Presentation Days 2025 Abstracts
Biology
Kristofer Chang
Effects of Differentially Expressing Mitochondrial Protease CG3107 on Drosophila melanogaster
Advisors: Jae Hur, associate professor of biology; Matina Donaldson-Matasci, associate professor of biology
The mitochondria provides much needed energy to cells, but it is also a large source of oxidative stress. Mitochondrial proteases are a frontline defense that protects organisms from that oxidative damage. However, as organisms age, these proteases perform less efficiently, so studying mitochondrial proteases is one avenue to study aging. CG3107 is one such understudied mitochondrial protease in Drosophila melanogaster. Based on its homologs in yeast and mammals, CG3107 is expected to be a metalloendopeptidase that cleaves small peptide products of other proteases. My work this semester aimed to identify if this is also true in D. melanogaster via differential expression experiments. I also worked to see how CG3107 affects physiological characteristics such as endurance and longevity.
Marissa Douglas
Keep Your Enemies Close: Interspecies Nesting Competition in Ants
Advisors: Matina Donaldson-Matasci, associate professor of biology; Anna Ahn professor of biology
Tropical arboreal ant species influence their communities and often compete over territories. How do these species form nest networks within trees when nest sites are limited? We used two competing Florida species: Cephalotes varians (CV, native) and Pseudomyrmex gracilis (PG, nonnative) to explore the impact of interspecies competition on how native CVs distribute and populate their nests. We experimented with 3 levels of interactions to reveal whether PG could displace CV populations. CV preferred nests that were easiest to find, even when neighboring PGs attacked them. CV defended against attacks using specialized armor and large numbers. This shows CV defends resources by guarding individual nests, not territories, and they create simple nest networks, limiting risks during travel.
Brecken Enright
Investigating the Role of HAT2 and EAF6 proteins in initiating transcription of insect stage proteins in African Trypanosomes
Advisors: Danae Schulz, associate professor of biology; Daniel Stoebel, professor of biology
African trypanosome parasites are transmitted by Tsetse flies to a mammalian host where they cause a fatal disease. Parasites remodel their surface proteins during the transition between the mammalian bloodstream and the fly vector. However, the mechanism through which this occurs is not yet well understood. We hypothesize that chromatin-interacting proteins may be important in regulating African trypanosome surface protein expression. To test this, we depleted expression of two chromatin-interacting proteins, EAF6 and HAT2, in parasites transitioning from the bloodstream to the procyclic form and analyzed changes in expression of genes coding for insect stage surface proteins. Results will contribute to our understanding of transcriptional regulation mechanisms in early eukaryotes.
Ethan Goroza
Engineering a CRISPR-dCas9 system to test if Bdf3 is sufficient for EP1 transcription in African trypanosome parasites
Advisors: Danae Schulz, associate professor of biology; Cathy McFadden, Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor in the Life Sciences
African trypanosomes are transmitted to mammals via the tsetse fly, where they cause the fatal disease sleeping sickness. Mammalian trypanosomes evade immune detection by varying their surface proteins, but switch to an invariant protein in the fly. This invariant protein is coded by the EP1 gene, but its regulation is poorly understood. Our lab has previously generated a CRISPR-dCas9 system to test what DNA-interacting proteins are sufficient to start transcription of EP1, but the background level of EP1 transcription is high even in the absence of an important part of the system. This work aims to optimize this system and reduce the background signal via single cell cloning. If successful, the system will inform how gene regulation occurs in early eukaryotes more generally.
Arman Khasru
Comparing Sceloporus occidentalis’ behavioural response to increase in vapour pressure deficit in urban and primarily natural sites
Advisors: Stephen Adolph, Stuart Mudd Professor of Biology and Department of Biology chair
Global climate datasets reflect a significant increase in vapor pressure deficit in recent years, which has likely ramifications for ectotherms’ physiology and behavior. My thesis quantifies the relationship between Western Fence Lizards’ (Sceloporus occidentalis) field-active cutaneous water evaporative loss and field hydric conditions, measured by vapor pressure deficit, of their microhabitats in two sites: the irrigated urban environment on the Harvey Mudd College campus, and the mostly native plant community at the Bernard Field Station. By comparing the microclimates in these two sites, as well as the field activity and microhabitat choice of Western Fence Lizards, my thesis seeks to answer how Sceloporus occidentalis behaviorally respond to hydric changes in their environments.
Josie Nelson
Biogeography and Biodiversity of Octocorals in Oman and the Red Sea
Advisors: Catherine McFadden, Vivian and D. Kenneth Baker Professor in the Life Sciences
Due to climate change, octocorals are overtaking hard corals on some coral reefs. However, octocorals in affected areas such as Oman and the Red Sea are understudied. In order to understand and categorize current octocoral communities, sites in Oman and the Red Sea were surveyed for octocorals. Octocoral diversity was assessed with genomic sequence data. The Red Sea exhibited greater octocoral biodiversity (56 genera from 27 families) as compared to Oman (31 genera from 13 families). The Red Sea and Omani sites also showed distinct octocoral compositions, as about ⅔ of the species sampled in Oman were absent in the Red Sea. At least 2 genera and 12 species new to science were found in Oman. Further studies of this kind are imperative as global warming changes marine biodiversity.
Nicholas Schiller
Carvedilol’s Mechanism of Action to Prevent UV Induced Skin Cancer
Advisors: Bradley Andresen, Jae Hur, associate professor of biology; Eliot Bush professor of biology
The medication Carvedilol is commonly prescribed to treat heart disease. Research suggests that it may also suppress cancer development by preventing DNA damage. My thesis investigates Carvedilol’s mechanism to protect cells from DNA damage. I hypothesize that Carvedilol either prevents DNA damage from occurring, increases the rate of DNA repair, or both protects against DNA damage and increases DNA repair. To test this hypothesis, I determined a UV concentration that damages but doesn’t kill cells and a Carvedilol concentration that maximally prevents damage. I then measured the effect of Carvedilol on UV damaged cells over time. This research improved our understanding of how Carvedilol protects cells from DNA damage, providing a target for future anti-cancer drugs.
Ashley Tan
Using a dCas9 Bdf3 Complex to Investigate the Effects of Bdf3 on the Expression of Insect Stage Surface Proteins in African Trypanosome Parasites
Advisors: Danae Schulz, associate professor of biology; Eliot Bush, professor of biology
Trypanosoma brucei is the causative agent of the fatal disease Human African Trypanosomiasis. The parasite cycles between a bloodstream form in mammals and a procyclic form in the tsetse fly host vector. The procyclic form has invariant procyclin expressed through the transcription of EP genes. However, the mechanism that initiates EP transcription during differentiation is not well understood. The Schulz Lab previously showed that Bdf3 is recruited to the EP1 locus during differentiation from bloodstream to procyclic form. We aim to show that Bdf3 is sufficient to activate transcription of EP1 by using a dCas9 Bdf3 fusion protein to artificially tether Bdf3 to the EP1 locus in bloodstream parasites. Results will shed light on transcriptional regulation in early eukaryotes.
Fumi Tanizawa
Mitochondrial Protein Degradation and Immune Response in Drosophila melanogaster
Advisors: Jae Hur, associate professor of biology; Stephen Adolph, Stuart Mudd Professor of Biology and Department of Biology chair
Aging, immunity, and mitochondrial protein degradation are deeply interconnected, yet the role of mitochondrial proteostasis in immune function remains unclear. My research investigates how enhancing mitochondrial protein degradation impacts immune responses in Drosophila melanogaster. Using the UAS/GeneSwitch system, I overexpress the mitochondrial protease complex ClpXP to promote degradation. I then assess immune function through bacterial infection assays, measuring survival, AMP expression, and bacterial clearance. This study aims to reveal how mitochondrial quality control influences immunity and aging, offering insight into the role of mitochondrial health in immune resilience.
Lea Twicken
The relationship between promoter sequence and transcription level of the small RNA DsrA in Enterobacteriaceae in cold stress
Advisor: Daniel Stoebel, professor of biology
The sigma factor RpoS is responsible for activating the general stress response in E. coli and related bacteria in adverse conditions. At low temperatures, the small RNA DsrA is required to enable translation of the rpoS mRNA in E. coli. While several Enterobacteriaceae species have RpoS, not all upregulate RpoS in cold stress. These species contain a homolog of dsrA but not all of them have increased accumulation of DsrA at low temperatures. The project investigates whether differences in dsrA promoter sequences in five Enterobacteriaceae species are responsible for differences in accumulation of DsrA at low temperatures. To test this, I created luciferase reporters with each species’ dsrA promoter and measured luminescence at low temperatures as a proxy for the transcription of dsrA.
Chemistry
Britney Baez
Impact of Stereocontrolled Polynorbornene Synthesis on Degradation Rate
Advisor: Spencer Brucks, assistant professor of chemistry
The polymer backbone stands as a relatively unexplored element of polymer design. We hypothesized that increasing the allylic strain in polymer backbones through increased cis alkene content would promote a more rigid, elongated conformation that would have greater susceptibility to mechanical degradation. We therefore synthesized a family of polynorbornenes by ROMP using a variety of ruthenium catalysts to access a wide range of cis/trans compositions. We then subjected these polymers to ultrasonication as a proxy for mechanical degradation and tracked changes in their MW distributions by GPC. Cis-enriched polymers exhibited the greatest degradation rate and lowest molecular weight limit of degradation, suggesting that the rate of backbone scission is indeed a function of polymer shape.
Claire Boege
The Effects of E/Z Stereochemistry on the Chemical Degradation of Polydihydrofuran
Advisor: Spencer Brucks, assistant professor of chemistry
Polymeric structure controls the material’s properties. While length, monomer identity and molecular weight are commonly modified variables, how stereocontrol of alkenes affects the polymer’s backbone and function has been less studied. Dihydrofuran is a recently discovered ROMP monomer which produces a polymer with an alkene in the backbone and is chemically degradable in acidic conditions. This project aims to explore how the stereochemistry of polydihydrofuran’s backbone alkenes affects its acid lability.
Kasey Chung
Optimizing a Safer, Large-Scale Synthesis of a Medicinally Relevant Amide
Advisors: Dave Vosburg, Donald A. Strauss Endowed Professorship in Chemistry; Greg Beutner
Many common peptide coupling reagents used in industrial chemistry are known sensitizers, which can cause adverse health reactions to any scientist using them in their everyday lives. As amidations are the most common reaction in medicinal chemistry, it is imperative to identify safer and more sustainable peptide coupling reagents. TCFH is such a reagent, and does not pose any significant health hazards. This thesis presents a scale-up of a model amidation reaction yielding a precursor to a PARP-1 inhibitor to treat breast cancer. We aim to show the applicability of TCFH-NMI chemistry for industrial use with medicinally relevant targets, as well as publish a reproducible, in-detail method in Organic Syntheses.
Jack Forbord
Scalable PbS quantum dot solar cell production by blade coating PbS-I,Cl from stable inks
Advisor: Hal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer Chair in Chemistry
Scaling lead sulfide quantum dot (PbS QD) solar cells requires optimizing the synthesis, storage and application of QD suspensions for high-quality photoactive layers (PALs). With recent advances enabling highly concentrated QD “inks,” blade coating offers scalable, low-waste deposition. We investigate solvent interactions with PbS-I,Cl QDs to develop inks stable for weeks and tunable during coating for PALs 200–400 nm thick. PAL thickness is controlled, quality is assessed via physical techniques, and PAL chemistry remains orthogonal to the underlying ZnO electron transport layer in lab-scale devices.
Tanner Gasteazoro
Synthesis of Chiral at-Metal Titanium(IV) Complexes
Advisor: Adam Johnson, Ray and Mary Ingwersen Professor of Chemistry
Chiral molecules are common, but chiral at-metal complexes are far more rare. Depending on the coordination of ligands around a metal center, metal complexes can also exhibit chirality. Chiral transition metal complexes have been used extensively in asymmetric catalysis. The goal of the Johnson group has been to further develop the chemistry of earth abundant early metals. In this thesis project, I describe the process of synthesizing chiral at-metal titanium(IV) complexes, as well as their characterization. I do this by using bidentate amide-alkoxide ligands, as well as initial experimentation with a new ligand to the Johnson lab, the anilido ligand.
Grant Miller
Optimizing and Scaling Up TCFH–NMI Pyrrole Acylation for Organic Syntheses
Advisor: David Vosburg, Donald A. Strauss Endowed Professorship in Chemistry
N,N,N′,N′-Tetramethylchloroformamidinium hexafluorophosphate (TCFH) has been widely used in organic synthesis, particularly for bioconjugation and amide bond formation.1 Dr. Gregory Beutner and colleagues at Bristol Myers Squibb developed the TCFH–NMI method, which uses N-methylimidazole (NMI) to generate a highly reactive acyl imidazolium intermediate that enhances coupling efficiency. While our recent work demonstrated the feasibility of using this method for ketone synthesis,2 its scalability and robustness has not yet been demonstrated. My thesis project focused on optimizing the TCFH–NMI-mediated ketone synthesis to assess its viability for large-scale applications. The model reaction between monomethyl succinate and 2,4-dimethylpyrrole was selected to yield methyl 3,5-dimethyl-γ-oxo-1H-pyrrole-2-butanoate, a versatile product (Scheme 1). Compared to a traditional Friedel–Crafts acylation, the TCFH–NMI method achieved significantly higher yields under milder and more environmentally friendly conditions. Key parameters, including solvent volume, temperature, and the amounts of TCFH and NMI, were systematically optimized to improve efficiency and sustainability. To enhance scalability, filtration was used as the primary purification method instead of chromatography, providing a cost-effective alternative for industrial manufacturing. A full-scale synthesis further demonstrated the method’s practicality. These findings highlight the TCFH–NMI method as a greener and more efficient approach to ketone synthesis for synthetic and pharmaceutical applications, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional reagents.
Anna Grace Rogers
Characterization of Intrinsic Fluorescence in Physically Cross-Linked Peptide Amphiphile Hydrogels
Advisor: Whitney Fowler, assistant professor of engineering
Self-assemblies of peptide amphiphiles (PAs) into nanofibers have recently been shown to exhibit intrinsic fluorescent properties through a mechanism called aggregation-induced emission (AIE). Furthermore, this fluorescence becomes enhanced with increased rigidity of these PAs. To dive deeper into the role of rigidity, we investigated the impact of physical cross-linking on PAs, which results in hydrogel networks. We designed a PA with negatively charged amino acid residues to interact with the common cross-linking agent, calcium chloride, and the fluorescent properties of this system were characterized.
Leo Romero
Investigating Impacts of E/Z Backbone Stereochemistry on Antimicrobial Polymer Activity
Advisor: Spencer Brucks, assistant professor of chemistry
Antimicrobial polymers remain a promising solution to combat antimicrobial resistance. Within antimicrobial polymer design, common structure modifications include tuning hydrophobic and hydrophilic components to balance activity and biocompatibility. However, an overlooked tuning parameter is the polymer backbone itself. In this work, we aimed to investigate the structure-function relationship of E/Z backbone stereochemistry on antimicrobial activity. We designed and synthesized antimicrobial polynorbornenes functionalized with pendent quaternary ammonium compounds to test our hypothesis that an E-enriched polymer backbone will result in higher antimicrobial activity due to increased flexibility. Overall, this work contributes to the optimization of antimicrobial polymer performance.
Leif Shomali
Completion of the Phase Diagram of ZIF-62
Advisor: Colm Healy, assistant professor of chemistry
Previous data from this lab indicates that there is an unreported two-phase line in the phase diagram of ZIF-62. This project aims to determine the two phase line and thus complete ZIF-62’s phase diagram.
Oriole Song
Modeling the reactivity of irregular terpenes: Volatile organic compound emissions from the coastal sage scrub
Advisor: Sarah Kavassalis, assistant professor of climate and chemistry
The Southern California coastal sage scrub ecosystem, exemplified by the Bernard Field Station in Claremont, California, is a critical native habitat in the Los Angeles Basin. During an investigation of volatile emissions from its characteristic plant species, including Artemisia californica, several highly reactive irregular terpenes were identified, including Santolina triene and Artemisia triene, neither of which had previously been studied in an atmospheric chemistry context. We wanted to investigate the gas-phase chemistry of these VOCs, especially in the context of recent sage scrub re-wilding proposals in Los Angeles County. To do this, we developed mechanisms for the OH-initiated atmospheric oxidation of these irregular terpenes using theoretical and computational approaches. This gives us insight into understanding their potential contributions to urban smog, particularly in the context of increased native plantings in the nitrogen oxide rich environment that is Los Angeles.
Griffin Stevens
Electrochemical Study of Transition Metal Compound for Reduction of Tetrachloroethylene z
Advisors: Hal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer Professor of Chemistry; Katherine Van Heuvelen, R. Michael Shanahan Endowed Professorship and associate dean of faculty
Human-Centered Design
Fred Bolarinwa
It’s Not You, It’s Me
Advisor: Asha Srikantiah, clinical professor of engineering
Throughout history, inequalities have continued to affect marginalized groups of people through social, systemic, and legal structures. Oftentimes, these inequalities are disregarded, which is especially true in STEM work. For example, everyday products such as bathroom faucets don’t work for certain skin tones. Questions like how we got here and where do we go from here have always been up in the air but have been silenced and unanswered. This project will work to unveil these questions.
Engineering, Physics
Ben Hartley
Dynamic Focusing Through a Flexible Multi-Core Fiber Bundle Aided by Low-Coherence Interferometry
Advisor: Josh Brake, assistant professor of engineering
This project aims to design and build, using off the shelf components, a flexible multi-core fiber (MCF) based endoscopy system capable of focusing light into a sample material or tissue. Over the course of the ongoing project I have identified and addressed shortcomings in the original system design related to the implementation of off-axis holography and to the morphology of the MCF tip. Additionally, as a key milestone in the broader project, I used our system to measure the effect of the MCF bend geometry on the relative optical path distance through each core of the MCF, confirming its agreement with theoretical predictions.
Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts, Physics
Alex Pedroza
Locking In: Student Engagement in the Physics Curriculum
Advisors: Theresa Lynn, Bruce and Susan Worster Professor of Physics and chair, Department of Physics; Mario Carrillo, Claremont High School physics teacher
The AP Physics 1 curriculum is purposefully challenging, but setting up high school students for success in the class is also a year-long challenge for the teacher. Over the course of the spring semester, I have shadowed Mario Carrillo in his AP Physics 1 4th period classroom and observed his unique pedagogy assembled from his grad school knowledge, his trial-and-error experiences, and miscellaneous educational resources he’s found over the years. Though thorough preparation for the AP exams informs his curriculum, the core of Carrillo’s instruction aims at maintaining student engagement throughout every lesson and every class period. This approach prioritizes student buy-in, making the content somewhat more individualized and democratized among all types of learners in the classroom.
Mathematics
Bea Araiza
Tropical Linear Series
Advisors: Dagan Karp, professor of mathematics; Edray Goins, professor of mathematics, Pomona College
In this presentation, I will explore the connection between linear series on algebraic curves and tropical curves. I will begin by introducing the Riemann-Roch Theorem, followed by an example involving a single point. After covering some fundamental concepts in Tropical Geometry, we will shift our focus to divisors on graphs and work through a few examples.
Max Collins
Developing Algorithms for Solving the All-Pairs Vitality Problem
Advisors: Susan Martonosi, Alice Paul
The All-Pairs Vitality Maximization Problem (VIMAX) is a novel network interdiction problem with applications in disruption of criminal networks and robust network design. Prior research has demonstrated that while VIMAX can be approximated successfully by heuristic algorithms, an exact solution can be computationally infeasible even for moderately sized networks. In this thesis we develop new tools for solving VIMAX. We leverage tools from the theory of relaxations for mixed-integer programming, stochastic programming, and decomposition techniques to create new algorithms capable of solving instances of VIMAX within a smaller timeframe than previously possible.
Nathan Hasegawa
Collision Avoidance and Vegetation as Drivers of Collective Motion in Australian Plague Locusts
Advisors: Andrew Bernoff, professor of mathematics; Heather Zinn-Brooks, assistant professor of mathematics
Australian plague locusts (C. terminifera) are pests that cause more than $20 million in crop damage each year. We study hopper bands, groups of juvenile locusts that can advance hundreds of meters per day and destroy crops in their path. We develop agent-based and PDE models of hopper bands to examine how vegetation and collision avoidance influence the shape, speed, and destructiveness of hopper bands. We find that vegetation gives hopper bands a distinctive, asymmetric shape, while collision avoidance may be a significant reason why locusts in hopper bands aggregate in dense crowds. Our results could advance scientific understanding of collective structures in locusts and benefit locust control efforts, which are essential to maintaining food security and economic productivity.
Camilo Morales
Measuring the Similarity between Trees of Different Order
Advisors: Heather Zinn-Brooks, assistant professor of mathematics; Emily Heath, professor of mathematics, Cal Poly Pomona
Graphs encode relationships between data. However, due to their versatility, it is often difficult to generalize the notion of similarity between two graphs using a distance function. By building off previous work that has taken data from the Mathematics Genealogy Project and modeled the evolution of female gender representation in mathematics via a tree, we aim to develop a metric that compares trees through their (weighted) shortest path distance. In doing so, we hope to apply our metric towards investigating whether increased female gender representation in mathematics increases the likelihood of seeing more female-identifying mathematicians.
Saheli Patel
Preorders, Graphs, and Polytopes
Advisors: Michael Orrison, Kenneth A. and Diana G. Jonsson Professorship in Mathematics and
chair, Department of Mathematics; Heather Zinn-Brooks, assistant professor of mathematics
A preorder is a transitive and reflexive binary relation on some set S. For a finite S of size n, we can relate a given preorder on S to a maximal independent set on a particular graph. This graph is an incidence graph for the facets of an (n-1)-dimensional polytope. Currently, a formula for counting the number of preorders on a finite set is unknown. In this talk, we will show that the structure of this family of polytopes can be used to construct alternative formulations of the problem of counting the number of preorders on a finite set. Thus, studying the structure of this family of polytopes can be used to gain insight into the problem of counting preorders.”
Daniel Vargas
The arithmetic-geometric series over finite fields with order 1 mod 4
Advisors: Dagan Karp, professor of mathematics; Yifeng Huang, professor of mathematics, USC
Motivated by classical works of Gauss and Euler on the AGM, Ono and his collaborators investigated the union of AGM sequences over finite fields 𝔽q , where q ≡ 3 mod 4, which they refer to as swarms of jellyfish. A recent preprint extends some of their results to all finite fields with odd characteristic. For q ≡ 5 mod 8, we reveal finer details about the structure of the connected components, which turn out to be variants of jellyfish with longer and branched tentacles. Moreover, we determine the total population of these swarms in terms of the celebrated base “congruent number” elliptic curve y²=x³−x. We also reveal details about the structure when q ≡ 1 mod 8, which result in structures resembling conjoined jellyfish.
Physics
Evan Bourke
Manufacturing inexpensive field effect transistor devices using micro-grid shadow masks in order to enable 2D materials research
Advisor: Nicholas Breznay,associate professor of physics
I developed and adapted methods for manufacturing graphene field effect transistors (FETs), which enable cheaper and more accessible research of thin films. FET geometries are frequently used to study superconductivity and other exotic quantum phases within materials that are one to a few atoms thick. To electrically contact these materials, a selected conductor is deposited through a stencil called a mask, often made of a polymer sprayed on as a liquid and cured to a solid. These methods can be expensive and can leave undesirable contaminants. I avoid these methods by repurposing small (tens of micrometers) metal grids as masks to create various low-cost FET geometries that demonstrate low-resistance contacts, allowing for higher-precision measurements of quantum phases.
August Davis
The Relationship Between Orbital Instability and the Exoplanet Radius Valley
Advisor: Daniel Tamayo, assistant professor of physics
Surveys of exoplanets see a dip in planetary detections at around 1.5 Earth masses that is known as the radius valley. The Stability of Planetary Orbital Configurations Klassifier (SPOCK) is machine learning software which determines the level of orbital stability of planetary systems. We are SPOCK’s instability calculations for existing planetary systems from the Kepler mission and comparing them to the radii of planets in those systems. We use this to observe a link between unstable systems and systems with planets in the radius valley that may tell us why that valley exists.
Collin Fitzpatrick
Cryogenic Resistivity of Heavy-Metal Films for Magnetically Assisted Ignition
Advisor: Jim Eckert, professor of physics
Fusion would be the perfect energy source: clean, efficient, and renewable. Only problem is, we don’t know how to do it yet. One approach, inertial confinement, hopes to ignite fusion fuel by imploding capsules with lasers. Samples are placed inside cylindrical shells called hohlraums. Novel methods to achieve inertial confinement involve extremely high pulsed magnetic fields at cryogenic temperatures. Under these conditions, hohlraums with low resistivity implode undesirably due to eddy currents. In this work we explore the viability of AuTa as a potential high-resistivity hohlraum material.
Conor Floyd
Understanding a second level of order: defects and coarsening in buckled colloid simulations
Advisor: Sharon Gerbode, professor of physics and associate dean for academic affairs
Through brownian motion, our colloidal particles are driven to pack efficiently, explained by statistical mechanics. This results in the formation of crystalline grains which dictate material properties. In our buckled monolayer, particles pack most efficiently by buckling up and down. Thus, within each ordered grain, the particles further order into geometrically frustrated patterns of up and down “spins” called “spin domains”. The dynamics of these spin domains are dictated by defects of both levels of order: dislocations, which propagate by motion within grains; and spin defects, which propagate by particles changing spin. I create and analyze brownian dynamics simulations to isolate these two processes, understand when they occur, and characterize the phase space of our system.
Aaron Galper
Transitions between Ground States in a Buckled Colloidal Monolayer
Advisor: Sharon Gerbode, professor of physics and associate dean for academic affairs
Our colloidal crystals are suspensions of ~1 um glass spheres in water. The random motion of these particles causes the colloid to tend towards a close-packed configuration, in which each particle touches all of its neighbors. In a colloidal crystal confined to ~1.5 particle diameters in the third dimension, particles buckle out of the plane to pack closely. This vertical ordering breaks the uniqueness of the close-packed limit. Our experiments take place out of the close-packed limit, so we consider “ground states,” which have the vertical ordering of a close-packed state. Unlike the close-packed limit, at nonzero free volume all ground states are not equally likely. We identify and characterize two processes which cause transitions between ground states out of the close-packed limit.
Nikolas Hall
Examining carrier lifetimes and transit times in quantum dot solar cells
Advisor: Hal Van Ryswyk, John Stauffer Chair in Chemistry
Carrier lifetimes and transit times probe fundamental processes that limit carrier collection efficiency in solar cells. In my thesis, I compare two sets of techniques used to measure these parameters. Open-circuit photovoltage decay (OCVD) and time-dependent photocurrent decay (TDPC) are well-established in the field but require lengthy data analysis. Intensity-modulated photovoltage and photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPV and IMPS) promise more efficient data analysis and have been applied to other classes of solar cells; however, they have seen little to no use in past studies of quantum dot solar cells. In this talk, I will compare the performance of OCVD / TDPC and IMPV / IMPS in measurements of PbS-I,Cl quantum dot solar cells.
Antonia Hekster
Chaotic Diffusion of Orbital Frequencies in the Solar System
Advisor: Daniel Tamayo, assistant professor of physics
Earth’s climate history has oscillated between warm and cold periods, largely due to variations in Earth’s orbit that affect solar radiation. One of the most stable of these cycles, the 405,000-year Long Eccentricity Cycle (LEC), is often used as a “metronome” for dating geological records. However, recent work has challenged its stability. We investigate how often the LEC disappears, and why, by performing long ensemble integrations of the solar system. Our findings could significantly impact our understanding of Earth’s climate history and the accuracy of geological dating.
Elizabeth Jones
Cancelling effects of conjunctions make higher order mean motion resonances weak
Advisor: Daniel Tamayo, assistant professor of physics
Mean motion resonances (MMRs) play a pivotal role in planetary dynamics, serving as both a source of stability and chaos. MMR strengths scale at small eccentricities (e) as e^k, where k is the order of the resonance, a crucial result which helps characterize unstable regions where MMRs overlap. The traditional derivation for this result uses a perturbation series expansion approach which provides little physical intuition. In this project we present a simple physical explanation for this scaling result. In the limit that planets are closely spaced, interplanetary interactions are negligible except at close encounters when one planet overtakes the other and imparts a gravitational “kick” to the planet’s mean motion. By considering previously known Fourier expansions for these kicks, we show that the k-fold symmetry in conjunction locations leads to a cancellation of terms up to order e^{k-1}.
Rori Kang
Simulating the Period Evolution of T Tauri Stars
Advisor: Ann Esin, associate professor of physics
T Tauri stars (TTSs) are young, pre-main sequence stars that are still accreting material from their surroundings. Angular momentum conservation predicts that these stars should have spin periods around 1-2 days, but observations of TTS clusters reveal a bimodal period distribution with a second peak around 6-10 days. These slow rotators are believed to be a product of interactions between the stellar magnetic field and the accretion disk that remove angular momentum from the star. We numerically simulate the stellar rotational period evolution of TTSs to model this process and compare our results with observations.
Will Kincaid
Physics Education at Claremont High School
Advisors: Theresa Lynn, Bruce and Susan Worster Professor of Physics and chair, Department of Physics; Mario Carrillo, Claremont High School physics teacher
As my senior capstone project, I participated in a teaching internship at Claremont High School. I assisted the teacher, Mario Carrillo, during the second half of AP Physics I. I led demonstrations on physics experiments, instructed classes, and designed course material to prepare a class of thirty juniors and seniors for the AP test in May. The internship was a great opportunity to understand what it’s like to be a physics teacher at a public high school. I gained a greater understanding of the grand details of curriculum as well as the fine mechanics of time management and instruction. In this talk, I will share a quick lesson plan and discuss the strategies used to effectively engage students and promote learning.
Jee-In Kwon
A UV-Complete Electroweak Axion Portal to Dark Matter
Advisor: Brian Shuve, associate professor of physics
This project explores scenarios where axion-like particles (ALPs) mediate interactions between dark matter and gauge bosons, such as photons. Previous work by our group showed that the cosmologically favored parameters for such models are close to the limits where the approximations used in their calculations break down. To address this, we are investigating a UV-complete scenario where new particles and interactions are introduced to avoid these approximations. Our study focuses on how these new particles impact dark matter predictions and experimental signals, providing concrete benchmarks for future tests of the electroweak ALP portal.
Paco Navarro
A Geometric Approach To Adaptive Entanglement Witnessing
Advisor: Theresa Lynn, Bruce and Susan Worster Professor of Physics and chair
Detecting or witnessing quantum entanglement is imperative for quantum communication. I present an adaptive protocol to detect entanglement with local measurements on multiple copies of an unknown two-qubit state. After an initial set of measurements, if entanglement is not witnessed, the measurement outcomes are used to select the next stage of measurements most likely to witness entanglement. Our group previously developed a two-step adaptive protocol, which I extend with new witnesses to improve entanglement detection. To construct these witnesses, I take a geometric approach of rotating the bases of either or both qubits from our previous sets of witnesses. This approach enables us to systematically construct a complete adaptive protocol for two-qubit entanglement witnessing.
Elena Williams
A New Route to Nanolithography Using Superconducting NbO Thin Films
Advisors: Nicholas Breznay, associate professor of physics; Joseph Falson, assistant professor of materials science, CalTech
Superconducting quantum computers are driven by the operation of Josephson junctions (JJs), and improved JJs will enable the next generation of quantum applications. JJs are commonly made out of an AlOx insulator sandwiched between superconducting Al layers. However, Al/AlOx/Al JJs host two-level system losses at their metal-oxide interfaces. All-oxide JJs are a promising solution to this problem. One candidate oxide system is NbO, a novel superconducting thin film. To pattern the material and test NbO devices, we need a simple nanolithography technique. We investigate local anodic oxidation with an atomic force microscope (AFM) as an approach to etch thin-film NbO, and discuss the superconducting properties of these devices.
Class Presentations
Chemistry
Chem 104: Diversity in Inorganic Chemistry
Student presenters: Jimmy Boyle, Tatiana Cardoso, Alice Chen (POM), Kasey Chung, Bowen Deng, Nicole Fang, Kayla Long, Nora O’Connor, Anna Rogers, Leo Romero, Liselotte Ryan, Chris Simpson (POM), Andrew Schmidt (CMC), Bam Sindhurattavej, Oriole Song, Sabrina Wang (POM)
Advisor: Adam Johnson, professor of chemistry
Students will present written, artistic or other creative projects that describe the life and work of an inorganic chemist of their choosing.
CS/Mathematics
Machine Learning for Seasonal Rainfall Prediction
Student presenter: Hayley Walters
Advisor: Jamie Haddock, Iris & Howard Critchell Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Gabriel Hope, visiting professor of computer science
The overarching goal of the project is to experiment with machine learning models for the problem of forecasting seasonal rainfall in the western United States. Some machine learning models, including decision trees and convolutional neural networks, have previously shown promise on this task. This project will focus on improving existing methods through careful model design, simulation, and collaboration with other climate researchers. Additionally, it will include visualizations of the data to better understand patterns and compare different climate datasets for these prediction tasks.
Computer Science, Hixon Center
CLES 120: Games for Climate Change Literacy
Advisor: Lynn Kirabo, Maria M. Klawe Assistant Professor of Climate and Computer Science
Students will learn to use human-computer interaction methodologies, behavioral theories, and the transformational framework to design climate change literacy games with the intention of inspiring positive behavioral change in players. Each game will be grounded in climate change literature for the rationale and arguments students make about different game design decisions. An example of a transformational game is Wingspan, for which there is anecdotal evidence of players becoming bird and nature enthusiasts because of the game’s influence.
Engineering
E4: Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing
Student Teams
Whirlwhiz 1: Sonia Berliner, Freja Johnson, Haley Duncan, Hal Shuffelton, Brannan Rosenfeld LogicForge 1: Angela Zheng, Margaret Brooke-Hodge, Brave Yongphiphatwong, Pierce Clark, Luke Murphy
AquaFlux: Luke Morgan, Carolyn Davis, Dylan Adili, Oren Valdez
StemSafe: Ishita Raje, Lachlan McDermott, Ellen Yu, Megan Tran, Daria Lhommedieu CurveQuest 1: Max Even, William Lomax, Ivan Jimenez Pineda, Mauricio Olvera Escobar, Arnav Shetty
AbyssExplorer 1: Yibei Peng, Easten Oo, Lyla Browne, Kathy Guo, Diego Robles
FilamentFlow 1: Heidi Repp, Julian Piedrahita, Julian Thompson-Cox, Aria Kimdon, Ben Phung Whirlwhiz 2: Erika Drisko, Karis Park, Logan Mansfield, Angie Hou, Cooper Davis
LogicForge 2: Isabella Vera, Joaquin Gonzalez-Salgado, Max Conine, Charlotte Diamond-Pott, Felix Peng
GlideLounge: Kesja Kornacka, David Liu, Stephen Kanti Mahanty, Lauren Staples, Jack Van der Reis
CurveQuest 2: Esteban Gonzalez, Katie Cheng, Nola Zaugg-James, Penelope Rodriguez, Willa Switzer
SlideShield: Julia Ng, Ellie Ng, Alexander Bilello, Trusten Lehmann-Karp, Charlotte Edlund-Almond
AbyssExplorer 2: Natalie Ko, Ananya Mahadevan, Maxwell Gerber, London Serratos, Rodrigo Penide Lema
FilamentFlow 2: William Hodges, Diego Silva, Benjamin Simpson, Aaron Jimenez
Advisors: Whitney Fowler, assistant professor of engineering; Adyasha Mohanty, assistant professor of engineering; Marissa Sinopoli, assistant professor of engineering; Katherine Breeden, associate professor of engineering; David Nembhard, professor of engineering
Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing situates student teams as engineers contracted to work on a design project provided by an external client. These projects are open-ended and ill-defined and require students to employ conceptual design. Students work closely with clients, instructors, and the makerspace and machine shop to conceive of and develop a design solution as they navigate the complexity of the design process. These presentations represent the culmination of their work.
E80: Experimental Engineering
Advisors: Dre Helmns, assistant professor of engineering; Qimin Yang, professor of engineering; Joshua Brake, assistant professor of engineering
Experimental Engineering is a sophomore-level, semester-long required course, in which students conduct multiple experiments covering a number of engineering disciplines. These experiments are a training ground for a final project: deploying an autonomous underwater vehicle in open water where student teams measure phenomena of their choice.
Segmentation model to segment the meniscus and femur, patella and tibia bone and cartilage
Student Presenter: George Skaff
Advisors: Jamie Haddock, Iris & Howard Critchell Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Marissa Sinopoli, assistant professor of engineering
Patellar instability is a condition in which the patella, or kneecap, is unstable while the knee moves and can easily slip out of the groove in the thigh bone (femur). This occurrence can lead to pain, reduced mobility, and increased risk of long-term joint damage. Accurate identification of knee structures, including bones, cartilage, and meniscus, is crucial for analyzing biomechanical factors that may lead to instability. This talk will present a machine learning model to segment key structures from knee magnetic resonance images (MRIs). This model was trained using real patient MRI data and a U-Net architecture. This presentation will include results from the trained segmentation model, evaluating its performance using metrics such as Dice Score. By automating knee MRI segmentation, this work will provide valuable data for biomechanical analysis, aiding in the diagnosis and treatment of patellar instability.
E205: State Estimation for 21st Century Robotics and Autonomy
Team 1: Jasper Cox, Charles Lambert, Anthony Tran
Team 2: Bob Gao, Bob Zeng
Team 3: Jessica Liu, Patrick Liu
Advisor: Adyasha Mohanty, assistant professor of engineering
State estimation is the backbone of modern robotics and autonomy, enabling intelligent systems to navigate uncertainty. In this presentation, student teams will showcase their implementation of state estimation algorithms, refining a robot’s environmental understanding. Working in groups, they’ve designed and tested solutions using simulated or real-world platforms, integrating sensor data from IMUs, LiDARs and cameras to achieve robust performance.
Physics
Astro 62: Intro to Astrophysics
Advisor: Daniel Tamayo, assistant professor of physics
Broad introductory survey to the field of astrophysics.
Advisor: Peter Saeta, professor of physics
Physics 64: Computational and Mathematical Methods for Physicists and Physics 164: Particle Physics
Student Presenters: Korin Aldam-Tajima, Oswaldo Cardenas, Jee-In Kwon, Ian McGuire, Zoe Messenger, Connor Neely, Alex Pedroza, Isaac Perez, Caroline Sorrells, Mickey Teekamongkol, Daniel Voyles
000.000.0000 Brian Shuve, associate professor of phys
Students will present on a topic in particle physics, particle astrophysics or particle cosmology. Possible topics include new experiments and experimental results, or theoretical mechanisms to explain outstanding cosmological puzzles such as dark matter or the matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Phys170X: Advanced Computational Sciences
Advisor: Vatche Sahakian, professor of physics
A course on machine learning, neural networks and high-performance computing.
Shanahan Project
MARC Competition Rocket
Student Presenters: Jacob Fain, Drake Gonzales, Pierce Gruber, Nikolas Hall, Naomi Horiguchi, Amy Liu, Ben Simpson, Rai Wandeler
Advisor: Leah Mendelson, associate professor of engineering
The Mudd Amateur Rocketry Club (MARC) has spent the past year designing and building a ten-foot-tall rocket, which we will launch at the FAR-Unlimited rocketry contest in June 2025.