Jonathan Qu
While speciation (the formation of new species) is often thought of as occurring through the splitting of one species into two, species can arise through other mechanisms, such as allopolyploidy. Allopolyploidy occurs through the formation of a hybrid between two species, followed by genome duplication. This mechanism of speciation is common in plants, including in crop plants. While artificial allopolyploid plants have been studied in the laboratory, allopolyploidy remains understudied in natural populations. Polystichum californicum is a fern species thought to have originated via multiple independent allopolyploidization events throughout its […]
Kristy Dang
Practice is an important process for anyone attempting to learn a new skill. Repeatedly performing the skill has been proven to lead to better learning . However, how should people organize their practice schedule if they want to learn multiple skills simultaneously? Is it more optimal to master each skill separately or all at once in a random order? There are multiple former experiments that show a random-ordered practice schedule actually leads to better retention than a blocked one. However, these studies typically use explicit motor tasks that require working […]
Kamran Ahmed
The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a protein complex that activates protein synthesis, modulates cell growth and proliferation, and regulates autophagy. Loss-of-function mutations in the TSC1 or TSC2 genes, which negatively regulate mTORC1, result in complex hyperactivity causing the syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC). TSC patients have a wide variety of clinical presentations including high comorbidity rates with neuropsychiatric disorders in which the dopaminergic system has been implicated. Little is known about the impact of mTORC1 disruption on the dopaminergic system. Previous work showed that […]
Charlie Reid
In string theory we are interested in the set of world sheets swept out by strings moving through spacetime that satisfy certain equations of motion. This set, called a moduli space, is mysterious and complicated but it possess a lot of structure that is not apparent at first glance. I study this moduli space using a mathematical tool called K-theory which leads to studying an infinite dimensional cone in a space of rational functions. This cone is invariant under certain rotations of the space of rational functions. I study arbitrary […]
Kirill Chesnov
My project aims to develop an improved method for reporting calcium influx in vitro and in vivo. Bioluminescent calcium sensing is aimed at allowing researchers to accurately and quantitatively observe neuronal activity. Compared to conventional fluorescent calcium sensing, bioluminescent calcium sensing does not produce any noise in the data, does not have crosstalk with opsins, and can be used in a lensless imaging system. This project uses a new combination of recently developed synthetic proteins in-vitro to assess the potential for in-vivo experiments. Specifically, I will culture neurons, express in […]
Sheng-Yu Wang
Over this summer, I will be doing research on autonomous driving focusing on integrating and synchronizing data from laser radar sensor, which is also known as LIDAR, and multiple camera view. Autonomous driving has been a popular research subject recently, and it is really important to improve accuracy for the decision making by the algorithm. Since the output decision of the autonomous driving system is based on the information which sensors received from the environment, the accuracy of the decision making relies heavily on the integrity and the richness of […]
Dawei Liu
Huntingtons disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease resulting from accumulation of neurotoxic protein aggregates in the brain. The leading cause is the abnormal expansion of glutamine (polyQ) in the huntingtin protein (HTT). A major quest in this field is to develop strategies to clear the polyQ HTT aggregates. Autophagy is an essential pathway for cellular homeostasis by removing damaged proteins and organelles through the formation of autophagic membranes. The aim of my project is to manipulate autophagy to enhance the clearance of polyQ HTT aggregate. Specifically, I will design a […]
Brian Stone
In solid-state physics, the theory of electronic band structures successfully explains many physical properties of solids. Band structures, which describe the range of allowed energies of an electron in a solid, form the foundation of our understanding of solid-state devices, such as transistors and solar cells. I plan to develop, modify, and utilize computational tools that use band structures to analyze the electronic behavior of solids. More specifically, I will be using and modifying open-source materials analysis tools, such as pymatgen (Python Materials Genomics), to calculate and analyze band structures […]
Noah Stevenson
Theoretical and experimental evidence suggests harnessing quantum mechanics to execute algorithms on qubit-based quantum hardware may allow us to calculate answers to intractable mathematical problems and process data exponentially faster than is possible with classical computers. Characterizing how qubit states evolve in time is imperative for benchmarking quantum hardware, however has been difficult due to the inability to fully measure a quantum state without disrupting it. A solution is weak measurement, which recent work has improved for a single qubit by leveraging the data-processing power of a recurrent neural network […]
Dae Woong Ham
The current theory we are interested that is applicable in radiobiology uses a mathematically lacking model for specifically modelling dose and effect relationship. This lacking model is especially inappropriate for settings where the dose effect relations are highly curvilinear, which will seriously hinder many researchers from developing synergy theory, a concept of interest to many radiobiologists. We propose a better and more appropriate model to do synergy theory and modelling. My SURF research, which will build from the research I have already been doing with my mentor, will continue to […]