STIP Student Ben Rhoades Studies the Levels of Plastic Pollution Present in the Potomac River

I can see plastic everywhere now– and not just the water bottles on the side of the trail or the plastic bags in branches, but the tab you pull off of a disposable squirt bottle and the tiny corner torn off of a granola bar. The most visually impactful part of this summer has been picking through fully processed microplastic samples as we work to quantify just how much plastic pollution is present in the Potomac River and the streams that feed into it.

 Microplastics are pieces of plastic, either fragmented or intentionally produced, that are between 5mm and 0.3mm in diameter and are the center of increased media and academic attention. My lab partner and I have spent this summer studying these small bits of plastic in local waterways hoping to build off of the work of Mason PhD student Doreen Peters and the published work of Yonkos et al. (2015) who reported on microplastic in the Chesapeake Bay. Despite the work of both scientists, no data has been published on the presence, abundance, or concentration of microplastics in the Potomac River. This is where Han and I enter the scene.

Most microplastics research focuses on those plastics found floating at the surface of aquatic environments using a buoyant net named after its look-alike a Manta Ray. Using one of these Manta nets housed at the Potomac Science center, we’ve sampled Hunting Creek in Alexandria, VA; Gunston Cove in Woodbridge, VA; and the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. However, we also have used a novel stream sampling approach that uses a round-mouthed net anchored to either side of a stream and left for an hour to passively collect microplastics. Our lab’s principle investigator, Dr. Foster, and I sampled Accotink Creek, Cameron Run, and the Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River using our self-engineered technique. Finally, in an attempt to see if there is movement of microplastics into the food web, we extracted and analyzed the digestive tracts of four catfish.

Through this project, I hope to have some idea of an ideal sampling method that is representative of the who ecosystem a researcher is investigating, whether it is surface water sampling, sediment sampling, or fish-gut analysis. Also, am testing whether these sites differ in each of those sampling methods, and if so, what contributes to those differences. We have just finished our sample processing, which involved hours of drying samples, chemical digestion, picking at and counting plastics under a microscope, and finally I will have a chance to crunch our numbers and test these hypotheses.

 Looking back, I thought I would know what to expect with this summer: sampling, processing, analysis, etc, however, I’ve learned that each research experience is unique and rewarding in its own way. First of all, becoming familiar a with a completely new and ever-growing field of literature has been an exciting challenge. Also, working with old and new faces in the lab and in the field, I have learned that all PIs and lab partners are different and that relationships and expectations are always… plastic.

STIP Student Sharif Qandour becomes Involved in Machine Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks

This research project presented itself to me with the potential to strengthening my Data Science and being able to dive myself further into academia and research before graduating. Before truly getting tangled in the research, I knew I would thoroughly enjoy learning about Machine Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks with its interdisciplinary utility. As this research focuses on using Computer Vision for image analysis of bruises, but fundamentally using feature detection can be executed on just about anything of interest.

With the long-term goals, I want to fortify my background in Computational Data Sciences with cutting edge machine learning techniques that will always be in my back pocket for Civil Engineering purposes. This isn’t replacing engineering work or design, only re-enforcing better techniques and computations. In terms of data fusion, this can be exceedingly supportive with decision making confidence especially when it is relying on data-founded understanding and prediction. Technology is going to ultimately make everybody’s life easier in the long run, and I would like to be part of the solution; if that is in the medical/health informatics field, Civil Engineering field, or any other.

The week begins with a Monday morning group meeting discussing our successes and failures and how to improve our trajectory for the research and well as key ideas to explore. During the week we are mostly conducting in depth research and experimentation; this is mostly writing scripts, troubleshooting, organizing input data and possibly running neural network trials, comparing and analyzing results. The week concludes with a team meeting on Friday with our other partner research groups, Health Informatics and Nursing, along with all respective faculty mentors discussing our goals and polishing our methodology. During my experience I was exploring the vast power of Convolutional Neural Networks to the benefit of the user. As a quick synopsis Convolutional Neural Networks is using a multitude of weighted equations to match many complicated features to a specific output. Not knowing how profoundly powerful different types of network architectures can be when placed in the right situation

STIP Student Humberto Portillo Webtool that Searches for Significant Differences within a Sample of Genes

I decided to get involved with this project because I thought it looked like a one of a kind opportunity that I simply couldn’t pass up on. As an aspiring Graphic Designer, it can be fairly easy to find jobs or opportunities that offer the typical kind of experience a designer may have in mind, for example designing business or marketing collateral. All of which is useful but it’s very rare and difficult to find an opportunity quite like this project. I enjoy the fact that in my career I get to be a part of something like this, to work on projects that are so complex that it not only challenges me but also, in a way, humbles me by exposing how little I understand of certain subjects. Being in a position like that you must exercise your ability to work in a team and the great thing about that is the benefits of team work only multiply. You not only strengthen your skills but also your ability to work within the group, and you also learn how extremely valuable great team members are. All of this serves as preparation for the future endeavors that I can only hope will grow as I move forward in my career.

Our project was building an online webtool that would find significant differences within a sample of genes. Our team was comprised of three groups: Front-end design, middleware, and backend development. I was part of the design team and our team faced many challenges each week, most of which were at a scale of difficulty we had never faced before. The design team wast asked with the entire front-end design of the website, which meant we had to design all of the user interface and branding of the site. On top of the design portion we also had to code all of the pages we had designed. Our goal was to create a webtool that was intuitive, well designed, and most importantly actually functioned with the backend code. Although it was a great challenge, I feel we not only accomplished our goal but also surpassed it.

STIP Student Julija Pivo Explores the Narratives of Post–Cold War Lithuanian Immigrant Women

Hi! My name is Julija Pivo, and I am a rising senior in the Creative Writing program. I have been interested in the topic of Lithuanian immigrant narratives ever since I came to America myself, partly because I found that there were very few narratives written in English. The only one that I could find as a child was The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which fails to even write a Lithuanian’s name correctly on the first page. Because of this, I wanted to reach out to other Lithuanian immigrants in my community and focus on the intersections between our experiences in order to tell a faithful narrative of our lives. My central focus was on women, and how their sense of family, community, and identity changed or shifted since they arrived to America. I hope to continue writing about Lithuanian narratives in the future, specifically with a focus on the crucial questions of identity and diversity. 

Most weeks were comprised of reaching out to Lithuanian women in my community, arranging interviews, and preparing questions to ask each one. Once those interviews were conducted, I took central ideas from each, focusing on the biggest differences and similarities, And on how they can be intertwined in the narrative I was creating. Then the rest of the time was spent outlining the novella as a whole, slowly piecing it all together bit by bit more details became clear.

I am truly grateful that OSCAR has allowed me to focus on my culture and heritage in a way that has helped me grow not only as a person, but also as a writer and researcher. I’ve been able to learn about the intersecting cultural beliefs that Lithuanians have, and how they view their connection to America. These have helped show me the importance of narratives in today’s global culture, as well as their importance in retaining a connection to our roots

STIP Student Gabby Patarinski Neurobiological Components of Cognitive Dissonance

Hi! My name is Gabby Patarinski and I’m a senior psychology major with a concentration in clinical psychology and a minor in neuroscience. This summer, I had the opportunity to work closely with Dr. Sarah Fischer-Nowaczyk, the professor in charge of the lab I’ve been working for since my freshman year. Dr. Fischer invited me to be a part of implementing her pilot study on substance abuse, decision making, and functional connectivity networks within the brain. To connect another subject to the topic, I decided to include additional self-report surveys that asses disordered eating traits. Impulsivity and poor decision making is often implicated in certain eating disorder habits, and so we thought it would be interesting to discover connections on these topics. Through this, my project, “Understanding substance use in decision making: The connection to eating disorder traits” came about.

My interest in the broad topic of body image began in my freshman honors research methods class, where I explored the connections between anorexia nervosa, body dysmorphic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and raised questions about current and future diagnostic criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition. After a summer of working closely with women coming out of the criminal justice system, many of whom suffered from addictions, my interest in the topic of addictions sparked. I’m thankful to have already been a part of one of Dr. Fischer’s labs that explored the neurobiological components of cognitive dissonance—this experience allowed me to become familiar with the ins-and-outs of being a research assistant and introduced me to Dr. Fischer, whom I later asked to become my honors psychology mentor for my senior thesis project.

Recruited subjects for the study are initially screened to ensure they meet criteria, they then complete a number of self-report questionnaires, have a resting-state functional MRI scan done, and participate in 10 days of ecological momentary assessment. It was fascinating to learn about MRI scanning. My experiences in research help me pave the way to hopefully get into a clinical psychology doctorate program. The future is daunting, as are the admission rates, but I’m thankful to OSCAR for helping me prepare for the future and have this summer project.