Stander Symposium Projects

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  Numerical Analysis of Tapered Optical Fiber Sensors utilizing beam propagation methods

  Chaminda Ajith Kumara Ranathunga Ranathunga Mudiyanselage Ihala Gane Gedara

  Tapered Optical Fibers Sensors (TOFSs) have gained attention as sensors due to their elevated sensitivity, real-time specimen analysis, and practical measuring capabilities. By reducing the waist of the optical fiber, the optical field transmitted inside is permitted to extend beyond the fiber, enabling the detection of subtle changes in the refractive index near the sensitive(tapered) region. This can be efficiently used for bio-sensing and other sensing applications. An FFT-BPM is used to model optical propagation through fibers with different core and cladding thicknesses aimed at modeling a tapered fiber. The refractive index profile was suitably modified from a standard step-index fiber to include the presence of antibodies and antigens on the surface of the fiber with reduced cross-section. Detected power variation with wavelength scanning is proportionally phase-shifted for different antigen concentrations.

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  Numerical vs. Spatial Magnitude Understanding as Seen in Preschool Aged Children

  Merrick Hirt

  The ability of young children to differentiate between numerical and spatial magnitudes is correlated with executive functioning skills and has been recognized as a pivotal predictor of early math success (Fuhs et al., 2021). This ability is defined as flexible attention to magnitudes (FAM). In the current study, we expanded on previous findings which concluded that a child's performance in mixed FAM trials, where the child is asked to switch back and forth between numerical and spatial magnitudes, is most strongly connected to math achievement (Wagner et. al., 2023). To examine this, we added six additional mixed trials to the existing FAM task to see if the additional trials would have an effect on data collection. Data was collected from 63 preschool children (aged 3-5) where in varying levels, children were asked to point to boxes based on instructions to identify the box with either the larger objects, or the most objects. In a third level the previous two levels were mixed and the child was asked to make their selection based on the color of the box. We found that children’s performance did not decline in the 6 additional trials, suggesting 18 test trials will be suitable for future use of the FAM task. As expected, children scored lower on number trials and switch trials. Notably, children also scored worse on trials directly following check trials, suggesting that children struggle to switch between questions about incongruent and congruent objects. This distinction has been noted and is a possible direction for future research.

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  Nutritional Habits of College Students and its Effect on their Physical Well-Being

  Eunice B. Anomakoh

  The human body is a zealous machine that is active from conception till death. Such activity requires energy to fulfill its bodily functions. The nutritional intake of an individual can have a significant impact on their physical well-being; this includes but is not limited to their mental health and strength of their immune system. This project is designed to examine the specific effects of the diet of college students on how well their body is able to function on a day-to day basis.

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  Olympic Sport Evaluation with Machine Learning

  Jacob G. Bish

  The goal of the project was to take visual data from a series of Olympic dives and extract the features of them and inputting them into both a linear regression and another regression that best fits the model. The regression would then be tested against other dives and seeing if the regression could accurately guess the score of said dive. Through the implementation, the student learned how to debug large code libraries and how to properly gather and organize data for further research endeavors.

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  On the Role of SERCA-dependent Calcium Handling in the Mouse Stress Response

  Summer Annalee Istenes, Daniel F. Jevnikar, Ben Klocke, Marc Nya, Hayden Nathaniel Ott, Morgan Elizabeth Roach

  Calcium (Ca2+), a critical second messenger, has been implicated in various cellular processes including gene transcription, muscle contraction, cell-cell adhesion, and neurotransmitter release. Previous research has implicated abnormal calcium homeostasis as contributing to attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and other symptoms such as hyperactivity and impulsivity. A major regulator of cytosolic calcium concentration is the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 2 (SERCA2), a protein found in the heart and brain that sequesters Ca2+ into the endoplasmic reticulum. Using a mouse model, our lab has previously found that constitutive deletion of PLN, a protein inhibitor of SERCA2, results in an ADHD-like phenotype characterized by hyperactivity, anxiolytic behavior, and cognitive deficits. In this study, we sought to understand the role of PLN in regulating stress response by assessing the effects of chronic-restraint stress in conjunction with constitutive PLN deletion on mouse behavior. The results of this study help to further our understanding of the role of PLN, SERCA2, and Ca2+ in the regulation of the brain and behavior.

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  Optical band gap study of Bi2 Se3-In2 Se3 superlattices

  Mark R. Gordon

  Topological materials are some of the most promising quantum materials for future deviceapplications. In particular, topological superlattices comprised of Bi2 Se3 and In2 Se3 are of greatinterest because they show potential for creating Anisotropic Magneto-Resistive (AMR) sensorsthat can detect changes in the angle of a magnetic field. The creation of AMR sensors with theaforementioned topological materials would have many advantages over the traditional ones.These advantages include less susceptibility to stray field interactions, sensors having full vectorfield resolution, less power consumption, and no saturation up to 60 T. This is expected to havewidespread device applications in geological sensing, bio magnetic sensing, and navigation. Thiswork investigates the optical band gap as a function of the Bi2 Se3-In2 Se3 superlattice layerthickness, grown by Direct Current Coil Assisted Magnetron Sputtering, using UltravioletVisible light Spectroscopy and cross-sectional Scanning Electron Microscopy.

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  Optimize Shipping/Receiving for Flow and Efficiency

  Ava Daniel Greiner, Kyle G. Hauptner, Connor James Murphy

  MIS and OPS Senior Capstone Projects include small teams of 3 or 4 senior students working weekly with a company/organization to solve a real business problem. These projects extend for the complete undergrad senior year including both Fall and Spring semesters. Students act as Project Consultants and Managers to guide the project from inception until conclusion by delivering solutions and deliverables to the client. Students produce project documentation and formal presentations at multiple stages of the project and conclude with presentations to the supporting Client's Leadership Team.

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  Optimizing Novel High-Speed Mechanical Press Designs for Improved Ram Dwell Subject to Joint Force Considerations

  Tianze Xu

  This research aims to advance mechanism designs for mechanical presses by targeting desirable ram motion while meeting industry standards for joint forces. Mechanical presses, pivotal in shaping metal parts from pop cans to car fenders, are integral to industry due to their advantages in speed, cost, accuracy, precision, and energy efficiency over alternative forming methods. The prevalent use of mechanical presses has spurred a considerable number of companies to design and manufacture these machines, catering to diverse end-user needs. Given their ubiquity, even minor enhancements can significantly reduce processing times and energy consumption. This study focuses on optimizing five designs to improve their dwells, the amount of time they spend in contact with the material to be formed. Two of the designs are established in industry, while the remaining three propose novel advancements. The two industry-established designs provide baselines for performance, identifying acceptable dwell times and joint loads. The remaining three designs will be optimized to surpass the dwell time while respecting the same joint loads.

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  OptiVAE: A Unified Parallel Gumbel-Softmax VAE Framework with Performance-Based Tuning

  Fangshi Zhou

  Classic training algorithms for Gumbel Softmax Variational Autoencoders (GS-VAEs) often rely on an annealing scheme, which reduces the Softmax temperature according to a given function. We find that this leads to suboptimal performance. To improve the design, we propose a novel framework for GS-VAEs, which embraces dual latent layers and a parallel multi-model structure with diverse temperature strategies. By dynamically tuning the temperature in response to the loss difference between each sub-model and the best sub-model with the minimum loss at each training epoch, our model utilizes exploration and exploitation and significantly surpasses a standard GS-VAE in data reconstruction, detection of altered data, and model robustness. In particular, our model can reconstruct data of unfamiliar categories that are never observed during training. Moreover, in the presence of patch attack or white-box adversarial attack, our model greatly outperforms a standard GS-VAE and other existing models studied in this work.

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  Organizing for Sustainability in the Greater Dayton Area

  Lindsay K. Adams, Patrice Claire Bilodeau, Nicholas Chandiles, Sophia M. Divagno, Amanda N. Film, Renee R. Fortin, Isabel Angelica Garcia Torres, Jessica Lee Garland, Eileen M. Globokar, Anyssa S. Jones, Mara Elizabeth Mackinnon, Owen P. Malloy, Matthew Kevin McGuire, Emma Rae Meyer, Tyler R. Mordarski, Michael Nolan Mosher, Kayla Nicole Nickel, Ja'Niyah Raeann Norman, Cassandra A. Novak, Matthew C. Rego, Claire M. Robinson, Madelyn Elizabeth Day Russell, Isabella Santamarina, Olivia L. Slavin, Alyssa Marie Sparto, Cole Eugene Thomas, Kennedy A. Torggler, Margaret Hope Whitman, Christierra Cici Williams, Charles A. Zahir

  Sustainability is integral to managing organizations in the 2020s. As Ray Anderson, the late chair and founder of the carpet manufacturing company Interface, explains, sustainability in its broadest sense is about organizational survival. Organizations must develop their capacity to identify events that pose risk to them, assess those risks, and respond in ways that allow them to meet those tests -- and even thrive in doing so. As the students of CMM 425 Professional Seminar in Communication Management in Organizations look towards their first professional experiences after graduation, they have been learning about processes and practices conducive to sustainable organization and carrying out projects in which they work with a client organization to identify and respond to a specific threat to their sustainability. In this group presentation, each team of students will recount its story in working with a client, share what it has learned in working that client, and offer insights about sustainable organization overall.

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  Our Lady of the Fields and the American Missionary Calling

  Anh Nguyen

  Using historical research and oral interviews with Glenmarians, this presentation will present highlights from the history of the Blessed Virgin Mary's title as Our Lady of the Fields, a title that has impacted Catholics in North America for many years. The devotion was brought from France to North America by Jesuit missionaries. Although this Marian image was brought in from Europe, her story resonated with many Native Americans and became a symbol for the common working folks of America. Our Lady of the Fields has also inspired a home-grown missionary community, the Glenmary Home Missioners, dedicated to bringing the gospel to the rural Americas. The title of Our Lady of the fields though ancient continues to inspire many missioners to bring the gospel to the poorest of the poor. Our Lady of the Fields penetrates into the American experience.

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  Past and present human rights issues represented in contemporary Latin American Literature: the case of Nona Fernandez's “La dimensión desconocida”

  Nicholas William Ness, Aaliyah S. Rios, Rachel Lynn Zagorski

  This bilingual project discusses the impact of injustice and impunity related to past dictatorships on Latin American culture by focusing on the novel “La dimensión desconocida” by Nona Fernandez (2016). This novel offers a reflection on how historical and personal memory is impacted during and after political turmoil and oppression in Chile. Through a combination of fiction and reality, Fernández explores the impact of political violence and oppression on her society, including grey zones between victims and perpetrators. We will examine how Fernandez portrays the impact of the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990) on Chileans, exploring themes such as human rights, violence, trauma, and the search for truth in relation to memorialization.

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  Photographing Wildlife: Analysis of Species Richness and Activity in and around Solar Prairies

  Kara Beth Gregory, Noah E. Jones-Beyene, Evelyn Rose Thomson, Claire Elizabeth Van Meter

  Solar energy is one of the most promising forms of clean renewable energy, but there are still issues with land management around solar arrays. The introduction of prairies under solar arrays can significantly increase biodiversity in what would otherwise be a monocrop field of grass. Most solar arrays are surrounded by a fence, which can hinder animal movement. We sought to understand how animals interact with these solar prairies in arrays with and without fences. We investigated animal behavior using wildlife cameras at two different solar arrays in Dayton, OH, one at the Marianist Environmental Education Center (MEEC), and one at Curran Place on the University of Dayton Campus. We placed 10 camera traps at each site, 5 inside the array and 5 around the border. The cameras were baited twice with deer pheromone gel and either cat food (week 1) or wildlife pellets (week 2). Cameras were set to take 3 photos every 15 seconds of detected movement, and were running for two weeks. We found that the presence of a fence decreased species richness, as it hindered the ability of larger animals to enter the array. At MEEC, which has a fence, 3 species were found inside the array, and 7 were found outside. At Curran Place, which does not have a fence, 4 species were found inside and 7 outside. However, the difference in species diversity could be due to the lack of establishment of the prairie under MEEC, which was only recently established. We recommend that future solar arrays should avoid fencing when possible, and if there must be a fence, it should be raised above the ground to allow small animals to enter and exit as needed.

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  Physical Activity and Its Impact on Mental Health

  Dylan Joshua Varga

  The goal of this research project was to better understand the impact physical activity can have on different mental health conditions in college students. The population that was studied were University of Dayton students aging from 18-22 years old. Participants were provided a questionnaire asking them questions regarding their daily engagement in physical activity, and their current state of mental well-being. The results of this study were analyzed to try and better understand how physical activity can be utilized as a coping mechanism for mental health conditions and stress during college.

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  Physical Activity and Stress in College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

  Isabelle Marie Giovenco

  The purpose of this study was to find out how physical activity can affect the amount of stress college students have. This study used a cross sectional approach to gain a better understanding on how physical activity can reduce stress in college students. Participants recruited for this study were college aged students ranging from ages 18-23 years old. Participants were asked to answer questions about their daily activity and daily stress levels.

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  Physiological and Subjective Responses to a Novel Version of the Trier Social Stress Test

  Elizabeth A. Chevalier, Sophia Elle Hollins, Stella Odelle Monnig

  Cortisol is the primary hormone involved in the stress response in humans, and it increases in response to psychological stressors (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004). One laboratory procedure commonly used to increase subjective distress and trigger a cortisol response is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), which incorporates cognitively demanding and social evaluative components (Kirschbaum et al., 1993). In our current study, a variation of the TSST was used to test its ability to acutely increase stress, as evidenced by participant’s subjective and physiological responses. These responses were measured by questionnaires and saliva analyses, respectively. Our variation included a non-stress group, modeled after the control condition utilized by Espin et al. (2013), which some versions of the TSST don’t use. Our lab is using the TSST for the first time to investigate our broader interests: stress, negative affect, and alcohol use. Participants were randomly assigned to the stress or non-stress condition. They completed questionnaires about their stress and affect pre- and post-TSST, as well as questionnaires about their alcohol use and cravings post-TSST. Participants provided three saliva samples throughout the procedure: Time 1 was pre-TSST, Time 2 was 30 minutes later, and Time 3 was 25 minutes after Time 2. Hypotheses included: 1. participants in the stress condition would have increased cortisol levels at Time 2 relative to Time 1 and the non-stress group; 2. participants in the non-stress condition would not show increased cortisol levels; and, 3. participants in the stress condition would have changes in mood, and higher ratings of alcohol craving. Analysis of salivary cortisol levels is ongoing, but analysis of subjective responses shows a significant increase in negative affect in the stress group relative to Time 1 and the non-stress group. To-date, these data suggest that our version of the TSST was successful for inducing a mood change.

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  Pilot Performance Analysis in Virtual Environment

  Diya Liz Babu

  Predicting the performance of pilots in the aviation industry is essential for improving safety, efficiency, and overall operational effectiveness. Accurate evaluations of a pilot’s abilities can provide valuable insights for training programs, facilitate the development of customized training interventions, and contribute to the design of human-machine interfaces that align with individual skill sets. Moreover, understanding and predicting pilot performance can assist in identifying potential safety hazards and mitigating human factors that may contribute to errors in complex flight scenarios.This research primarily focuses on predicting and validating models for pilot performance during simulated flight operations, i.e. performing altitude or heading changes. This predictive scope involves essential metrics, the highest pilot entry stage input value (greatest yoke angle), aircraft heading error, aircraft heading change rate (yaw rate) during the pilot's initial recovery stage input, and compensatory corrections during the recovery period.Additionally, the research explores the temporal aspect of predictive accuracy, analyzing how early in the timeline we can effectively forecast pilot performance. Our proposed solution involves the utilization of Machine Learning Regression methods, assessing both Single Output and Multi Output models. Interestingly, the study reveals that Single Output models perform just as effectively as Multi Output models, suggesting a lack of correlation between the target variables for the Multi Output to outperform. Among the algorithms considered, Random Forest emerges as the most proficient in predicting pilot performance.

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  Police Behavior Survey

  Owen Christopher Lawless, Alejandro Jose Morales

  The current study looks to explore the connection between police traffic stops and if the individual who was stopped thought that the police officer behaved. Through many different variables we are able to see if our dependent variable, did the police behave, correlates. Our variables which we will be looking into are the race, age, sex of the individual, if the individual was given a reason for the stop, if the stop was legitimate, if the individual received a ticket, the time of day of the stop, the income of the person being stopped, and the amount of time of the stop. These variables will allow us to determine how the police behave from stop to stop and how the different features of the individuals affect the policies behavior. For the most part our variables are coded as (1) yes (2) no except for age which is categorized by age groups. For our variables we will be using linear regression to find our results. Our models showed that non-white people are more likely to say that the police did not behave more often. In the second model it also showed that non-white people said that police did not behave more often when in the same model as age and sex, but when with all of the variables we found that race was not significant. Our results also showed us that in model three that the reason for the stop, if the stop was legitimate, if you received a ticket, the income of the person, and the amount of time spent at the stop were all significant variables in our model.

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  Police Legitimacy in Low-Income Communities

  Chukwuzimife James Raymond Nwokeji, Christopher A. Peguero

  This research explores a measure of police legitimacy within low-income communities, seeking to uncover the dynamics that shape the intersection of law enforcement practices and community resilience. By examining the association between community trust, procedural justice, and the socioeconomic context, the study seeks to highlight the mechanisms through which police legitimacy may influence the cycle of criminal behavior among disadvantaged youth. Additionally, the research explores potential moderating factors that may amplify or mitigate the relationship between police legitimacy and recidivism, such as race, gender, gang involvement, and other socioeconomic variables.

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  Police Use of Force Towards Suspects

  Riley A. Bendery, Annalisa Benziger

  In 1994, the Phoenix Police Department, in collaboration with Rutgers University and Arizona State University, conducted a study on the use of force by and against Phoenix police officers. The study aimed to evaluate the extent of force employed in various arrest situations and to identify factors that could predict the amount of force used, including the involvement of the officer, the suspect, the nature of the offense, and the circumstances surrounding the arrest. The study generated a set of variables designed to accurately capture the diverse spectrum of forces commonly encountered in typical arrest scenarios. The study's design involved collecting data on all adult arrests made during a two-week period that commenced on June 13, 1994, in Phoenix, Arizona. The researchers obtained survey data from 1,585 adults who were booked by Phoenix police officers at Maricopa County Jail. Simultaneously, the Phoenix Police Department's automated information system recorded 1,826 arrests involving adult suspects being booked. In the second week of this two-week data collection period, the researchers randomly selected 20 out of 56 three-hour periods for conducting screening interviews with both officers and suspects. To understand the results, a statistical analysis using an ordinal regression model was conducted. Contrary to our hypothesis, this study found that race did not play a significant role in police victimization when accounting for other variables. What did play a significant role in understanding when an officer will use force is a suspect's sex, a suspect's age, officer's sex, the suspect's attitude during the encounter, and the suspect's resistance levels.

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  Political Representation, Democracy, and the Electoral College: An Applied Theoretical Analysis

  Jordan A. Marsh

  Though a key institution in the United States presidential election, the Electoral College has often been overlooked for close theoretical analysis and even less frequently dissected for a deeper understanding of its consistency with theories of representative democracy. As such, this presentation summarizes a study of the Electoral College through a theoretical lens to ultimately investigate the degree to which it is democratically representative. The first section analyzes the Electoral College through both a historical and a modern contextual lens. The second section of this paper explores various theories of representation, including the works of Pitkin, Rehfeld, Manin, and Mansbridge, among others. The third section scrutinizes the Electoral College’s representative nature through the frameworks of these theorists. Finally, the fourth section brings the representative nature of the Electoral College in conversation with the ideals of representative democracy, making the case that the Electoral College, in its current form, lacks critical aspects of democratic representation.

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  Porous Materials as a Thermal Protection System for Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

  Megan Colleen Sieve

  Hypersonic flight is defined as speeds of Mach 5 and faster. A critical problem that arises at those speeds is the immense heating of the vehicle. Hypersonic vehicles have thermal protection systems (TPS) to aid in thermal regulation; however, as faster speeds require large TPS, a design concern is how to make the TPS so to not cause any harm to the vehicle’s performance. This research project will investigate the most prominent instability that causes turbulence, and consequently, heat, on a flat-plate at Mach numbers of 4 and above: the second-mode boundary-layer instability. Different porous materials have been shown to dampen acoustic waves, which are the cause of second-mode boundary layer instabilities and is the focus of this study. This project is a continuation of the study “Effect of Porosity on the Ability of Silicon-Carbide Foams to Attenuate the Second-Mode Boundary-Layer Instability” (Bemis et al.). Experimental techniques used were PCB pressure sensors, Schlieren imaging, infrared thermography, and Rayleigh scattering. Silicon-carbide porous foams, wavy wall samples, and impermeable samples were tested on two different sized flat plates. The goals of these experiments were to study boundary-layer transition and the effect that different porous materials had on the boundary-layer.

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  Positive Psychology Interventions With Vulnerable Populations

  Anna Ružena Kopsick

  This poster will review research on the use of positive psychology interventions in the community, with a focus on the utilization of such interventions for vulnerable populations. Then, the poster will summarize success this semester in developing and utilizing such interventions with a homeless shelter population.

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  Power and Ideology Analysis: Escaping Twin Flames

  Hope Clegg, Tristan Fountain, Grace McMonagle

  Rhetoric drawing on religious stories, ideals, concepts, and experiences surround us in our daily lives. These posters represent a sampling of the rhetorical analyses conducted by students from CMM 357 Religious Rhetoric throughout the Spring 2024 semester. Groups presented several themed reports prior to Stander and picked one to showcase at the symposium.

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  Predicting Weather Dependent Energy Savings for Low-Income Residential Buildings for Specific Upgrades with Limited Building Data

  Phillip Allen Clayton

  The pathway to sustainability is challenging. Multiple paths exist, but the key will be to achieve carbon reduction with the least cost. This could be achieved through large scale deployment of renewable energy; however, many studies have shown how important it is to reduce demand first. This study employs machine learning to analyze detailed energy profiles from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), estimating potential energy savings for natural gas heating, electric heating, and electric cooling through modifications such as insulation improvements, setpoint changes, infiltration reduction, or system efficiency enhancements. By comparing these building models with actual building data from Cincinnati, Ohio, via a nearest neighbor approach, mean savings are calculated for the ten most similar simulated houses. This process allows for the use of limited data (annual energy usage for heating and cooling and house area) to identify comparable model sets and estimate potential areas for energy-saving improvements. When savings estimates vary significantly (coefficient of variation greater than 0.2), clustering is applied to find a more consistent subgroup, enhancing the accuracy of the energy savings predictions.This methodology proves particularly effective for high energy-consuming residences, which are often found within low-income housing sectors. By focusing on buildings with the highest potential for energy savings, this approach offers targeted insights for utilities and city planners looking to prioritize energy reduction initiatives effectively. It highlights buildings where interventions could have the most substantial impact, both in terms of energy savings and cost efficiency.The next steps will involve validating the estimated savings against actual data. This validation process is crucial for refining the methodology and ensuring its applicability and accuracy in real-world scenarios. Focusing on high-consumption, low-income buildings, this study aims to reduce energy demand, enhance sustainability, and help vulnerable communities achieve greater energy efficiency.