X-Ray Diffraction Analysis of Piezoelectric Material PZN-PT

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Benjamin Frandsen and Dr. Branton Campbell, Physics and Astronomy A wide variety of electronic devices, including microphones, acoustic transducers and high-powered microscopes, rely on a phenomenon called piezoelectricity. This is the property by which a crystal, when subjected to an electric field, experiences mechanical strain. Conversely, an applied mechanical stress produces voltage across the crystal. […]

An Adaptive Bayesian Approach to Threat-Detection Modeling

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Bradley Ferguson and Dr. C. Shane Reese, Statistics Detection of biological and chemical threats is an important consideration in the modern national defense policy. Much of the testing and evaluation of threat detection technologies is performed without appropriate uncertainty quantification. Under the guidance of Dr. Shane Reese, my ORCA project dealt with developing a more […]

Improving Seismic Awareness and Earthquake Preparedness in Utah Valley Schools

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Rachel A. Dunn and Dr. Ron A. Harris, Geology The purpose of this ORCA project was to provide guidelines specific to Utah Valley schools to protect students from seismic hazards along the Wasatch fault. In the proposal I stated that “At least 74% of the schools in Provo are not built to seismic code” (Robinson […]

A Probabilistic Pair-Hidden Markov Model for SNP Detection in Next Generation Sequencing Data

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Nathan Clement and Dr. Quinn Snell, Computer Science Introduction In order to create and maintain a healthy human body, over three billion nucleotides (molecules of DNA, collectively called a genome) need to work together in harmony. Each cell in the human body needs its own copy of the genome, so during growth an individual’s DNA […]

Covalent Solutions to Biofilm Formation: Incorporation of Antimicrobial Ceragenins into Polymer-Brush Coatings

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Jeffrey Clark and Dr. Paul Savage, Chemistry and Biochemistry Introduction The accumulation of biofilm on urinary catheters and endotracheal tubes is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infection1. A variety of techniques have been developed to help mitigate this problem. One of these techniques is to coat devices with a biofilm-resistant polymer brush coating. […]

Synthesis of 2-DOS mimic from Diacetone-D-Glucose

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Susie Choi and Dr. Young Wan Ham Abstract 2-deoxystreptamine (2-DOS) mimic was to be synthesized in several steps from commercially available diacetone-D-glucose in an effort to prepare novel amino acid residues for antiviral therapeutic development. The method presented in this paper was given up due to unexpected problems occurring at three of the 10 steps. […]

Homodyne Detection In a Laser Locking System

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Aaron Bennett and Dr. Dallin Durfee, Physics I will discuss a high speed, low noise homodyne photo-detector. This detector will be used to better implement laser locking techniques, such as the Pound-Drever-Hall Method, that use lock-in detection. A basic explanation of the Pound-Drever-Hall method is presented in my proposal. In this report, I will discuss […]

Visualization of Higher-Dimensional Objective Functions: Avoiding Local Extrema and Non-concave Sections

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Jason Cook and Dr. Robert Burton, Computer Science Economic models are built from economic theory for applications ranging from evaluating past policies to predicting future market behavior. Estimation of these models often requires the use of nonlinear optimization routines. As a result, the objective function being optimized is often characterized by local extrema, saddles, and […]