URSP Student Maria Del Carmen Elias Researches Hooking Up and Gender Equality

The rules of dating have changed in the world we live today. The hook up culture and casual sex are everyday occurrences in a college student’s life, and its progressively becoming more intertwined with our dating habits. Knowing what is best for one’s own development when engaging in these actions and keeping the consequences in mind are extremely important. It is crucial for students and scholars to know either the negative consequences or benefits the hook up culture can yield to young women. It is also imperative for women to know what this means in terms of future relationships and how their own past experiences can shape their current relationship’s success.

I initially became interested in this topic when I realized that my own personal experience in regards to dating was extremely different from that of my friends. I knew that even though this was somewhat of a new phenomena there was a lot of interest on the topic from scholars. It is somewhat of a controversial topic to research because it does not align with traditional dating ideas. Casual sexual activity has a lot of negative stigma associated with it. In the media women are sexualized but then chastised if they behave sexually, on campuses women are called sluts if they have intercourse outside of a relationship but yet single men are always looking to “get it in” and praised when they do. I wondered what the real consequences of the hook up culture were and set out to find out.

Much of the recent scholarship has focused on undergraduate student’s experiences, however my research expands on this by focusing on graduate students past and present history. I am currently conducting interviews with graduate women and coding a survey that was sent out to different universities.This process has taken hours and hours of work, but it has already yielded some very promising results. After my last week of interviews I will be transcribing them and starting analyzing the qualitative data. A normal week up to this point has involved a lot of reading (past research on the topic), conducting interviews, and emailing my survey out.

I plan on presenting my research at NCUR and the Southern Sociological Society. My long-term goal with this research is to write some articles and get them published in sociological journals so that as many people as possible can have access to my results.

URSP Student Vankhanh Dinh Researches Lojban as an Interlingual in Machine Translation

I've always been fascinated by the limits of what a computer can do, like whether a computer can understand human language. To it, all human languages are foreign, so how can it receive this information and interpret the meaning behind it? This field, called Natural Language Processing, is focuses on developing computer tools for human languages with pragmatic goals like providing cheap translations between two languages.  Natural language services such as Google Translate, Bing Translate, and Babel Translate have served countless individuals in translating emails, documents and even websites-- thus bridging the gap between people. When I was very young, my family could have benefited from such tools as my parents did not speak English well and carried pocket dictionaries at all times in case they needed to translate something quickly. In time, they were able to graduate from understanding the meaning of words to understanding the meaning of phrases, but here they were stuck. No book was sufficient to help them translate emails back and forth. When they found Babel Translate, they were able to work more productively in a broader and wider world. Machine Translation had helped many immigrant families like mine and it serves as an important and useful tool for diplomats, tourists, and researchers. Unfortunately, Natural Language Processing is technically and algorithmically difficult, thus translation is still imperfect and remains an active area of research in computer science. In contrast to natural languages, humans have also designed some languages from scratch. These are often called constructed or artificial languages and are typically designed with a special purpose. The best known constructed language, Esperanto, has the goal of being an easy-to-learn, peace-promoting language. I recently gained some familiarity with a relatively new constructed language called Lojban whose design philosophy was to minimize ambiguity.  This makes Lojban analogous to a computer programming language for humans. I realized that it is possible that, if Lojban were used in machine translation of natural human languages, the translations produced between two languages, like English and Vietnamese, might be significantly improved. Improved translation tools would have broad impacts for people globally. Through this effort of studying machine translation of human languages I hope to gain a deeper understanding of natural language processing and doing research.

URSP Student Zanib Cheema Researches Pakistani Response to the U.S. Use of Torture

The title of my project is, “The Pakistani Response to the U.S. use of Torture.” I initially was unsure of my role in this research, because my field of interest pertains to Medicine. When I had the opportunity to look more into the discussion behind the CIA torture report and the actions of the CIA I felt empowered to hold the CIA officials accountable that took part in the enhanced interrogation techniques. I have been fortunate to work with wonderful mentors and an awesome research team. The research team is based at Harvard Kennedy School. Although, I’m away from the rest of the researchers I know exactly what I’m doing. I have a mentor at Harvard and also one at Mason. They both have invested their time and efforts into helping me grow as an individual and moving on to bigger and better things. 

Through this research project I have learned that I genuinely enjoy conflict analysis. I have now decided to declare a minor in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. I’m unsure of wher my newfound passion will take me, but I’m glad to have learned about topics that gauge my interest.

On a weekly basis I am contacting representatives that know a lot about Pakistan and Pakistani-American relations. Part of this includes going to events where I can network or emailing key officials that can give more insight to the situation. There is also a survey that these participants can fill out so, that their responses can be recorded and analyzed. One thing that I have discovered this week is that Pakistan has always been an avid supporter of America. In fact post 9/11 they invested more into helping America in getting hold of those that were involved in the attack. Due to the amount of support present it’s unsure of if Pakistani officials knew about the torture within the CIA when it happened. 

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a more interesting topic to work on with such amazing and dedicated colleagues. 

URSP Student Brenna Cannon Researches Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

I began assisting in Dr. Geraldine Grant’s lab in the spring of my junior year. The research focuses on studying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which is an interstitial lung disease. IPF is the result of massive overgrowth and survival of wound repairing, or activated, fibroblasts. There is no cure for it and the cause is unknown. After helping out in the lab for the rest of the spring semester, Dr. Grant suggested I try and start my own project through OSCAR, and I’m very glad she did! Together we decided that I would study the effect of transforming growth factor-beta, a protein naturally found in the body, on IPF fibroblasts versus normal lung fibroblasts.  

Throughout the semester, I am constantly taking care of fibroblast cells. They need to be fed every three to four days. It is also important to make sure that the fibroblasts are not too crowded, or confluent, and growing on top of each other. Checking the cells is a daily task when in the lab to keep them healthy and ready for when we need to use them. After the cells have been fed, they are usually serum starved (given media without nutrients) the day before being plated for tests to make sure all of the cells are in the same stage of mitosis. The following day I seed the cells in a 96-well plate and let them grow. After letting them grow on the plate for a day, I add different concentrations of the growth factor to wells in the plate. A reagent is added to the plate after 44, 96, and 144 hours to determine how much the cells have proliferated and grown. The plates are read using a plate reader at a certain wavelength, and then, the data can be analyzed!

This project has really taught me a lot about research and all of the work involved in it. I learned how important it is to use all of the information at my disposal and to be flexible when things don’t go as expected. Research can be hard, but it is, without a doubt, rewarding. The other day, I was showing my data to a friend and he asked, “Is this what’s supposed to happen?” I realized there is no right answer that I’m trying to find. The data I collect are my findings for my specific research, and that is what I love so much about doing research. Hopefully, I can continue research throughout my life. I eventually would like to get a degree in medicine, but research is not something I would want to push to the side. I hope to be involved in it as much as I possibly can!

URSP Student Justine Burke Researches The Impact of School Suspensions on Academic Performance, School Attendance, and Retention

During the last spring semester, I began the Psychology Honors Program and met many potential mentors. At first, I was not sure which field of psychology I would want to work in. Even after numerous presentations by potential mentors, I felt stuck and unsure if I would ever find the right mentor or research topic. I finally found my calling when Dr. Adam Winsler presented his work regarding the Miami School Readiness Project (MSRP). He handed out a list of potential research ideas where I noticed the question about students at risk for suspensions. I had an interest in how negative consequences of early experiences may predict later emotional or behavioral problems, though it was mostly centered on the field of criminology (such as how people become serial killers). However, I found this to be a great opportunity to start developing my interest and decided to join Dr. Winsler’s Applied Developmental Psychology lab to work on my project about the impact of school suspensions on academic performance, school attendance, grade retention, and school leaving.

Most of my time is spent on writing drafts of my thesis proposal. I have already written over 13 drafts of my proposal, and while it sounds like it could be frustrating, writing numerous drafts helps me see what I could add or change. Though, it definitely does not stop me from wearing comfortable sweatpants and making a cup of tea before spending the next three or more hours writing. I even discovered that changing the color of the Word document page can help me write much longer without the glaring white page hurting my eyes. When I’m not writing, I often assist the graduate students in the lab with data entry or other tasks that they need help with. I’ve gotten a sneak peak at data from the Miami School Readiness Project that I’ll be using for my own project, which makes me excited for when I retrieve my own data.

While my original thought was to look at the adverse effects of suspension, my research led me to discover new facts about the common disciplinary system. Thus, I realized just how quickly the subject matter can become complex. Therefore, I may be able to see if the suspension system is in

need of revision as it adds to previous research. While I might not be exactly sure what I want to do in the future, working in the Applied Developmental Psychology lab shows me talents that I did not even know I had and interests that lead me closer to my future goals.