Games

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David Peterson I grew up playing games of every kind. From sports to video games to everything in between, I could spend 16 hours straight within the bounds of “the magic circle.” As time went on and my passion for education grew, my interest in the productive application of games grew stronger. Formal education and […]

Enantioselective Synthesis of Hasubanan Alkaloids

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Daniel and Laura Nielsen with Dr. Steven L. Castle, Chemistry and Biochemistry In nature, many molecules exist in two different forms, referred to as enantiomers. These forms are structurally identical, yet they are mirror images of each other. One simple example of this is our hands. While both hands are structurally identical, there is no […]

The Planar Ion Trap

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Ivan Miller and Dr. Daniel Austin, Chemistry and Biochemistry Mass spectrometry has been a common analytical procedure for over fifty years. Today it is most commonly used to characterize and quantify unknown solutions, solids, and vapors in chemical and biochemical environments by determining the specific masses of atoms and molecules. Ion traps have become standard […]

The Earthquake History of Eastern Indonesia

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Jonathan Major, Jamie Robinson and Dr. Ron Harris, Geological Sciences Indonesia is the fourth largest country in the world by population and encompasses thousands of islands. The tropical climate, fertile soil, and vast natural resources continue to fuel rapid population and economic growth. Much of the natural abundance of Indonesia can be attributed to its […]

A Dual Stage Laser Ablation Source for Cold Atoms?

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Sheng Lee and Dr. Scott Bergeson, Department of Physics and Astronomy Our experiment tested the method of producing sub-thermal atomic beams using a back-illuminated laser ablation target suggested in a recent publication. Creating a sub-thermal atomic beam has a lot of potential for researching fundamental physics. After reading and discussing several articles in the field […]

Calculus Excel at BYU: Increasing Student Potential for Success

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Karla Jeanese Hendricks and Dr. Michael Dorff, Mathematics Success in calculus can have significant implications both within an intended field of study and throughout academic pursuits. Of the 34 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors at BYU, 25 of them require calculus for graduation and 20 of them require it as a prerequisite for […]

Correlation of Hyperspectral Bands from Remotely Sensed Imagery and Urban Leaf Area Index

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Derek Farnes and Dr. Ryan Jensen, Geography As the world’s urban population continues to grow, more and more attention is being given to the environment in which humans live – urban areas. Unfortunately, urban expansion often leads to considerable loss of urban forest and its associated amenities. When studying the urban forest, a critical biophysical […]

Non-Linear Ray Tracing Visualizing the Impossible

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Jared Duke and Dr. Matthew Anderson, Math Department Ray tracing is a common technique for computational, photo-realistic simulation of the “real world.” However, most current approaches assume light propagation is linear: that is, light always travels in a straight line. Our aim was to create a ray tracing program that would handle the “bending” of […]

Optimization Analysis of the Needleman-Wunsch Algorithm

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Mark Kendell Clement and Dr. Sean Warnick, Computer Science The Needleman-Wunsch algorithm is a classic example of dynamic programming – a technique that solves large problems by breaking them down into small problems. The simplest problems are solved first and are then used to solve the larger problems. Over this past year, I studied the […]