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1 | Last Name | First Name | Graduate Program | Major Professor/PI Name | Degree | Presentation Format | Presentation Title | Abstract (250 word limit) | ||||||||||||||||||
2 | Abizanda-Cardona | María | English | Sherryl Vint | PhD | Oral Presentation | Reading the Posthuman: Mapping the Ethical, Social and Political Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in American Crime Fiction | My doctoral research examines the intersection of posthumanism and contemporary American crime fiction, exploring how the genre negotiates the ethical and sociopolitical challenges posed by Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. As developments in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and surveillance reshape society, crime fiction emerges as a critical space to interrogate their implications. While posthumanist inquiry has traditionally focused on science fiction, this research highlights crime fiction’s unique suitability for exploring posthumanity. The genre’s historical engagement with scientific advancements, its epistemological focus on knowledge and truth, and its inherently political orientation make it a compelling lens to examine anxieties surrounding sociopolitical inequality, neoliberalism, corporate power, and shifting notions of ethics and justice in a posthuman world. My research examines a corpus of crime fiction novels by American authors published in the last decade, employing a literary analysis methodology informed by perspectives on sociology, philosophy (transhumanism, critical posthumanism, new materialism), biopolitcs and science and technology studies. Research objectives include: (1) Understanding crime fiction’s role in shaping sociotechnical imaginaries, (2) Identifying key ethical and political debates surrounding 4IR in literature, and (3) Recognizing the narrative strategies and themes employed to articulate a critical posthumanist perspective. Preliminary findings suggest that the corpus works criticize the indexing of technoscientific development to transhumanist, neoliberal values and corporate profit. In turn, they propose alternative posthuman subjectivities and politics that are ethically and ecologically responsible. | ||||||||||||||||||
3 | Adkins | Taylor | Earth and Planetary Sciences | Allen, Robert | PhD | Oral Presentation | Quantifying the Chemistry-Climate Efects of Tree Restoration | Natural climate solutions like conservation, restoration, and improved land management can contribute to limiting global warming to well below 2° C above preindustrial levels. For example, large-scale tree restoration (TR), including restoration and afforestation, can play a role in global climate change mitigation. Despite estimates of ~3 trillion trees currently in existence, the number of trees has decreased by roughly 46% since the onset of human civilization, highlighting the potential for significant restoration. Quantifying the impacts associated with TR requires addressing both biogeochemical and biogeophysical processes. Trees sequester carbon dioxide (CO2), resulting in biogeochemical cooling. However, trees also influence regionally dependent biogeophysical effects, such as reducing surface albedo, which leads to warming, and increased evapotranspiration (ET), contributing to cooling. Prior studies show that tropical TR leads to a global cooling effect, but extratropical trees (especially in the boreal region) have a warming effect on the global climate system. In addition, the atmospheric chemistry implications of TR are largely underexplored. Trees emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which alter the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere and impact key GHGs, such as methane (CH4) and ozone (O3), which leads to warming. Simultaneously, BVOCs can promote the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs), which leads to a cooling effect. The proposed project offers a framework to quantify the chemistry-climate effects of idealized high-end tree restoration perturbations using CESM2 Earth System Model. | ||||||||||||||||||
4 | Ali | Maisam | Comparative Literature and Languages | Sacks, Jeff | PhD | Oral Presentation | Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy: Philosophy as a Creative Practice of Assimilation (tashabbuh) with God | In our contemporary knowledge practices, especially in a time where ‘quantity’ reigns (Guénon 1945)—and where, as a result of the fragmentation of knowledge (Tyson 2017), the study and practice of philosophy has been relegated to a merely scholastic and discursive enterprise, it becomes more pertinent than ever to (re)consider the very purpose behind the pursuit of philosophy. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in understanding philosophy as a praxis of human flourishing, that is, of sculpting ethical selves—thanks to Hadot’s pioneering work, which has compellingly revealed ancient philosophical practices as ways of life (Hadot 1981). However, significant gaps remain in tracing and mapping such historical continuities and affinities within the context of early Islamic philosophical pursuits. This paper, while not being exhaustive in its claims, attempts to address this gap, particularly with reference to al-Kindī, who may arguably be regarded not only as the pioneering practitioner of Islamic philosophy (falsafa/ḥikma) but also the first to advocate for the philosophy as the only path to human perfection (al-kamāl al-ʾinsānīya). Meditating upon the prophetic utterance, i.e., "Cultivate your ethos in the ethos of God," this paper thus attempts a close reading of al-Kindī's Risāla fī Kammīya tul-Kutub ʾArisṭūṭālīs wa Mā Yuḥtāj ʾIlayh fī Taḥṣīl al-Falsafa (On The Quantity of Aristotle’s Books and What is Required for the Attainment of Philosophy) to demonstrate how philosophy translates into a creative practice of assimilation (tashabbuh) with God in the land of Prophecy. | ||||||||||||||||||
5 | Alvarez | Jose | Anthropology | Jerry, Anthony | PhD | Paper Proceeding | Class and Labor Anthropological Interventions: Anthropology's New Role in Political Economy | Anthropologists James G. Carrier and Don Kalb have offered their challenge, a return to an analysis of labor, class, and political economy within our discipline. The argument posed by these anthropologists is that we have largely left the study of larger economic forces to that of other academic disciplines but our field sites our not completely isolated locales. Additionally, Anthropological interventions, such as our emphasis on intimate encounters, have the capacity of richly detailing the relationships of social reproduction and influence of larger global economic forces on our field sites, work which had previously been conducted by classical anthropologists such as Erick R. Wolf and Sidney Mintz. By detailing the examples laid by Anthropologists such as Carrier, Kalb, and their collaborators what are sort of future for our discipline do they imagine and what sort of real-world impact are they envisioning? How might the theoretical interventions have offered by these anthropologists on class groups useful for a richer understanding of social reproduction? My own field site of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles is currently facing issues regarding gentrification and increasing economic development. How does utilizing Carrier and Kalb’s intervention of class and labor analysis open up new possibilities for understanding the issues faced by the community members within my field site. | ||||||||||||||||||
6 | Ana | Ojeda | Sociology | Dr. Tanya Nieri | PhD | Oral Presentation | Immigrant families and the JJS System | Given that the U.S. is home to 44 million immigrants, and 2 million incarcerated people, it is important to understand the experiences of members of these groups. Studies show that being undocumented in the U.S. has damaging effects on the health of the undocumented person and their family. Similarly, studies show that being incarcerated has damaging effects on the incarcerated person and their family and community. However, the effects of intersectional involvement in the immigration and carceral systems have not been thoroughly explored. This study explores the effects and how parents in immigrant families navigate the juvenile justice system with their children. | ||||||||||||||||||
7 | Anesko | Kyle | Enviromental Toxicology | Dillman, Adler | PhD | Oral Presentation | Targeting Hookworms: Evaluating Antiparasitic and Host-Directed Strategies for Parasite Control | Parasitic nematodes, including hookworms, infect hundreds of millions worldwide, contributing to anemia and malnutrition. Current treatments rely on anthelmintic drugs, but emerging resistance highlights the need for alternative strategies. This study evaluates two potential therapeutics, NCR247 and Sc-ShK-1, using distinct therapeutic strategies: direct antiparasitic therapy via heme sequestration and host-directed therapy through immune modulation, respectively.First, we investigated NCR247, a plant-derived heme-sequestering peptide, as a metabolic disruption strategy to limit Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Nb) access to heme. Using pigmentation, growth, ATP, and cuticle permeability assays, we found that NCR247 did not significantly alter parasite fitness. However, NCR247’s lack of effect suggests that its heme sequestration efficacy may depend on additional factors such as bioavailability, membrane permeability, or secondary mechanisms.Next, we examined Sc-ShK-1, an immunomodulatory excretory-secretory protein (ESP) secreted by parasitic nematodes. RT-qPCR analysis of macrophages (BMMacs) revealed that Sc-ShK-1 increased M1 pro-inflammatory markers (TNF-α, iNOS) while suppressing M2 markers (RELM-α, Arg1, Chil3), indicating an altered immune environment. Further, co-culture experiments showed that Sc-ShK-1-treated macrophages increased Nb ATP levels and cuticle permeability, suggesting potential indirect effects on parasite viability.Our findings highlight key differences between these two treatment strategies. While NCR247 did not impair Nb viability, ShK-driven immune modulation altered parasite fitness, supporting the potential of host-directed therapies for parasite control. Future research will explore the mechanistic basis of these effects to refine immune-based interventions against nematode infections. | ||||||||||||||||||
8 | Apaydin | Fadime | Department for the Study of Religion | Lucia, Amanda | PhD | Oral Presentation | Cooking Belief: The Intersections of Religion, Gender, and Culture in Turkish Cuisine | Have you ever heard of the domino effect? President Eisenhower put it in his well-known 1954 statement: "You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what happens to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly." Eisenhower introduced the term as a Cold War strategy, but who could deny that it also applies to societies or our lives? So indeed, a single decision or minor change in our lives can sometimes rapidly and drastically alter the trajectory of our lives. In many ways, the historical journeys of societies are akin to the lives of individuals. Societies also have breaking moments or turning points in their journeys. For example, Turkish society has had two major breaking moments that have had a huge impact on its destiny: embracing a new lifestyle and a new religion. The Turks, who were a nomadic Asian nation that adopted the religions of Tengrism and Shamanism, both settled down and adopted Islam, a monotheistic religion, around 800 AD. This move had a literal domino effect on the Turks. In parallel with changes in their lifestyle and religion, they experienced fundamental changes in their dietary preferences as well as other aspects of their lives. In this context, Turkish cuisine and dietary preferences were heavily influenced by the society's historical background, cultural values, and religious transformations. The purpose of this paper, in the case of Turkey, is to examine the dietary preferences of Turkish society, with a focus on the religious and socio-cultural factors that have influenced Turkish cuisine, the relationships between gender and dietary habits, and the role of food culture in maintaining societal solidarity. | ||||||||||||||||||
9 | Azizpor | Pakeeza | MCBL | Dillman, Adler | PhD | Poster Presentation | Polyunsaturated fatty acids stimulate immunity and eicosanoid production in Drosophila melanogaster | Eicosanoids are a class of molecules derived from twenty carbon (C20) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that play a vital role in mammalian and insect biological systems, including development, reproduction, and immunity. Recent research has shown that insects have significant but lower levels of C20 PUFAs in circulation in comparison to C18 PUFAs. It has been previously hypothesized in insects that eicosanoids are synthesized from C18 precursors, such as linoleic acid (LA), to produce downstream eicosanoids. In this study, we show that introduction of arachidonic acid (AA) stimulates production of cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase, and cytochrome P450–derived eicosanoids. Downstream immune readouts showed that LA stimulates phagocytosis by hemocytes, while both LA and AA stimulate increased antimicrobial peptide expression when D. melanogaster is exposed to a heat-killed bacterial pathogen. In totality, this work identifies PUFAs that are involved in insect immunity and adds evidence to the notion that Drosophila utilizes immunostimulatory lipid signaling to mitigate bacterial infections. Our understanding of immune signaling in the fly and its analogies to mammalian systems will increase the power and value of Drosophila as a model organism in immune studies. | ||||||||||||||||||
10 | Babakhanins | Piunik | CMDB | Nicole zur Nieden | PhD | Poster Presentation | Recombinant Wnt proteins and their chemical alternatives direct osteogenic differentiation of embryonic stem cells in serum-free conditions | Research into regenerative medicine and development of therapeutic applications relies heavily on the efficient differentiation of pluripotent stem cells along desired lineages. Currently, many differentiation protocols depend on the use of animal-based sera, heterogeneity of which presents numerous hurdles in clinical translation of stem cells. While serum replacement products have been explored, a standardized methodology remains to be established. Here we aim to improve a preexisting in vitro osteogenic differentiation protocol by replacing an unreliable, expensive, and potentially unsafe animal-based product with recombinant Wnt proteins or chemical alternatives that mimic in vivo Wnt signaling to develop a more consistent, effective, and safe manner to direct cell fate decisions. The Wnt signaling pathway plays an integral role during developmental osteogenesis, a process that when manipulated correctly we hypothesized could direct cell fate decisions efficiently. Our results revealed a biphasic ’pro-mesoderm’ treatment combination upon non-canonical Wnt supplementation followed by canonical Wnt activation. However, when expanded to a triphasic treatment, both canonical and non-canonical Wnt activation was pro-osteogenic. Assessment of the route of differentiation with qPCR analysis for known lineage transcripts clearly showed that canonical signaling in the third phase enhanced neural crest and paraxial mesoderm specification. In some cases, chemical mimics also followed the same course. Together, our work demonstrates that osteogenic differentiation in serum-containing culture conditions could be mimicked by time dependent treatment with recombinant Wnt proteins as well as other chemical modulators in otherwise serum-free conditions offering a practical approach towards the improvement of existing procedures for serum-free osteogenic differentiation. | ||||||||||||||||||
11 | Brady | Shannon | Psychology | Elizabeth Davis | PhD | Poster Presentation | Investigating Self-talk as a tool for children’s emotion regulatory success | Children often rely on others (e.g., parents) for emotion regulation, but self-talk (ST) may serve as underexplored intrapersonal regulatory tool. ST is known to improve motor activity or academic performance—yet there is little work investigating its use in the context of emotion regulation, particularly among older children.The current study examines whether ST helps manage frustration among a diverse sample of 80 children (ages 5 – 9, 50% girls) randomly assigned to either an ST instruction or a control group. Children engaged in 2 frustration tasks (counterbalanced) and responses were assessed using physiological measures as well as self-reported emotional report and audio recordings of ST produced. Preliminary analyses show that self-reported emotion after the 1st frustration task correlated with parasympathetic activity during the task (r = .25, p = .03)—suggesting active efforts to calm oneself resulted in feeling better. This pattern did not hold for the 2nd task (p > .28)—perhaps due to emotional fatigue or adaptation. Additionally, task order influenced parasympathetic activity and interacted with condition such that one task seemed to induce more stress than the other, but this effect was attenuated for children in the ST condition.Further analyses will examine ST produced mid-task and its links to emotional responding. This project will contribute novel insights into ST as a tool that may be leveraged to support independent self-regulation across various contexts, potentially informing early interventions for emotional dysregulation in children. | ||||||||||||||||||
12 | Briseno | Anthony | Higher Education Administration and Policy | Del Real Viramontes, Jose | PhD | Paper Proceeding | Literature Review of Latinx Educational Experience: School-to-Prison Pipeline | Latinx youth are the fastest-growing population nationally and within the prison system. Decisions regarding school funding policies and laws have changed the landscape of education and have pushed a higher number of Latinx students out of school, landing many into the Juvenile Justice system and Criminal Justice, which has been coined as the School-to-prison pipeline. This literature review utilizing a Critical Race Theory lens seeks to explore what research says about 1) how the education system has directed Latinx Students into the school-to-prison pipeline and 2) how literature discusses structural racism as a root issue in the school-to-prison pipeline. Using these guiding questions, the literature was then divided into three main key theme sections: inequity in resources for Latinx students, eurocentrism of curriculum, and exclusionary disciplinary policies. By analyzing and identifying gaps in existing research, this literature review additionally aims to inform future studies and expand into how educational and juvenile justice policies within juvenile detention spaces are hindering the success of Latinx students returning from those spaces and never going back. | ||||||||||||||||||
13 | Briseno Jimenez | Samuel | MFA - Experimental Choreography | Jacqueline Shea Murphy | MFA | Creative Activity | trans... | We learned from his first inauguration in 2017, where his efforts aimed to “define transgender out of existence,” that Trump and his white supremacist tactics are anti-trans by design. Now we are met with even more violence and hate directed towards the queer and trans community, among others as a result of his re-election in 2025. Queer and trans people, who are already othered and ostracized in our society, will continue to face more discrimination and violence as a result. This creates a hyper-sensitive state for queer and trans people where we must engage with refusal, illegibility, invisbilization, and hatred for just existing. Consequently, we learn how to shift our own and the energy in the room as tactics for survival, refusal, and opacity especially under a regime that threatens our very existence. If their goal is to define us out of their language, then mine is to disrupt their perceived notions of what trans is. In my work trans… I’ll deploy choreographic methods that investigate framing, form, representation, legibility, translatability, opacity and transparency, embodying gestures, phrases and performing a score of the multiplicity of the root word, trans. In my exploration I’ll resist predetermined ideas around a trans-word, (re)defining them to serve the communities they are intended to erase. My goal is to challenge the paradoxical nature of the colonizer language, by dreaming up newly imagined trans-realitease, that occupies the same space queer and trans people have for so long occupied, the liminal space in the in-between. | ||||||||||||||||||
14 | Brown | Chase | Mathematics | Potomkin, Mykhailo | PhD | Poster Presentation | Bacterial contamination in microchannels with varying wall curvatures | Many motile bacteria have been successfully modeled as active rods - elongated bodies capable of self-propulsion. A hallmark of active rod dynamics under confinement is their tendency to accumulate at the walls and swim against the imposed flow, reflecting bacterial contamination in a tube-like microchannel (catheter, blood vessel, etc.). In this work, we examine the effects of wall curvature on active rod distribution by studying elliptical perturbations of such three-dimensional micro-channels, that is, the cylindrical confinement with an elliptical cross-section. By developing a computational model for individual active rods and conducting Monte Carlo simulations, we discovered that active rods tend to concentrate at locations with the highest wall curvature, which is consistent with known results on the 2D dynamics of self-propelled particles under strong confinement. We then investigated how the distribution of active rod accumulation depends on the background flow and orientation diffusion. Finally, we used bifurcation analysis of our computational model to reveal how the reaction force exerted by the wall on the self-propelled rod may affect the distribution dynamics of accumulated rods. | ||||||||||||||||||
15 | Burchard | Taylor | Biophysics | Kevin Freedman | PhD | Poster Presentation | Biochemical and Bioprotective Properties of Melanin from the Halotolerant Black Yeast Hortaea werneckii | Introduction. Hortaea werneckii is an extremophilic, halotolerant black yeast that produces melanin, a pigment protecting it from UV radiation, and inhabits extreme hypersaline environments like the Atacama Desert1,2. Melanin also functions in metal chelation3. H. werneckii tolerates salinities of 0-32% (w/v) NaCl saturation, with optimal growth occurring between 6-10% (w/v)2. This study will: 1) Characterize melanin under varying H. werneckii UV growth conditions to elucidate its biochemical properties. 2) Detect pigmented H. werneckii cells using tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS)4. 3) Explore the metal-chelation properties of melanin. Methods. Melanin was extracted from various H. werneckii growth conditions using acid precipitation. Gel electrophoresis was used to assess protein binding and mass spectrometry will analyze melanin’s chemical structure. Single H. werneckii cells (~1-5 µm) will be detected via nanopore translocations and Raman spectroscopy to measure volume of pigment, pigment type, and cumulative biochemistry3. Results. Nanodrop UV-Vis spectroscopy measured the absorbance spectra for natural melanin, melanin with formaldehyde, and melanin with glyoxal. Melanin concentrations were calculated for gel electrophoresis, which will be repeated in the presence of Proteinase K to test melanin-protein interactions.Discussion. Next steps include gel electrophoresis with Proteinase K and metal chelation experiments with melanin. Moreover, we will use the measured Raman vibrations of the melanin and cellular structure to constrain the variation of pigment production with respect to cell and biomass volumes. References. (1) Gajardo and Redon. 2019. (2) Elsayis, et al. 2022. (3) Lemaster, et al. 2019. (4) Freedman, et al. 2016. | ||||||||||||||||||
16 | Chen | Xinyi | Biochemistry and molecular biology | Jikui Song | PhD | Oral Presentation | Structural basis for the H2AK119ub1-specific DNMT3A-nucleosome interaction | Isoform 1 of DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A (DNMT3A1) specifically recognizes nucleosome monoubiquitylated at histone H2A lysine-119 (H2AK119ub1) for establishment of DNA methylation. Mis-regulation of this process may cause aberrant DNA methylation and pathogenesis. However, the molecular basis underlying DNMT3A1−nucleosome interaction remains elusive. Here we report the cryo-EM structure of DNMT3A1’s ubiquitin-dependent recruitment (UDR) fragment complexed with H2AK119ub1-modified nucleosome. DNMT3A1 UDR occupies an extensive nucleosome surface, involving the H2A-H2B acidic patch, a surface groove formed by H2A and H3, nucleosomal DNA, and H2AK119ub1. The DNMT3A1 UDR’s interaction with H2AK119ub1 affects the functionality of DNMT3A1 in cells in a context-dependent manner. Our structural and biochemical analysis also reveals competition between DNMT3A1 and JARID2, a cofactor of polycomb repression complex 2 (PRC2), for nucleosome binding, suggesting the interplay between different epigenetic pathways. Together, this study reports a molecular basis for H2AK119ub1-dependent DNMT3A1−nucleosome association, with important implications in DNMT3A1-mediated DNA methylation in development. | ||||||||||||||||||
17 | Crago | Andrew | Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology | Degnan, Patrick | PhD | Oral Presentation | Phosphate Response of Human Gut-Associated Bacteroidota | Beneficial gut microbes encode diverse regulons that enable them to compete in the mammalian gut by rapidly responding to dietary changes in nutrient concentrations and availabilities. Among these nutrients is the crucial metabolite inorganic phosphate (Pi, PO4 3-) which is essential for cellular composition and physiology. In the gut, intestinal phosphate levels can fluctuate due to environmental (e.g., diet) or host factors (e.g., chronic kidney disease). Radical and prolonged changes phosphate availability are associated with gut dysbiosis. It is unclear how most members of the prevalent Gram negative gut microbial phylum Bacteroidota, including Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, respond to phosphate stress. In this study, we characterized the growth and transcriptional response of B. thetaiotaomicron to changes in phosphate availability. We confirmed the presence of the phosphate sensing, two-component regulatory system PhoBR. Further, we identified conserved PhoB binding sites (Pho boxes) and characterized the major transcriptomic rearrangement of the Pho regulon under limiting phosphate availability. Finally, using comparative genomic analyses we demonstrate the variable conservation of this Pho regulon in related Bacteroidota species indicating the importance of this regulon for competition and survival in the gut. | ||||||||||||||||||
18 | Cravens; Rodriguez | Destyni; Tania | Developmental Psychology | Misaki Natsuaki, Rachel Wu | PhD | Oral Presentation | Preliminary Qualitative Findings to Investigating Familial Barriers for Women in Academia: Fertility, Childbearing, and Childcaring | Despite a growing number of women entering doctoral training to pursue a career in academia, only 44% of tenure-track faculty and 36% of full professors are women, highlighting the persistent barriers that exist within this career pipeline (AAUW, 2022). This study examined perceived familial barriers for women in academia, specifically focusing on fertility, childbearing, and caregiving. We aimed to explore the diverse perspectives and experiences of women graduate students as they navigate the balance between their academic aspirations and potential for parenthood. Participants included 70 cis-gender women doctoral graduate students (41% White, 41% Asian; Mage= 26.54, SDage = 2.83, range: 21-35) from 24 different graduate programs across the UCR campus who took part in an online survey. They offered their responses to 12 open-ended, qualitative questions that prompted them to narratively share their plans for academic or non-academic career paths and the rationale for those decisions in relation to fertility, childbearing, and future caregiving. We analyzed their qualitative responses using an inductive, thematic analysis approach. Preliminary findings showed that 54% of participants aspired to have an academic career, while 59% planned to have children. Furthermore, 46% believed parenthood would not interfere with an academic career, whereas 49% anticipated conflicts. Themes that emerged included the flexibility and demands of academia, available institutional resources for faculty mothers, financial stability, and the presence of women faculty role models. These findings underscore the complex considerations shaping women’s career and family planning decisions in academia. | ||||||||||||||||||
19 | Davidson | Eric | Higher Education Administration and Policy | Dr. Eddie Comeaux, Advisor | PhD | Oral Presentation | Traversing the Disaster Garden: Higher Education, Skateboarding, and the Philosophies of Mythology and Public Space | University campuses in the United States are frequently considered- as both matters of policy and social reality- public spaces. Broadly speaking, the public space dimensions of campuses operate in physical and interactional terms, particularly in the quotidian activities of everyday life. However, the right to “public” space depends on prevailing logics of intended-use value within class-bound economic systems. In this presentation, I summarize the findings from my Current Issues in Education article on the interactions between universities and the adjacent infrastructural public of skateboarding. This writing draws on multidisciplinary scholarship from the fields of higher education, critical leisure studies, urban geography, and cultural anthropology, as well as the embodied spatial knowledge of the author. Attendees will consider how skaters interact with their universities to uncover injustice in the management of public space from three alternative capacities: (a) misuse interpretations of campus environments, (b) semiotic navigation of physical infrastructure, and (c) disruptions to the rhythms of capital production. With the skater’s lens in mind, I offer novel directions for theory, research, and practice by engaging the philosophical texts Mythologies (Barthes, 1957) and La Droit à la Ville (Lefebvre, 1968). As urban systems, universities’ hyperproduction agendas in the neoliberal economy restrict their surrounding communities’ enjoyment of their resources, while their collective social mythologies inoculate these publics against the class-bound dominion they reinforce. I conclude by offering Lefebvre’s (1992) social research methodology rhythmanalysis as a novel strategy for members of adjacent publics to critically examine universities’ exclusionary spatial operations in everyday life. | ||||||||||||||||||
20 | Dawon | Ahn | Computer Science and Engineering | Evangelos E papalexakis | PhD | Poster Presentation | Neural Additive Tensor Decomposition for Sparse Tensors | Given a sparse tensor, how can we accurately capture complex latent structures inherent in the tensor while maintaining the interpretability of those structures? Tensor decomposition is a fundamental technique for analyzing tensors. Classical tensor models provide multi-linear structures that are easy to interpret but have limitations in capturing complex structures present in real-world sparse tensors. Recent neural tensor models have extended the capabilities of classical tensor models in capturing complex structures within the data. However, this has come at the cost of interpretability. Understanding these structures, however, is crucial in applications such as healthcare, which requires transparency in critical decision-making processes. To overcome this major limitation and bridge the gap between the classical multi-linear models and neural tensor models, we propose NeAT, an accurate and interpretable neural tensor model for sparse tensors. NeAT outperforms the state-of-the-art neural tensor models in link prediction, surpassing a linear tensor model by 10% and the second-best neural tensor model by 4%, in accuracy. Through ablation studies, we explore various model designs for NeAT to identify key factors that impact generalization. Finally, we evaluate qualitatively and quantitatively latent patterns discovered by NeAT, demonstrating how to analyze the discovered latent patterns in real data obtained from NeAT. | ||||||||||||||||||
21 | Do | Amy | Bioengineering | Xiang, Tingting | Master's | Poster Presentation | Transformation of Symbiodiniaceae Algae | Dinoflagellates are a diverse group of single-celled eukaryotes that thrive in aquatic environments. This includes algae of the Symbiodiniaceae family, which form symbiosis with cnidarians, such as coral, jellyfish, and sea anemones. These algae provide the cnidarian hosts vital nutrients for survival. Despite their importance, genetic tools for dinoflagellates have been very limited, for example, transformation methods are not available for dinoflagellates, which slows the research on these organisms and makes it difficult to rigorously identify the underlying mechanisms of cnidarian-algal interactions. This is owed to unique genetic organization of dinoflagellates, such as extremely large genomes managed without histones, chromosomes that remain condensed throughout interphase, and high degree of redundancy. Here, we describe electroporation of Breviolum minutum mutant lbr1 that has a single-point deletion in the chlorophyll c Synthase gene (CHLCS), resulting in lack of photosynthetic activity. We reintroduce CHLCS driven by either a native promoter (pro) or overactive promoter (pHSP). Successful lbr1 transformants with restored photosynthetic capability are expected to grow autotrophically. This study advances genetic tools towards deciphering pathways driving algal-cnidarian symbiosis. | ||||||||||||||||||
22 | Dutta | Samriddha | Bioengineering | Mulchandani, Ashok | PhD | Poster Presentation | Nanobiosensor Arrays for Rapid On-Site Multiplexed Detection of Forensically Relevant Body Fluids at Crime Scenes | The identification of body fluids at crime scenes is crucial in forensic science, as it validates the relevance of evidence, determines a crime’s location and severity, and streamlines DNA analysis, reducing costs and unnecessary testing. However, conventional detection methods are primarily qualitative, often lacking sensitivity and selectivity. To address these limitations, we developed a chemiresistive nanobiosensor array based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) for the rapid, on-site, and quantitative identification of multiple body fluids—namely blood, semen, saliva, urine, and sweat—by detecting specific protein biomarkers using corresponding antibodies. Our sensor array is fabricated using inkjet-printed silver leads on chromatography paper, leveraging built-in paper microfluidics for efficient sample distribution. At the core of our technology is the SWNT-Antibody Bio-Ink, which integrates the transducer and biological recognition element and can be drop-casted or printed onto the substrate to form chemiresistors. Upon antigen-antibody binding, surface charge-induced gating significantly alters the sensor’s electrical response, generating a measurable signal. Our results demonstrate robust sensor responses for target biomarkers, even in complex human samples, with minimal cross-reactivity, confirming high specificity. Additionally, the platform enables highly sensitive, quantitative protein detection with exceptionally low detection limits while requiring only small sample volumes, making it well-suited for forensic applications. By integrating antibody-based detection with chemiresistive sensing, our platform provides a portable, cost-effective, and highly specific alternative to conventional forensic methods. Beyond crime scene investigations, its versatility can be extended to medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food safety, highlighting its broad applicability in biosensing technologies. | ||||||||||||||||||
23 | Erdogan | Damla | Mathematics | Candela, Patricio Gallardo | PhD | Poster Presentation | Degenerations of Point Configurations in Projective Space: A Comparison of Hassett and Mustafin Approaches | Degenerations of point configurations in projective space play a crucial role in algebraic geometry. In this poster presentation, we compare two distinct approaches to studying these degenerations: Hassett’s theory of weighted stable rational curves and Mustafin degenerations arising from lattice theory. Hassett’s framework, based on weighted stability conditions, provides a systematic method to control the behavior of points in the limit, allowing collisions to be resolved via stable marked curves. On the other hand, Mustafin degenerations, constructed via Bruhat-Tits buildings and lattice embeddings, yield a combinatorial perspective on the limit behavior of point configurations. We explore how these two approaches intersect, investigate their similarities and differences, and raise questions about their interplay. Through explicit computations and examples in projective spaces P1 and P2, we illustrate how different choices of stable lattice classes in Mustafin degenerations influence the resulting limits and their geometric structures. | ||||||||||||||||||
24 | Fisher | Azure | Environmental Science | Porter, William | PhD | Poster Presentation | The Influence of Meteorology and Land Use on Atmospheric Chemistry in Southern California | Due to the boom of e-commerce in the 2010’s, Southern California has met capacity of warehouse storage and warehouse expansion is currently ongoing. Farmland in the Inland Empire is being replaced with warehouses due to the expansion and freight truck activity has increased as well. Mobile pollutants emitted by freight trucks may contribute towards changes in air pollutant concentration or phenomena that differ those emitted when land was used for farming. To better understand the impact of these land use changes, we assess meteorological influences and pollutant concentrations over time to explore how pollutant concentration patterns in the Inland Empire have evolved alongside the expansion of warehousing in place of farmland. Meteorological influences such as wind, the planetary boundary layer, and temperature are assessed in combination with pollutant concentrations between 2004 and 2024 using measurements from the US EPA’s Air Quality System (AQS) data. | ||||||||||||||||||
25 | Gauthier | Ethan | History | Trafzer, Clifford | PhD | Oral Presentation | Adapt and React: Modoc Agency during the California Indian Genocide, 1846-73 | From 1846 to 1873, Euro-American settlers killed California Indians throughout the state with the goal of exterminating them in what scholars have termed the California Indian genocide. Among the Natives settlers targeted were the Modoc people of Northern California. During the 1840s and 1850s, American settlers invaded Modoc territories and stole resources, which prompted Modoc Natives to raid settlers. In response, settlers killed Modoc Indians wherever they encountered them. The Modoc responded to the genocide in different ways. Some Modoc Indians counterattacked settlers while other Modoc Natives like Kintpuash, a young leader, became diplomats and negotiated peace with Americans. Modoc Natives resisted the California Indian genocide through counter-violence or diplomacy to ensure their survival, and their agency saved the Native people from total annihilation. This presentation will explore Modoc Natives who adopted either violent or diplomatic approaches to counter genocide and will especially explore diplomacy because Modoc political and diplomatic approaches have been overlooked in scholarly studies of the California Indian genocide. | ||||||||||||||||||
26 | George | Rahul | Computer Science | Jaeger, Trent | PhD | Poster Presentation | SpatialRust - How safe is Rust? | Rust continues to grow as a systems programming language due to its safety guarantees and comparable performance with traditional system programming languages C/C++ . To provide these security guarantees, Rust imposes restrictions on the operations that can be performed within the default "safe" code. Consequently, "unsafe" Rust was introduced, which allows developers to temporarily lift these restrictions providing more flexibility at the cost of security. However, spatial memory errors in unsafe Rust can undermine the safety of the program. Although researchers have studied the usage of unsafe Rust and proposed approaches to deal with unsafe Rust, such as isolation and bug finding techniques, the spatial memory safety of unsafe Rust and its ramifications on safe Rust is unknown. In this work, we develop an automated system to validate the spatial memory safety of Rust programs across safe and unsafe Rust, particularly how unsafe Rust operations may impact memory safety in safe Rust code. We use this validation and the safe-unsafe Rust interaction to apply memory safety defenses (e.g., sanitization) selectively to ensure all potential spatial errors are prevented with much efficiency. We study the most widely used Rust programs and their usage of Rust libraries containing unsafe code. Our preliminary spatial safety validation of Rust identifies 82% of unsafe Rust operations to be spatially safe. | ||||||||||||||||||
27 | George | Wesley | Botany and Plant Sciences | Cutler, Sean | PhD | Poster Presentation | Data driven sensor development for plant systems | Small molecules take the form of soil contaminants, signaling hormones, drugs, and more. Tools called genetically encoded biosensors elicit responses to specific small molecules in vivo, thus making their research important for engineered signaling and perception. A plant-microbe based sensing platform offers an approach to detecting contaminants with biosensor technology. This platform would require microbes that sense a small molecule soil containment and produce a signaling ligand in response, and a plant that can detect and report on the presence of this signaling ligand. Coumarins are target synthetic signaling ligands for this platform. Pyrabactin Resistance 1 (PYR1) is a plant receptor that has been leveraged to make biosensors.(1) PYR1* is a developed PYR1-based scaffold that orthogonalized its interaction with endogenous plant signaling pathways, making PYR1* an ideal plant biosensor scaffold.(2) Mutagenized PYR1 protein libraries are screened in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast-two-hybrid based selection system to identify biosensors. General screen PYR1 libraries have been screened identifying biosensors in the 1-100µM range of sensitivity.(1) We leveraged currently unpublished coumarin specific mutations from these biosensor sequences creating mature libraries to screen for coumarin biosensors. We identified biosensors in the 50-100nM range of detection for both PYR1 and PYR1* scaffolds. PYR1* biosensors were implemented to make coumarin sensing Arabidopsis thaliana. These coumarin sensing plant lines serve as a proof-of-concept for engineering in vivo biosensor platforms for the detection of small molecules and potential signaling ligands. 1Beltrán, J. et al. (2022). Nat. Biotechnol. 2Park, S.-Y. et al. (2024). Nat. Chem. | ||||||||||||||||||
28 | Guarino | Federica | CMDB | Nicole zur Nieden | PhD | Poster Presentation | Neurotrophin Mimics Support the Naive State and Enhance Clonal Survival of Pluripotent Stem Cells | Due to their low single cell survival, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are usually cultured upon clump seeding, embodying the primed state in the vast pluripotency spectrum. Several signaling molecules are implicated in maintaining this primed pluripotent state, but only few are known to support clonal survival. One of these is the neurotrophin NT-3. However, neurotrophins tend to co-activate the p75 death receptor, substituting the desired effect for an unwanted one. Previously, we have identified an asterriquinone, 1D6, as a neurotrophin mimic which enhances the number of alkaline phosphatase and Oct4 positive colonies after single cell seeding without activation of cell death pathways. Furthermore, 1D6 treated-hESCs also acquired a bright haloed-dome shape and shorter doubling times, both features resembling naïve pluripotency. However, how 1D6 exerts its positive effect molecularly remains unknown. Here, we explored the possibility of a reversion into a naïve pluripotency state upon 1D6 treatment using RNA sequencing. Particularly, we compared different hESC culture conditions and confirmed that 1D6 treatment defined gene signatures typical of the naïve state. Moreover, several histone variant transcripts were differentially expressed. Bioinformatic protein alignment revealed a downregulation of several isoforms of the histone linker H1, possibly suggesting that 1D6 drives the conversion into a euchromatic, plastic state. Ultimately, this discovery has the potential to simplify hESCs expansion procedures, allowing for streamlined genetic manipulation and selection of ground state hESCs. | ||||||||||||||||||
29 | Guerra | Juliana | Environmental Sciences | Hopkins, Francesca | PhD | Poster Presentation | Using Methane Stable Isotopes and Ethane:Methane Ratios in Street-level Methane Sourcing in Los Angeles | In ground-based urban methane (CH4) studies, widely used source tracing methods are the co-presence of ethane (C2H6) to signify thermogenic sources, and CH4 stable isotopic signatures, which vary based on source. Although both provide important context to CH4 sources, analyzing isotopes is complex since fractionation can occur within samples and δ13C-CH4 of depleted natural gas signals may overlap with microbial sources. Further, comparisons to C2H6 can be difficult to interpret as it may change over time based on natural gas pricing and can even be released by itself in rare cases. Moreover, natural gas utilities are slowly integrating “renewable” gas sources, such as manure-derived CH4, which contain no C2H6. In Los Angeles, previous studies concluded that thermogenic sources were the largest contributor to CH4 emissions. Since then, LA has experienced a moratorium on new oil extraction, dairy farms being converted into warehouses, the local gas utility dedicated efforts to reduce leaks, and the closure of largest landfill in the US, Puente Hills. This study aims to characterize current LA CH4 sources through investigating the C2H6:CH4 (C2:C1) and CH4 stable isotopes of LA methane sources. During two 4-day campaigns in April and June 2024, we collected continuous measurements of CH4 and C2H6 concentrations and CH4 isotopes using a Picarro G2210i and Aeris MIRA Strato LDS in a mobile set-up. Using these measurements, we investigate whether C2:C1 or CH4 stable isotopic signatures provide a more robust constraint for LA CH4 source attribution . We consider whether the management changes in LA impact the C2:C1 and δ13C-CH4 for CH4 source characterization. | ||||||||||||||||||
30 | Han | Yuelin | PhD in Electrical Engineering | Shaolei Ren | PhD | Poster Presentation | The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI | The growing demand for AI has driven the expansion of energy-intensive data centers, increasing carbon emissions and water use. However, AI’s public health burden remains largely overlooked. From chip manufacturing to data center operation, AI worsens air quality by emitting fine particulate matter and other pollutants, significantly impacting health. This paper models AI-related pollutant emissions and quantifies their health effects. Training an AI model at the Llama-3.1 scale can generate air pollution equivalent to over 10,000 round trips between Los Angeles and New York. By 2030, the public health cost of U.S. data centers could exceed $20 billion annually—double that of coal-based steelmaking. The burden falls disproportionately on economically disadvantaged communities, where per-household health costs may be 200 times higher than in less-affected areas. We propose standardizing pollutant reporting, addressing health disparities, and integrating health-informed AI to reduce harms and promote equity. | ||||||||||||||||||
31 | Huitt | Eric | Bioengineering | Xiang, Tingting | PhD | Poster Presentation | Glycerol Utilization Provides Insights into Symbiodiniaceae Metabolic Flexibility | The dinoflagellate algae in the family Symbioianceae form symbiotic relationships with cnidarian hosts, such as coral, jellyfish, and sea anemones. This mutualism is the foundation to the success of coral reef ecosystems through nutrient transfer, predation protection, and habitat preservation. Within this partnership, the algal symbionts provide photosynthetically fixed organic compounds, while the cnidarian hosts provide protection and inorganic nutrients for the symbiont algae. Despite the ecological significance of this nutrient transfer, the metabolic interactions governing this relationship remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that glycerol, a three-carbon sugar alcohol that serves as a metabolic intermediate in energy production and lipid biosynthesis, enhances cellular proliferation in axenic Breviolum minutum strain SSB01 cultures. Glycerol supplementation led to increased culture density, enhanced pigment production, and improved photosynthetic function, suggesting that it acts as an additional carbon source to support phototrophic metabolism. However, SSB01 was unable to grow in the dark with glycerol alone, indicating that glycerol does not support heterotrophic growth. Following these physiological assessments, RNA sequencing was conducted to uncover the molecular underpinnings of these physiological responses. The transcriptomic data provides insights into gene expression changes associated with glycerol supplementation. These findings provide key insights into the metabolic flexibility of Symbiodiniaceae. By examining the influence of organic nutrient sources on SSB01 growth, we elucidate potential metabolic and physiological mechanisms contributing to algal proliferation and maintenance. These findings highlight the role glycerol has in enhancing phototrophic metabolism in Symbiodiniaceae, underscoring fundamental links between nutrient uptake, cellular physiology, and metabolic adaptation in symbiotic dinoflagellates. | ||||||||||||||||||
32 | Isevski | Jovana | English | Jacques Lezra | PhD | Oral Presentation | Biology Matters: Rethinking the Self through Symbolic Umwelten | In his Theoretical Biology, Jakob Johann von Uexküll proposed a theory of Umwelt, German for “environment,” or “self-world,” suggesting that organisms can experience the world only subjectively, as their perceptions are shaped by the unique qualities of their physiological makeup. In my dissertation, I extend Uexküll’s observations to argue that in humans, Umwelt obtains a qualitative multiplication as stimuli get filtered both through their sensory-motor systems and symbolic cognitive schemas. Besides their sense of the physical self, humans also experience themselves through socially and culturally shaped identities, such as a woman, Native, Muslim, musician, etc. Because both the physical and symbolic selves emerge from the same biological substrate, they are both partially constrained by the laws of physiological processes taking place in the body. For example, the same mechanisms for self-preservation, such as the release of hormones that drive us to action, metabolic homeostasis, or the repetitive nature of neurally encoded memories. However, this relationship is bidirectional: while the symbolic self arises from the body, it can, in turn, shape and modify the physiological substrate it depends on. The theory of symbolic Umwelten is of great relevance not only to the sciences and the humanities but politics at large. By revealing how the drive to preserve identity—sometimes through extreme means such as war or genocide—stems not merely from rational deliberation but from primal physiological mechanisms that cannot distinguish between the biological and the symbolic self, this work offers a new framework for understanding the entanglement of biology, identity, and power. | ||||||||||||||||||
33 | Johnson-Leiva | Rose | Mathematics | Wang, Qixuan | PhD | Poster Presentation | A multiscale model on hair follicle bulb replenishment and concentric layer differentiation | Hair follicles (HFs) are mini-organs in skin who undergo cyclic growth. During the anagen phase, the hair shaft is produced from the bottom part of the HF, referred to as the hair bulb. Proper regulations of the HF bulb cell fate decisions are crucial to maintain an anagen HF, therefore guaranteeing the continuous production of hair. Recent experiments have provided evidence on how HF bulb is replenished during anagen, and how cells make their fate decisions according to their positions, leading to the HF concentric layered differentiation. In this paper, we develop a hybrid multiscale computational model on HF bulb, integrating an agent-based submodel of cell divisions and movement, and a reaction-advection-diffusion equation submodel of diffusive signaling dynamics. Using our model, we first investigate the HF bulb replenishment dynamics driven by different cell dividing strategies, showing that signaling-driven cell division may lead to efficient replenishment dynamics. Next, we use the model to test the primed cell fate decision mechanism, and explore other candidate mechanisms that may contribute to a perfect HF concentric layered differentiation. | ||||||||||||||||||
34 | Kate Wanchi | Huang | Comparative Literature and Languages | John Jennings, David Lloyd, Wendy Weiqun Su, and Michelle Bloom | PhD | Oral Presentation | Forgotten Figures: Viewing Past and Present Chronicles of Taiwanese Indigenous and African American Cinema, Novels, and Graphic Novels in the Post-colonial Era from 1979 to 2017 | In the dissertation I will propose the concept of Asian-futurism inspired by Afrofuturism, which consider the present and the future of the African diaspora community through reflecting the past. In the dissertation, I will employ Afrofuturism and “Asian-futurism” to analyze the issues of history, social justice, and colonization in post-colonial theory, especially in settler colonization, in the genres of films, novels, and graphic novels. In Asian-futurism, I will focus on the literary works of Taiwanese indigenous, including Chiu Ruo-Long’s graphic novel Seediq Bale (2011) and documentary Gaya (1998) of Seediq tribe, Huang Ming-Chuan’s film The Man from Island West (1990) of Atayal tribe. I will argue that Taiwanese Indigeneity is like “The Wretched of the Earth”; African American is like “Black Skin, White Masks” via Frantz Fanon’s post-colonial theory. I argue that colonial nostalgia is not only for the colonizer but also for the colonized; the more colonial figures in literary works are forgotten, the closer relationship the colonizer and the colonized of the post-colonial period are. Therefore, in this dissertation, I will utilize Taiwanese indigenous cultural studies, Taiwanese Hakka cultural studies, Afrofuturist cultural studies, and Frantz Fanon’s post-colonial studies to reclaim and rethink the history and agency of people subordinated under forms of imperialism. Most specifically, I will revisit the aforementioned Taiwanese and African American films, literary works, and graphic adaptations and analyze the following shared elements: (1) Representation of fragmented history and of use of ellipsis; (2) Cultural conflicts and hybridity. | ||||||||||||||||||
35 | Kayabasi | Alper | Electrical Engineering | Vishwanath Saragadam | PhD | Poster Presentation | Bias for Action: Video Implicit Neural Representations with Bias Modulation | We introduce ActINR, a new method for continuous video modeling built on implicit neural representations (INRs). Our key insight is that INRs can be viewed as a learnable dictionary, where the network’s weights define the shapes of basis functions and the biases determine their positions. Because of the compactness of our non-linear activation functions, we argue that an INR’s biases effectively capture motion across frames, enabling more efficient video representations. Leveraging this principle, ActINR shares the same INR weights across all frames while assigning distinct biases to each frame. To further ensure smoothness over time, these biases are generated by a separate INR conditioned on the temporal index. By jointly training the main video INR and this bias INR, we achieve notable results in tasks such as 10× slow motion, 4× spatial super-resolution combined with 2× slow motion, denoising, and video inpainting. ActINR consistently excels across various video processing scenarios, often outperforming competing approaches by more than 6 dB, and sets a new benchmark for continuous video modeling. | ||||||||||||||||||
36 | Kelly | Downey | CSE | LePendu, Paea | PhD | Oral Presentation | Student Behavior Patterns and Associated Outcomes in a High Throughput In-Person Testing Facility | Many instructors are replacing larger assessments with smaller more frequent exams due to many pedagogical reasons. However, this switch has negative effects such as time taken away from instruction to proctor more exams and an increased chance that a scheduled assessment will conflict with a student’s personal schedule. To solve these problems, many institutions are utilizing a dedicated testing facility that is in a central location, allows students to schedule their own exams outside of class time, and uses trained proctors.The coordinator of a dedicated testing facility must balance the pedagogical needs of the students and instructors with the financial needs of the institution. To meet this demand, the coordinator needs a deep understanding of student behavior to determine what the needs of the students are. Currently, there is a shortage of research assessing student behavior when it comes to flexible testing experiences such as testing facilities.This work will focus on studying exam scheduling habits observed by an operating testing facility. It will examine scheduling based on the due date of the exam, the relationship between when an exam is scheduled and grade received on that exam, and the relationship between scheduling habits and course grade. This work concludes that there is a noticeable scheduling pattern viewed across three different courses, scheduling later in an exam window increases a students chance of getting a poor score on the exam, and students who habitually schedule later in the test window are more likely to receive a non-passing course grade. | ||||||||||||||||||
37 | Khoi | Vo | Mathematics | Mark Alber | PhD | Poster Presentation | How noise can be used to predict the elective disbursal of a species across a heterogeneous landscape | Habitat degradation caused by the insatiable climate change and pollution has been a growing concern in recent years. As such, understanding and predicting the change in these habitat populations would be beneficial to our community. Even so, the cost of conducting experimental activities is growing high and the need to understand them has become challenging. Various mathematical models have been developed in that attempt to understand the dynamics of the species population under different diverse environments. In this work, we will model the elevation environment from extracted satellite images and also from simulation results of terrains, then construct a study of (simulated) insect species around different terrains such as high land or rivers at different elevation levels. Our model will simulate agents movement on these different terrains and provide informative predictions on the life span of these agents. We can adopt the biological characteristics of each species to calibrate our agents accordingly and as such obtaining predictions. In addition, analytical results of our models are also driven by deep learning image analysis techniques that will provide useful information. Ongoing attempts to parallel simulation to speed up the time of simulated results are also in place. Numerous results from simulations are analyzed and preliminary results indicate a clear relationship of the geometry of the river network and the location that the population persists. | ||||||||||||||||||
38 | Kim | Sung | Ethnic Studies | Anthony Macias | PhD | Poster Presentation | Asian American Pacific Islanders and Street Gangs | In the field of race and ethnic studies, there exists a dominant discourse that is prevalent in all Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) studies. There is a dearth of research in the lived experiences of poor urban working-class AAPIs, especially those who live amongst various communities of color. These experiences are essential to explore as they provide an alternative lens to the AAPI experience outside of the common experiences that are frequently represented in race and ethnic fields. Poor urban working-class AAPI communities have often been othered in the dominant AAPI community as they are perceived as unfavorable and deviant. Much like the representations of the Orient in Edward Said, the urban working-class AAPI community experience the dehumanizing othering and even exclusion from dominant discourses surrounding the AAPI experience. To further probe this underrepresented experience, the AAPI street gang experience in poor urban working-class communities is another experience that is conceived as a result of the U.S. settler colonial project. As the practice of racialization of non-white peoples is deeply intertwined with orientalist modes of thought, the formation of AAPI street gang communities can be seen as a counterhegemonic response to these dominant settler colonial ideologies. It is important to emphasize that the racial experiences of the AAPI community in the U.S. are not monolithic and it heavily varies depending on numerous factors, especially that of location and its local socio-cultural characteristics. This paper explores the underrepresented racialized experiences of poor urban working-class AAPIs that lead to street gang involvement. | ||||||||||||||||||
39 | Kouvoutsakis | Georgia | Electrical and Computer Enginerring | Konstantinos Karydis | PhD | Oral Presentation | Infant-Robot Interaction Proxemics for Motor Training: Robot Placement to Elicit Targeted Motor Actions | Background. Given the importance of proximity in effective communication and social interactions across human-human, adult-robot, and child-robot contexts, the lack of research on infant-robot interactions represents a significant gap. This work aims to assess the proxemics surrounding such interactions and develop proxemics-based, data-driven models for applications in early motor training. Methods. Video data from five infants interacting with two Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) across eight sessions were analyzed. The type of engagement action (Reach, Gesture, and Mobility—further subdivided into Postural Adjustment and Locomotion) and robot type were annotated. Lastly, the 2D positions of infants and robots were digitized across each session. Results. There were significant differences in the proximity levels across each category (F = 12.846, p < 0.001). Infant-robot proximity at the time of a Reach was the lowest (35.26 ± 5.54 cm), while for Gesture (86.37 ± 8.16 cm) and Locomotion (82.22 ± 5.91 cm) were much higher. Postural Adjustment fell in between (52.17 ± 6.24 cm). Based on these findings, a discrete-state decision model was developed to model transition probabilities conditioned on infant–robot proximity values for the Mobility actions. Conclusion. Information from this study lays the foundation for the design of future Infant-SAR training environments. | ||||||||||||||||||
40 | Lawson | Jericho | Statistics | Zhe Fei | PhD | Poster Presentation | ImgKnock: Novel Knockoff Generation and Feature Selection for Image Data via Latent Representation Learning | Over 3 million Americans currently have glaucoma, a series of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve, leading to more severe eye issues. Diagnosis and monitoring of glaucoma can be accomplished through examination of fundus images, such as increased cup-to-disc ratio and thinning of the neuroretinal rim. While traditional feature selection techniques can be applied to pixelated fundus image data, they often struggle with high dimensionality, computational inefficiency, and procedural rigidity. To resolve these issues and control FDR, we present a novel approach that leverages latent representation learning to construct higher-level features from image data and generate knockoffs of the latent features, followed by knockoff feature selection with FDR control. Called ImgKnock, our four-step procedure uses a deep latent representation learning-based approach integrated with a model-X knockoffs framework. Simulations are conducted using the common MNIST and CIFAR-10 datasets to demonstrate the efficacy of ImgKnock. Results indicate proper FDR control, particularly with MNIST data, showing an AUC metric of up to 0.889. The proposed ImgKnock is also applied to fundus images from the UCLA Stein Eye Institute. | ||||||||||||||||||
41 | Lopez | Dennis | Ethnic Studies | Dr. Paul Green | PhD | Oral Presentation | Leticia A. Alumni: Undocumented Immigrant Students Access to California Public Colleges and Universities During Four Periods from 1985 to 2025 | State compulsory education laws require children to attend public or private schools from K-12. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe (1982) enabled undocumented students to attend public schools. This right did not include public higher education because college attendance is voluntary. Between 1985 and 1991, Leticia A. vs. UC Regents and CSU Trustees, a California state court ruling, allowed undocumented students to attend public higher education. The case was overturned in 1991, and access was only available to those who paid three times the tuition of state residents. However, in 2001, state law again allowed undocumented students to pay in-state tuition without financial aid until 2011, then Obama created DACA with work authorization. In 2025, President Trump has declared that schools and colleges are no longer protected from immigration enforcement. This research presentation will examine four periods between 1985 and 2025. First, undocumented California high school graduates had access to California public higher education, state need-based financial aid, and the opportunity to legalize their immigration status, with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Access was repealed in 1991 when the Leticia A. ruling was overturned. In 2001, undocumented students were allowed to pay in-state tuition, followed by state financial aid in 2011, and temporary work authorization in 2012. Today President Trump is threatening immigrants in the U.S. I will triangulate institutional documentary evidence with interviews of undocumented Latino immigrant students in California impacted by these policies, educators, and immigration attorneys participating in related litigation and/or advocacy. | ||||||||||||||||||
42 | Ly | Katrya | Higher Education Administration & Policy | Vue, Rican | PhD | Oral Presentation | Diversity Paradox: A Critical Race Analysis of the University of California’s Faculty Diversity Hiring | In 2007 the University of California (UC) system adopted Regents Policy 4400: Policy on University of California Diversity Statement. Notably, the report found that the hiring of underrepresented minority (URM) faculty had been flatlining since 1995 and that URM faculty were concentrated in two fields— the social sciences and humanities. Recent UC academic workforce diversity data revealed that since a decade prior, there have been dismal changes in URM faculty diversity. In this study I analyze two reports— the 2024 UC Accountability report and 2023-2024 UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program annual report, to analyze diversity faculty recruitment and hiring. Drawing from critical race theory and the disconnected power-analysis frame of colorblind ideology, the findings reveal the paradox of faculty diversity hiring. | ||||||||||||||||||
43 | Martinez | Jenni | Ethnic Studies | Dr. Najera, Jennifer | PhD | Poster Presentation | Amor-didas: Deported Recipes for Ontological Re-generation | My parents were deported on May 9th, 2012. This work examines the impact of deportation on Latinx, Chicanx, and Mexican communities, focusing on self-regeneration through food as a response to forced displacement. Using a phenomenological and autoethnographic lens, I explore how deportation disrupts ontological security by severing vital social, cultural, and familial ties. Through intimate conversations (pláticas) with deportees while preparing traditional meals, I investigate how cooking and recipe-sharing serve as pathways for survival and cultural resilience, helping deportees forge new identities. Drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa’s concepts of La Facultad and Coatlicue State, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s embodied ontology, Lisa Marie Cacho’s theory of social death, and Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics, I examine how deportation redefines identity and sparks new survival strategies. I incorporate Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital and Tara Yosso’s community cultural wealth to demonstrate how deportees resist erasure through cultural practices rooted in food. This project merges personal narratives with collective histories through Anzaldúa’s auto-historia teoría, recording pláticas as deportees cook and creating a recipe book for their U.S.-based children. This methodology transforms culinary memory into resilience, counteracting the necropolitical forces aiming to sever familial bonds. Positioning food at the center, I argue that deportees use food as nourishment and resistance to social death. This dissertation explores the ontological impact of deportation and proposes multisensory practices as bridges to overcome the distance enforced by deportation. | ||||||||||||||||||
44 | Masud | Md Rayhanul | Computer Science (PhD) | Faloutsos, Michalis | PhD | Poster Presentation | Identifying Bug-Inducing Commits Using LLMs | How can we identify bug-inducing commits given a bug-fixing commit and the bug type? This is the question that motivates this work. Identifying bug-inducing commits aids in understanding the introduction and evolution of bugs over time.Recent studies have experimented with various versions of the SZZ algorithm to link bug-inducing commits with their corresponding bug-fixing commits by tracing commit histories to identify changes in vulnerable code lines. The state-of-the-art approach, V-SZZ, leverages line mapping algorithms to pinpoint the earliest commit that modified the vulnerable lines, suggesting these as bug-inducing commits. However, this approach might inaccurately attribute the initial bug-inducing commit, as it assumes that any commit modifying the final buggy lines is responsible, leading to potential false positives.In this work, we introduce a cost effective approach that enhances the V-SZZ algorithm using the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs). This enhancement focuses on utilizing LLMs to filter out the unrelated lines from the candidate list in line mapping, ensuring that only pertinent lines are considered.Our results show a 15% improvement in F1-score for identifying vulnerability-inducing commits with our enhanced approach. This research contributes to more accurate tracing of bug-inducing commits, advancing our understanding of the evolution of bugs in software development. | ||||||||||||||||||
45 | Mendoza | Carl | Microbiology | Judelson, Howard | PhD | Poster Presentation | Rethinking the evolution of metabolism: Glycolytic and amino acid biosynthesis pathways show atypical compartmentalization in oomycetes and are required for fitness | Oomycetes are filamentous eukaryotes in the clade Stramenopila which include some of the world’s most destructive plant pathogens. Oomycetes possess many non-canonical metabolic pathways which are thought to have been acquired by horizontal or endosymbiotic gene transfer, but the functional significance of these pathways remains poorly understood. Among these is a forked glycolytic pathway where the ATP-generating pay-off phase occurs in both the cytosol and mitochondria—unusual among eukaryotes. Additionally, the phosphorylated serine biosynthesis pathway, cytoplasmic in most eukaryotes, is mitochondrial in oomycetes. We hypothesized that these pathways are functionally linked via 3-phosphoglycerate and that this novel compartmentalization provides metabolic advantages. Using CRISPR-Cas12a in the potato and tomato pathogen Phytophthora infestans, we generated knockout mutants for enzymes in both pathways. While single-gene mutants showed subtle or no observable defects, double-gene glycolytic mutants exhibited severe reductions in growth, sporulation, and pathogenicity. These results support the idea that mitochondrial glycolysis and serine biosynthesis are required for fitness while underscoring the pathogen’s resilience to metabolic disruptions. Metabolomic analysis is underway to identify perturbations in central carbon metabolism and validate the functional link between mitochondrial glycolysis and serine biosynthesis. Using phylogenetic and subcellular localization studies, we also identified candidate triose phosphate translocators predicted to shuttle glycolytic intermediates between compartments. Phenotypic analysis of translocator mutants is in progress. Our results support the concept that functional redundancy enhances evolutionary fitness, challenging the notion that redundant horizontally acquired genes are usually lost. Our studies also emphasize the role of horizontal and endosymbiotic gene transfer in eukaryotic diversification. | ||||||||||||||||||
46 | Modi | Samyak | Religious Studies | Prof Amanda Lucia | PhD | Oral Presentation | Decoloniality expressed through a Mouth-mask: Muni Ratnacandra’s Code of Ethics for an Ideal Layperson in Post-colonial India | Medieval India marked a significant shift in the spread of religious and ethical discourse, mainly through the compilation of compendia on ethical discourse. One renowned text on śrāvakācāra—lay conduct in Jainism—was the Yogaśāstra by Hemacandra. Verses 47-56 of this text list the qualities of a mārgānusārī—a follower of the path. These ideals portray a mahāśrāvaka, or great layman, with qualities ranging from practicing established kingdom customs and not criticizing others (especially the king), to remaining disciplined over one’s senses. The text, largely prevalent in the Śvētāmbara Mūrtipūjaka tradition, over time, has been made popular through media such as certain bālāvabodhas (simplified and summarised renderings for beginners).In contrast, the authority of this text has largely remained ambiguous in the Sthānakavāsī sub-sect in the Śvetāmbaras. Notably, throughout history, the Sthānakavāsīs did not have a significant focus in Sanskrit literature, which is evident in the negligence of the layers of commentaries in canonical texts. Hence, the commentarial interest in the Yogaśāstra shown by Muni Ratnacandra, a Sthānakavāsī monk who composed a Gujarati commentary on the text, “Nīti Mārgānusārīnā 35 bola athavā māṇasāi eṭale śuṃ?” (Instructions on the 35 [Qualities] of the Follower of the Ethical Path or What is Humanity?)”, in 1951, seems sudden.This paper explores the interpretation of these mārgānusārī qualities at a time when India was newly independent through Muni Ratnacandra’s commentary. I propose in this paper that Ratnacandra is echoing the nationalistic and anti-colonial sentiments prevalent in the newly developing democracy and has attempted to formulate the ideal nationalistic and patriotic layperson. | ||||||||||||||||||
47 | Montemayor-Dominguez | Madison | Psychology | Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky | PhD | Oral Presentation | Exploring the Impacts of a Week-Long Curiosity Intervention on Well-Being | Previous research has found that trait curiosity and daily experiences of curiosity positively correlate with subjective (hedonic) and eudaimonic well-being. However, no studies to date have experimentally manipulated curiosity per se as a well-being intervention. In the present study, we developed a novel curiosity intervention in which participants were randomly assigned to either “act curious” daily for 1 week or report on various routine behaviors during the same period. Those in the curiosity condition were hypothesized to report greater levels of subjective well-being (higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and higher satisfaction with life), eudaimonic well-being (self-efficacy, self-worth, and meaning and purpose), and psychological need fulfillment (autonomy, competence, and relatedness). Using mixed effect models, we found the intervention successfully drove more behaviors reported as curious, leading to higher daily reports of positive affect compared to the control group. Linear regressions also revealed that on Day 8, participants in the curiosity condition reported higher positive affect and lower negative affect compared to the previous week, as well as stronger feelings of self-worth and autonomy. Taken together, these results highlight the feasibility of this novel intervention and illustrate the potential of acting more curious as a strategy to improve individuals’ subjective and eudaimonic well-being. | ||||||||||||||||||
48 | Nazaraliyev | Nurlan | Computer Science | Nael Abu-Ghazaleh | PhD | Poster Presentation | GPUVM: GPU-driven Unified Virtual Memory | Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) leverage massive parallelism and large memory bandwidth to support high-performance computing applications, such as multimedia rendering, crypto-mining, deep learning, and natural language processing. These applications require models and datasets that are getting bigger in size and currently challenge the memory capacity of a single GPU, causing substantial performance overheads. To address this problem, a programmer has to partition the data and manually transfer data in and out of the GPU. This approach requires programmers to carefully tune their applications and can be impractical for workloads with irregular access patterns, such as deep learning, recommender systems, and graph applications. To ease programmability, programming abstractions such as unified virtual memory (UVM) can be used, creating a virtually unified memory space across the whole system and transparently moving the data on demand as it is accessed. However, UVM brings in the overhead of the OS involvement and inefficiencies due to generating many transfer requests especially when the GPU memory is oversubscribed. This paper proposes GPUVM, a GPU memory management system that uses an RDMA-capable network device to construct a virtual memory system without involving the CPU/OS. GPUVM enables on-demand paging for GPU applications and relies on GPU threads for memory management and page migration. Since CPU chipsets do not support GPU-driven memory management, we use a network interface card to facilitate transparent page migration from/to the GPU. GPUVM achieves performance up to 4x higher than UVM for latency-bound applications while providing accessible programming abstractions that do not require the users to manage memory transfers directly. | ||||||||||||||||||
49 | Nezhad | Negin | Astronomy | Siana, Brian | PhD | Oral Presentation | Improved Reductions for High-redshift galaxies with JWST NIRSpec IFU | Recent discoveries as to the nature of the most distant galaxies provided by JWST have revolutionized our understanding of galaxy formation. The incredible resolution of NIRCam has shown these nascent galaxies to be incredibly complex, often having multiple distinct components or being multi-galaxy systems. Observed with NIRSpec IFU, the most luminous among them at z~7-9 (GO #2659) not only confirm this complexity, but provide multiple independent spectroscopic sight-lines to study the conditions of their interstellar media and stellar mass assembly histories. We find that the science yield may be pushed further by additional modifications to the standard reduction pipeline. Following recent work from TEMPLATES, we develop a unified reduction pipeline that is optimized for such relatively faint but morphologically complex targets. This includes automated masking of leakages, artifact identification, and advanced background subtraction. We stress the power of drizzling to meaningfully improve morphological information for dithered observations. The resulting IFU cubes provide a cleaner picture of the first galaxies, enabling confident science analyses of this formative epoch that we are only just beginning to understand. | ||||||||||||||||||
50 | Nowaski | Ethan | Mathematics PhD | Dr. Mark Alber | PhD | Poster Presentation | Multi-Scale Modeling for Fly Wing Development | One of the most important open questions in developmental biology is determining how organs and tissues form and maintain their shape. The robust formation of organs during development depends on the careful regulation of cellular processes such as cell adhesion, mechanical stiffness of the cell membrane, and internal pressure to create the tissue-scale architecture. A sophisticated communication system coordinates these developmental processes. This project utilizes the fruit fly wing imaginal disc, a powerful biological model system, to study how downstream effectors of ecdysone signaling contribute to regulating cell mechanical properties that influence cell shapes and overall tissue structures during wing disc eversion. Eversion is one of the final parts of development involving decline of cell proliferation and folding of the wing driven by cell rearrangements and morphological changes driven by actomyosin dynamics. The project workflow includes iteration between quantitative experiments and biologically calibrated computational model simulations. In this talk, a novel extension of the two dimensional subcellular element computational model of the developing Drosophila wing will be described and model simulations will be used to demonstrate potential mechanisms of wing folding during eversion. | ||||||||||||||||||
51 | Nunez | Patricia | MBA | Elaine Wong | Master's | Creative Activity | "Crocodile Construction & Associates: An Ethical Dilemma in Business" | How far would you go to help a friend? At what point does business ethics override personal loyalty? "Crocodile Construction & Associates" is an interactive, theatrical case study exploring corporate ethics, personal decision-making, and the consequences of betrayal. This live performance brings a business ethics dilemma to life, immersing the audience in the struggles of a construction manager, a desperate businessman, a blackmailer, and a whistleblower. The performance follows Abigail, a government contractor, as she faces an ethical crisis when an old friend, Gregory, manipulates her into leaking confidential bid information to save his failing company. As the truth unravels, blackmail, betrayal, and revenge spiral out of control, leading to dire consequences for all involved. Following the performance, the audience will be invited to rank the characters from most to least unethical and discuss the real-world implications of ethical decision-making in business and leadership. This interactive element will foster critical thinking and professional reflection on topics such as whistleblowing, corruption, and professional integrity. This project is designed for students in business, ethics, and leadership disciplines but is open to all audiences. Through drama, storytelling, and discussion, we aim to spark meaningful conversations about how ethical dilemmas impact decision-making in professional environments. | ||||||||||||||||||
52 | Ortega | Etienne | Political Science | Indridi Indridason | PhD | Oral Presentation | When mountains foretell corruption: socio-geographic predictors of public goods provision and democratic transition | A central question in political science is finding the factors that determine whether the government will be corrupt or help the people through public projects. Adopting the framework of selectorate theory, we hypothesize that 1) if public goods are too expensive, the incumbent will prefer incentivizing its coalition with direct cash transfers instead of providing public goods to the citizens, and 2) the probability of a country transitioning to a democracy will be inversely proportional to the cost of public goods. Based on literature on economics, public policy, and formal theory, I propose possible indicators of the cost of public goods within a country: educational attainment, terrain inclination, distance to navigable waters, unfavorable weather and propensity to natural disasters. Since educational attainment is highly endogenous with public goods provision, I argue that geographic indicators are exogenous and can help us get closer to causal inference. I test the first hypothesis using empirical data on 35 indicators of corruption and public goods provision. I test the second hypothesis using changes in BDM et al. (2003)'s coalition size index and their coding of antigovernment action. | ||||||||||||||||||
53 | Peter | Jerin | Robotics | Dr. Karydis | Master's | Oral Presentation | Development of an intuitive ground robot for indoor delivery applications | Efficient and reliable parcel delivery services are always desired in different sectors such as hospitals, offices, industries and households. One promising solution to meet, this need is the application of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) capable of navigating complex indoor environments to deliver packages and goods. Generally, AMRs are used for the last-mile delivery of parcels. The end users of such robots have different skill sets, and the robot must have a simple user interface to ensure easy usability. This presentation presents an AMR with an intuitive Graphic User Interface (GUI) and aesthetic design. It is enough for the end user to define the goal locations on the resulting map shown on the robot screen. The AMR will autonomously navigate to the given goal location. Besides, the effectiveness of sensor fusion and a comparative study of various combinations of sensor fusion are also described in this paper. In addition, the application of LiDAR odometry and its performance is also analyzed in this paper. The primary objective of this study is to identify an approach that improves the AMR’s tracking accuracy and makes it suitable for dynamic work environments. This paper describes the development of an AMR for last-mile delivery purposes, and its proof of concept is evaluated on the fabricated prototype. | ||||||||||||||||||
54 | Quan | Phung | Chemical & Environmental Engineering | Liu, Haizhou | PhD | Oral Presentation | Optimization of Algal Bio-Pumping for Salt Transport in Water: Implications on Biological Desalination | Fresh water scarcity is an increasing global concern. One of the viable solutions is desalination. Nonetheless, the current desalination processes compromise the environment by requiring large energy and releasing carbon dioxide, which partially contributed to global warming. Hence, an innovative algae-based desalination approach has been examined due to its low energy consumption and sustainability aspects. In this project, an algae-deposited membrane with biological ion pumping transporters is introduced as a potential strategy to remove salt from brackish water. The algal strain Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was trained to acclimate high salinity condition (up to 50 mM NaCl) and then filtrated through a microfiltration PVDF membrane (5 µm pore size). The algae-deposited membrane was evaluated in a U-shaped osmosis apparatus with saline source on one end and deionized water on the other end for 7 hours. The chloride flux ranged between 20 – 30 mmol.hr-1.m-2 after the first hour. To further optimize the system, pH and potassium ions were added. Acidic pH range (3-4) and low potassium dosages have shown to increase the efficiency by 30%. This algae-deposited membrane stand-alone technology can be a small-scale and energy-free desalination. If combined with other wastewater treatment or forward osmosis (FO) process, this technology can be scaled-up and provide a sustainable option to fight water scarcity. | ||||||||||||||||||
55 | Rabelhofer | Luke | Educational Psychology | Atit, Kinnari, Lussier, Catherine | PhD | Oral Presentation | Comparing Embodied Teaching Strategies in Online Statistics | Introductory statistics is a gateway course that often impedes student progression to degree completion. Successfully learning statistics relies on spatial skills, and embodied learning tools (gestures and drawing) support learning of critical spatial STEM concepts. The efficacy of these tools for statistics learning has never been explored, especially in online environments. This study compares online video instruction with gestures to instruction with drawings on novice undergraduates’ (N = 61) understanding of standard deviation, a challenging spatial statistics concept. To assess the magnitude of their efficacy, we included a control condition without gestures or drawings. Results revealed gestures were marginally more effective than drawing, with similar perceived engagement. Findings have implications for online statistics pedagogy. | ||||||||||||||||||
56 | Rai | Pertab | Bioengineering | Dr. Kevin J. Freedman | PhD | Poster Presentation | Glass-adhered Droplet Formation using Microinjection for Nanoscale Biosensing Applications | Microdroplets are tiny liquid compartments ranging in size from a few micrometers to several tenths of a millimeter. The use of microdroplets is demonstrated in several biosensing applications such as DNA, RNA, and proteins and to conduct single cell-based studies. Among the various techniques for microdroplet formation, PDMS-based microfluidics and microinjection are prominent. These methods enable the bulk production of droplets with varying sizes and volumes. However, the ability to manipulate the size and volume of microdroplets is limited in both techniques due to the fundamental principles governing their formation. Specially, PDMS-based microfluidics suffers primarily because of the fabrication of complex droplet-forming structures such as T-junctions. Once the microfluidic chip is fabricated, the width of the channels in the chip cannot be adjusted, thus offering limited control. In microinjection, parameters such as injection pressure, pressure pulse duration, surface tension of the injection liquid, and Laplace pressure need to be tracked to obtain the droplets of the desired size and volume. But in microinjection, droplet formation involves growth, shrinking, and detachment phases before stabilizing as a stationary droplet. Thus, by only controlling the shrinking phase, droplets of the desired size can be efficiently produced. This poster aims to demonstrate the utility of pneumatic microinjection for generating size-adjustable water-in-oil glass-adhered microdroplets via controlling the shrinking phase of droplets and show the encapsulation of single polystyrene bead per droplet following the Poisson distribution. | ||||||||||||||||||
57 | Rajkumar | Rahul | Mathematics | David Weisbart | PhD | Poster Presentation | AA Gentle Introduction to p-adic Brownian Motion | We will discuss recent work on a mathematical model for Brownian motion in the p-adics. These spaces are natural counterparts to the familiar real number line, and have been studied extensively over the last century, while Brownian motion – also known as diffusion – has deep connections across both pure and applied mathematics. The p-adics are the prototypical example of a setting exhibiting natural hierarchy, and so these results are a natural starting point for modeling phenomena with intrinsic stratification like contagions with social barriers. Some of the original motivations for this research include theoretical physics – such as the fundamental nature of the Universe at sub-Planck scales – in addition to pure mathematics. We aim for this talk to be of interest to both mathematicians and non-mathematicians, and expressly invite those without mathematical backgrounds to attend. | ||||||||||||||||||
58 | Riahi | Ayat | Plant biology | Eulgem Thomas | PhD | Poster Presentation | Towards understanding Arabidopsis root immunity against the global crop destroyer Macrophomina phaseolina | The devastating, soil-borne plant-pathogenic fungus Macrophomina phaseolina (Mp) is spreading world-wide in the wake of global warming causing dramatic losses in agriculture. Many hosts of this broad-spectrum root pathogen are economically important crops. Prohibition of methyl-bromide treatments increased the pathogen spread which is strongly impacting the specialty crop industry in the U.S. Alternative methods for Mp eradication are urgently needed, but host defenses against this detrimental pathogen are poorly understood. We are using interactions of Mp with the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana to gain a comprehensive understanding of host immunity against Mp. Testing 120 natural A. thaliana accessions we identified their tolerance against Mp to vary substantially. Accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the earliest A. thaliana root responses to Mp infection. Consistent with this observation we found the timing and intensity of Mp-induced ROI burst to negatively correlate with Mp tolerance levels in the roots of A. thaliana accessions we analyzed. Accessions with enhanced Mp tolerance exhibit reduced and delayed ROI bursts in response to this pathogen compared to accessions with lower levels of Mp tolerance. Following this observation, we detected the penetration of roots by Mp hyphae to be delayed and reduced in accessions with higher tolerance levels. Our previous RNA-seq analyses revealed numerous A. thaliana genes with pronounced transcriptional responses after Mp infection. Arabidopsis T-DNA mutants with compromised function of some of these genes show decreased tolerance against Mp. Use of Mp-responsive Arabidopsis promoters fused to the GUS reporter gene revealed gene expression responses triggered by Mp in roots can be tissue-specific. We are planning to use fluorescence-assisted cell sorting (FACS) to study how different Arabidopsis root tissues cooperate in induced immunity against Mp. | ||||||||||||||||||
59 | Rodriguez | Larry | Bioengineering | Dr. Giulia Palermo | PhD | Oral Presentation | Markov State Model Analysis of CRISPR Cas9 Prime Editors | CRISPR-Cas systems serve as adaptive immune mechanisms in bacteria and archaea. These systems employ a CRISPR RNA-guided surveillance complex to recognize and destroy complementary RNA or DNA. Recently, the prime editor complex of Streptococcus pyogenes cas9 (spCas9) nickase engineered with a Moloney murine leukaemia virus reverse transcriptase (M-MLV RT) have been developed and enable precise targeted insertions, deletions, and all twelve possible classes of point mutations without requiring double strand breaks. In this work, we explore the initiation complex of CRISPR Cas9 S. pyogenes prime editor mechanism described by Shuto and colleagues using markov state models (MSMs) to characterize the kinetics and structural mechanisms of the transitions between discrete microstates in the initiation complex at specific time intervals enabling the systematic prediction of long-time scale dynamics from a set of three unbiased molecular classical molecular dynamics simulation (MD) replicates of the initiation complex. We reduced the dimensionality of the MD trajectory data using time-lagged independent component analysis (TICA) and discretized this data into microstates using k-means clustering computing the conditional transition probability matrix between microstates i and j at a lag time 𝜏. We then utilized transition path theory to explore the fluxes from source states (A) to product state B to extract structural and kinetic information of A → B transitions. | ||||||||||||||||||
60 | Rodriguez | Diana | Environmental Science | Dr. Francesca Hopkins | PhD | Poster Presentation | Adaptation of a methodology for diurnal measurement of CH4 and N2O over compost piles using LI-COR instruments | Climate change has been an issue worldwide for its devastating effects not just in temperatures but also for its potential influence over weather patterns, which can be translated into changing the frequency and intensity of extreme events (Filonchyk et al., 2024). There is no doubt that human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, changes in land cover, agriculture, and waste treatment, are the main drivers of the rise of these Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), which also affect Earth’s energy budget (Vallero, 2019). Anthropogenic emissions of N2O have increased over the last century, influenced mainly by the agricultural sector from fertilizer applications and manure management. Sources of N2O from dairy farm systems can vary from soils, manure storage (slurry or liquid form), and a minor portion of barn floors (Chianese et al., 2009). Around 20 % of the USA’s milk supply comes from California’s dairy industry, significantly contributing to the state economy. With the size of the dairy industry in California, understanding GHG production is essential to propose adequate mitigation strategies for its reduction. One of the strategies for reducing methane (CH4) from manure management is composting. This process consists of the conversion of manure into a stable organic fertilizer but produces other GHG, with N2O contributing the most (Han et al., 2024) Little is known about diurnal patterns of N2O emissions in compost windrow piles and factors such as pile temperature, moisture content, and sunshine could drive variability in these fluxes. This project aimed to measure N2O, CO2, and CH4 fluxes using the Smart Chamber coupled with LI-COR gas analyzers in compost windrows at least twice daily to detect the diurnal patterns in GHG fluxes. | ||||||||||||||||||
61 | sanchez | brian | sociology | Stets, Jan | PhD | Poster Presentation | Meanings of a son/daughter and family achievement guilt | Family achievement guilt has been a recently studied phenomenon argued to play a role in the underperformance of ethnic minority college students. A possible mechanism behind this connection is the degree to which students incorporate collectivist values (which promote supporting one's family) into their son/daughter identity, which in turn increases feelings of guilt when students leave their family behind to pursue higher education. For this pilot study, minority students were asked to provide meanings they associate with being a son/daughter as well as the extent to which they experience family achievement guilt. Results are still underway but will be ready prior to the presentation | ||||||||||||||||||
62 | Sanford | Surmani | PhD Critical Dance Studies | Dance Studies | PhD | Creative Activity | Movement Workshop: Everyone Drops the Ball Sometimes | ‘Everyone Drops the Ball Sometimes’ workshop is meant to build one's understanding of consent, bodily awareness and exploring how to create organic movement. This workshop essentially originated from SUR Sanfords dance class Collective Care Practices in Dance: Negotiations of Consent, Pain, or Impact.This course introduces students to the awareness of care on bodily knowledge around negotiating consent, pain, or impact in dance spaces. Students learn how to build and maintain their own practices and create works with groups that are curated from in class material. This particular activity was created to help people learn how to negotiate when coming in contact with another body in dance space, build chemistry with boundaries and find a new route to building choreography from a dance space centered in care practices. The activity requires participants to pair up with one ball and one prompt which is to NOT drop the ball. SUR will lead a series of movements each pair can play with in order to keep their ball in contact with each other and in motion all at the same time. SUR will also provide options for collective responsibility when the ball does drop, as it is a communal effort to repair and move forward when efforts fall through. | ||||||||||||||||||
63 | Shao | Zengyu | Biochemistry and molecular biology | Jikui Song | PhD | Oral Presentation | Multi-layered heterochromatin interaction as a switch for DIM2-mediated DNA methylation | Functional crosstalk between DNA methylation, histone H3 lysine-9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) and heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) is essential for proper heterochromatin assembly and genome stability. However, how repressive chromatin cues guide DNA methyltransferases for region-specific DNA methylation remains largely unknown. Here, we report structure-function characterizations of DNA methyltransferase Defective-In-Methylation-2 (DIM2) in Neurospora. The DNA methylation activity of DIM2 requires the presence of both H3K9me3 and HP1. Our structural study reveals a bipartite DIM2-HP1 interaction, leading to a disorder-to-order transition of the DIM2 target-recognition domain that is essential for substrate binding. Furthermore, the structure of DIM2-HP1-H3K9me3-DNA complex reveals a substrate-binding mechanism distinct from that for its mammalian orthologue DNMT1. In addition, the dual recognition of H3K9me3 peptide by the DIM2 RFTS and BAH1 domains allosterically impacts the DIM2-substrate binding, thereby controlling DIM2-mediated DNA methylation. Together, this study uncovers how multiple heterochromatin factors coordinately orchestrate an activity-switching mechanism for region-specific DNA methylation. | ||||||||||||||||||
64 | Sharma | Komal | Chemistry | Dr. Richard J Hooley | PhD | Poster Presentation | Supramolecular Catalysis with Lipophilic Cage Hosts | Self-assembled metal-ligand cage complexes are widely used in selective catalysis, sensing, cargo transport and other applications that center around their properties as hosts, i.e. their ability to perform selective molecular recognition. Herein, we have synthesized new series of functionalized Fe4L6 cage complexes, exploiting lipophilic groups at pyridyl termini to confer solubility in range of solvents, and studied the effects of solvent and internal functionality on the molecular recognition properties of the cages. Polar solvents such as ethylene glycol and CH3CN exhibit high affinities for neutral guests, whereas solvents with both H-bonding and lipophilic sites such as HFIP and TFE eliminate all guest binding via competitive binding. There is no linear trend between target affinity and solvent polarity, but less polar solvents increase the strength of hydrogen bonding interactions in the cavity between internalized acid groups and guests with polar functions. Moreover, an acid-functionalized cage is capable of binding and activating multiple different species. The catalytic properties of the lipophilic acid cage are currently being investigated for catalysis, as it retains the same aromatic scaffold and functionalization, varying only in the pyridyl end-caps. Binding studies and cage catalysis in non-polar environments highlights the importance of solvent selection in optimizing reaction conditions. | ||||||||||||||||||
65 | Shayegani | Erfan | Computer Science | Abu-Ghazaleh, Nael | PhD | Poster Presentation | What Happens When AI Can’t Say No? The Dark Side of Generative Models | As AI systems become increasingly multi-modal—processing and generating text, images, and more—their vulnerabilities expand beyond traditional language-based risks. In this talk, I explore the evolving landscape of AI safety and alignment, with a focus on multi-modal models and their susceptibility to adversarial attacks. I will introduce Role-Modality Attacks (RMA), a novel class of adversarial manipulations that exploit inconsistencies between input modalities and role assignments, leading to jailbreaks, misalignment, and unsafe responses. We will examine real-world examples of compositional adversarial attacks, where small, seemingly benign perturbations—either in text, images, or their interplay—bypass existing safety guardrails. Additionally, I will discuss the limitations of current alignment strategies, highlighting why Cross-Modality Safety Alignment vulnerabilities exist. Beyond diagnosing these issues, I will propose potential mitigation strategies, from improved context-aware alignment techniques to modality-sensitive filtering mechanisms. Through this discussion, I aim to shed light on why AI safety cannot be treated as a solved problem, especially in the multi-modal era, and how researchers and practitioners can work toward more robust, adaptive, and ethically aligned AI systems. This talk is designed for researchers, engineers, and policymakers interested in understanding, auditing, and fortifying multi-modal AI models against emerging threats. | ||||||||||||||||||
66 | Sherwani | Navaira | Biophysics | Mark Alber and Weitao Chen | PhD | Poster Presentation | Insights into Bud Morphogenesis Dynamics in Aging Yeast | Understanding cellular aging is crucial for extending organismal lifespan and studying age-related degenerative diseases. In budding yeast recent experiments revealed two aging modes—nucleolar and mitochondrial decline. Bud dimensions measured over a cell cycle show linear growth in both modes. In one, cells maintain bud size and spherical shape, whereas bud size increases and shape becomes tubular in the other. We introduce a chemical-mechanical coupled model predicting that linear bud growth results from delivering new cell surface materials to Cdc42 polarization at a constant rate. Simulations confirm the generation of elongated buds by locally inserting materials at the bud tip. These findings suggest cellular aging may impact the maintenance of chemical signaling polarization that directs the delivery of new materials. Our aim now is to simulate aging under varying environmental conditions with cellular signaling and determine the role played by the septin neck ring and actin cables. | ||||||||||||||||||
67 | Shukla | Vishnu | Computer Engineering | Dr Sargadam Vishwanath | Master's | Poster Presentation | Next-Gen Soil Analysis: Hyperspectral Imaging Meets Innovative Denoising | This research explores how hyperspectral imaging and deep learning can be used to analyze and classify soil properties. Traditional soil testing methods are expensive and time-consuming, making it difficult for farmers to get quick results. Hyperspectral imaging provides a modern solution by capturing detailed spectral information that reveals soil composition. For this study, soil samples were collected from different regions, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Hisar, covering a variety of soil types. Key chemical properties like pH, phosphorus, potassium, and organic matter were measured and used as reference values for training a predictive model. Hyperspectral images of the soil were processed into a datacube, where each pixel contained spectral information across multiple wavelengths. This datacube was analyzed using deep neural networks to identify patterns and correlations with soil properties. The results show that this method can predict soil properties with 89% accuracy, making it a reliable alternative to traditional testing. This approach can significantly improve precision agriculture and environmental monitoring. Future work will focus on refining these models, integrating them into real-world applications, and improving data processing techniques for faster and more reliable predictions. This study highlights the potential of hyperspectral imaging and AI in assessing soil health, contributing to better land management and farming decisions. | ||||||||||||||||||
68 | Sitao | Liu | Chemical and Environmental Engineering | Haizhou Liu | PhD | Poster Presentation | Near-complete destruction of Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in brine using hydrogen-tuned short-wavelength UV photolysis | PFAS pollution is an urgent global environmental issue due to their persistence in the environment and potential toxicity to humans. Although physical treatment processes, such as ion exchange and membrane can separate PFAS from polluted water, the destruction of PFAS in brine concentrate remains challenging because of high energy consumption and production of toxic byproducts. To overcome these challenges, this presentation will introduce a novel technology utilizing short-wavelength (185 nm) UV photolysis with gas-tuned systems to destroy PFAS under brine conditions. We have discovered that two common brine anions, chloride and sulfate, significantly promoted the destruction of PFAS (˃99% defluorination) under their optimal concentrations, which was attributed to the increased generation of hydrated electron via their direct 185 nm photolysis. Surprisingly, we also found that the defluorination rate was greatly enhanced under hydrogen-tuned system. We further evaluated: (1) the effects of common pH found in brine, (2) different head functional groups and chain lengths of PFAS, (3) the treatment efficiency of concentrated PFAS mixture in synthetic reverse osmosis brine, (4) the electrical energy consumption in the proposed technology under brine conditions. This study provides a green and sustainable way for PFAS destruction in brine, avoiding the need for large chemical inputs and minimizing the formation of undesirable byproducts. | ||||||||||||||||||
69 | Steinhauser | Jordan | Psychology | Korzus, Edward | PhD | Poster Presentation | Understanding Fear and Beyond in Neural Networks with Tensor and Graph Methods: An Interdisciplinary End-to-End Data Science Approach | Understanding fear and where it is generated, manipulated, and interpreted is paramount when developing our knowledge of anxiety and stressor type disorders. A key region implicated in threat assessment is the prelimbic region (PL) of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). We hypothesized there will be unique populations of neurons within the PL that are necessary for fear learning, which can be determined based on the neuronal activity observed within PL. We employ a contextual fear conditioning and differential fear conditioning paradigm. Mice undergo 1 day of fear conditioning and a subsequent 8 days of differential fear conditioning where they are exposed to two similar, yet distinct contexts that have unique cues serving as the contingencies the mice must learn. Then, we use calcium imaging as a method to record real-time, neuronal network activity of a precise region of interest within freely behaving mice. Using independent, unsupervised machine learning analyses, tensor decomposition and community analysis, we found three non-orthogonal and orthogonal populations of neurons that encoded information for different aspects of the behavioral paradigms. There is a population of neurons in PL that are highly coactive during the two distinct context exposures during differential fear conditioning, another population of neurons coactive before fear conditioning, and a third population coactive when the mouse is in a neutral context. Overall, these results are informative of the modulation occurring within recorded PL activity and provide valuable insight into the different populations of neurons that are selectively co-active during different trials and stimulus presentations during learning. | ||||||||||||||||||
70 | Stine | Andrea | Math | David Weisbart | PhD | Oral Presentation | Composing Open Systems in Classical Mechanics with Geometric Constraints and Feedback Loops | The mathematical model for classical mechanical physics, in other words, basic Newtonian mechanics, is incomplete. There is no comprehensive framework to model open systems in classical mechanics—systems where objects aren’t just interacting with one another, but with other objects outside of the system. Such a framework necessitates a notion of composition: In principle, one should be able to model an open system, identify an interaction of an object inside the system with an object outside the system, and construct a new composite system where the once-outside object is now part of the system. Prior work constructs a method for determining the dynamics—that is, how the masses move over time given some initial configuration—of composite systems where interactions are arranged linearly, using only the simple interactions between pairs of masses. My research constructs a more sophisticated mathematical framework capable of capturing geometric constraints imposed by interactions and circumvents the prior works’ limitation to linearly-arranged interactions, enabling modeling of more nuanced systems and systems involving feedback loops. This framework allows us to model double pendulums, linkages in mechanical engineering, and many other fruitful examples of classical mechanical systems. My framework provides an efficient, consistent, and mathematically-verifiable method of modeling, decomposing, and composing configuration spaces and dynamics of classical mechanical systems in the mathematical language of category theory, which lends itself to the study of emergent properties. Anecdotal results suggest this category-theoretic framework may enable AI to better understand motion in classical mechanics, indicating potential applications to robotics. | ||||||||||||||||||
71 | Strobel | Michael | Computer Science | Mingxun Wang | PhD | Oral Presentation | IDBac: An Open-Access Web Platform for Bacterial Identification via MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry | High-throughput, accurate identification of bacterial taxa is essential for accelerating microbial sciences. Specifically, large collections of bacterial isolates pose unique challenges of scale, where sequencing remains prohibitively expensive. The use of MALDI-TOF MS provides a rapid method for measuring the intact proteins of bacterial isolates, creating unique fingerprints that are effective for taxonomic identification (PMID: 15792714). However, MALDI’s broad adoption has been hindered by a lack of public databases and complementary computational analysis tools to make this process routine. To address these challenges, we introduce the IDBac web platform, which houses an open database of protein MS spectra and a supporting set of computational and machine learning tools for taxonomic classification.To date, the database contains 1,029 bacterial strains representing 65 genera and 552 species from government, industry, and academic culture collections. It is available online at IDBac.org, which has been visited by more than 700 users from 10 countries. We demonstrate the immediate impact of the IDBac platform by 1) providing putative species identifications for previously unknown isolates—three unknown strains matched to Saccharomonospora, Micromonospora, and Kitasatospora aureofaciens with cosine distances of 0.07, 0.29, and 0.30, respectively, and confirmed by 16S sequencing—and 2) offering subspecies discrimination via metabolite association networks (MANs). For example, despite being indistinguishable by 16S sequencing, two Paraburkholderia strains were differentiated from a collection of 316 Burkholderiales strains. | ||||||||||||||||||
72 | Supreetha | Sivaraj | Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology | Dr. Juan Pablo Giraldo | PhD | Poster Presentation | Nanobionic enhancement of marine algae growth and carbon capture by antioxidant cerium oxide nanoparticles | The biomass productivity of microalgae is greatly diminished during low temperature and high light conditions. The rapid growth and high CO2 capture of the marine microalgae Pichochlorum celeri is largely inhibited under stress winter conditions. Herein, we demonstrated a nanobionic approach to enhance the biomass productivity and CO2 capture of P. celeri under abiotic stress by interfacing with antioxidant cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanoceria). Antioxidant nanoceria delivered to chloroplasts catalytically scavenged reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated under stress conditions, reducing damage to the microalgae photosynthetic machinery. Negatively charged poly-acrylic acid-coated nanoceria (PNC) had a high delivery efficiency to chloroplasts (>80%). In contrast, positively charged aminated nanoceria (ANC) resulted in microalgae aggregation and lower colocalization with chloroplasts. PNC reduction of ROS levels in microalgae (78%) and superoxide levels (26%), enhanced microalgae growth (65 %), photosynthetic performance (130%), and CO2 uptake rate (380%) under low-temperature stress (15 ℃) and highlight (500 μE PAR) stress relative to controls without nanoparticles. Nanoceria augmentation of microalgae provides a rapid and facile technology to increase algae CO2 capture and biomass under stress conditions. | ||||||||||||||||||
73 | Tovmasian | Vahagn | Computer Science | Brisk, Philip | PhD | Oral Presentation | DNA Melting Temperature Prediction via ML and its application to classifying molecules | The melting temperature T_m of a DNA sequence is the temperature at which half of double-stranded DNA denatures into single-stranded DNA, a parameter used in primer design for PCR and other nucleic acid based reactions. The standard for quickly predicting T_m, the nearest neighbor (NN) model, despite its general accuracy, can give very inaccurate predictions (+/- 10 deg C ) in certain cases such as multiple mismatches in base pairs the individual DNA strands, varying ion salt concentrations of the solutions, and melting which does not occur in a two-state manner. Extended nearest neighbor models or improving existing parameters may provide more accuracy, but require rapidly increasing amounts of data from wet-lab experiments for marginal return. We present the approach of using supervised machine learning with XGBoost, a gradient boosted tree-based ensemble model, alongside an encoding using ProtVec, a continuous distributed representation of biological sequences, to predict the melting temperatures of oligonucleotides, and its relation to small molecule based computing/classification systems. | ||||||||||||||||||
74 | Troxel | William | Environmental Toxicology | Chia-en Chang | PhD | Poster Presentation | Evaluating Polymer Crowding Effects on Ethanol Membrane Permeability with Molecular Dynamics Simulations | Computational chemistry models compound-membrane permeation transport, thermodynamic changes, and substrate behavior over time. For bioavailability, compounds must pass lipid membranes to target biomolecules like proteins. Membranes influence molecular transport, so understanding permeation is crucial for rational drug design. This poster reports analysis for polyethylene glycol (PEG) aggregation effects on ethanol’s permeability coefficient in a phosphatidylcholine membrane. Biopolymer crowding impacts cellular biology, but most simulations do not capture it. Our group conducted hundreds of 50 ns-length Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Area-per-lipid analysis for 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% PEG by volume systems shows increased membrane stability from 64 A2 per lipid for 0% to 63 A2 per lipid for 15%. Lipid-order-parameter data shows a trend where the membrane is more ordered as the PEG increases. With more PEG, there is increased PEG-PEG aggregation with fewer PEG-membrane interactions. The membrane linearizes and enhances ethanol interactions. All systems have similar permeability, but the returning probability (RP) and the free energy profile exhibit different changes over time. RP theory is a rigorous diffusion theory characterizing permeance in the membrane with respect to local kinetics and thermodynamics inside the membrane. It increases with PEG, showing ethanol remains in the membrane longer. The free energy profile is the thermodynamic favorability difference of ethanol-water solubility in and out of the membrane. It is unaffected due to PEG crowding, indicating that PEG’s presence does not control ethanol-water solubility. This is consistent with previous data and shows PEG aggregation influences membrane fluidity to modulate xenobiotic transport. | ||||||||||||||||||
75 | Tull | Leilani | Master of Public Health (SMPPH) | Dr. Daniel Novak | Master's | Poster Presentation | From Trauma to Neurodegeneration: Exploring Biopsychosocial Links Between PTSD and Alzheimer’s Disease in Marginalized Groups | Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), particularly in marginalized populations disproportionately affected by structural inequities. This study investigates the biopsychosocial mechanisms linking PTSD to AD, emphasizing disparities in Black and Latino populations. Using propensity score-matched cohorts and Cox proportional hazards models, we examined demographic-specific risks and potential mediators. Our findings reveal that PTSD diagnosis significantly impacts AD development, with PTSD patients being more than four times as likely to develop AD compared to controls (HR 3.84; p<0.001). Black and Latino individuals with PTSD exhibit disproportionately higher risks of AD compared to White individuals (Black HR 1.68; Latino HR 1.44; p<0.001). Interestingly, male PTSD patients demonstrate a 33.5% reduced risk of AD (HR 0.665), suggesting potential sex-based protective factors. These results highlight the interplay between chronic neuroinflammation, social determinants of health, and systemic inequities in shaping AD risk among vulnerable groups. Marginalized communities face compounded risks due to elevated trauma exposure and limited access to healthcare resources, exacerbating the biological pathways linking PTSD to neurodegeneration. Future research should explore psychiatric comorbidities such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression, which share overlapping inflammatory pathways with PTSD. Understanding these relationships could inform targeted interventions aimed at mitigating AD risk through early mental health support and addressing systemic disparities. This study underscores the urgent need for equitable healthcare strategies that address the biopsychosocial determinants of neurodegenerative diseases in underserved populations. | ||||||||||||||||||
76 | Vargas Casillas | Angeliz | Mathematics | Wang, Qixuan | PhD | Oral Presentation | Multiscale Modeling of Keloid Scar Expansion | Keloids are debilitating skin scarring disorders, triggered by an aberrant wound healing program and exhibit continuously spreading growth. Recent single cell RNA-sequencing experiments reveal heterogeneity in human keloid fibroblasts, and interactions among various sub-clusters of fibroblasts together with interactions with immune cells might be key factors regulating the keloid propagation. We developed an agent-based model to investigate the propagative dynamics of keloids, where single cell data inferred cell communications are implemented into the model. Using the model, we propose the potential regulating mechanisms behind keloid propagation. | ||||||||||||||||||
77 | Villazón Valbuena | Miriam | Hispanic Studies | Covadonga Lamar Prieto | PhD | Oral Presentation | Digital Homeland: Asturian Language Revival and Identity Formation Among Diaspora Communities on Social Media | This paper examines the revitalization of Asturian, a minority language of northern Spain, through digital communities that transcend geographical boundaries. Despite its historical roots dating to the 12th century and approximately 350,000 speakers, Asturian faces significant challenges as a "definitely endangered" language according to UNESCO. Unlike other regional Spanish languages that gained official status following Spain's transition to democracy, Asturian remains in legal limbo, protected but not officialized under the 1981 Estatuto de Autonomía and the 1998 Ley de Protección y Uso del Asturiano. This precarious status has hindered traditional language transmission and inhibited the development of "neofalantes" (new speakers) that other minority languages like Galician have cultivated. However, social media platforms have emerged as vital spaces for language preservation and identity formation, particularly among diasporic Asturian communities. The study explores how heritage speakers of Asturian, who often experience linguistic insecurity about their bilingual capabilities, engage with these online spaces. Drawing on sociolinguistic research and digital identity theory, this paper argues that social media serves as a "digital homeland" where Asturian speakers—particularly those in the diaspora—can reclaim, practice, and strengthen their linguistic and cultural identities, echoing the sentiment that "the further I am from Asturias, the more Asturian I feel." | ||||||||||||||||||
78 | Virk | Sunny | Biomedical Sciences | Heinrich, Erica | Master's | Poster Presentation | Hypoxia Modulates Histone H3 Modifications in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells | Hypoxia modulates immune cell function, contributing to diseases such as cancer and acute lung disease. One mechanism by which hypoxia influences immune phenotypes is through modulation of gene expression via epigenetic regulation including histone modifications, which enable transcriptional responses to environmental stress. We investigate the impact of hypoxia on histone modifications and expression of histone-modifying enzymes. We hypothesized that if histone modifications are essential for the rapid transcriptional response to hypoxic stress, then we would observe (1) differential expression of genes associated with histone modifying enzymes, and (2) significant changes in global levels of histone modifications. To test this, we performed RNA-sequencing on whole blood samples collected in 17 individuals at sea level and over 3 days at high-altitude hypoxia to examine histone-modifying enzyme gene expression. We also cultured primary human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in hypoxia (1% O2) or normoxia for 24 hours and quantified 21 unique H3 modifications. High altitude exposure resulted in significant changes in expression of histone modifying enzymes, including decreased HDAC and increased KDM3A. Our preliminary cell culture studies revealed that hypoxia increased H3K9me2 and H3K36me3 levels, while decreasing H3K79me3 levels. This data suggests a role of histone modifications in regulating the cellular response to hypoxia. Future work will identify the genomic locations of these modifications to identify epigenetic mechanisms underlying cellular and physiological responses to hypoxic stress. | ||||||||||||||||||
79 | Wang | Letong | Computer Science and Engineering | Sun, Yihan and Gu, Yan | PhD | Poster Presentation | Efficient and Scalable Parallel Graph Algorithms | Parallel algorithms are crucial for processing large datasets and solving complex problems efficiently. As multi-core processors have become the norm, parallelism offers the potential to significantly accelerate computations in areas such as data science, social network analysis, and computational biology. However, achieving high performance and scalability in parallel computing remains challenging, especially when dealing with graphs of irregular structures. The inherent complexity of parallel graph algorithms demands innovative approaches to harness the full potential of modern hardware. I will discuss the development of efficient and scalable parallel algorithms that address key challenges, including reducing thread synchronization overhead and excessive memory usage and identifying true dependencies in algorithms. We designed a series of synchronization- and memory-efficient algorithms, including Strong Connectivity (SCC), Biconnectivity (BCC), and Influence Maximization (IM). These algorithms have been evaluated on real-world, large-scale datasets, demonstrating fast running time in practice and strong scalability as the number of processor cores increases. | ||||||||||||||||||
80 | Watts | Sakshi | Entomology | Dr. Boris Baer | PhD | Oral Presentation | The Secret Language of Bees: Deciphering Hive Acoustics | Honey bees (Apis mellifera) exhibit complex social behaviors that depend on effective communication. Past research focused on volatile based information transfer, and sound-based communication received remarkably little attention. This is surprising, given that honey bees are known to produce different sounds but whether they are used for communication remains to be studied. We quantified acoustic responses of honey bee hives to external stimuli and compared them between two different genotypes: “Managed bees” that are widely bred by commercial beekeepers, and “Survivor bees” that occur in Southern California and are known to respond more defensively to potential external disturbances. We recorded acoustic responses to external stimuli in both genotypes, both from the colony in the field as well as from the individual bees in the lab. We found dramatically higher frequencies and amplitudes of the sounds produced by a hive following a disturbance. Furthermore, the increase in sound frequency and amplitude was significantly higher in survivor hives compared to the managed hives. We also quantified hives for their defensiveness using standardized field-based protocols and found that survivor hives had significantly higher defensiveness compared to managed hives. In the case of individual bees in the lab, we found that the bees produce an acoustic response when stimulated with sound recorded from disturbed hives. We conclude that sound-based communication in response to potential environmental threats could be key to understanding the defensive behaviors of honey bees on the individual and colony levels. Our work could be important for beekeepers to quantify defensiveness in honey bees, and use that information for their management or breeding purposes. | ||||||||||||||||||
81 | Wimberly | Loreal | English | Dr. Sarita See | PhD | Oral Presentation | A (Gadamerian) Return to Lacan: When Natural and Human Sciences Collide (Or Combine?) | Bipolar disorder is categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as a mood disorder fluctuating between extreme highs (mania), extreme lows (depression), and mixed states, making it one of the most severe mental health disorders listed within the DSM-5. Its current diagnostic and treatment methodology has come under fire by organizations positing that the problem with current bipolar disorder treatment resides in the overgeneralization of both diagnosis and treatment (Bruch 4). Numerous studies tout that medication only addresses half of the problem and is only effective in 30% - 50% of patients (Chauhan et al.). This, however, cannot entirely be attributed to the purported ineffectiveness of medications; roughly half of bipolar patients refuse to remain on medication long-term due to undesirable side effects, making non-compliance the number one enemy of positive prognosis outcomes (Gardabbou et al.). The most favorable prognosis outcomes occur in cases where the individual is on medication and receiving therapy, encouraging compliance (Chiang and Miklowitz; Oliveira et al.). The effectiveness of therapy in treating bipolar disorder is not in question; the question has become what kind of therapy would best benefit the patient. The introduction of psychoanalytic therapy, rooted in 20th-century French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory and influenced by 20th-century philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, presents an answer. A Gadamerian take on Lacanian psychoanalytic therapy would reduce the overgeneralization of symptoms and corresponding diagnoses while highlighting the element of personal facticity that has been underemphasized due to the overreliance on biological treatment options. | ||||||||||||||||||
82 | Wright Bolton | Shaina | School of Education; PhD-Special Education | Dr. Michael Solis | PhD | Oral Presentation | Perspectives on Co-teaching | Over the last several decades, the field of special education has emphasized the inclusion of students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers as much as possible. Federal laws such as Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), have shifted the number of students with disabilities being serviced in the general education classroom, to the least restrictive educational environment (Napoles, 2024). Co-teaching is one approach to supporting students with disabilities within general education settings. This presentation will describe an ongoing study to determine teachers' and administrators' perspectives, and thoughts, about key issues associated with co-teaching implementation. By using semi-structured dyad interviews, this paper aims to investigate perspectives, thoughts, and issues surrounding co-teaching specifically from grades 3-5 elementary teachers and principals. Using Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study also seeks to explore how personal, behavioral, and environmental factors influence the success of co-teaching arrangements and how these factors can improve student outcomes. This study will contribute to knowledge on co-teaching at the elementary level as more general and special education teachers find themselves working with each other. Napoles, J. (2024). Co-Teaching: A Review of the Literature. National Association for Music Education, 1-7. doi: 10.1177/87551233231226131 | ||||||||||||||||||
83 | Wu | Zhifeng | Computer Science | Shaolei Ren | PhD | Poster Presentation | The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI | The rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers significantly impacts both the environment and public health through air pollutant emissions. While AI's environmental footprint is widely discussed, its public health burden remains overlooked. We model pollutant emissions across AI's lifecycle and quantify health impacts, finding that training a Llama-3.1-scale model produces air pollutants equivalent to 10,000 cross-country car trips. By 2030, U.S. data centers' public health burden could reach $20 billion annually, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged communities. We propose a standard protocol for reporting AI's public health costs to promote health equity. | ||||||||||||||||||
84 | xinyue | ren | religious studies | Matthew King | PhD | Oral Presentation | Leveraging imperial religions: Conversion of Daoist Priest Du-Yi to Buddhism in the Wu Zhou Era | As one of two major pieces of Buddhist apologetic literature from the Tang Dynasty preserved in the Taisho Tripitaka, Zhen-zheng lun, written by Xuan Yi, serves as an intriguing case which showcases not only the increasingly intensified competition for the imperial patronage between Buddhism and Daoism, but also how individual engagement in religious affairs is reciprocally intertwined with state political dynamics through religious institutions, specifically, prestigious Buddhist temples and authorities in the Tang capital Luo-Yang.In year 696, five years after the empress Wu Zhao officially elevated Buddhism to the foremost state religion, Xuan Yi, this prestigious Daoist priest converted to Buddhism at the height of Buddhist promotion. Approved and reallocated to Fo Shou Ji temple by the empress herself, Xuan Yi, now the deacon of this imperial temple, supervised and participated in major imperial Buddhist affairs ever since. This paper historicizes how Buddhism, as a discursive power, was strategically employed by individuals to pursue personal aspirations for authority and legitimacy. While the empress resorts to Buddhism for a state ideology to legitimize her governing in face of well-established Patriarchal framework of Confucianism and Daoism, Xuan Yi’s conversion to Buddhism, whether out of religious piety or personal ambition, granted him prestigious social status and an intimate relationship with imperial and religious authorities. | ||||||||||||||||||
85 | Yang | Yanhui | Physics | Simeon Bird | PhD | Oral Presentation | Beyond the Standard Model: Exploring the Cosmos with the Goku Simulation Suite | Cosmological observations have revealed discrepancies that challenge our current understanding of the Universe, known as the LambdaCDM model. To address these issues, scientists are exploring extended models that could provide better explanations. Upcoming missions, such as the Roman Space Telescope and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), will collect vast amounts of data on the large-scale structure of the Universe, potentially leading to breakthroughs. However, interpreting this data requires advanced theoretical predictions, which are difficult to achieve using traditional methods. To tackle this challenge, we adopted an efficient regression framework called MF-Box, which uses a multi-fidelity technique to reduce computational costs. We further enhanced this approach by incorporating a beam search algorithm, a method widely used in natural language processing, to optimize accuracy. Using this framework, we ran the Goku simulations, which explore LambdaCDM extensions, including dynamical dark energy, massive neutrinos, and other key cosmological factors. Based on these simulations, we built the first-ever 10-dimensional emulator for the matter power spectrum, allowing for the analysis of a much broader range of cosmological models than previously possible. Our approach reduced computational costs by 94% compared to traditional methods, making high-precision cosmological predictions significantly more accessible.These advancements will help maximize the potential of future observational data, bringing us closer to solving some of the biggest mysteries in cosmology. | ||||||||||||||||||
86 | Ye | Kailong | Chemical and Environmental Engineering | Liu, Fudong | PhD | Oral Presentation | CeO2 Modified CuO/MgAlOx Catalyst with Superior Performance and Water Resistance for CO Oxidation | Carbon monoxide is one of air pollutants regulated under Clean Air Act. Catalytic oxidation is a highly effective method for CO removal. Precious metal-based catalysts, such as those using Pt and Pd, are widely used because of their exceptional low-temperature activity. However, the high cost of these precious metals drives the search for alternative, non-precious metal catalysts for the next generation of emission control technologies. Cu-based materials have emerged as promising candidates due to their excellent low-temperature activity for CO oxidation, making them efficient substitutes for precious metal catalysts. However, their water tolerance ability needs to be addressed before application. Herein, we investigate the effect of CeO2 modification on the low-temperature CO oxidation activity and water tolerance of CuO/MgAlOx catalysts. A series of CuO-CeO2/MgAlOx catalysts with different CeO2 loadings were prepared and tested for CO oxidation under dry and wet conditions. Our results demonstrated that the CuO-CeO2/MgAlOx catalysts showed improved CO oxidation activity under both testing conditions, with the catalyst containing 30 wt.% CeO2 performing the best. While the introduction of H2O negatively affected CO oxidation across all catalysts, the degree of performance decline was inversely related to CeO2 content—the higher the CeO2 loading, the smaller the drop in activity. This indicates that CeO2 not only boosts CO oxidation activity but also improves the water resistance of CuO/MgAlOx catalysts. Detailed characterizations confirmed that CeO2 modification promoted Cu dispersion, enhanced low-temperature reducibility and inhibited H2O adsorption, thus contributing to the improved CO oxidation activity and water resistance ability of CuO/MgAlOx catalyst. | ||||||||||||||||||
87 | Youngblood | Marina | BPSC | Juan Pablo Giraldo | PhD | Oral Presentation | Using nanoparticles for DNA delivery in plants | It is imperative to transform crops for climate resistance to feed our growing human population. The most common plant transformation tool uses the bacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens to integrate transgenic DNA into the nuclear genome but it relies on the bacteria's ability to "infect" the plant species. Many agriculturally relevant crops are not amenable to transformation by Agrobacterium and there is an urgent need to develop a novel tool to circumvent this species limitation. Virus-like particles (VLPs) are nanomaterials that have been extensively studied as transformation tools in animals and more recently, in plants. Their small size and dissociation at cytosolic pH could allow them to deliver DNA to recalcitrant crops without using Agrobacterium in barley, wheat, and quinoa. My recent study showed VLPs delivered plasmid DNA (pDNA) to Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts and leaf cells for transient transformation and this work would expand upon that foundation. My research aims to develop tools to expand the plant species researchers can genetically modify to secure our global food supply. | ||||||||||||||||||
88 | Yu | Hongmiao | CS | K.K. Rammkrishnan | PhD | Oral Presentation | Secure and Flexible Encryption for Dynamic Team Communications in Disaster Management | Name-based publish/subscribe systems using Information-Centric Networking (ICN) principles can provide a flexible and efficient framework for communication in disaster situations. Efficient, secure dissemination of information can play a critical role in disaster management. But, secure and authenticated group communications that maintain confidentiality and integrity remain a challenge. In this paper, we design a flexible and efficient encryption framework SAFE that leverages graph-based naming frameworks for providing role-based communication among first responders. We study the suitability of message-oriented encryption where the sender leverages the name hierarchy, and compare it with a key-oriented encryption scheme that requires the receiver to utilize appropriate keys to decrypt based on the publishertargeted name for the message. Both encryption schemas can be built with attribute-based encryption (ABE) or public key encryption (PKE) implementations. We find message-oriented encryption provides the needed flexibility for dynamic environments when communicating with members changes frequently. With message-oriented encryption, we further address key revocation and support for infrastructure-less environments in disaster situations and consider the tradeoff between flexibility and optimization for large relatively static communication groups. We evaluate both encryption schemas built on top of ABE and PKE. We examine the key generation time, ciphertext length, encryption, and decryption time, and see that SAFE’s design is the most suitable for large and dynamically changing groups. | ||||||||||||||||||
89 | Zare Shahneh | Mohammad Reza | Computer Science | Mingxun Wang | PhD | Oral Presentation | PolyAnalog-ModiFinder: Leveraging Multiple Analogs for Enhanced Modification Site Localization and Structure Elucidation | Mass spectrometry plays a fundamental role in elucidating the structures of unknown molecules and subsequent scientific discoveries. ModiFinder, an approach that compares the MS/MS of an unknown compound to a single known analog to localize a structural modification site showed to be a useful tool for elucidation task. However, many unknown molecules share common scaffolds with more than one known analog in spectral libraries. Here, we propose a multi-analog extension to ModiFinder that harnesses additional structural insights from two or more known analogs. By integrating information from multiple analogs (each presumed to differ by a single modification) this approach refines both the modification site localization and, in many cases, elucidates the complete structure of the unknown. We demonstrate that integrating diverse analog information accelerates high-throughput small-molecule annotation, providing a valuable tool for metabolomics and natural product research. | ||||||||||||||||||
90 | Zaree | Pedram | PhD in Computer Science | Abu-Ghazaleh, Nael | PhD | Oral Presentation | Attention Eclipse: Manipulating Attention to Bypass LLM Safety-Alignment | Recent research has shown that carefully crafted jailbreak inputs can induce large language models to produce harmful outputs, despite safety measures such as alignment. It is important to anticipate the range of potential Jailbreak attacks to guide effective defenses and accurate assessment of model safety. In this paper, we present a new approach for generating highly effective Jailbreak attacks that manipulate the attention of the model to selectively strengthen or weaken attention among different parts of the prompt. By harnessing attention loss, we develop more effective jailbreak attacks, that are also transferrable. The attacks amplify the success rate of existing Jailbreak algorithms including GCG, AutoDAN, and ReNeLLM, while lowering their generation cost (for example, the amplified GCG attack achieves 91.2% ASR, vs. 67.9% for the original attack on Llama2-7B/AdvBench, using less than a third of the generation time). | ||||||||||||||||||
91 | Zhang | Shuyang | Department of Physics and Astronomy | Zandi, Roya | PhD | Oral Presentation | Mechanisms of virus budding through cellular membranes | We investigate the dynamics of budding in relation to membrane curvature, focusing on key factors that influence this process. By comparing budding on flat membrane surfaces with vesicle budding, we examine how energy changes during each process, using both numerical and simulation methods. Our analysis explores the effects of surface tension, bending modulus, and spontaneous curvature on the budding process. Through this study, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of how these physical properties impact budding efficiency, contributing to a broader knowledge of membrane-related processes such as viral budding and vesicle formation. | ||||||||||||||||||
92 | Zhang | Xinqian | History of Art | Cho, Yong | PhD | Poster Presentation | Imperial Botany in Ruins: Yuanmingyuan’s Engraved Gardens as Sites of Epistemic Violence and Ecological Nostalgia | While ecocritical studies have productively exposed how European colonial gardens like Kew instrumentalized botanical knowledge for environmental domination, their frameworks remain paradoxically Eurocentric—overlooking how non-Western empires similarly weaponized plant cultivation in global encounters. This paper recenters China’s role through the 1786 Yuanmingyuan Engravings, copperplates documenting the Qing dynasty’s botanical gardens before their 1860 Anglo-French destruction. Current scholarship reduces these gardens to architectural hybridity or horticultural spectacle, neglecting how living plants mediated imperial sovereignty. Analyzing Giuseppe Castiglione and Yi Lantai’s juxtaposition of Han literati motifs with Enlightenment topiaries, I argue Qianlong curated biodiversity to perform dual cultural legitimacy: naturalizing Manchu rule through classical garden tropes while dazzling European envoys with taxonomic control. The colonists’ selective destruction—burning ecosystems but preserving European-style stone ruins—reveals plant life’s unique vulnerability: unlike lootable artifacts, living botany resisted portable trophyism, demanding annihilation to erase competing ecological epistemes. Surviving specimens at Kew Gardens, potentially cloned from Yuanmingyuan cultivars, haunt these engravings as biological witnesses to imperial rivalry. By reframing vegetation as political actants, this study challenges material culture’s artifact-centrism, showing how plant fragility amplified colonial violence’s epistemic stakes. It concludes by interrogating digital reconstructions that rescript the gardens’ domination logics through algorithmic nostalgia—a warning against replicating imperial visualities in ecological heritage. | ||||||||||||||||||
93 | Zhang | Yicheng | Electrical Engineering | Nael B. Abu-Ghazaleh | PhD | Poster Presentation | NVBleed: Covert and Side-Channel Attacks on NVIDIA Multi-GPU Interconnect | Multi-GPU systems are becoming increasingly important in high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure, providing acceleration for data-intensive applications, including machine learning workloads. These systems consist of multiple GPUs interconnected through high-speed networking links such as NVIDIA’s NVLink. In this work, we explore whether the interconnect on such systems can offer a novel source of leakage, enabling new forms of covert and side-channel attacks. Specifically, we reverse-engineer the operations of NVlink and identify two primary sources of leakage: timing variations due to contention and accessible performance counters that disclose communication patterns. The leakage is visible remotely and even across VM instances in the cloud, enabling potentially dangerous attacks. Building on these observations, we develop two types of covert-channel attacks across two GPUs, achieving a bandwidth of over 70 Kbps with an error rate of 4.78% for the contention channel. We develop two end-to-end intra-VM side-channel attacks: application fingerprinting (including 18 high-performance computing and deep learning applications) and 3D graphics character identification within Blender, a multi-GPU rendering application. These attacks are highly effective, achieving F1 scores of up to 97.78% and 91.56%, respectively. We also discover that leakage surprisingly occurs across Virtual Machines on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and demonstrate a side-channel attack on Blender, achieving F1 scores exceeding 88%. We also explore potential defenses such as managing access to counters and reducing the resolution of the clock to mitigate the two sources of leakage. | ||||||||||||||||||
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