AJAS projects, 2017–2026

Visualizing Artifact and Structural Distributions Across Mayapan's Urban Core

Behavioural and Social Sciences (inferred)

We examine the distribution of architectural and artifactual patterns across the Postclassic city of Mayapan (A.D. 1150-1450), located in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. We analyze 356,722…

V-Type ATPase's Role in Drosophila Melanogaster Air Sac Primordium Development

Nearly 2 million cases of cancer are diagnosed annually in the US resulting in approximately 600,000 deaths. Most of these deaths are the result of the metastasis of tumors, a complex proces…

Water Filtration System Using Nanoparticle Enhanced M. oleifera and Coconut Carbon

Environmental Engineering (inferred)

UNESCO published at the UN 2023 Water Conference that 46% of the world lacks access to safely managed water sanitation, emphasizing a global need for clean water. Pesticide usage and imprope…

Wildfire and Prescribed Burn Effects on Pine Barrens Soils and Succession

Wildfires are a worldwide threat and climate change is increasing their intensity and frequency. They burn the soil, its nutrients, and surrounding vegetation. The Pine Barrens are protected…

Zingerone-Ampicillin Combination for Inhibition of Staphylococcus Epidermidis

Microbiology (inferred)

Infections caused by Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) often require medical treatment, and S. epidermidis is resistant to many antibiotics. This study explored the impact of zinge…

3-D Breast Cancer Models: Tumor Response to Collagen Concentration

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, with breast cancer being the most common type of non-skin malignancy in women. The tumor microenvironment (TME) and extracel…

A Bioinformatic Analysis of Foliar Fungal Endophytes in Litter Decomposition

Litter decomposition is a key ecological process that plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle. In the present study, the relationship between endophyte abundance and litter mass loss w…

Additive Manufactured Stained Glass: New Chemistry to Modernize a Centuries-Old Craft

Materials Science and Engineering (inferred)

From uses in optics to architecture, stained glass has existed for several millennia. Metal-ion dopants are standardly introduced to conventionally made glasses via salt doping or by adding…

Affordable Pulse Oximeter for Accurate Readings in Low Perfusion Individuals

Biomedical Engineering (inferred)

Conventional fingertip pulse oximeters have limited accuracy for people with poor circulation. More accurate fingertip pulse oximeter models are very costly, making them an unrealistic expen…

Ameyedrunk? The Future of Intoxication Detection

The aim of this project is to develop a mobile app that can detect drug/alcohol intoxication levels in individuals using eye-pupil analysis. The app will utilize computer vision algorithms t…

Analysis of Bioplastics Derived from Various Microalgae Species

Each year, the world generates about 300 million tonnes of plastic waste. Sixty percent of the waste culminates in our natural environment or landfills. The plastics never fully decompose, a…

Analysis of Dice and Centicube Decay Curves for Hands-on Radioactivity Teaching

Physics and Astronomy (inferred)

Centicubes have been a common manipulative in elementary and middle school classrooms to teach counting, addition, subtraction, fractions, ratios, and proportions. Since each cube has a leng…

A Novel CubeSat-Based Beambreak Array for Millimetric Orbital Debris Characterization

Engineering (inferred)

Orbital debris in the 0.1–10 cm size range are known to be a mission-ending risk for space assets. While larger debris are consistently tracked, ground-based radar systems offer only limited…

A Novel Strategy for the Reversal of Tumor Cell Immortality

Biomedical and Health Sciences (inferred)

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant adult brain tumor. With minimal clinical innovation, the prognosis for GBM patients remains grim. However, a commonality exists between 83% of…

A Novel Water Filtration System Using M. Oleifera and Coconut Shell-Activated Carbon

Environmental Engineering (inferred)

An increase in the prevalence of waterborne bacterial diseases has remained evident with examples such as Legionella contamination of Houston Ben Taub Hospital’s water supply and Burkholderi…

Antibiotic Resistance Genes Identified in Water Sources of Hot Springs

Microbiology (inferred)

Hot Springs, Arkansas is a tourist town known for its geothermal hot springs, which contain microbial thermophiles that thrive at high temperatures. These springs have several sources of wat…

A Replicable Protocol for Benchmarking Wastewater-Based Genomic Surveillance Methods

Wastewater-Based Genomic Surveillance (WBGS) is an emerging technology that has demonstrated tremendous potential in combating pandemics by enabling rapid detection of infections through tes…

Automatic Segmentation of Meningioma on 3D MRI Using Convolutional Neural Networks

As meningioma accounts for 40% of adult brain tumors worldwide, timely tumor assessment is required to ensure patient health. Currently, manual tumor segmentation imposes a high burden on th…

Autonomous Precision Rocket Landing Algorithm for Interplanetary Missions

Engineering (inferred)

In future interplanetary missions, rockets must land on smooth terrain to avoid damaging their boosters or tipping over. Currently, scientists can narrow down Mars mission landing spots with…

Bacteria in Hospitals

Microbiology (inferred)

I chose this project because when I am older I want to work in the healthcare field. Specifically an OB nurse. So I thought about doing something related to what I want to do when I am older…

Building a Deep Neural Network to Automate Protection Against Online Cyber Attacks

Systems Software and Computer Science (inferred)

Imagine you are surfing the web, going about your daily business, and suddenly your computer freezes up! Tick... tock... the seconds go by as you wait in anticipation. It is only then that y…

CamVisors: A Low-Cost Smart Glass System Utilizing Computer Vision for the Blind

Embedded Systems (inferred)

More than 250 million individuals have severe visual impairments or complete blindness. These individuals have difficulty independently navigating new and unfamiliar places for work, study,…

Carbon Dot and Cyanoacrylate Fuming Method for Latent Fingerprint Detection

From helping solve murder cases to low level crimes, fingerprints are an invaluable forensic tool. Traditional fingerprinting methods using fluorescent dye staining are valuable to enhance f…

Characterization of a Bacteriophage Protein That Is Toxic to Mycobacterium Smegmatis

Microbiology (inferred)

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing public health concerns of our time. Currently, antibiotic resistance causes nearly 3 million infections and over 35,000 deaths in the U.S an…

Chasing the Fading Night: Mapping Light Pollution Through Skyglow in Lincoln, Nebraska

Earth and Environmental Sciences (inferred)

The industrialization of our society has caused a number of problems for the natural environment. One of these problems is light pollution, which comes from excess and unwanted light from ar…

Classifying Alzheimer’s Disease Outcome in Single-Cell RNA-Seq Datasets

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (inferred)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease inflicting nearly 6 million people in the United States, is characterized by molecular and cellular changes in the brain that result in…

Combination Therapy Promotes IFN-Β Production in Sarcomas via the cGAS-STING Pathway

Biomedical and Health Sciences (inferred)

Osteosarcoma (OS) and rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) are the most common malignant bone and soft-tissue sarcomas in children and adolescent young adults (AYA). Although the standard of care, which i…

Control System for an Autonomous Sailboat

Autonomous vehicles are predicted to be an enormous disrupter to our economy, creating a massive and unpredictable impact, much like the smartphone on telecommunications. Automation can resh…

Decoding the Exome: Unveiling Genetic Insights Through Computational Analysis

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (inferred)

This research project explores the sophisticated integration of omics and computational analysis techniques with a focus on exome sequences. Leveraging the Arcus computational framework, our…

Democratizing Produce Waste Reduction Using Hyperspectral Imaging

According to the United Nations, a third of the food globally (1.3 billion tons) is wasted every year. One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to, by 2030, reduce per capita global fo…