Andy Chen
There is evidence that body motion can either improve (Gallero-Salas et al., 2020, Gilad et al., 2018 ) or inhibit (McBride et al., 2019) performance during head-fixed behavior in mice. Therefore, it is important to understand how body movements affect sensory detection performance in behavioral tasks. My research project will look closely at the effects of body movement on a mouses performance in a whisker-based sensory detection task. From previous literature, we know that body movements modulate sensory signals in cortical areas of mice. My research will involve using behavioral […]
Minjune Hwang
In recent years, rapid growth in self-driving vehicles was largely enabled by breakthroughs in computer vision and reinforcement learning (RL). Current research focuses on applications of RL-based, model-free methods through simulation rather than classical model-based optimization. However, model-free algorithms often fail to generalize beyond the environment in which it was trained. For instance, self-driving cars trained in a regular urban environment will suffer to drive safely and efficiently in road environments in developing countries where traffic signals do not exist, roads are under-structured, and drivers drive under implicit rules. Subsequently, […]
Amir Moayed
Filopodia are finger-like actin based extensions in migrating cells. These cytoplasmic projections are involved in perceiving the environment, interacting with extracellular particles for phagocytosis, anchoring the cell to the substratum, and responding to chemoattractants. In eukaryotic cells, proper actin organization and interaction with the membrane and binding proteins is crucial for filopodia function. Despite having a general understanding of the various functions associated with filopodia, there is not much known about how actin organization and interaction with the membrane at the leading edge allows the cell to carry out these […]
Zihao Li
In the past few decades, due to the strict implementation of the one-child policy in China, it had been almost impossible to conduct any research related to having a second child. However, China has been gradually relaxing this policy. Since November 2011, parents who are both the only child in their families may have two children. Since December 2013, couples in which only one parent is the only child may have two children. Finally, since October 2015, all couples are allowed to have two children. This policy change provides a […]
Meera Aravinth
Electromagnetism is a fundamental physical phenomenon, but there is still much to learn about how and why it takes shape in solids, where the interactions between many atoms can create unique and unexpected magnetic and electronic features. This summer, my SURF project will be an investigation of magnetism in FexWSe2. WSe2 is a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), which are often layered, quasi-2D materials which are being studied widely due to their promise in revealing foundational aspects of physics in low-dimensional systems. Intercalating a TMD with a transition metal such as […]
Jasmine Larrick
A hallmark of severe dengue virus (DENV) infection is vascular leak. DENV non-structural protein 1 (NS1) directly triggers endothelial hyperpermeability and vascular leak via disruption of the endothelial glycocalyx layer (EGL). The EGL is a matrix of glycoproteins and membrane-bound proteoglycans lining the vascular endothelium, playing a protective role in maintaining endothelial barrier integrity. DENV NS1 binds to the endothelial cell surface through interactions with surface glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), such as heparan sulfate or chondroitin sulfate. However, the specific amino acid residues responsible for conferring cell binding specificity of various flavivirus […]
Yukei Murakami
Dark Energy is an unknown quantity responsible for the observed acceleration of our expanding universe. It constitutes about 70% of the universe, yet defies scientific explanation of its origin, properties, and the exact form. Among many proposed theories of Dark Energy, there is a group of theories which approach this problem through gravitational theory: with an additional field that describes Dark Energy, they introduce the fifth fundamental force to the universe. Chameleon theory is a subset of such theories, and it postulates the existence of particles that change their own […]
Jinen (Timothy) Guo
Quantum algorithms that take advantage of principles of quantum mechanics are able to solve certain problems (e.g. factorization of a large integer) much more efficiently than classical algorithms. One of the most promising candidates for qubit (the equivalent of a classical bit in quantum computing) implementation is the trapped ion. Although there have been promising results in trapped ion quantum information processing (QIP), it involves extensive use of lasers in cooling, readout, and qubit operations, which makes it challenging to scale up the system to many qubits. My research will […]
Arya Haghighi
The inhibition of glutathione, a buffer which maintains redox balance in neural cells, has recently been implicated as part of the pathology of multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic and debilitating neurological disease. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a non-invasive technique which can quantitatively measure glutathione, amongst other metabolites, in the brain using the semi-localized by adiabatic selective refocusing sequence (SLASER) and J-Difference Editing (JDE). This proposal aims to apply this technique to image the concentration of various metabolites implicated in the regulation of redox potentials in the central nervous system on […]
Stuti Raizada
Nuclear physics aims to understand the properties of the strong force which describes how quarks and gluons, the constituents of protons and neutrons in the nuclei of atoms, interact with each other. It is one of the four fundamental forces. This force can be understood by studying a state of matter known as the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) which is created by colliding nuclei at very high energies. My project aims to measure correlations between particles formed with the QGP. I will analyze data produced by the ALICE (A Large Ion […]