From Punjab to Provo: Assimilation and Alienation of Asian Mormons in the Heart of LDS Culture

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Rabia Cheema and Gregory Wilkinson, Religion Department Introduction After moving to the United States and especially in a culture like BYU, I wanted to share my experiences as an immigrant. Through this paper, I wanted to open up about the struggles that I believe that almost every immigrant in the United States goes through. To […]

Comparing Model Predictive Control and Input Shaping

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Phillip Hyatt and Marc Killpack, Mechanical Engineering Introduction Many advances have been made in the control, modeling and applications of robots within the past several decades. Robots have been made to operate very quickly within very tight tolerances. Generally, these quick and accurate robots require high gear ratios and vast amounts of electrical power. Recently, […]

A Load Shaping Demand Response Mechanism for Energy Consumers in a Smart Grid

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Gerrit Noorda, Braden Hancock and Christopher A. Mattson, Mechanical Engineering Department Introduction In our proposal for an ORCA grant, we planned to use machine learning to socially benefit others with our research. In the early stages of the research, however, we came across a different, more urgent problem. We decided to use the same principles of […]

Understanding the Interaction between ULK1 and ATG9 and Autophagy

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Ryan Hyatt and Joshua L. Andersen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Introduction Autophagy is an adaptive catabolic process of self-digestion, a process by which the cell recycles aged organelles and other structures. Interestingly, changes in the regulation of autophagy have been linked to infections, cancers, neurodegeneration, aging, and heart disease (Arroyo, Daniela S. et al. […]

Natural Movement as Input to a Virtual World

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Kyle Bryant and Derek Hansen, Information Technology With Facebook’s recent acquisition of Oculus Rift, the virtual reality (VR) craze has left the den of nerds and tech enthusiasts and gone mainstream. Sony, Steam, and other big name companies’ pledges to develop their own VR platforms have further confirmed the coming of VR to every-home USA. However, this […]

Optimizing the Design of a Traditional Peruvian Cookstove: Modifications for Overall Improved Combustion Efficiency

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McCall Barger and Christopher Mattson, Mechanical Engineering Nearly 3 billion people worldwide still cook using open fires or biomass cookstoves, in which they burn wood, charcoal, and other solid fuels1. Over the past ten years, great effort and consideration has been devoted to progressing improved biomass cookstove technology for the developing world. The traditional cookstoves used […]

Boiling: Droplet Impingement on Heated Superhydrophobic Surfaces

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Unrau, Mikkel Boiling and Julie Crockett, Mechanical Engineering Introduction The interaction between water-based droplets and heated solid surfaces is one of the most ubiquitous observed phenomena in nature and many industries. Some of the applications include spray coating/cooling, ink-jet printing, lab-in-a-droplet technology, and internal combustion engines. Droplet impingement on Superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces promises great benefits […]

The Mechanism of Homogeneous Hg-Catalyzed Methane Partial Oxidation

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Steven Butler and Faculty Mentor: Daniel Ess, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry There is now access to vast amounts of inexpensive natural gas, due in part to shale gas discoveries. Abundant natural gas provides significant motivation to develop methods for methane partial oxidation. One major target for methane oxidation is methanol. Natural gas is principally […]