Current Research: May 2013-2014

Noah Armstrong

In the game Mancala, stones are moved using a “sowing” action. Sowing is taking all the stones from a single bin and placing one stone in each successive bin until all stones are placed. We will study how to move specified stones to specified bins in as few moves as possible. Variations will include number of bins, number of stones initially in each bin, and number of specified stones we wish to place.

Faculty mentor: Joseph J. Spencer

Funded by: Mohler-Thompson Summer Research Grant

Brittany Fata

Our study works to understand the interpersonal physical attraction between couples in their early stages of a romantic relationship. Dr. Karandashev and I will present our research at a national psychology conference in October.

Faculty mentor: Dr. Victor Karandashev

Funded by: Summer Scholars Grant, Student Senate

Renibacterium salmoninarum, is a gram positive bacterial fish pathogen that causes bacterial kidney disease (BKD). BKD causes significant morbidity and mortality in wild salmonid populations, and interferes with fisheries used for both ecological restoration and commercial production. Using the published genome of Renibacterium salmoninarum, we will attempt to delete genes encoding known virulence factors in Renibacterium salmoninarum using homologous recombination.

Faculty mentor: L. Rob Peters

Funded by: Mohler-Thompson Summer Research Grant

Jackie Gipe

The constructible hyperbolic lengths are known. As in Euclidean, there are certain lengths which admit nifty, brief constructions. Brief constructions for complicated hyperbolic lengths is largely unexplored territory. We will scour the literature and build our own constructions.

Faculty mentor: Michael McDaniel
Funded by: Mohler-Thompson Summer Research Grant

Evan Kowalski

The emerald ash borer is an invasive, nonnative species of insect that feeds on the phloem of ash trees, an important Michigan tree species. Native woodpecker species are known to feed on the larvae of ash borers, but the factors influencing the levels of their predation are poorly understood. We will be investigating whether tree health, stand density, diameter at breast height, and/or tree species increases the level of woodpecker attacks on ash trees infected with the emerald ash borer.

Faculty mentor: Jeffrey McKelvey

Funded by: Mohler-Thompson Summer Research Grant

Elizabeth Nelson

The main goal of our project is to account for the new communicative functions of the Spanish demonstrative pronoun "eso" ("that") that has been observed in the semi-casual speech of Southern Spain but has not yet been studied. Our research will concentrate on discerning the specific contexts in which "eso" is being used as a discourse marker and will also compare the use of "eso" in different social groups in this community.

Faculty mentor: Dr. Carmen Ruiz-Sánchez

Funded by: Aquinas Scholars Summer Program

Andrew Zahrt

An ongoing theme in organometallic chemistry is the development of more atom economical routes to the synthesis of molecules. One such strategy, direct arylation, is efficient in theory but not in practice for some substrates due to poor selectivity. The goal of this project will be to vary additives in a direct arylation reaction with the hope of achieving high selectivity for one of the regioisomeric products.

Faculty mentor: Jonathan Fritz

Funded by: Mohler-Thompson Summer Research Grant