2022

Sarkhan Badirli
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Fine-Grained Zero-Shot Object Classification
Advisor: Mehmet M. Dundar, Ph.D.
This research has the ability to address some major societal issues in climate change such as changing insect distributions and measuring biodiversity. We believe our research can also facilitate engaging scientists and non-scientists alike in the collection and identification of biodiversity across the world.

Courtney Cruse
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Thesis: Spectroscopic and Thermal Analysis of Explosive and Related Compounds via Gas Chromatography/Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (GC/VUV)
Advisor: John V. Goodpaster, Ph.D.
This research will help advance forensic science for the analysis of explosive compounds and their post-blast residues.

Sepehr Farhand
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Bottom-Up, Context-Driven Visual Object Understanding
Advisor: Gavriil Tsechpenakis, Ph.D.
This research will help us develop systems that understand and quantify content from images and videos, building information from pixels to contextual objects without prior knowledge.

Seyed Hamed Meshkin
Physics
Thesis: Protein Folding and Identifying Conformational Changes of Membrane Proteins
Advisor: Fangqiang Zhu, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand protein's mechanisms and thermodynamics which is beneficial for drug discovery.

Igor Ogashawara
Applied Earth Sciences
Thesis: Improving Remote Sensing Algorithms Towards Inland Water Cyanobacterial Assessment from Space
Advisor: Lin Li, Ph.D.
This research will help us to improve the monitoring of water quality using satellite images.

Lei Pan
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Thesis: Base- and Visible Light-Promoted Activation of Aryl Halides under Transition-Metal-Free Conditions: Applications and Mechanistic Studies
Advisor: Sébastien Laulhé, Ph.D.
This research will help develop reaction methodologies that have a reduced environmental footprint.

Ruiguang Pan
Applied Earth Sciences
Thesis: Metamorphic P-T Path and Multiple Fluid Infiltrations During Burial and Exhumation of the Tso Morari UHP Terrane, NW Himalaya
Advisor: Catherine A. Macris, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand how the Himalaya mountain formed and affects human life.

Jay Sunil Patel
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Longitudinal Relationships Between Depressive Symptom Clusters and Inflammatory Biomarkers Implicated in Cardiovascular Disease in People with Depression
Advisor: Jesse C. Stewart, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand whether certain symptoms of depression may increase the risk of heart disease due to inflammation.

Miji Um
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: The Role of Positive Urgency in Alcohol-Related Risk-Taking: An Experimental Investigation
Advisor: Melissa A. Cyders, Ph.D.
This research will help us find a novel treatment target for alcohol use in the future.

Yu Wang
Mathematical Sciences
Thesis: A Study of the Volatility Structure for Top Traded Stocks
Advisor: Hanxiang Peng, Ph.D.
This research studies the volatility of top traded stocks.

Zheyuan Wang
Computer Information Science
Thesis: An Effective Framework of Autonomous Driving Based on Sensing Road Motion Profiles
Advisor: Jiang Yu Zheng, Ph.D.
This research will help us develop autonomous vehicle technology and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Ruchi Bansal
Biology
Thesis: Cilia Associated Signaling in Adult Energy Homeostasis
Advisor: Nicolas F. Berbari, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand obesity and develop new treatments in the future.

Wen-Hao Chiang
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Machine Learning and Data Science on Social Good
Advisor: George O. Mohler, Ph.D.
This research focuses on modeling and analyzing the events with contagious/self-exciting behavior. It covers wide applications, including drug overdose events, earthquake forecasting and spread prediction of the pandemic. The models infer the infectivity within these events and simulate the events for the future. Statistical analysis is performed on the datasets to understand better how the events can trigger one to the other. One specific research area is to make a prediction on the number of COVID cases based on inferred reproduction numbers with mobility covariates. We can successfully forecast future COVID events based on how actively people move between cities.

Derek Keith Gibson
Applied Earth Sciences
Thesis: Evaluating the Effects of Synoptic-Scale Climatic Processes on Local-Scale Hydrology through Multi-Proxy Analyses of Lacustrine Sediments
Advisor: Broxton W. Bird, Ph.D.
Multiple research methods were used to reconstruct past climate change in North and South America and to investigate the impacts of those changes on local water resources and other hydrologic processes.

Jacob Lee
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Thesis: The Surface Chemistry of 2D Nanomaterials
Advisor: Rajesh Sardar, Ph.D.
The fundamental knowledge regarding nanomaterials gained from this research will help develop improved and affordable future technologies using renewable solar energy.

Adrianna Nichole Masterson
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Thesis: Fabricating Multiplexed and High-Throughput Nanoplasmonic-Based Biosensor Platforms for Cancer and SARS-CoV-2 Diagnosis
Advisor: Rajesh Sardar, Ph.D.
This research includes the development of a more accurate and sensitive diagnostic platform for the early detection of bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer, and COVID-19.

Muhammad Fazuan Bin Abdul Karim
Applied Social and Organizational Psychology
Thesis: Being Pushed and Pulled in Different Directions: Examining People's Ambivalence toward Transgender-Specific Policies
Advisor: Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand how ambivalence (simultaneously having positive and negative feelings about something) may affect people's support for specific transgender policies.

Kaustubh Shrikant Agarwal
Physics
Thesis: Beyond the Exceptional Point: Exploring the Features of Non-Hermitian PT Symmetric Systems
Advisor: Yogesh N. Joglekar, Ph.D.
This theoretical research helps us to understand open systems to make sensitive sensors for instruments in platforms like quantum photonics and electrical circuits.

Tracy Marie Anastas
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Examining the Effects of Contextually-Imposed Cognitive Load on Providers' Chronic Pain Treatment Decisions for Racially and Socioeconomically Diverse Patients
Advisor: Adam T. Hirsh, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand how medical providers make chronic pain care decisions for racially and socioeconomically diverse patients. It may lead to interventions that reduce disparities in pain care.

Guo Cheng
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Sequential Semantic Segmentation of Road Profiles for Autonomous Driving
Advisor: Jiang Yu Zheng, Ph.D.
This research will help us develop an effective and efficient perception module for an autonomous vehicle. It has significant applications to implementation of artificial intelligence in mobile devices.

Ian Charles Fischer
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Posttraumatic Stress and Depressive Symptoms and Symptom Clusters in U.S. Military Personnel: The Longitudinal Effects of General Self-Efficacy and Meaning in Life
Advisor: Kevin L. Rand, Ph.D.
The results of this research demonstrate higher levels of meaning in life are associated with less severe symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress in U.S. Military personnel.

Melanie Watkins Fischer
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Nutrition Enhancement in Early Psychosis (NEEP): A Feasibility Trial of Enhanced Nutrition with Text Messaging and a Dietary Tracking Mobile Application
Advisor: Michelle P. Salyers, Ph.D.
People with psychotic disorders are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease and early mortality. One of these contributing factors is poor diet quality. This research tests a novel mobile intervention to improve diet quality in people with first episode psychosis utilizing smart phone technology.

Matthew Grabowski
Applied Social and Organizational Psychology
Thesis: An Investigation of Organizational Democracy as a Predictor of Hierarchy Attenuation through Individual Participation in Organizational Decision-Making
Advisor: Leslie Ashburn-Nardo, Ph.D.
This research investigates whether organizations that operate democratically are more likely to have gender and racial equity compared to non-democratically operated organizations. This research may help develop better organizational practices that relieve gender and racial disparities in our society.

Alexandra Elizabeth Hochstetler
Biology
Thesis: Assessing a Role for Transient Receptor Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) in Cerebrospinal Fluid Homeostasis
Advisor: Bonnie L. Blazer-Yost, Ph.D.
Hydrocephalus is a condition which occurs due to excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain ventricular system. This research presents a strong preclinical proof-of-concept study and futher proof-of-mechanism studies to implicate inhibitors of the TRPV4 channel as a potential drug treatment for hydrocephalus.

Wenzhe Jiao
Applied Earth Sciences
Thesis: Examining Ecosystem Drought Responses using Remote Sensing and Flux Tower Observations
Advisor: Lixin Wang, Ph.D.
This research provides new drought monitoring methods and a systematic review about how multiple sensors of remote sensing could better be used to study drought impacts on ecosystems under climate change. This will help us better understand the increasingly limited water supply and will help us better prepare for the impact of drought over large regions.

Samira Khorshidi
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Adversarial Attacks and Defense Mechanisms against Deep Point Processes
Advisor: George O. Mohler, Ph.D.
This research will help us as humans to understand artificial intelligence and also makes artificial intelligence more trustworthy.

Matthew L. Lanning
Applied Earth Sciences
Thesis: Quantifying the Responses of Vegetation to Environmental Stresses
Advisor: Lixin Wang, Ph.D.
This research will help with identifying how the productivity and water use of vegetation responds to large scale stressors like acid deposition, drought, and climate change.

Sailee Sham Lavekar
Biology
Thesis: Analyses of the Development and Function of Stem Cell Derived Cells in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Advisor: Jason S. Meyer, Ph.D.
This research delves into the neurodegenerative characteristics using stem cell derived cell types for diseases such as glaucoma and Alzheimer's disease. This will help to better understand the interactions between the human patient derived glaucoma affected retinal cells and the human blood brain barrier to help identify factors involved in the barrier dysfunction in glaucoma.

Xueying Liu
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Solving Latent Variable Estimation Problems from Heterogenous and Network Hawkes Processes
Advisor: George O. Mohler, Ph.D.
This research will enhance understanding on problems that have a spreading pattern, such as contagious diseases, social networking and drug overdosing in the community.

Lauren Elizabeth Mehok
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: The Role of Observer: Gender and Attitudes Towards Emotional Expression in the Provision of Emotional and Instrumental Support for Peers with Pain
Advisor: Adam T. Hirsh, Ph.D.
This research will help us to understand factors that influence willingness to provide social support to peers with pain.

Jacob Edward Muldoon
Physics
Thesis: Exceptional Points and their Consequences in Open, Minimal Quantum Systems
Advisor: Yogesh N. Joglekar, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand how quantum behavior is lost, and how to slow that degradation.

Catherine Jenifer Rajam Rajendran
Computer Information Science
Thesis: Visual Analytics of Big Data from Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Advisor: Shiaofen Fang, Ph.D.
This computational research will help us understand protein movements, so we can control protein functions for new drug discovery and development to treat diseases.

Alia Tynnetta Rowe
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Trauma and Racial Discrimination: Examining the Prevalence of Black Young Adult Marijuana Use
Advisor: Tamika C. Zapolski, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand the impact racial discrimination has on the health behaviors of Black young adults 18-35.

Ekin Secinti
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Relation Between Perceived Injustice and Distress in Cancer: Meaning Making and Acceptance of Cancer as Mediators
Advisor: Catherine E. Mosher, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand perceptions of injustice in relation to distress among advanced cancer patients. This research will facilitate the development of improved treatment programs for distress among patients with advanced cancer.

Mackenzie Lynmarie Shanahan
Clinical Psychology
Thesis: Trait Expectancies and Pain-Related Outcomes in Older Adults
Advisor: Kevin L. Rand, Ph.D.
This research will help us understand how positive and negative expectations for the future impact long-term health outcomes for people with chronic pain.

Shelby Mackinzie White
Addiction Neuroscience
Thesis: Neural Signatures of Strategy Change in the Rodent Medial Prefrontal Cortex
Advisors: Cristine L. Czachowski, Ph.D. and Christopher C. Lapish, Ph.D.
Given that poor decision making is a characteristic feature of many disorders, ADHD and Substance Use Disorders for example, this research will help to understand what occurs within our brains that leads to poor decision making so that new and innovative interventions may be developed.

Mark David Woollam
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Thesis: Chemometric Analysis of Volatile Organic Compound Biomarkers of Disease and Development of Solid Phase Microextraction Fibers to Evaluate Gas Sensing Layers
Advisors: Mangilal Agarwal, Ph.D. and Frédérique Deiss, Ph.D.
This research shows how small chemicals in urine and breath can permit the detection of different diseases, including breast cancer, hypoglycemia and even COVID-19. This work will help develop noninvasive, accurate and rapid diagnostic tests for different biomedical applications.