Stander Symposium Projects

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  Prediction of Hydrocarbon Density with Machine Learning Models

  Austin Christopher Grewell

  The approval procedure for new sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) is a lengthy and costly process as it requires extensive testing. Several physicochemical properties must be measured for a new jet fuel, and their values must fall within specific required ranges. The ability to mitigate actual testing and measurements with predictive models would accelerate the certification process and reduce the associated costs. Machine learning (ML) algorithms are increasingly attractive tools for developing predictive models for the physicochemical properties of jet fuels.This project used machine learning methods to predict the density of hydrocarbon mixtures based on specific molecular descriptors. A dataset comprised of 17060 hydrocarbons with known density and corresponding molecular descriptors (group functionalities and topological indexes) was used to train ML models. Random forest and artificial neural networks were chosen as training algorithms. A hyperparameter optimization was used to determine the optimum parameters for each model.The random forest models trained with 80% of the dataset yielded R2 values greater than 0.98 for the remaining 20% of the dataset, indicating good performances and minimal to no overfitting. Models were tested on a set of random binary, tertiary and quaternary mixtures, yielding R2 values greater than 0.88.

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  Pre-health Interview Workshop

  Rachel Victoria Bull, Katarina Lucyna Lagodzinski, Kayla Deanne Ogburn

  This workshop is for Pre-Health students, or any other students who are interested in seeing what the Pre-Health interview process is like. The live mock interview session will allow students to hear feedback and commentary from the interviewer. In addition, there will be a Q&A session at the end for students. This will be a session helpful to under-classmen and juniors who have questions about the interview process. We hope this presentation will give students tips and insight into the interview process they will encounter in the future.

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  Preparation and Studies of New Difunctional Spirobicyclic Epoxy Monomers

  Andrew Michael Kelly

  We are presenting results on the investigation of a novel, spirocyclic, P-containing bifunctional epoxy compound, envisioned as a potential reactive flame retardant. We will report results from our synthesis efforts, the use of the target in epoxy formulations, and flammability studies of the resultant epoxy resins.

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  Preparing subunit vaccine for Influenza A virus and measuring its immune response in rats

  Kelechi Richie Okere

  Influenza A virus (IAV) is an enveloped, negative-sense, single-stranded, segmented RNA virus.It is one of the highly infectious viruses that resulted in at least 14 or more viral pandemics inhistory, including influenza virus pandemics in 1918, 1957, 1968, 1977, 2009, and 2013.Inactivated whole virus and live attenuated virus vaccines effectively control seasonal influenzavirus infections. Subunit vaccines are considered safer than inactivated or live attenuated virusvaccines, especially among elderly people. The current experiment in the Immunology lab (BIO496L) was designed to prepare a subunit vaccine for IAV using its nucleoprotein (NP) andanalyze for vaccine response in rats against the virus. IAV A-NP, strain A/PR/8/35 was mixedwith Freund's complete adjuvant and injected into the rats (Sprague Dawley) subcutaneouslyaccording to the University of Dayton IACUC protocol. A booster dose was given after oneweek of primary vaccination and blood was collected after two weeks of booster vaccination.The serum was separated and analyzed for IAV A nucleoprotein (NP) specific antibodies using aprecipitation test, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), and hemagglutination (HA)/hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays. Results showed IAV A nucleoprotein (NP) specificantibodies in the precipitation test, while ELISA showed a 10.74±0.71 increase in antigen-specific antibodies in the rat serum vaccinated with the subunit vaccine, whereas HA/HI assayshowed 80 HI units for influenza virus A neutralizing antibodies. Overall, the current experimentshowed that the subunit vaccine prepared in the lab induced a protective immune responseagainst the influenza A virus.

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  Probing for the developmental mechanisms underlying repeated tooth loss in frogs

  Jacob A. Szafranski

  Teeth have been lost several times during the evolution of vertebrates, resulting in toothlessness, but is most widespread in frogs with over 20 independent losses. Investigations in toothless fishes, reptiles, and mammals have found that the tooth development program is not completely lost. These species maintain early molecular signaling and can develop transient tooth bud rudiments prior to the termination of the tooth development program that is disrupted via multiple pathways (loss of expression for different genes). We investigated convergent tooth loss in frogs by examining a developmental series of several toothed and toothless species using histological sectioning, microanatomical investigation, and gene expression analyses. We hypothesized that several different mechanisms arrest tooth development in the upper jaw across toothless frog species that have independently lost teeth. Unexpectedly, we have found little anatomical or molecular evidence that the tooth development program initiates in the upper jaws of any toothless frog species investigated. These results suggest that frogs are capable of losing teeth without a trace, driven by an underlying mechanism that is distinct from the patterns identified in all other toothless vertebrates.

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  Problem based learning for a problem based society

  Brendan Patrick Lacke

  Since the 1960’s, problem-based learning, also known as PBL, teaches students lessons and morals through real-world problem examples. I will define Problem-based learning, discuss the history, and current application of this method in schools.

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  PUND Behavior of an HZO Device

  Tristan David Quach

  Ferroelectric materials form the backbone of silicon electronic memristor devices in silicon electronics and are gradually becoming more prevalent in silicon photonics for optical memory applications. In this context, hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO), an established material in the silicon electronics foundry, is making inroads in silicon photonics aided by its nearly zero absorption at near-infrared wavelengths that makes it compatible for integration with silicon photonic waveguides and resonators. A fundamental measurement technique to characterize ferroelectric material behavior is PUND. The acronym stands for positive up negative down. A PUND measurement is a series of five pulses based around the values of max voltage, period, and pulse width. PUND starts with a negative pulse used to preset the sample. The next two pulses are in positive volts. The last two pulses are in negative volts. This project aims to find ferroelectric properties of a HZO device using PUND measurements. To this end, the needed parameters for the PUND measurement must be found to adequately characterize the hysteresis behavior of the devices. The desired voltage and pulse width are 1V and 1 millisecond respectively. The pulse delay (the time from the end of one pulse to the start of the next) must be long enough to allow the device to discharge between PUND pulses. Once the necessary pulse delay for discharge between pulses is found, the number of PUND cycles the device must go through in order to show ferroelectric behavior, the wake-up effect, must be found. We will present initial measurement results.

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  PV Orientation Optimization for Residential & Commercial Buildings Considering Fixed & Bi-annual Orientation with a Constant or Varying Tariff

  Jacob J. Brenner

  Optimizing photovoltaic (PV) panels beyond the use of additional technology is one method that many have analyzed to make PV panels as valuable as possible. It often comes in the form of orienting the tilt and azimuth of a panel for the most energy collected. This does improve the value of PV panels, but there are other considerations for the optimum orientation, as having the most energy collected does not guarantee the greatest value. This has culminated in a great amount of analysis of the optimum orientation for revenue over the past decade. The goal of this study was to add to this growing analysis by analyzing cases of commercial and residential buildings across four separate cities in the US using three separate possible tariff plans that are shared amongst every location. Results for savings were found for each location and building type for annual and biannual orientations using PVWatts API version 8. It was found that the maximum difference in the percentage of savings for an annual energy bill between a panel oriented for the purpose of energy and one for savings is 2.45% for annual and 3.12% for biannual. It was also found that when export value is nonexistent the optimum orientation will go for collection during peak hours, and when export value is overwhelmingly larger than the import the optimum orientation will go towards the times when electricity is used the least. It was also found that commercial buildings have their optimum revenue orientation closer to the optimum orientation for energy than residential buildings, and so the overall differences between the two orientations for savings for commercial buildings is smaller.

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  Quantifying the impacts of precipitation seasonality and intensity on groundwater availability in Hosanna, Ethiopia.

  Rose H. Weisgerber

  Understanding the link between precipitation and groundwater is vital for ensuring water resources' availability, reliability, and sustainability, particularly in arid regions such as Ethiopia that are vulnerable to climate change. To understand the main controls of groundwater recharge and estimate the seasonal contribution of precipitation, we conducted a comprehensive water isotope study in Hosanna, southern Ethiopia. Due to the complex interconnection of climate, rainfall, and groundwater recharge in this region, we used multiple approaches. Using stable isotopes of Hydrogen (δD) and Oxygen (δ18O) as a conservative tracer, we developed a local meteoric water line (LMWL) and employed isotope mass balance. These analyses provide a quantitative estimate of groundwater recharged and recharge mechanisms.Additionally, Hybrid Single Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) modeling, correlation analysis of climate data, and intensity threshold analysis shed further light on the source of moisture, atmospheric, and climatic controls. Our findings indicate that precipitation in Hosanna mainly originates from recycled moisture sources, evidenced by d-excess, with the oceanic advected moisture seasonally alternating between the North and South Indian Oceans. The wet season provides most of the annual precipitation, with groundwater recharge biased (~65.5%) towards the wet season. However, the intensity threshold analysis suggests extreme rainfall events had the most significant impact on groundwater recharge. The amount-weighted δ18O values of five extreme precipitation events occur during the wet season and have a similar isotopic composition (0.86‰ difference) with the groundwater δ18O values. While wet season and high-intensity precipitation account for most groundwater recharge, slow diffuse recharge, focused recharge from rivers, and dry season precipitation account for the rest of groundwater recharge. This study establishes the source and main contributors of regional groundwater recharge in Hosanna. It provides invaluable information for surface water contaminant transport, water resource management, sustainable development, and climate change adaptation strategies.

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  Quantitative Concentration and Density Measurements in Subsonic and Supersonic Helium Jets Using Rainbow Schlieren Deflectometry

  Henry H. Jacques

  Rainbow Schlieren Defectometry (RSD) has been applied to acquire quantitative concentration and density measurements in both subsonic and supersonic conditions. Experiments were conducted using a helium jet expelled into air for two distinct regimes: initially laminar, momentum-driven at subsonic speeds, and subsequently at supersonic speeds. Comprehensive full-field measurements were captured, encompassing the laminar, transition, and fully turbulent regions of the jet in both subsonic and supersonic conditions. The subsonic (momentum-driven) regime was validated against Rayleigh scattering data in the literature. The supersonic regime utilizes a novel approach for acquiring density, where the mixing field is delineated into three portions: the potential core, the non-isobaric mixing shear layer, and the isobaric far field. Results from the RSD technique demonstrate robust mixing measurement capabilities for both subsonic and supersonic applications. The results from this work show promise for future applications involving the use of quantitative RSD for fuel injection studies.

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  Quantitative Methods for the Diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injury Using Eye Gaze and Biometric Sensors

  Tanner Anthony Cuttone, Nathaniel Robert Doll, Ryan J. French, Isabella M. Saylor, Meredith Katharine Tropeano

  This poster provides a summary of an IRB approved research study on the optical response of the human eye using a GazePoint eye tracking system and biometrics hardware. Pupil dilation, gaze position, blink rate, and reaction time were recorded for human subjects in response to various visual stimuli on a computer screen. In addition, heart rate and galvanic skin response were recorded using a suite of biosensors. The experimental tasks were designed with varying levels of complexity and included both memory-recall and computational tasks. The overall aim of this study was to establish baseline data sets across multiple demographics, which can be used in the future to advance clinical diagnostic methodologies using quantitative methods for various types of traumatic brain injury, including concussion.

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  Quantitative Scalar Supersonic Boundary Layer Measurements on a Conical Geometry using Rainbow Schlieren Deflectometry

  Joseph Kastner

  This study utilizes an optically accessible shock tube to emulate supersonic flow conditions for the purpose of a novel optical diagnostic development. A simple conical cone is used to develop a methodology to acquire full-field, quantitative scalar measurements in the boundary layer via Rainbow Schlieren Deflectometry (RSD). RSD will be implemented for the first time to record quantitative full-field density and pressure measurements inside the boundary layer. A parametric study is performed to investigate the full-field evolution of the density and pressure fields under the effects of Mach number. The results of this study will be validated with pressure probe data gathered from within the shock tube.

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  Quantization of Thermal Radiation in Blackbody Radiation

  Thomas Silvio De Santis, Matthew Joseph Sandor, Nathan Charles Sowder

  A black body is an ideal object that when heated emits thermal radiation but absorbs all radiation shined on it. In the early 1900’s physicists were interested in describing radiation emission of such objects, but to no avail. Classical physics was simply unequipped to describe black bodies. One theory, Rayleigh-Jeans equations, is one such failed attempt. One of the problems of using classical physics known at the time to describe blackbodies was the so called "ultraviolet catastrophe." The ultraviolet catastrophe comes about because classical physics assumes that energy is continuous and as such the calculated total energy emitted by a blackbody becomes infinite, which is physically unrealistic. Max Plank, a theoretical physicist, hypothesized that energy absorbed or emitted by molecules is quantized, thereby leading to what is known Planck's equation that solved the ultraviolet catastrophe and gave birth to a new field of physics called quantum mechanics. The theoretical treatment of black bodies has resulted in many applications. It is now used in medical and thermal imaging, understanding the temperature and composition of stars, just to mention a few.

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  Quantum Entanglement

  Claire Olivia Hogshead, Madeline L. O'Mahoney, Ian Jacob Sundeen

  Did you know that two particles could interact instantaneously across vast distances? This is possible through quantum entanglement. One way to do this is to correlate two particles in an entangled state. These particles can have two different spins, where the chance of a particle having either spin up or down is completely random. However, when the two particles are entangled and the spin of one particle is measured, the other entangled particle will always have the opposite spin. Strangely, this can happen regardless of the distance between them, exhibiting non-local interdependence! This “quantum spookiness” has been experimentally demonstrated with photons and electrons. Quantum entanglement has potential applications in many fields, particularly quantum computing and cryptography.

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  Quantum Field Theory : An Overview

  Joseph Michael Kopp

  Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is considered to be one of the most successful scientific theories of all time. It explains 3 of the 4 fundamental forces nearly perfectly, with the fourth being described by general relativity. In this poster, I will talk about what exactly a field theory is, the 3 fundamental types of fields, their equations, and their interactions, as well as give a few applications of QFT in physics.

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  Queer Joy on Our Screens

  Reagan Marie Lloyd

  This THR/VAR 250 Diversity in the Creative and Performing Arts poster presentation project requires each student to research and present on a topic relevant to the interdisciplinary fields of visual and performing arts through a critical multicultural and social justice lens that foregrounds the appreciation of diversity and enables the expansion of personal cultural competencies.

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  Rainfall Patterns in East Africa: Implications of ENSO and IOD on Precipitation Variability

  Elisabeth A. Arnold

  Precipitation in East Africa varies throughout the region, which is especially vulnerable to climate change due to its dependence on predictable precipitation for subsistence agriculture. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the changing seasonal and monthly patterns of rainfall in East Africa and their relation to ENSO and IOD using high resolution MSWEP data from 1980-2021. Northwestern and Southern East Africa experience one rainy season while equatorial East Africa experiences two rainy seasons. In most of the region with two rainy seasons, the first rainy season is longer with more precipitation and the second rainy season is shorter with less precipitation. Trends over time indicate that the long rains are getting shorter and bringing less rainfall, and that the short rains are increasing in duration and precipitation amount. The reduction in the long rains is greater than the increase in the short rains, and therefore the region is overall experiencing a reduction in precipitation. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) are climate patterns which impact worldwide precipitation, including East Africa. Monthly average precipitation throughout East Africa is influenced by the ENSO and IOD. The effect on mean monthly precipitation varies spatially.

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  Rainforest Conservation and Indigenous Communities

  Holly E. Conklin, Luis Andrés Ramírez Márquez, Aaliyah S. Rios

  The Kichwa people are a prime example of indigenous sustainability and stewardship in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. Through established cultural customs, they use sustainable hunting, fishing, and agricultural practices to coexist with the environment. These efforts are strengthened by cooperative projects with outside partners, which promote ecotourism and conservation initiatives. Threats like deforestation continue despite advancements, highlighting the necessity of continuous support for indigenous rights and traditional knowledge. The coexistence of the Kichwa with their surroundings provides an essential model for the conservation of rainforests, emphasizing the role that indigenous leadership plays in protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable livelihoods.Our presentation will focus on the Amazon rainforest and how the indigenous community, Kichwa, has been maintaining the rainforest. The research we have done helped us understand how economic and political concerns play a role in sustainability in the Amazon rainforest, specifically with conservation policies. There is an evident and urgent need to preserve and safeguard the world's forests. Indigenous communities, such as the Kichwa of the Amazon, have realized that action is necessary to stop the worst consequences of deforestation, climate change, and its effects on species. To achieve this, the Kichwa community in the Ecuadorian Amazon is putting cutting-edge, sustainable agroforestry techniques into practice.

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  Reading Matters

  Tyler David Lipari

  Reading comprehension is a critical skill for future success in students' lives. However, reading comprehension has been on the decline. This literature focuses on how reading as a whole is being taught in elementary schools and how their reading preparation prepares them for the future.

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  Real Estate Sector Stock Returns In a Rising Interest Rate Environment: An Empirical Analysis 1999-2023

  Xavier C. Martin

  Real estate sector stock returns generally vary with economic growth and inflation. In this study I examine the effect of rising Fed Funds Rates on real estate sector stock returns. I expect two possible outcomes. First, I expect rising Fed Funds Rates due to the need for the Fed to curb rising and high inflation will have a negative impact on real estate sector stock returns. Second, where rates are rising due simply to economic growth, the returns will most likely be positive. The overall period of analysis is 1999-2023. Within this time period, there are four separate sub periods of rising Fed Funds Rates. I use the top 20 stocks in the real estate sector to carry out my study.

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  Regan Holkema - Capstone Artist Presentation

  Regan Cecilia Holkema

  Regan Holkema is an undergraduate student at the University of Dayton. She aspires to be an illustrator and currently uses drawing and painting as her primary media, working primarily in graphite, ink washes, colored pencil and acrylic. Holkema’s work explores the human mind and complexities of human emotions, trials and tribulations, through the human figure and the incorporation metaphorical symbolism.

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  Regulation of catalase activity in Listeria monocytogenes by various environmental factors

  Madison Gillon

  Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterial foodborne pathogen that can lead to serious and potentially deadly gastrointestinal infections specifically in immunocompromised populations. In fact, Listeria infection is the third leading cause of death from food poisoning in the United States. During transmission, Listeria produces catalase to detoxify reactive oxygen species that can form as a byproduct of metabolism and immune defense in infected hosts. Furthermore, catalase production is critical to Listeria fitness and survival. In this study, I investigated how catalase production was regulated by propionate and oxygen. Propionate is a short chain fatty acid commonly found in the human gut microbiome and in food as an additive. Propionate exposure, whether in food matrices or in the intestinal lumen, typically takes place under anaerobic conditions. To measure catalase activity, hydrogen peroxide and Triton X-100 were added to anaerobic and aerobic cultures of Listeria with and without propionate. The catalase produced by Listeria breaks down the hydrogen peroxide releasing oxygen bubbles, which are then trapped in the Triton X-100 detergent. The height of the bubbles can then be measured to visually display and compare the catalase production under each experimental condition. These results will help us understand how Listeria regulates its catalase production.

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  Regulation of growth and patterning in the developing eye of Drosophilamelanogaster by the Hippo pathway coactivator yorkie and dorsal selectordefective proventriculus

  Rohith Basavanahalli Nanjundaiah

  The developing eye of Drosophila is a well-established model for studyingdevelopmental genetic processes and growth regulation. The developmental geneticnetworks discovered in Drosophila are highly conserved in all animals includinghigher mammals. Our long-term goal is to understand the molecular basis of Dorsal-Ventral patterning and growth in the eye by interactions of the dorsal selector genesand growth regulatory genes. We recently identified defective proventriculus (dve) asa candidate for dorsal-ventral eye patterning that acts as a transcriptional regulator.Gain of function of Dve, results in eye suppression, while loss of function of dve,exhibits dramatic eye enlargement phenotypes which raised an interesting question,whether the dorsal patterning gene dve, apart from its main function of specifyingcells fate, plays a dual role in regulating growth during eye development inDrosophila? We hypothesized that Dve may interact with the Hippo growthregulatory pathway to control patterning and growth of the eye. We tested theinteractions between Hippo pathway and dorsal-ventral patterning using the GAL4-UAS system and MARCM. To investigate whether yki is involved in dve domaingrowth, we used GAL4 drivers in the eye like Dve Gal4 to drive the spatiotemporalexpression of transgenes in the dorsal eye, and Ey-Gal4 and GMR-Gal4 to test theeffects of Dve and Yki modulations before and after MF formation in the larval eyeantennal disc. Initial data suggests genetic interactions between Hippo and DVpatterning genes are important in early eye development. We have tested wingless(wg) a known and conserved Hippo downstream target for Dve and Yki mediatedeffects using reporter assays, clonal analysis

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  Regulation of LLO production in response to anaerobic propionate exposure

  Sydney Krystine Herzog, Lauren E. Piper

  Listeria monocytogenes causes a serious infection when consumed in its typical contamination area, food. This bacteria can be extremely dangerous to sensitive populations, such as pregnant women, newborns, the geriatric population along with immunocompromised individuals. Listeria infections involve a coordinated expression of various virulence factors in response to changes in the environmental conditions. Our research team found that anaerobic propionate exposure upregulates the production of listeriolysin O (LLO) toxin at the transcriptional level. However, it is not clear whether there is a post-transcriptional regulation on LLO production. In this study, we used an IPTG-inducible LLO strain to answer the question. With 1 mM of IPTG as the transcriptional inducer, we found that anaerobic propionate significantly increased LLO production compared to no propionate control. However, with 10 mM of IPTG, the enhancement effects from propionate were absent. We then used a cell culture model of infections to test the infection outcomes of IPTG induction with or without propionate and found that propionate treatment did not result in enhanced infections. Therefore, while additional experiments are needed to confirm the effects of IPTG on transcript levels, there are likely post-transcriptional regulations to help Listeria respond to anaerobic propionate exposure.

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  Relationship Exploration through Music: Treatment Considerations for Adolescents with Attachment Trauma

  Jaylee A. Sowders

  Interpersonal relationships are key to navigating our understanding of ourselves, others, and the world. However, our ability to form and maintain healthy relationships depends greatly on our experiences as children. Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, suggests that our initial relationships and their characteristics can impact our sense of comfort and safety in later attachments (Bretherton, 1992). Challenges and trauma in attachment at a young age may hinder a child’s development into adulthood where interpersonal relationships are key to navigating our academic, professional, and personal environments. If left unaddressed, these challenges can become exacerbated in adolescence as teenagers form more concrete understandings of themselves and the world (Dubois-Comtois, et al., 2013). Understanding the lasting psychological impact of attachment trauma is necessary to discovering appropriate and effective ways of addressing these struggles.With a focus on equity and accessibility in mental healthcare, this study is centered in music therapy assessment and treatment with teenage clients facing attachment trauma and the role of music as a communicative resource and symbolic object for attachment. This presentation will feature the findings of an undergraduate honors thesis project, supplemented by research at the University of Oxford, that will include a review of attachment theory and music therapy literature and qualitative research and thematic content analysis of interviews with credentialed music therapists working with this client group. This study aims to analyze the affordances, risks, and challenges of music therapy experiences in helping adolescents with attachment trauma to explore their internal patterns of attachment and develop strategies to form healthier future attachments.