2 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 WELCOME A warm welcome to the 19th annual Meeting of the Minds, our campus- wide celebration of undergraduate research at Carnegie Mellon. The range and quality of work presented at this event is a good barometer of what takes place everyday and everywhere on our campus. Congratulations to our students for their amazing contributions, whether it be in the laboratory, out in the community, in an archive, or work- ing in a studio. The results of their research on display today give all of us good reason to be proud of them, their faculty mentors, and the work that takes place at Carnegie Mellon. Please feel free to browse through the abstracts in this program; peruse the diverse posters on the first and second floors of the University Center, including Rangos Ballroom; attend the oral presentations taking place in the various rooms on the second floor corridor; visit the art installations on the first floor for the visual arts presentations; or enjoy a performance or film in McConomy Auditorium. There are two times during the day when we hope you will be on hand. At 2:30 p.m., Vice Provost Amy Burkert will address the audience in the first floor Kirr Commons area. We will also hold a drawing for students of some fun items during this time—see if you can be a winner. At 5:00 p.m., we hope you will join us for an Awards Ceremony in McConomy Auditorium. At this time, we will present awards for many competitions that are taking place during the day. Perhaps you and many of your friends will be recognized with awards for their research—a listing of these competitions is included near the end of this program booklet. Please enjoy Carnegie Mellon’s 19th Annual Meeting of the Minds! Stephanie Wallach, Ph.D. Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 3 4 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS SPECIAL THANKS . 7 PRESENTATIONS . 9 ABSTRACTS . .11 CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY . 13 Biomedical Engineering . 15 Chemical Engineering . .19 Civil and Environmental Engineering . 27 Electrical and Computer Engineering . 28 Materials Science Engineering. 40 Mechanical Engineering . 47 Undecided. 57 COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS . 59 Architecture . 61 Art . 62 Design . 62 Drama . 65 Music. 66 CROSS-COLLEGE . 67 BCSA (Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts) . 69 BHA (Bachelor of Humanities and Arts) . 71 Biology and Psychology . 78 BSA . 80 Computational Biology . 84 DIETRICH COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES . 87 Economics. 89 Economics and Statistics . 92 English . 96 Ethics, History, and Public Policy. .101 History . 102 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS DIETRICH COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES (CONT.) Information Systems . 105 Linguistics . .107 Modern Languages . 108 Philosophy. .109 Psychology . 110 Self-defined . 120 Social and Decision Sciences . 121 Statistics. 125 MELLON COLLEGE OF SCIENCE . 133 Biological Sciences . 135 Chemistry . 137 Mathematics . 144 Physics. 148 SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. 155 Computer Science. 157 Human Computer Interaction Institute . 171 Language Technologies Institute . 172 SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES SCHOLARS . 173 TEPPER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS . 185 Business Administration . 187 Economics. 191 SPECIAL COMPETITIONS . .193 . DONORS & SPONSORS . 201 . INDEX OF PARTICIPANTS BY DEPARTMENT . 206 INDEX OF PARTICIPANTS BY NAME . 213. 6 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 SPECIAL THANKS WE EXTEND OUR SPECIAL THANKS TO: ■ ALUMNI RELATIONS FOR THE CORPORATE BREAKFAST ■ CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DEAN’S OFFICE FOR THE MID-AFTERNOON WELCOME ■ SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEAN’S OFFICE FOR THE JUDGES’ RECEPTION THIS SYMPOSIUM WAS FUNDED BY THE OFFICE OF THE PROVOST AND THE UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OFFICE . Many thanks to Kourtney Bandish, Amy Burkert, Catherine Copetas, Thomas Cortina, Joanna Dickert, Marcia Gerwig, Jen Keating-Miller, M. Stephanie Murray, Matt Lambert, Kurt Larsen, Katherine Mashek, Catherine Spence, Shoba Subramanian, Joanne Ursenbach, Jen Weidenhof, MediaTech, University Catering Staff, University Center Staff, AlphaGraphics, A.G. Trimble Company, Airheads Balloon Art, and all the other wonderful students and staff who make this event work. MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 7 Please note: Research project titles, student names, advisor names and abstracts were submitted by the student researchers. Due to the great number of students and the large volume of text contained in this booklet, it is impossible for the Undergraduate Research Office to ensure the accuracy or omission of information submitted for publication. 8 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 PRESENTATIONS DESCRIPTIONS OF TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS STUDENTS WHO ARE PRESENTING AT THE SYMPOSIUM COULD CHOOSE TO DO ONE OF FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS: POSTER PRESENTATIONS 1 Students will be standing by their posters for two hours or so to answer questions. Students participating in the Sigma Xi poster competition will be by their posters from 10 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. in Rangos 2 and 3. Students participating in the CIT poster competition will be by their posters from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. in Rangos 1. Students participating in the general poster session will be by their posters from 12 noon until 2:30 p.m. or from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. in the common areas of the University Center. Please feel free to wander through the poster presentations and ask questions of the students. ORAL PRESENTATIONS 2 Students have been assigned a 20-minute time slot and will be located in one of six rooms along the second floor corridor (Dowd, Pake, McKenna, Peter, Wright or Class of ’87). Students have been instructed to prepare a 10-minute oral presentation about their research, leaving five minutes for questions from the audience and five minutes to gather up their materials and make way for the next presentation. VISUAL ARTS 3 Students’ work is displayed in the Connan Room and other areas of the University Center. Students will be standing by their work from 12 noon until 2:30 p.m. or from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. to answer questions. PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTATIONS 4 Students will perform in McConomy Auditorium at a time assigned to them. They have been instructed to leave time after their performance for discussion with the audience. MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 9 10 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 ABSTRACTS MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 11 12 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 13 14 MEETING OF THE MINDS 2014 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING ANALYSIS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF LOW COST RENEWABLE BIOFUELS STUDENTS Benjamin Avery Mechanical Engineering | Anchal Bhargava Mechanical Engineering | Daniel Cushman Mechanical Engineering | Conor Fitzgerald Biomedical Engineering | Laura Fleury Mechanical Engineering ADVISORS Cecil Higgs Mechanical Engineering ROOM/TIME Wean Commons-1st Floor, Connan side / 12-2:30 pm The goal of our research is to restore a cost-efficient as well as energy-efficient biodiesel electrical generator that will be used to help power the Margaret Morrison building on CMU’s campus . In 2008, over $675,000 was spent to install the biodiesel electrical generator in the basement of Margaret Morrison with the hope that it would be used to produce clean energy on campus . Though its feasibility has been proven and presented as part of a PhD thesis from a student in the CMU Departments of Architecture and Mechanical Engineering (Betz, 2009), it has largely been unused for two reasons: (1) lack of students who have a budget to get it working again and (2) the cost of the electricity produced from the generator has been too high to compete with energy from the grid . We will work with Professor Higgs in the CMU Department of Mechanical Engineering to restore this.