Materials Science
Production and use of fossil fuels have negative impacts to the environment but provide the primary ingredient to making plastics. Plastics are made from chains of molecules called polymers.…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
As the annual number of amputations continues to rise, limb loss continues to impede the daily lives of over 50 million people worldwide. Though several prosthetic options are available, mos…
Animal Sciences
Invasive Anthozoan species, including the Octocorallia Unomia stolonifera and Capnella, and the Hexacorallia Fimbriaphyllia paraancora, Rhodactis, and Anemonia manjano, are proliferating wit…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Current state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs), such as GPT, are able to accurately infer invasive details about individuals from anonymous online posts. This combined with the ease o…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Climate change poses a significant threat to global ecosystems. Current mitigation strategies are inefficient and costly. Biological solutions, specifically algae, offer a promising alternat…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Psychiatric diagnosis remains largely subjective, with diagnostic agreement rates as low as 65% for major conditions. This research addresses the lack of quantifiable biomarkers in psychiatr…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
The global mental health crisis, affecting over 970 million people, presents significant societal and economic challenges, highlighting the urgent need for effective mental health assessment…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Radiologists and Pulmonologists identify radiographic findings of pulmonary nodules within daily clinical practice. The identification and classification of these nodules is critical, as mal…
Microbiology
With the advent of biologic pharmaceuticals, it is necessary to consider how these therapeutic mechanisms can be utilized to combat growing global health concerns, namely antibiotic resistan…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
The spotted lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, is an invasive planthopper species that feeds on a wide variety of plant hosts, causing an estimated $3 billion in damages in the United Sta…
Translational Medical Science
Stroke is a leading cause of both morbidity and long-term disability. Timely and accurate detection is critical, as ischemic stroke (IS), caused by blood clots blocking brain circulation, an…
Plant Sciences
Traditional evapotranspiration (ET) based irrigation technique involves uncertainties from different sources including ET data and crop coefficients resulting in over- or under-irrigation. W…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Caffeine, a prevalent compound in human wastewater, has emerged as a reliable anthropogenic biomarker for detecting septic tank contamination in aquatic systems due to its minimal natural oc…
Animal Sciences
Animal behavioral research often grapples with identifying subtle movement patterns, integrating multiple behavioral metrics, and mitigating observer bias. My project presents a novel, acces…
Physics and Astronomy
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a ground-based interferometer designed to detect gravitational waves (GWs). The search for these waves in detector data face…
Mathematics
The difficulty of prime factorization is essential to keeping our world secure. However, the rise of quantum computing poses a major threat to this security, and thus, it is imperative to di…
Chemistry
Standard oil well and fracking site operations typically burn off large amounts of methane due to the high costs associated with its utilization. On-site conversion of methane to liquid meth…
Physics and Astronomy
Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe and the most energetic subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGN), resulting from the accretion of gas and dust within a rapidly rotating disk…
Physics and Astronomy
As advancements in space technology progress, rocket design has become a critical field of study. This project investigates the optimal fin configuration for a two-stage rocket to achieve hi…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Microplastics, degraded from plastic products, have become a pervasive pollutant that severely impacts marine ecosystems and public health. This issue is especially critical in Hawaii, where…
Microbiology
Hawaii has a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections compared to the national average. Environmental water is a major vehicle for the transmission…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
As reading habits among U.S. students decline, various interventions have been proposed, yet many overlook the role of economic conditions on reading behavior. This research investigated how…
Biomedical Engineering
Every 30 seconds, a person loses a lower limb due to a diabetic complication. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) causes degenerative nerve damage in approximately 50% of the world's 537 mi…
Biomedical Engineering
Gliomas affect 90,000 people annually in the United States and have 5-year survival rates as low as 7%, largely due to 5-year recurrence rates of 52-62%. Current imaging techniques rely on c…
Materials Science
Only nine percent of polymers are recycled globally resulting in economic losses of $120 billion and environmental damages exceeding $40 billion annually. Unfortunately, these methods are ra…
Biomedical Engineering
The purpose of this experiment was to investigate whether loading specific microRNAs (miRNAs) into Red Blood Cell-derived Extracellular Vesicles (RBCEVs) could reduce endothelial cell activa…
Environmental Engineering
The 6.13-billion-dollar synthetic hair industry is a significant contributor to environmental microplastic pollution and has been linked to causing some skin cancers and irritations in its u…
Environmental Engineering
Climate change is greatly attributed to an excess of greenhouse gasses trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Livestock digestive function contributes to a portion of these emissions, sugg…
Materials Science
Soft-plastic fishing lures consistently break off from the hooks of anglers, sinking to the bottom of waterways where they degrade into microplastics over time. The goal of the project is to…
Systems Software
Standardized testing is a critical tool in evaluating the academic ability of over 40 million U.S. students. Assessments are a pillar of the education system, influencing policy, and nationa…