Illinois Tech Undergraduate Research Journal
The IIT Undergraduate Research Journal is a student led peer reviewed scientific journal published by undergraduates for undergraduates—and the IIT academic community at large. The Journal highlights and promotes a wide range of undergraduate student research throughout campus, from law to mechanical engineering to biochemistry to psychology. It will also provide a forum of interdisciplinary discussion on topics involving the latest advancements, the most controversial debates, and the most intriguing questions in different fields based on short, original, and insightful articles about science that will be catered to a wide audience. Submissions to the journal are reviewed by our distinguished student led advisory board, with final edits approved by the esteemed Dr. Oscar Juarez.
Is a belief true when it is due to a lucky guess? This study replicated Turri and colleagues' (2014) study investigating how we make judgments of others' knowledge (i.e., what they know). In this replication, 97 participants completed a short survey that compared three different conditions-one in which the character made the right decision due to their knowledge ("Knowledge"), one in which the character made the right decision due to a lucky guess ("Gettier"), and one in which the character was wrong ("Ignorance"). It was found that subjects attributed knowledge and reasonableness to the characters depending on the condition they were in. Subjects attributed higher knowledge ratings to the characters in the Gettier condition than in the Knowledge and Ignorance conditions. However, ratings for reasonableness, the soundness of the character's conclusions, were higher in the Knowledge condition than the Gettier and Ignorance conditions. Overall, findings were in line with the Turri et. al (2014) study, demonstrating that these effects can replicate. We also found support for an additional hypothesis for gender differences in knowledge ratings: the female character ("Emma") was rated lower in knowledge that the male characters ("Darrel" and "Gerald") regardless of the condition.
Copyright (c) 2023 Illinois Tech Undergraduate Research Journal
Predictive Modeling for Early Hyperglycemia Detection in Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is characterized by a combination of defects in insulin action and impairment in insulin secretion. Deficient insulin action causes people with Type 2 Diabetes to have difficulty controlling their blood glucose concentration (BGC) and experience periods of high (hyperglycemia) and low (hypoglycemia) BGC. Continuous glocuse monitoring (CGM) sensors and machine learning algorithms can automate the process of meal size estimation, improve the accuracy of the carbohydrate estimations, and reduce the involvement of the subject. The aim of this project was to use dynamic Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression to model blood glucose data from CGM devices and optimize the model parameters for best accuracy of the predictive modelling. The parameters were optimized by explicit enumeration and grid search approach to minimize the mean square error (MSE), and the lowest MSE was obtained with the number of latent variables as 5 and past horizon as 5 (25 minutes). Future research will develop the logic inference using the first- and second-order derivatives of the predicition curve that will sound the alarms based on the predicitions made in the current work.
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Detection of BAXΔ2 Positive Macrophage In Breast Tissues
BaxΔ2 is an isoform of the Bax gene and functions as a tumor suppressor. Its gene products can cause programmed cell death. In previous studies, the lab found that BaxΔ2 is found in cells throughout various human organs [2]. Based on the morphological structure of these cells, it is hypothesized that some of these cells may be macrophages. This project focuses on identifying whether BaxΔ2 positive macrophages are found in breast tissue. Six different patient cases with varying grades of cancer were looked at and their cancerous tissue was compared to their normal tissue. A process known as Immunofluorescence Staining uses certain antibodies to test for certain antigens (markers) in a sample of tissue. Co Immunostaining was used to stain for two different markers. In this case, each tissue slide is stained with antibodies against macrophages and BaxΔ2. We found that normal breast tissue had a greater amount of BaxΔ2 in comparison to cancer adjacent tissue, stage 1, 2, and 3 malignant tumors. From the data, it was also analyzed that almost all macrophages were BaxΔ2 positive, however not all BaxΔ2 positive cells were macrophages. This suggests that in addition to its apoptotic function, BaxΔ2 positive macrophage may play a role in immune response. Analyzing the amount of BaxΔ2 present in different types of tissue could also serve as a prognosis marker for cancer patients. In addition, it can be explored if cancer cells expressing BaxΔ2 are more sensitive to chemotherapy treatments.
Application of Molecular Imprinted Polymer Technology to Detect the SARS-COV-2 Virus Through the Development of a Novel Breathalyzer-Like Device
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 2 million deaths and affected around 100 million people worldwide (CDC). Across the globe, a pandemic warning system had failed when the SARS-CoV-2 virus hit. The Key reason behind the ineffective response or unpreparedness is the lack of rapid diagnostic teating at the onset of the pandemic that could have been used to widely detect the presence of the virus. The lack of a highly sensitive rapid test, forces laboratories and hospitals to use conventional nucleic acid testing methods which are timing consuming, labor intensive and expensive[4]. To solve this problem, we propose a 'breathalyzer-like' device that will be able to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in seconds while being extremely user friendly, highly sensitive and cost effective. This breathalyzer-like device will detect SARS-CoV-2 by the binding of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to the virus's spike protein. MIPs are synthetic receptor molecules that can mimic ACE-2 receptors and offer an inexpensive rapid, sensitive, easy-to-use, and higly slective receptor for electrochemical biosensors[8]. MIP based detection has been widely used in literature in the detection of human viral or bacterial phathogens which has shown >90% accuracy.
Assessing the Performance of Building Mechanical Systems in an Office Building
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the performance of building mechanical systems in an office. The mechanical systems include eleven variable air volume (VAV) units that provide outdoor air to the office spaces and induction units that provide heating and cooling to the office spaces. This study presents the data collection, sensor installation, and analyses of the ventilation, heating, and cooling provided to the spaces. Differential pressure transducers, temperature sensors, and heat flux sensors were installed on-site to monitor these systems at every one-minute and five-minute interval. The process of analyzing datasets from these sensors is automated and used to calculate ventilation, heating, and cooling under current building automation sequences of operation. The results of this study will aid our understanding of the impacts of different building mechanical systems, occupancy patters, time of the day on the ventilation, heating, and cooling use for the selected building.
Intraoperative Assessment of Surgical Margins in Cancer Resection Surgery Via the Sub-Diffuse Optical Tomography "S-DOT"
In Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas (HNSCC), positive margins after surgical resection dominate the clinical outcome of patients. Between 15-30 precent of all HNSCC surgeries result in a positive margin (>5mm) that requires postoperative chemo-radiation, radiotherapy, and/or revision surgeries. To minimize local recurrence, margin assessment is typically performed through surgical pathology departments; however, this technique often takes more than 24 hours to process and only a small fraction of the total surgical margin is evaluated. A second, intraoperativeapproach used by surgeons to minimize local recurrence is frozen section analysis (FSA), which in time intensive and suffers heavily from sampling errors. To effect change, we have hypothesized a sub-diffuse optical tomography modality that can identify the differences in depth sensitivity of the fluorescence, Cetuximab-IRDye800CW conjugate (ICON), by the fluorescent photons collected from sub-diffused media as a function of the photon exit angle from the excited tissue. Based on promising preliminary simulations using Monte Carlo MATLAB, closed vs. open aperture fluorescence imaging in biological tissue demonstrated an enhanced true depth of fluorescence resolution up to 6mm, well beyond the insufficient 5mm mark. By identifying the deep margins from the fluorescent peaks within 5 minutes, we hope to improve complete oncological surgery by providing surgeons an exact region of interest on the specimen where the tumor is closest to the edge, so they may continue surgery by providing sugeons an exact region of interest on the specimen where the tumor is closest to the edge, so they may continue surgery on the spot to minimize the probability of cancer being left behind.
An Agent-Dependent Enhanced Optical Projection Tomography-Guided System for Lymph-Node Images Reconstruction to Optimize Cancer Detection
The purpose of this work is to provide a system that regenerates images in a short amount of time while minimizing any existent noise in the model. An agent-dependent enhanced optical projection tomography-guided (ADEPT-GUI) system, utilized filtered back-projection (FBP), is created to perform the iterative reconstruction of lymph node images.
(Quasi-)Monte Carlo Improtance Sampling with QMCPY
(Quasi-)Monte Carlo, (Q)MC, methods are a class of powerful numerical integration algorithms that have been proven to scale well to high dimensions. Various techniques exist to decrease the computational cost of (Q)MC methods. This article focuses on importance sampling, a technique that performs variable transformations to make the integral easier for (Q)MC approximation. The build up to composed importance sampling is paralleled by code from our QMCPy package that implements these concepts.
DNPC: A Dynamic Node-Level Power Capping Library for Scientific Applications
As the race to exa-scale computing accerlerates, power consumption continues to be a critical challenge. While several technologies are available for power management, balancing energy efficiency and application performance during execution remains an important topic of research. In this study, we develop an open-source library called DNPC for dynamically controlling an application's package-level poewr consumption during execution. Given a specific sperformance degradation threshold, DNPC aims to minimize power consumption by following the application's power profile and adjusting the power cap accordingly. Further, DNPC is able to estimate the online performance of an application under capping, and predict its estimed performance degradation relative to an uncapped run. In this paper, we present an overview of the library, followed by a case study to illustrate the use of DNPC with an Exascale Computing Project proxy application on a production supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory.
Simulations of External Multi-Particle DLA on the Plane and Connections to the Super-Cooled Stefan Problem
We consider the external multi-particle difusion-limited aggregation (MDLA) process on the 2-dimensional integer grid. In this random growth process, particles are distributed uniformly at random on the grid and undergo a simple symmetric random walk with exclusion. They walk until they contact a collection of particles centered at the origin, at which point they attach. Iterating this process, a cluster forms. Since its inception, DLA models in the plane have resisted rigorous mathematical treatment. Whereas mathematicians have succeeded in establishing scaling limits for other stochastic growth models, this result for DLA process remains elusive. Recent findings in (1) establish a connection between the 1-dimensional MDLA process and solutions to a partial differential equation known as the super-cooled Stefan problem in space dimension (1SSP0. By fully characterizing the solutions to 1SSP, scaling limits for the 1-dimensional MDLA process were proven. It is natural to conjecture that a similar connection holds between 2-dimensional MDLA and SSP in two space dimensions. To address the conjecture, we take a numerical approach. We simulate the 2-dimensional MDLA process by decreasing the grid mesh towards 0. By studying the regularity of the cluster's interior and the statistical properties of its boundary, we show that the 2-dimensinoal MDLA process does not converge to solutions of 2SSP. We discuss why this process fails and propose possible resolutions.
In response to the increased interest in machine learning to solve mathematical problems combined with the complexity inherent in computing Grobner bases, we create a Grobner basis database. Through this database we aim to provide a platform where researchers and practitioners can: obtain accurate and verified data on Grobner bases, submit interesting and important examples of Grobner bases, and obtain curated datasets for benchmarking, learning, and other common problems in the research community. Given the nascent stage of the database, new features are likely to be added on as it grows.
The Immune System’s Battle Against SARS-COV-2
The widespread public health and safety implications of spread of SARS-CoV-2, a viral respiratory disease, have been witnessed worldwide. The immune system is an integral component in both the recovery progression and the severity of illness in individuals who contract coronavirus. Complications in the immune system due to SARS-CoV-2 have led to the development of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), which has shown to be a rare, but serious disease. MIS-C is a condition causing severe inflammation in children after expsure to COVID-19, with symptoms including vomiting, skin rash, and redness. In this paper, we consider the components of the coronavirus immune response on the progression of illness severity and the development of MIS-C.
Image Processing Integration into Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry to Remotely Sense Freshwater Surface
Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is a technique that detects signals reflected off the surface and analyzes the reflected signals to obtain surface characteristics. This technique was used to differentiate between surface ice and water condition of Lake Michigan in Chicago. To confirm GNSS-R results validity, a separate reference is needed to compare with. A sensor fusion of camera and a lidar was used to reconstruct the lake surface. This reconstructed surface was as a reference to compare with GNSS-R results. Since the current camera frames rate being used to reconstruct the lake surface using the sensor fusion of camera and lidar is two frames per minute, this research explores the effect of increasing the camera frames rate on the reconstructed surface.
Religious Stereotypes in TV Shows
The "Art" of Medicine - Communication in Primary Care
An Introduction to the Use of Algae as a Biofuel in Place of Fossil Fuels
Algae are aquatic, plantlike organisms that exist in different forms. The present research focuses on microalgae, a unicellular form of the organism. Research in microalgae has mainly focused on conversions into biofuel. In this work, the growth and production of microalgae was monitored in a photobioreactor. The intent of this research was to extend current knowledge regarding algae conversion into biofuel for the purposes of replacing fossil fuels in the future.
Processing of Single Crystal Aluminum Using Compacted Alumina Powder
This experiment was designed to produce single crystal aluminum specimens through the understanding of solidification and processing parameter effects. In order to conduct the experiment, specimens were prepared by steel die casting and machining. After aluminum specimens were machined and ground, they were placed in the center of a crucible. Alumina powder was then filled and compacted in the crucible. The crucible was placed in a furnace for the remelting process. Finally, it was placed on a heat sink and was allowed to solidify. The powder compacting methods and remelting temperature were the two most important processing parameters. They were modified to improve the test and create single crystal microstructure. It was found that the compacting methods significantly affected the formation of leak within the crucible. Extremely dense powder results in crack openings; extremely loose powder results in formation of branch-like leakages. Uniformly and gently compacted powder will optimize the result. Remelting temperature affects the amount of thermal expansion. High temperature results in large amount of expansion, and causes cracks in the powder. Low temperature requires much more time and it cannot be guaranteed that the specimen is completely melted. The grain size and microstructure of each trial was compared and analyzed. Necessary modification of procedure was also made to improve future results. Finally in the report, the processing parameters and the resulting microstructure were correlated and discussed.
Formative Beginnings: A History of the AIAS
The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) at the Illinois Institute of Technology has a long history dating back to its original charter as a Student Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1953. My curiosity as a leader of the present day organization sparked a vast research effort that would transcend the legacy of IIT’s chapter and work to unearth a national history. Goals through the ongoing research are not only to unearth a history but also to discover the relation between supplemental experience and architectural education; working to define the importance of the integration of both into a holistic educational experience. The AIAS has served as the official voice of architecture students for 56 years and championed the message of empowering the student voice; influences of the organization are clearly seen in the evolution of architectural education but there lacks clear documentation. The production of a large-scale archeological hunt for information works to properly document the historical legacy of the AIAS and expand comprehensively the institutional memory of the organization for future members, leaders, and students of architecture.
An Experimental Attempt to Mitigate the Illegal Practice of Using Race as a Deterministic Variable in Prosecutorial Peremptory Challenges
Before a person becomes a juror, they are a venire person who must clear voir dire, the process by which attorneys pare the original pool of potential jurors down to the standard twelve. There is much research that exists supporting the posit that White jurors are harsher toward minority defendants than they are to White defendants (Mitchell, Haw, Pfeifer & Meissner, 2005). Furthermore, group polarization is a common occurrence that has been studied since James Stoner’s paper entitled “Risky and cautious shifts in group decisions: The influence of widely held values” (1968), suggesting that a group (jury) will have more bias as an aggregate than the individual (jurors) will themselves exhibit. Thus, heterogeneity of race in a jury would likely mitigate the potential for racial bias to be a consideration in jury decisions. In fact, in Batson v. Kentucky 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the Supreme Court ruled that race must not be a factor when attorneys consider whether a venire person will or will not eventually become a juror during voir dire. However, recent cross-disciplinary research conducted by Sommers and Norton (2007) has applied experimental social psychology methods to explore this important legal issue. These experiments indicate that a more homogenous jury may still be the outcome of voir dire, regardless of the Batson decision. The paper that follows is a summary of the theoretical basis for an ongoing study.
Actuated Thumb Exoskeleton with Variable Axes of Rotation For Stroke Rehabilitation
Chronic hand impairment is very common amongst stroke survivors. More specifically, movement of the thumb is highly restricted causing a major decrease in the functionality of the entire hand. The non-orthogonal, non-intersecting joint axes of the thumb and the many actuating muscles involved make it very difficult to understand the thumb, let alone provide techniques for rehabilitation. Thus, an exoskeleton that incorporates the 5 anatomical Degrees of Freedom (DOF) of the thumb, both for actuation and measuring, was created in order to better understand motor control of the thumb, both in neurologically intact individuals and in stroke survivors. A mounting bracket was developed to affix the exoskeleton to a forearm brace. The exoskeleton was then tested to determine if it restricted movement. The movement space of the thumb was tracked both with the thumb connected to the exoskeleton and for the free thumb using a Digital Motion Analysis System (DMAS). Neurologically intact subjects were able to cover an average of 72% of their normal thumb working space while wearing the exoskeleton. Most of the restriction occurred in the upper region of the workspace. Thus, the device seems to allow considerable freedom of movement of the thumb, particularly in the region of the workspace used for everyday tasks. Subjects remarked that thumb movement felt quite natural. Further research using this exoskeleton can be done to better understand the impairments that occur in the thumb and thus provide better insight into rehabilitation methods. For example, the use of a system including motors and flexible shafts to drive the joints of the exoskeleton which in turn drives the joints of the thumb might provide a successful mode of rehabilitation.
Innovative Control Effectors for Maneuvering of Air Vehicles
Flow control is a rapidly developing key technological area which is subject to extensive research as it offers the potential to enhance aircraft aerodynamic performance, control, and maneuverability. The current paper details the methods and the results of a research which envisions assisting the newly formed NATO Task Group STO-AVT-239, with assessing the ability of modern active flow control actuators to improve the performance of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV). The project was supported by the ACE Undergraduate Research Topics Program at IIT and investigated the feasibility of the Coanda effect in achieving Circulation Control (CC) in order to produce rolling motion in cruise. Understanding of the performance of the SACCON airframe design and the complex vortex dominated flow field around was achieved through research papers and previous work of NATO Task Groups. It was discovered that a mid-span vortex influences and disturbs the flow above the control surfaces diminishing their effectiveness. A simple freeware computer code was used to predict the behavior of the airframe and the results were compared to experiment. The predictive abilities of the code were assessed to be good given the limitations of the software. Along with the airframe, CC was researched in order to predict its maneuver control capabilities. The experimental data and the computational predictions were then used in combination with a semi-empirical aileron control model to predict the aileron effectiveness and compare it to the CC results. In order to be able to apply for research funding from appropriate institutions, a windtunnel experiment was designed and planned to be conducted to validate the developed model.
Finding Improved Protocols for Using Deep-Brain Stimulation for Treating Epileptic Seizures in Rats
Epilepsy, a neural disorder marked by seizures, affects millions of people and is a tremendous reason for distress in the lives of epileptic patients and their loved ones. There are many ways to treat epilepsy such as antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), surgery, and devices like the Vagus Nerve Stimulator. Regardless, the aforementioned methods of treatment are not efficient enough because they do not target the main source of the disorder. In order to target the main source, the natural dynamics of the brain that are effected by seizures need to be understood and this can be done by stimulating seizures in Sprague Dawley rats and analyzing their local field potentials during seizures and comparing the extracted data to real-time videos of the rats while having seizures for verification. Also, histological analysis will enhance this understanding. By doing this, the most effective frequency for the therapeutic stimulation can be found and this can be used to mitigate and, ideally, terminate seizures. This verification will be necessary to move on to the future steps which entail the integration of the edited videos with electroencephalogram (EEG). The extracted data and real-time videos should correspond with the EEG. This will aid in the preparation for the next group of rat subjects.
Finite Element Modeling of an Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Calibration and Testing Purposes
This research focuses on the utilization of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for the modeling of an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM). The long term goal of the project is to model the given motor and simulate its operating conditions using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The FEM solutions will also be used to extract important motor operating conditions and parameters.
Modeling the Impacts of Filter Fouling on Energy Consumption
The use of higher efficiency particulate air filters in central heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) in homes is continuing to increase. However, as filters are loaded with collected particulate matter and dust, the pressure drop will increase and lead to a variety of direct and indirect energy impacts. The magnitude of energy impacts on fouled, or dirty, filters is not yet known. Therefore, this paper explores the energy impacts of fouled filters on new energy-efficiency homes in multiple climates around the United States by performing whole building energy simulations using BEopt and EnergyPlus. Relevant inputs include filter pressure drop, total pressure drop, HVAC airflow rate, fan efficiency, heating and cooling nominal capacity, and rated airflow rate. The results indicate that annual energy consumption generally increases for permanent split capacitor (PSC) and electronically commutated motor (ECM) fans as the filter gets loaded or dirty over time, although the energy impacts are smaller for ECMs.
Copyright (c) 2024 Illinois Tech Undergraduate Research Journal
Detection of the origin of congenital heart disease-induced arrhythmias with electrophysiology mapping
Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects approximately 0.8 to 1.2 percent of births worldwide, placing this disease among the most frequently diagnosed congenital disorders.1 In 2017, a study analyzed 52,725,227 adult patient admissions from community hospitals in 44 states whose data was collected from the National Inpatient Sample database, and of those admissions, 109,168 patients had CHD.2 Of those patients with CHD, 27,088 patients (24.8%) were diagnosed with arrhythmias.2 Physicians can diagnose arrhythmias using stethoscopes, electrocardiograms (ECGs), and event recorders. However, with immense advances in modern day medicine, electrophysiology (EP) mapping has proven to become a powerful tool to map electrical impulse conduction in the heart both accurately and precisely. The high spatial resolution in addition to reasonable temporal resolution and noise floor allows physicians to attribute arrhythmias and causes of unexplained syncope to specific regions of the myocardium. This paper explains how EP mapping is conducted, discusses the spatial and temporal resolution of EP mapping, and provides information on the accuracy, precision, and reproducibility of EP maps.