. Microbiome alterations favoring Bacteroides fragilis can dampen a peanut allergy. To clinically translate prior findings, a complex…
Embedded Systems
Third Award
Approximately 90% of the world’s 40 million blind live in developing nations. Less than 10% of blind children in the developing world go to school due to lack of accessible materials, and li…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Third Award
The enzyme Fidgetin-like 2 (FL2) suppresses cell migration by severing intracellular filaments called microtubules (MTs). Mouse studies showed that depleting FL2 using small interfering RNA…
Plant Sciences
Third Award
Melientha suavis Pierre (MSP) an indigenous wild plant grown from seeds with slow growth rate and high mortality, but high consumption demand leading to relative high price. In general, plas…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Third Award
Gefitinib, which is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR), is currently under investigation for colon cancer treatment. However, some p…
Engineering Mechanics
Third Award
According to the World Health Organization, over 285 million people are visually impaired, and high rates of illiteracy among them are mainly a result of an unaffordable technology for readi…
Biochemistry
Third Award
During circulation, red blood cells (RBCs) experience shear stress. While RBCs are mechanically robust, extreme flows may compromise the spectrin network and lipid bilayer, leading to hydrop…
Systems Software
Third Award
The intensity and length of wildfire seasons around the world is increasing, exacerbated by climate-change-related factors such as drought and insect infestation. Fire fighting cost Montana…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Third Award
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is used extensively across the world to get detailed physiological images that are unattainable with other imaging modalities. Although it has widespread app…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Third Award
This project is intended for helping Parkinson patients have meals more easily by using a feeding robot that applies image processing and voice recognition technology in its control method.…
Mathematics
Third Award
This project is motivated by studying Chebyshev polynomials such as cos?(mx) is a polynomial of cos?(x). It is interesting to know if there are other non-constant continuous functions f havi…
Environmental Engineering
Third Award
In the place that we live, an extremely rare and beautiful plant is on the verge of extinction. It is being threatened by the fungus known as Rapid Ohia Death (R.O.D). Rapid Ohia Death can b…
Systems Software
Third Award
Combinatorial constraint satisfaction problems can be solved through the generalizable algorithm of recursive search with backtracking, which runs in nondeterministic polynomial time. In ord…
Plant Sciences
Third Award
This study addresses the global demand for crop supply by enhancing germination and harvest yield of Zea mays (maize) and Glycine max (soybean) seeds with plant extracts, endophytes, and end…
Physics and Astronomy
Third Award
Segmented linear quantum computing architectures provide high error tolerance while maintaining a simple, one-dimensional layout. However, current research on implementing currently-achievab…
Microbiology
Third Award
Future proposed missions to send humans to Mars for long term exploration requires the development of improved waste management technology in space and increased reliable energy for running…
Energy: Chemical
Third Award
Perovskite solar cell power conversion efficiency (PCE) has rapidly improved, however, solar cell disposal is projected to release over 78 million tons of toxins such as cadmium and lead, an…
Biomedical Engineering
Third Award
Pedicle probes are medical devices used during spinal fusion surgeries for patients with scoliosis or spinal fractures. The probe creates pilot holes to guide placement of pedicle screws in…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Third Award
Worldwide, stroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of disability. There is a striking lack of therapeutic interventions after the first few hours of stroke on…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Third Award
Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative eye disease affecting more than 64.3 million people worldwide. The retinal degeneration is, as believed, originally caused by elevated intraocular pressure. N…
Translational Medical Science
Third Award
Amblyopia is the most frequent vision disorder in children leading to permanent visual impairment. Prevalence of amblyopia varies from 1.1%-5% in various studies. Early detection through a c…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Third Award
The purpose of this project was to further test the principles of the “Windshield Wiper” Model and develop a comprehensive hot spot map of arsenic contaminants within Waiakea Pond and throug…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Third Award
This project investigated the relationship between long-term trends (1980-2017) in tropical cyclone (TC) intensity and the TC wind speed evolution within the Western Tropical Atlantic (WTA)…
Microbiology
Third Award
Central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in patients cause an attributable mortality of up to 35%. Colonizing bacteria grow by forming a biofilm which protects against antibi…
Plant Sciences
Third Award
Heavy metal pollution is one of the main environmental factors affecting rice yield and quality, therefore, development of strategies to reduce the toxicity of heavy metals on rice growth an…
Microbiology
Third Award
The development of nosocomial infections arising from bacteria cross-transmission in clinical settings has led to an urgent need to promptly disinfect frequently touched surfaces, such as ha…
Energy: Chemical
Third Award
With the increasing concern about environmental protection and effective resource usage, Cr-containing wastewater purification and Cr recycling are getting more and more important. Inspired…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Third Award
Reinforcement learning (RL) is an emerging field with numerous applications in a wide variety of fields, such as robotics, supply chain and network optimization, marketing, and more. Our res…
Mathematics
Third Award
Dimensionality reduction techniques are becoming widely used in academia, business, and machine learning to reduce the time required to process a higher dimensional dataset. In this context,…
Mathematics
Third Award
Given S, a set of n points contained in the unit square Q = [0, 1]^2, let f(S) denote the area of the largest axes-parallel rectangle that does not contain any of the points of S in its inte…