Brad Underwood

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Brad was killed in a tragic hiking accident at the end of Winter semester 2005.  Before the accident, he completed and submitted a masterful senior thesis on his ORCA grant topic, traveled to the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin to present his work, won an undergraduate presentation award at a regional meeting in Albuquerque, and otherwise […]

Obstacle Avoidance in Multidimensional Time

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Luther Tychonievich and Dr. Robert P. Burton, Computer Science Hypertime, or nT research, is a relatively unexplored field. Like its sister field of hyperspace, or nD research, hypertime extends the universe by considering additional dimensions. Where hyperspace extends the universe by considering four or more spatial dimensions, hypertime considers universes characterized by two or more […]

Non-Commutative Simple Harmonic Oscillator

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Mark Transtrum and Dr. Jean-Francois Van Huele, Physics and Astronomy Non-commutative quantum mechanics is an active field of research in which the operators corresponding to different spatial dimensions are assumed to not commute, as a consequence of quantization of spacetime. This field is important because it investigates the relationships between fundamental physical ideas such as […]

Development of Algorithms for the Manipulation of Non-commutative Structures in Quantum Theory

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Mark Transtrum and Dr. Jean-Francois Van Huele, Physics and Astronomy Quantum mechanics is one of the fundamental theories of physics. Its formal mathematical description is marked by the appearance of non-commutative operators. The non-commutativity provides a rich mathematical language appropriate for describing quantum theory. The commutator of two operators is defined as the difference between […]

A Data Mining Approach to Market Power Analysis

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Nghia Tran and Dr. Sean Warnick, Computer Science Department The question about market power is interesting both for business managers and market regulators. Market regulators are interested in maximizing total social welfare in a market by protecting market competition. Business managers want to know the power of different firms or parts of a firm to […]

Toward Electrical Characterization of DNA-Templated Copper Nanowires Subtitle (if applicable)

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Randall Stoltenberg and Dr. Adam T. Woolley, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry ABSTRACT DNA-templated nanofabrication is a promising route toward miniaturization of electronic devices below the 100 nm range. We have developed methods for fabricating micrometer-length copper nanostructures with nanometer heights from DNA templates on silicon surfaces. These structures have been integrated into simple circuits […]

Metallic Nanostructures of Substituted Cavitands

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Martin Conda-Sheridan and Dr. John D. Lamb, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department The aim of the project was to prepare monomers, dimmers and trimmers of pyridine substituted resorcinarenes. This work was the continuation of a previous project in which we studied the interactions of a dipicolilamine cavitand with anions. We decided to go a step further […]

Equalizing Sound Fields Using Energy Density

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Micah Shepherd and Dr. Timothy Leishman, Physics and Astronomy After becoming familiar with measurement techniques and equipment, I measured the pressure of the sound field in 5 cm increments between the frequencies of 50 and 1600 Hz inside an impedance tube with a rigid termination. I then analyzed this data and found that the sound […]

Detecting the L10 Phase in Iron Platinum Thin Films by Electron Diffraction

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Daniel Richardson and Dr. Richard Vanfleet, Physics and Astronomy Iron platinum is an exciting material being studied for its magnetic properties for possible use as the material in magnetic memory storage (e.g. hard drive). Why use iron platinum? In today’s technological world of ever decreasing dimensions, the hunt is on for mechanisms and materials that […]

Phylogenetic Analysis of Chroococcidiopsis

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Brittany Renshaw and Dr. David Allred, Physics and Astronomy My research has focused on a genus of endolithic cyanobacteria called Chroococcidiopsis. These organisms are found in rocks from Antarctica to thermal springs and other arid or highly saline environments (Friedmann and Friedmann 1995). The organisms inhabit limestone and sandstone, appearing as a green band near […]