Summer 2013 Marked the Seventh Year of the Undergraduate Summer Research Program
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NYU POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING* SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM UNDERGRADUATE ABSTRACTS 2013 *Formerly Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Merger complete January 2014. INTRODUCTION NYU-Poly’s Undergraduate Summer Research Program provides a unique opportunity for NYU-Poly, NYU College of Arts and Science, and NYU Abu Dhabi students to engage in research over the course of the summer. This program offers students far more than the traditional classroom experience; it allows them to work alongside faculty mentors on cutting-edge research projects. Close interaction with faculty and research staff promotes an educational experience that advances the i2e model of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. Undergraduate students are afforded the opportunity to conduct research as paid interns during this 10-week period. The program aims to enhance and broaden student’s knowledge base by applying classroom learning to solve practical and contemporary problems and to better prepare them for lifelong learning. Summer 2013 marked the seventh year of the Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Since its inception, 293 students have participated in and 166 faculty members have contributed to the program. This year also marked the first year in which NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) took part in the program. In addition to their work in labs, students attended seminars on presentation skills, resume and cover letter writing, graduate schools admissions and gene patenting. Additionally, students presented their work-in-progress to other members of the research cohort at a special luncheon dedicated to practicing presentation skills and fostering inter-group collaboration on current and future projects. The program was an initiative of Professor Erich Kunhardt and Associate Provost Kurt Becker, who have played a vital role in making the program possible since its creation. NYU-Poly’s faculty participation in this program was essential, as was the financial support provided by faculty mentors and NYU-Poly’s Board of Trustees. The gifts from several alumni donors have also propelled the program’s success. I would like to thank Dr. Joseph G. Lombardino ’58Chem, James J. Oussani, Jr. ’77ME, and Dr. Harry C. Wechsler ’48CM, for their generous support of this year’s program. Additionally, this year marked the second year of the George Juul Thompson Undergraduate ECE Research Fellowship. Six of this summer’s researchers were graciously supported by this fellowship made possible by Ms. Dede Thompson Bartlett whose father, Mr. George Juul Thompson, was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1930. Donors’ gifts allow us to engage more student researchers, faculty mentors, and further strengthen this truly unique summer experience. I would also like to acknowledge Coordinator’s Sara-Lee Ramsawak and Meagan Watson who ensure the programs daily operations run seamlessly. The abstracts published in this volume are representative of the poster presentations given at the symposium celebrating the accomplishments of the undergraduate researchers during the New Student Networking Expo on August 28, 2013. I congratulate all of the student researchers who participated in the 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Program and look forward to future summers of intellectual and scholarly activities. Iraj Kalkhoran SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM Associate Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academics UNDERGRADUATE ABSTRACTS SEVENTH ANNUAL UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM B i CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . i Effect of Lone Pair on the Stability MATHEMATICS Development of an Unmanned Quadricopter of Heterocyclic Molecules . 7 for Environmental Flow Observations . 27 FACUY LT . iv Cody Dickinson Analysis of Mathematical Models of Czochralski Christopher Pagano Type Growth Processes . 15 Chemical Shift Calculations Using AB Initio Methods . 7 Priya Chacko Preference Test on Zebrafish Response APPLIED PHYSICS Alex Chew for Fish Replica Size . 28 Dynamics of BPS Equations Modeling Kink Applications of a “Quantum Mechanics Physics Engine” Farihah Begum* Characterization of a Supercharged Mutant of Solitons in a Monopole Confinement Problem . 16 for Examining Particle Scattering and Excitations . 1 the Cartilage Oligomeric Matrix Protein for the Purpose Alex Arakelian and Errol Elbasan Experiment for Energy Harvesting from Biomimetic Louis Tessler of Tandem Drug/Gene Delivery . 8 Fish Tail Hosting Piezoelectric . 28 Kevin Zhang A Flower-Pot Interpretation of Nutrition Hurbert Kim C enter FOR Urban Science AND Progress in Tumor Growth . 17 Multifunctional Stimuli-Responsive Protein Polymer-Gold Divya Vanka and Muye Wang Design and Development of a Portable Rainfall Surveying Existing, Low-Cost, Mobile Environmental Nanoparticle Hybrids for Small Molecule Delivery . 8 Simulator for Rain Formation and Pattern Analysis . 29 Sensors from a Citizen Science Perspective . 1 Raymond Chen Nonlinear Dynamics in Models of Oscillatory Edwin Augustin Julian Clemente Chemical Reactions . 18 Eduardo Aponte and Nima Simon CIVIL AND URBAN ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT AND INNOVATION CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING MEMS Actuator Analysis . 19 Optical Imaging of High pH Dependent Degradation Brooklyn Atlantis: Experiments in Human-Computer Thermostability, Structure and Activity Analysis Brenda McLellan* in Cement Based Materials . 9 Interaction . 29 of Aspergillus Oryzae Cutinase . 2 Carlos Santana Laraquent Computer Animation of a Convex Body and Other Wells Lucas Santo Kareem Rayn Convex Bodies Naturally Associated with the Body . 19 Creating a Website from Pieces of the Internet . 30 Modified Cellulose Nanocrystals for Use Nathan Marianovsky COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Man Chu in Biobased Thermoplastics . 2 Bringing iOS to Seattle . 10 Mahalanobis-Taguchi System: Analysis Elvin Feng Experiments in Human Computer Interaction . 30 Lucas Gregolin Dias of Risk Variables . .20-21 Abraham Gellis Non-Photochemical Laser-Induced Nucleation Sarah Applebaum*, David Garwin, Jumshaid Hussain, of Supersaturated Potassium Chloride Solution Designing Hardware Using High-Level and Nicolette Nunez Suspended in Polymer Matrices . 3 Programming Languages . 11 TECHNOLOGY, CULture AND Society Audrey Goh* and Michael Fernandes Stanley Chen and Kathy Ou MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Promote Physical Activity in Developing Country . 31 The Update Framework . 12 Xinyi Liu Effects on Amyloid Beta Toxicity in the Presences An Investigation into the Mechanical Properties John Ward of Charged Seven Residue Peptides . 4 of Cement/Glass Microballoon Syntactic Foams . 22 International History of the Internet . 31 Edwin Aoraha Joseph Bwerwa Juma and Mohammed Omar Explorations in Artificial Intelligence Programming . 12 Nour Algharibeh The Stability Change of Beta Amyloid 40 Development of Lightweight Polymer Composites . 23 Digital Humanities: SteinFinder . 32 in the Presence of Alpha Synuclein . 4 Matthew Labella Stern-Beckerman* Collin Grubbs Yunjia Zhang Carbon Nanofiber Reinforced Lightweight Ingenuity in Isolation: Poland in the International Highly Stable Surface Biomodification Composites for Marine and Aerospace Structures . 23 ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING History of the Internet . 32 for DNA Diagnostics . 5 Steven E . Zeltmann Patrick Gryczka Leona Manandhar-Sasaki Medical Devices for Seizure Detection . 13 Murshed Ahmed Advanced Composite Materials with Low Thermal Nano-Volume Hybridization Reactor Design Expansion for Electronic Packaging Applications . 24 to Analyze DNA Hybridization . 5 Modeling and Computation of Transformer Sandy Shen Brian Ng Inrush Currents . 13 Nicholas Wu Developing Algorithms to Implement Energy Efficient PC12 Neuronal Differentiation via Electrical Walking in Humanoid Robots . 25 Stimulation on Gold Surfaces . 6 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle . 14 Joseph Quacinella and Zhenxiang Chen Courtney Flood Abhimanyu Ghosh Analysis of Carbon-Based Power Plant Operations . 26 Electronic Field Effect of Conductive Polymer Gait and Posture Control for High-Payload Woojin Chae, Bryan Park, and Amanda Setiawan* Nanodomains on Mammalian Fibroblast Cells . 6 Quadruped Robot . 14 Omar Yassin Brian Cairl Improved EEG Data Visualization . 15 Thomas Schubert * Denotes Thompson-Bartlett Fellow ii iii APPLIED PHYSICS AppLications OF A “Quantum Mechanics Physics Engine” facuLty foR EXamining PARTICLE SCATTERING AND EXcitations APPLIED PHYSICS ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING Quantum mechanics is the theory which deals with the behaviour of matter on small scales . In particular it dictates that all objects can be described as solutions to the Schrödinger John Di Bartolo Jonathan Chao — equation which reads iħ t =Hψ, where H is the Hamiltonian operator . In nearly all cases of δψ interest an exact analyticalδ solution is not possible . Thus to gain any understanding of many Francisco De Leon C enter FOR Urban Science AND Progress quantum mechanical systems a computational approach is required . Our goal is to develop Farshad Khorrami a “Quantum Mechanics Physics Engine” to allow us to examine systems of importance . Francois Grey Our program will simulate the quantum mechanical behaviour of a particle in one and two Jonathan Viventi dimensions . We will apply this program to examine the scattering of particles off of various CHEMICAL AND BIOmoLecULar ENGINEERING barriers and to examine methods of manipulating quantum systems into and out of excited Louis TessLER states . Bruce Garetz MATHEMATICS BS Mathematics and The algorithm used to run our quantum mechanical