Stander Symposium Projects

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  Making Adafruit Circuit playground Express as a mouse

  Sri Viswa Naga Sai Tejaswi Karimi

  In this project, we are using Adafruit circuit playground express as a mouse. We will show you how to quickly and easily emulate a mouse on an Circuit Playground Express with the help of Circuit python. In this project, we can Simulate mouse clicks with another device,Assistive Technology, Making a mouse jiggler to keep a computer from falling asleep and whatever the actions performed by mouse we can do using Circuit playground express. To do this project, we only need Circuit playground express and USB cable - USB A to Micro-B.

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  Male Coloration Preferences between Females of Sunburst and Rainbow Color Morphs

  William Ogburn, Lindsey Litterer, Noah Jones-Beyene, Destiny Cratsenberg

  Xiphophorus maculatus, or the platy, have several linebred color morphs that have wide ranges of color that differ greatly from the wild type coloration. Brighter coloration in male livebearers has shown to affect mate choice in females (Kodric-Brown & Nicoletto, 2001). The females are shown to be attracted to the males who have the more colorful pigmintaiton. This study examined differences in male mate selection between two female color morphs, the sunset wag morph and the rainbow morph. We hypothesized that males will choose to spend time on the side of the tank of their own morph. This was tested by creating a tank with 3 chambers. A male was placed in the middle and females were placed in the outside chambers. BORIS was used to observe and track the time the male spent on each side and the orientation of the male throughout the assay. Behaviors like what side of the tank the males were on, if there was any orientation on a specific female, and any possible aggression were all recorded into BORIS. We found that males have a preference towards the side of the tank containing the female of the same color morph. The results of this experiment helped to further our understanding of mate selection based on color while also producing potential insights on how human line breeding can alter mate selection.

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  Measuring Mycorrhizal Colonization: Estimating Percent Root Length Colonization on Quercus Macrocarpa Seedlings Following One Growing Season

  Madelaine Gregory

  Industrial agriculture is an increasingly prevalent practice within the Midwest and along with this practice lies the issue of abandonment of these sites. This study takes place at the Great Miami Mitigation bank which was previously used for agriculture for at least 80 years. The primary goal of this study is to investigate the influence of previously established seeding mixes and soil amendments on the microbial community. These treatments were applied with the intention of facilitating succession in a post agricultural field by deducing what treatments most effectively produced optimal conditions for microbes to establish symbiotic relationships with native seedlings. Treatments applied to the study site were incorporated to achieve an intermediate prairie with the long-term goal of establishing a mature oak-hickory forest. EMF colonization will be estimated to deduce what treatments support the establishment of the microbial community. Additionally, from these results, it can be determined if there is a correlation between intensity of colonization and factors such as plant community structure, enzyme activity and biomass of Q. Macrocarpa seedlings. A total of 480 Quercus macrocarpa seedlings were established at our study site in May of 2022. Following this, in Fall of 2022 80 Q. Macrocarpa seedlings were collected after one growing season for the purpose of assessing EMF colonization. While results are preliminary, thus far analysis has shown that percent root length colonization was not significantly different when looking at the seeding mix and soil amendments together and individually. Additionally, there was no difference in percent root length colonization and the biomass of the seedlings as a total unit and the biomass of the root system. Further analysis needs to be done to determine if there is any correlation between root colonization and the structure of the plant community as well as enzyme activity.

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  Measuring the height of the object

  Tharun Reddy Junnuthula

  In this project, we will measure the height of the object using Circuit Playground Circuit Express. Here Circuit Playground turns into an inclinometer, which is a device that can determine the angle of something relative to the horizontal. To do this we only need a Circuit playground express, 3 3 x AAA Battery Holder, and 3 x AAA Batteries. In this project, we use the accelerometer which is located on the circuit playground. We can see the changes in values when we try to shake or rotate the circuit playground express.

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  Measuring wetland restoration success through water quality and invertebrate community indices

  Abbey Raison

  Wetland restoration projects are essential to preserving these imperiled ecosystems. While restoring lost or degraded wetlands is the first step, determining the success of restoration efforts is often difficult or only focuses on one aspect of an ecosystem. To address these shortfalls, I determined the success of wetland restoration through traditional (i.e., water quality testing and plant composition) and non-traditional methods (i.e., terrestrial and aquatic insect sampling) in established and restored wetlands in Ohio. I determined water quality using a YSI probe and measured dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and temperature in each wetland. The values collected for these characteristics were compared to established wetlands and known standard water health metrics. I determined plant composition by estimating the percent cover of plant species found within 5-0.25 m circle plots. Lastly, I used sweep nets for terrestrial insect collection and dip nets for aquatic macroinvertebrate collection. These samples were sorted, counted, and identified to order in the lab to determine how terrestrial insect and aquatic macroinvertebrate community indices indicate the health of restored wetlands. Initial results indicate that insect abundance in restored wetlands was greater than in established wetlands, which was likely driven by restored wetlands having higher plant species richness. Our initial results indicate that a diverse plant community in restored areas may serve as a habitat for aboveground insects, which could have cascading beneficial effects on the rest of the ecosystem.

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  Media’s Role in a Democratic Society: A Systematic Review of Normative Role

  Zoe Hill, Nick Thompson

  Normative role in a democratic society is an evolving facet of the journalism profession that is rooted in the democratic and philosophic traditions of Western culture. Normative theory simply seeks to define the roles journalism plays in society while analyzing the complexities of the impact those roles have through the lens of philosophical traditions, political systems, and media systems. While seeking to update and expand upon the "Four Theories of the Press" laid out by Siebert et al. (1956), Christians et al. (2009) enunciated four roles of journalism to be scrutinized by these means: the monitorial role, the facilitative role, the radical role, and the collaborative role (p. 133). Analogous to the three branches of government, the four normative roles of journalism help identify and explain how media interacts with the government, audiences, and the society at large. As the landscape of the journalism profession changes over time with the advent of new technologies, government structures, societal values, political motives, and economic trends, the roles of journalism and how scholars analyze them too have shifted and propose new possibilities to answer the question, “what is and what should be the media’s role in a democratic society?” (Christians et al., 2009, p. vii).

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  Metal Wick Manufacturing for Solar Panel Cooling and Salt-Water Desalination

  Emily Mann

  Thermal control systems are integral to maintaining efficient and reliable solar power panels. A proposed method of energy capture in disaster areas includes creating floating solar panel areas that are cooled by the ocean water beneath them and also will provide a small amount of desalinated water. Sintered porous wicks will be used to move salt water up to the back of the solar panel to provide cooling while also desalinating the water. Wicks created in a variety of methods, environments, and materials are being studied to analyze the effect they have on permeability and porosity to determine the type of wick most effective in this application. The resulting wick must make enough capillary pressure to move water through it while having small enough pores to remove the salt from the water.

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  Methods for Exploiting High Resolution Imagery for Deep Learning Based Diabetic Retinopathy Detection and Grading

  Adam Saunders

  Diabetic retinopathy is a disease that affects the eyes of people with diabetes, and it can cause blindness. To diagnose diabetic retinopathy, ophthalmologists image the back surface of the inside of the eye, a process referred to as fundus photography. Ophthalmologists must then diagnose and grade the severity of diabetic retinopathy by analyzing details in the image, which can be difficult and time-consuming. Alternatively, due to the availability of labeled datasets containing fundus images with diabetic retinopathy, AI methods like deep learning can provide automated detection and grading algorithms. These deep learning algorithms sometimes use images at a much lower resolution than is available from fundus photography. However, we show that the resolution of a image has a large effect on the accuracy of the algorithm. Here, we study several techniques to increase the accuracy of the algorithm by taking advantage of higher-resolution data, including increasing the network input size, introducing a region-of-interest channel, and using a non-uniform downsampling approach.

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  Micronaut Velocity interface that provides a way to control the 8×8 Led Matrix from SenseHat

  Nayana Boppana

  Micronaut Velocity is a lightweight and high-performance web framework that enables developers to build microservices in the Java programming language. The Raspberry PI is a small, low-cost computer that can be used for a variety of projects, including home automation, robotics, and IoT applications. The SenseHat is an add-on board for the Raspberry PI that includes a range of sensors, including an 8x8 LED matrix. In this abstract, we explore the use of Micronaut Velocity interface that provides a way to control the 8x8 LED matrix from SenseHat. By leveraging the power of Micronaut Velocity with the SenseHat LED matrix, a responsive and interactive user interface can be build which enables users to control the LED matrix.The SenseHat LED matrix will be controlled using Java, which can be integrated with Micronaut Velocity to provide a seamless user experience. The LED matrix can display a range of colors and patterns, which can be used to create eye-catching displays.

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  MinLoss-VAE: Min-Loss Parallel Variational Autoencoders with Categorical Latent Space

  Fangshi Zhou

  Recently variational autoencoders (VAE) have become one of the most popular generative models in deep learning. It can be applied to generate images, audio, text, and other data. We propose a novel parallel structure for Gumbel-Softmax VAEs, which combines m ≥ 1 parallel VAEs with different annealing mechanics for softmax temperature τ and adjusts τ at each training epoch based on the minimum loss from these VAEs. Our preliminary experiments demonstrate that our model with m > 1 (e.g., m = 5) outperforms the model with m = 1 in generative processes, adversarial robustness, and denoising.

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  miR-277 ameliorates Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration in Drosophila eye model of Alzheimer’s Disease

  Prajakta Deshpande, Anuradha Chimata Venkatakrishnan; other authors: Chao-Yi Chen, Catherine Yeates, Chun-Hong Chen, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

  Alzheimer’s disease (AD), an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder, exhibits reduced cognitive functions with no cure to date. One of the reasons for AD is the extracellular accumulation of Amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) plaques. We misexpressed human Aβ42 in the developing retina of Drosophila, which exhibits AD-like neuropathology. Accumulation of Aβ42 plaque(s) triggers aberrant signaling resulting in neuronal cell death by unknown mechanism(s). We screened for microRNAs (miRNAs) which post-transcriptionally regulate expression of genes by degrading mRNA of the target genes. In a forward genetic screen with candidate miRNAs, we identified miR-277 as a genetic modifier of Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration. Gain-of-function of miR-277 rescues Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration whereas loss-of-function of miR-277 enhances Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration. Moreover, misexpression of higher levels of miR-277 in the GMR>Aβ42 background restores the retinal axonal targeting indicating functional rescue. Here we provide a mechanism of how miR-277 modulates Aβ42-mediated neurodegeneration and demonstrate its neuroprotective role in Aβ42-mediated neuropathology.

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  MIS and OPS Senior Capstone Projects

  Krista Schlinger

  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 Cosultants and Managers to guide the project from inception until conclusion by delivering solutions and delivealbes to the client. Students produce project documentation and formal presentations at mulitiple stages of the project and conclude with proesentations to the supporting Client's Leadership Team.

  View a complete list of projects and presenters online.

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  Mitigation of JavaScript-Based Fingerprinting Attacks Reliant on Client Data Generation

  Nathan Joslin

  Although fingerprinting methods are currently used by fraud detection companies as a secondary form of identification, they can just as easily be used maliciously. By nature, fingerprinting reveals software and hardware information that malicious attackers may use to their advantage. Attackers with access to this sensitive information may target users running a software version known to have vulnerabilities, silently track a user’s activity across the web, or even reveal a user’s identity. Additionally, fingerprinting is silent and often done without the user knowing their fingerprint is being collected. As a result, it is nearly impossible for average users to opt out of or block fingerprinting attacks.In this thesis, we leverage the MyWebGuard browser extension developed by Phung et al. to enforce dynamic policies on web pages that engage in device fingerprinting. MyWebGuard implements an Inline Reference Monitor (IRM) to supervise the JavaScript operations carried out on web pages. Three types of JavaScript operations are monitored: method calls, object creation and access, and property access. When these operations are executed the IRM intercepts them, allowing for policy enforcement. As this policy enforcement mechanism monitors JavaScript operations, it is an excellent method to mitigate JavaScript-based fingerprinting. In this work, we will focus on monitoring dynamic fingerprinting methods that rely on generating unique data rather than collecting static attributes. As for the mitigation approach, we chose a randomization method rather than normalization or domain-based blocking. This “moving target” approach is intended to constantly change a given device’s fingerprint over time, making it increasingly difficult for malicious actors to track a device across the web. Further motivation behind this mitigation method is to limit major site breakage, a phenomenon common with current anti-fingerprinting technologies, while protecting user privacy.

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  Mock Trial Team Presentation

  Xavier Russell, Arabella Loera, Antonino Lacorte, Katherine Hoener, Lydia Artz, Madeleine Onderak, Noah Baker, Skylar Christian, Sasha Embry, Liam Row

  The University of Dayton Mock Trial Team presents Ari Felder v. Koller Campbell Air LLC. This presentation will feature fragmented performances of an air crash negligence case put on by Dayton Mock Trial members. These members have spent most of the school year learning all about this case and competing against other schools across the nation. During this presentation, there will also be time for the audience to ask questions about the case and about mock trial. This will be a great opportunity for students who have an interest in the law and/or public speaking to see an effective way to further explore those interests while in undergrad and beyond.

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  Modeling Mobile Visualization for Medical Reports of Complex Chronic Diseases

  Sankarshan Dasgupta

  Visualizing medical histories of patients with complex chronic diseases (e.g., discordant chronic comorbidities (DCCs)) is a challenge for patients, their healthcare providers, and their support network. DCCs are health conditions in which patients have multiple, often unrelated, chronic illnesses that may need to be addressed concurrently but may also be associated with conflicting treatment instructions. Future work targeting to reduce treatment conflicts and improve patient quality of life and care should carefully examine and visualize DCCs medical reports, symptoms, and treatment recommendations. In this study, we explore various visualization models and paradigms. We analyze how these models and paradigms are applied to visualize multifaceted medical data. We then propose a model for transforming the unstructured data into temporal slices and depict them in a single graphic model. We report how we carefully moved multifaceted DCC records into; structured data tables, visualization graphs, and various hardware devices.

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  Modeling the Benefits of Pandemic Interventions

  Nicholas Holden

  According to the CDC since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the USA has had approximately 103.5 million Covid cases. To find the best way to control the disease, additional mathematical models are useful to predict what would happen in various situations. This project aims to analyze the outcomes of different interventions to determine the most effective strategies for responding to a pandemic. I used an SIR model to model how disease spreads through the population and looked at different intervention methods for controlling outbreaks. Some of these methods include, targeting vaccinations, mass quarantines, and contact tracing. I implemented simulations to keep track of important outcomes such as total infections and most infections on any single day. I examined the targeted vs. untargeted vaccine distribution strategies, the optimal timing for going into mass quarentine, and the impact of contact tracing. From these different methods we can see how to limit the spread or flatten the curve so people can live healthier lives.

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  Modeling the Distribution of Stock Returns

  Rachel Sebastian

  An important topic in finance is the question: What types of statistical models can characterize the distribution of stock returns? Stocks are partial shares of a company, and stock returns are a way to measure price changes and show the value of the company. While previous research considered the normal distribution, many articles have found this distribution does not accurately fit stock return data. In our study we investigate how well normal and alternative distributions fit stock return data from the S&P Index and Russell 2000. The alternative distributions explored were lognormal, Laplace, and Cauchy. Using quantile plots, alternative distributions, and measures of fit, we found that distributions other than the normal provide a better model for the indices tested. In addition, the best parameters for the alternative distributions vary depending on the measure of fit. Which distributions best characterize stock returns is an ongoing subject of study, but our findings suggest that non-normal distributions may provide a better model for the distribution of stock returns.

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  Moderating Role of Experiential Similarity on the Relationship Between Social Support and Posttraumatic Growth

  Avery Lytle

  Background and objectives: Trauma exposure is associated with negative outcomes like posttraumatic stress disorder. However, not everyone reports distress; resilience is common. Some even report improved psychological functioning following trauma, termed posttraumatic growth (PTG). Numerous factors are implicated in PTG development, many related to cognitive processing of the event. Outside of cognitive factors, one of the strongest promoters of PTG is social support, but less is known about what types of support are most facilitative. Of potential importance is experiential similarity, or the extent to which the support person has experienced shared elements of one’s trauma. The present study examined whether social support with higher experiential similarity was more strongly associated with PTG than support without experiential similarity. Methods: Bootstrapping procedures in the PROCESS macro for SPSS tested experiential similarity as a moderator of the relation between social support satisfaction and PTG. Six models were tested, each with total PTG or one of the five domains of growth (new possibilities, relating to others, personal strength, spiritual change, and appreciation for life) as outcomes. Results: Only when considering new possibilities as the outcome was experiential similarity a significant moderator, such that only individuals reporting very high levels of similarity and support reported more new possibilities. Similarity did not moderate in the other models. When direct effects were examined, social support was negatively associated with new possibilities and had no significant relations with total growth or the other four domains. Experiential similarity was positively associated with new possibilities and negatively associated with relating to others. Conclusions: In this sample of college undergraduates, experiential similarity does not appear to be a critical aspect of social support that is influential of growth. Future research should determine whether this is sample-specific, or whether other factors such as demographic similarity might be more facilitative of growth.

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  Modern Solutions for Modern day problems - Efficient and Conservative approach of electrical devices around us

  Vyshakh Chandra Prabhu

  My proposed smart home system is comprised of following features like controlling household electrical appliances over the web remotely and also capable of actively monitoring the device status and update the report constantly in customized web portal. Using PID concepts (Sensor reading and record values) the device adjusts by controlling other devices to maintain the room temperature to a specified range, taking care of higher decibels sound, any emergency situations, robbery alert or a theft alert. Planning to use multiple sensors which can be interlinked to identify the temperature of the place to respond to voice commands and making a smart home.

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  Monitor and Manage water Usage in Residential Buildings

  Yeshwanth Nimma

  ABSTARCTMonitor and manage water usage in residential buildings.The project's objective is to support sustainable water usage habits while assisting families in reducing their water usage and utility costs. The project might be divided into two sections to accomplish this: Section 1: Collecting meaningful data Install water flow sensors in the apartment's various rooms, including the yard, kitchen, and bathrooms.Get information on water usage trends over a period of time, preferably one month or longer.Analyze the data using data science approaches to pinpoint locations where water use might be decreased. Detecting plumbing system leakage or high water usage at particular times of the day are two examples.Create a web-based dashboard to show the data and provide the household's occupants insights.Section 2: Automating water usage Create an automated water consumption control system based on the insights from the data analysis. For instance, if it rains, the water supply to the garden is immediately cut off, and the water flow to the bathroom is decreased at certain times.Create a warning system to inform the home's occupants of leaks or unusual water use habits. Challenges: Finding the proper sensors and technology for this project's water flow and pressure measurements will be one of its problems.Creating a trustworthy algorithm to automate water use while preserving the occupants' security and comfort would be another problem.

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  Moral Injury

  John Batten, Jack Walsh, Grace O'Malley

  Moral injury has much in common with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but is a distinct kind of harm resulting from an experience that affronts core values and shatters one's sense of moral order. This poster will explain moral injury as a kind of trauma and identify ways the UD community can both support those who are healing from moral injury and work to prevent further injury from happening.

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  Motion Analysis in Still Images

  Reema Tharra

  In this project, we study the motion in still images. In particular, we collect a dataset of still images with motion. Then, we extract the saliency maps from the images. Next, we build a deep learning classifier on different image sets, namely, color images, gray scale images, and saliency map. The insights gained from this work help understand the motion analysis from still images.

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  Multi functional robot

  Yamini Chandrashekar

  The main aim of the project is to detect the metal near by to the sensor. Whenever the metalis brought near the sensor (inductor) a buzzer is produced from the speaker and whenever themetal is removed the sound is switched off. As the magnetic flux passes through the someopaque objects such as plastics, cloth, etc., by which we can detect any metal hiding someobjects.This Work is based on Arduino, motor driver and Bluetooth module. Arduino is anopensource prototyping platform Based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino usesan ATmega328 microcontroller. Since robotics has become a major part in our daily life andalso in the engineering field and it plays a vital role in the development of new technology.This is a very simple and easy type form of remote control car, where the ordinary microcontroller has been replaced by Arduino and IR sensors has been replaced by a Bluetoothmodule. The remote can be any android or IOS cell phones. This project can be made in abigger scale for real time vehicles.

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  Multiple Breast Cancer Tumor Interactions in a Microfluidic Platform

  Elizabeth Avera

  Breast cancer has been the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. It is estimated that 15-25% of breast cancer cases are classified as multifocal (MF) or multicentric (MC). MF and MC breast cancers, compared with unifocal breast cancers, tend to be more aggressive and are associated with lower survival rates, higher recurrence, and lymph node metastasis. This project studied the interactive behaviors between multiple breast cancer tumors using an in vitro model combined of three-dimensional breast cancer spheroids and microfluidics technology. We determined that the MF/MC breast cancer spheroids moved across their extracellular matrix, shortening the distance between each other by 871.1±602.7 um and 765.846±547.7 um, for 3 and 2 MF/MC breast cancer spheroids respectively, over 72 hours. There was no significant change in individual breast cancer spheroids area over 72 hours, but in the multiple setup spheroids tended to merge into a larger one. Initial observations depict nonuniform collagen extracellular matrix expression after 72 hours in the MF/MC model. We anticipate this is due to degradation of the collagen extracellular matrix over time caused by the MF/MC spheroids. This study helps broaden our understanding of the characteristics and invasive mechanisms of MF/MC breast cancer tumors, allowing us to better predict patient prognosis and suggest novel targets for breast cancer treatments in subsequent studies.

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  Multi-Robot Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion with Probabilistic Evader Models

  Mukilan Ashokraj Rajapriya

  This project presents an algorithm for a Multi-Robot Visibility-Based Pursuit-Evasion problem in a 2-Dimensional polygonal environment where a team of pursuers attempts to locate an unknown number of evaders given that the pursuers have access to a probabilistic model which describes how the evaders are likely to move in the environment. We present an algorithm to compute a joint plan for pursuers that considers two criterion; the expected time to capture the evaders, and the guaranteed (maximal) time to capture all of the evaders. The desired outcome of our algorithm is a plan for the pursuers that returns a relatively low expected time to capture without drastically increasing the guaranteed time to capture. Intuitively, this can be viewed as a “re-routing” of the pursuers in order to locate more evaders, sooner, than a naive uninformed search. The algorithm proceeds in two phases that we term an “exploitation” phase and an “exploration” phase. We beginthe exploitation phase by first drawing a collection of representative samples from the probabilistic model describing potential evader behavior. We then compute a joint plan for the pursuers that captures all of these sampled evader trajectories. We then proceed tothe exploration phase which provides a complete solution by appending additional pursuer motions to the plan computed during the exploit phase. The resulting strategy ensures that all evaders are located, regardless of whether they follow the probabilistic model or not. Weplan to evaluate our algorithm in simulation to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach.