External - SSN College of Engineering

Ashley Bishop

School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, & Health Systems

Biomedical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. A. Kavitha Biomedical Engineering

Classification of Vowel Phonemes from Imagined Speech EEG Signals

Integration of speech imagery, the idea of imagining speech in one’s brain without physical vocalization, with brain computer interactions is a rising field prominently centered on the application of providing an easier communication means for those with severe speech impairments. This work focused on the concept producing a speech synthesizer from speech imagery and the classification of the English vowel phonemes ‘a’,’e’,’i’, ’o’, ’u’ by recording and processing electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. These signals were acquired through the Emotiv Epoc+ system and taken from student volunteers, who all were bilingual English and Tamil speakers. After data was recorded, the EEG signals were then denoised through a series of different band-pass filtering techniques, dependent on the target feature. Overall, six statistical features and four brain connectivity features were extracted from the filtered signals and were used as inputs for a machine learning algorithm which served as the basis for a speech synthesizer.

Malena Farber

School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, & Health Systems

Biomedical Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. S. Vidhusha ME Information Technology

Viswath Narayanan R, Yaamini D Co-Mentors

Development and Testing of a Virtual Reality Environment’s Efficacy as a Learning Tool for Autistic Children

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects the ability of a person to engage socially. People with ASD struggle with holding eye contact and maintaining attention among many other things. It has been shown by previous research that virtual reality (VR) may be a useful tool to teach these children social skills or more generally as an alternative learning platform. Other research has also shown that specific metrics extracted from EEG signals can serve as a form of validation for improved learning. Therefore, the goal of this project was to see if-through phase locking value (PLV) and power coherence-attention and mental activity within the brain associated with the processing of information is increased when high-functioning autistic children (age 4-7) are taught simple numbers, colors, or letters within a virtual reality environment. In the future, more work is likely to be done in terms of expanding this project into teaching autistic children harder concepts or social skills.

Clayton Francis

College of Arts & Sciences Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: Dr. George Kostakis

School of Life Sciences - Chemistry

Stavroula Sampani, Jack Devonport Co-Mentors

Synthesis of 3d/4f molecular materials with Schiff Base Ligands

Coordination chemistry presents as one of the more exciting fields of research in modern chemistry. Not only do the complexes synthesized and studies have fascinating geometry, but many of the materials produced have industrial uses as catalysts. More recent research has led to interest in polynuclear coordination clusters, or CCs, as studies into these materials have shown them to have great catalytic ability. Our research was an attempt to synthesis a tetranuclear CC containing 3d and 4f metals, more specifically Co and Y or Dy, and to bond Schiff Base ligands to the CC. Once synthesized, we were to test the catalytic ability of the complexed material. A secondary objective of the project was to reduce the imine double bond of the Schiff Base ligand to see how it would affect the stability and catalytic ability of the complex. Due to unfavorable conditions, none of the attempts to form the CC ligand complex successfully crystallized, which meant that the materials could not be analyzed or tested for catalytic ability. The specific Schiff Base ligand used was successfully reduced and precipitated as a high purity solid, and the procedure for the reduction was refined and documented for future work on the project.

C. Anjiao Wetherhold

College of Engineering Materials Science and Engineering

Faculty Mentor: Dr. George Kostakis

School of Life Sciences - Chemistry

Jack Devonport Co-Mentor

Creation and Synthesis of Copper Catalysts

Copper has been shown to be an effective catalyst in a number of synthetic organic of reactions and compounds. Copper’s redox potential and ability to for heteroatom bonds is what allows it to be such an effective catalyst. Previous studies has shown copper to be a catalytic in A3 coupling and C-N coupling reactions. In this project, two organic ligand structures were proposed and their corresponding copper complexes was attempted with the aim of studying their individual catalytic abilities. A number of synthetic pathways towards the Liga das and their complexes were proposed and tested with varying degrees of success. The research will help to further the understanding and uses of copper complexes as a catalyst, especially in the place of the more expensive metal catalyst.

Anjelikal Rogers

Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design Animation and Visual Effects

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melinda Lewis Marketing & Media

Graphic Novels as a form of storytelling

Throughout this summer I decided to work on an independent research project that focused on graphic novels as a form of storytelling. I wanted to know how I could successfully tell a story through images like some of my favorite artists, so I closely examined the storytelling tactics of various graphic novelists; taking note of their choice of art style and various other storytelling devices. With the information from the notes I took I am developing a graphic novel about toxic masculinity. In addition to researching investigating graphic novelists I also researched toxic masculinity as an individual subject so that I would be able to tell accurate information. Though I only got as far as far as a bare bones concept, I intend to build upon the idea in the future when I acquire more skills so that I am able to better deliver the concept visually.

Lila Vanni

Antoinette Westphal

College of Media Arts & Design Film & Video

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melinda Lewis

Marketing &

Media

Me Also

Being a woman in the media industry, I was interested in the current rise of women’s narratives surrounding an ambiguity that I felt demanded answers: the motivations behind the Me Too movement. Overwhelmed by the outcries of women that inspired me, I followed their narratives to uncover how this all happened. From the allegations, the actions behind them, and the motivation that caused these women to finally take their stands, I embarked on the path to unravel the past and contemporary moments of these remarkable women in the industry.

Through various forms of media — podcasts, albums, films, longform essays, and books — I heard the many narratives of women that embodied the sobering truth that there was still much progress to be made to change the industry. In addition, reading others’ stories with the #MeToo inspired me to share my own voice and feelings through a collection of short writings that link these stories together to tell my revelation of a whole narrative of how women, past and present, have worked to cultivate this modern feminist movement.