Plant Sciences
The system of agriculture is inefficient. Agriculture follows the trend of adding artificial fertilizers to increase plant growth. This fertilizer is inadvertently destroying river ecosystem…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common pediatric infections; however, the national guidelines from the AAP lack indications for treating infants ages 0-60 days. 441 urine cultur…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Fourth Award
Deaf and hard of hearing children across many parts of the world recount severe problems with their education because of the lack of access to the curriculum via a sign language on the one h…
Biochemistry
Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease affecting millions of people worldwide. PD is characterized by aggregation of alpha-synuclein (a-syn) proteins resulting in tox…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Astrocytes, the most abundant cell type in the central nervous system (CNS), have the vital role of keeping homeostasis in the brain. HIV infects the CNS early after primary infection and ca…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) constitute a class of relatively unstudied RNAs whose function is unknown. Recently, studies have shown that circRNAs are more abundant than previously recorded. The…
Biochemistry
Rooibos tea is an extremely beneficial beverage to consumers because it’s rich in minerals, has low tannin contents, and is caffeine free. Rooibos tea also contains a plethora of antioxidant…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Third Award
Multicopters have a wide range of applications from surveillance to package delivery and medical support. Although growing in popularity, they are not used yet on an industrial scale for saf…
Mathematics
Fourth Award
In an era of rapid growth in information technology, a significant danger threatens digital security: cyber-attacks. Public-key cryptosystems are used to overcome virtual vulnerabilities. Th…
Embedded Systems
Since 1998, on average, every ten days a child dies from hyperthermia after parents leave them behind in a car. The goal of this project is to create an infant car carrier that alerts both t…
Embedded Systems
In the past 20 years, over 700 children have died from vehicular hyperthermia. Preventative devices currently available on the market have many limitations, and are unable to detect when chi…
Microbiology
Second Award
In the last ten years, twenty five million ash trees have been destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer; the most destructive invasion by a pest to date. This study looks to save vulnerable ash tr…
Systems Software
Second Award
Diagnosing plant and skin diseases automatically from images is a challenging task. Specifically, smartphone images of plants and skin exhibit variability in numerous factors such as zoom, a…
Chemistry
Triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) upconversion is a process in which low energy photons are converted into higher energy photons in various sensitizer and emitter chromophore pairs. This pr…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
With more than 380 million people currently affected, diabetes has become a worldwide pandemic. About 30-40% of diabetics develop nephropathy and renal failure and will require dialysis or k…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
This study had two goals: to identify frequencies within the gamma band, 30 to 100 Hz, that contribute the most electrical power during seizure periods, and to explore pre-seizure patterns a…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Fourth Award
Chemotherapy, although it remains the best treatment option for metastatic cancer patients, it is still plagued with many side effects. Herein I tested if folate-conjugated nanoparticles con…
Materials Science
The purpose of this project is to create a better body armor by testing different woven patterns. Body armor plays a huge factor in the vitality rate of the military. As weapons are becoming…
Chemistry
Over the past few decades solar power production has dramatically accelerated in both mass quantity and solar energy harvesting efficiency. However economic constraints and geographic ties l…
Microbiology
The Pilobolus Fungus is a little fungus that grows on herbivore dung. When the fungus has fully matured, it shoots sporangia into the air, directed at a light source. The more accurate the f…
Animal Sciences
Fourth Award
The subterranean brahminy blindsnake (Ramphotyphlops braminus) is among the smallest vertebrate animals on Earth. Snakes in general have small eyes, but the fossorial R. braminus has extreme…
Environmental Engineering
“Clean, accessible water for all” is one of the seventeen sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. Electrocoagulation, which uses electricity to remove contaminants, can help…
Engineering Mechanics
The question is, which material will be the least accurate with the sonar measurements, and will density correspond with accuracy in these experiments? When measuring the distance by one eig…
Chemistry
Third Award
Silk, a natural protein fiber, has traditionally been used for textiles. It has high mechanical strengths, biocompatibility, and rich surface physicochemical properties, making it a promisin…
Chemistry
Against the backdrop of contamination disasters akin to that of Flint, Michigan’s, researchers are striving to develop new approaches for sensitive, selective, continuous detection of heavy…
Environmental Engineering
Third Award
Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are a more renewable, cost efficient, and more effortless form of energy production. MFC take advantage of specific ion producing exoelectrogenic bacteria (G.sulfu…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Third Award
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are segments of proteins that lack a defined tertiary structure, giving them the ability to interconvert…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Second Award
Genome editing technologies have revolutionized our ability to integrate foreign DNA sequences into cells with single nucleotide resolution. A major bottleneck of genome editing today is the…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
How does skin temperature affect the human body’s ability to perceive touch? First, I had informed consent forms signed by all my test subjects. I had each student hold ice their arm until t…
Biomedical Engineering
The foremost illness in America is heart disease, and current methods of prevention are not enough to mitigate the high fatality rate. Affecting millions worldwide, this disease leads to car…