On June 22, LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering hosted the 2023 Summer Research Community Poster Session. This year’s event featured more than 30 presentations on the results of research projects completed by science, engineering, and mathematics students under the guidance of faculty mentors. Projects ranged from studying the impact of climate change on mussels to intricately cleaning downy baby bird feathers. Others integrated the outdoors with technology, like a bird watching app that allows users to identify and learn more about our avian neighbors. Students shared their projects and answered questions from the Loyola Marymount University community — see their work below!
Chemistry and Biochemistry
- “Measuring the impact of RNA stem-loop thermodynamic stability on the HTLV-1 gag-pro frameshift efficiency” by Audrey Covington, Mwanday Yamegni, Marisa Gomez. Faculty mentor: Dr. Kathryn Mouzakis
- “Synthesis of Psychrophilin E” by Lillian Skinner Giselle Alrachid. Faculty mentor: Steve Heller
- “The Effect of Solvent on Light-Driven pH Changes” by Clara Goolsby. Faculty mentor: Jonathan Ryan Hunt
- “Exploring the Mechanism of an Organic Photocatalyst” by Joseph Hecht. Faculty mentor: Jonathan Ryan Hunt
Health and Human Sciences
- “Comparison of the Acute Effects of Protein Powder Supplementation on Liver and Kidney Function” by Christian Faltas. Faculty mentor: Jenevieve Roper
Computer Science
- “Building a Customer Complaints Chatbot with an LLM” by Ariel Kanevsky. Faculty mentor: Mandy Korpusik
- “Audio Classification Machine Learning” by Riley Kehoe, Will Balentine, Sung Jae Ko, Nick Aurino. Faculty mentor: Jordan Freitas
- “Green Crossings” by Mitchell Cootauco. Faculty mentor: Jordan Freitas
Physics
- “Quasinormal Modes of Extended Uncertainty Principle Black Holes” by Nicolas O. Salkin. Faculty mentor: Jonas Mureika
- “Simulation of Guanylate Kinase Dynamics” by Elizabeth Ossolinski, Nathan Avey. Faculty mentor: Zahra Alavi
- “Data Collection/Analysis for Non-Rotating Convection Experiments” by Mohammad Al Arbash, Daniel Alvarez, Owen Daulton, Madison Stanford, Lucas Ahnen, Ava Hoeger, Francisca Perez. Faculty mentor: Emily Hawkins
Interdisciplinary
- “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Addressing Climate Warming Effects on Marine Mussels” by Makena Robison. Faculty mentors: Andrew Forney, Barbara Marino, Maria Christina Vasquez
- “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studying Climate Change: Intertidal Temperature Variation and Mussel Physiology” by Alana Borer. Faculty mentor: Maria Christina Vasquez
- “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studying Climate Change: ClosedLloop Temperature Control of an Aquatic Tank” by Adrian Wasylewski. Faculty mentor: Barbara Marino
Biology
- “Osmotic Performance of the Mussel Mytilys Galloprovincialis Across Increasing Salinities” by Alyssa Rodriguez Alana Borer. Faculty mentor: Maria Vasquez
- “Surveying Zostera marina beds in San Pedro, CA to inform regrowth following disturbances” by Emma Guerrini, Romano Sarah O’Riordan, Anna LaGuardia. Faculty mentor: Sarah Bittick
- “Investigating the Clearance rate of M. hallo” by Lainee Irribarren, Colin Carr. Faculty mentor: Maria Vasquez
- “Systematic Review: Zostera Marina” by Andrea Klishevich, Tessa Devine. Faculty mentor: Sarah Bittick
- “Clearance Rate of M. galloprovincialis in response to hyposalineconditions” by Colin CarrLainee Irribarren. Faculty mentor: Maria Vasquez
- “Investigation of plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria” by Atrina Bonihe, Isabelle Bermudez. Faculty mentor: Michelle Lum
- “Analysis of Phytoplankton Community Composition in Relation to Harmful Algal Bloom Species Along Coastal Santa Monica Bay” by Gabriella Drumm, Aditi Poddar, Christopher Beaudoin, Stephanie Flores. Faculty mentor: Amber Bratcher-Covino
- “Dietary Isotopic Ecology of breeding Great Black-Back Gulls” by Taleen Madikians. Faculty mentor: Kristen Covino
- “Taphonomy at Rancho La Brea” by Josiah Dallmer. Faculty mentor: Wendy Binder
- “The Unfolded Protein Response of the Endoplasmic Reticulum Supports Aim32 Function in Mitochondrial Biogenesis” by Caroline Thorpe. Faculty mentor: Deepa V Dabir
- “Developing methods for growing fungi in lab and testing the anti- fungal properties of plants” by Elise Lee, Kyle Wright. Faculty mentor: Tatiana Kuzmenko
- “Processing of Larus marinus (the Great Black-backed Gull) Fecal Samples from 2022 and Cataloguing Blood Samples” by Frances Dygean. Faculty mentor: Kristen Covino
- “Stable-Hydrogen Isotope Analysis of Magnolia Warblers (Setophaga magnolia) to Identify Migratory Patterns” by Alexandra Chang. Faculty mentor: Kristen Covino
Mechanical Engineering
- “Lifetime of a Microdroplet on a Hot Surface and Spray Cooling” by Jarret Furuta, Nico Alvarez. Faculty mentor: Mahsa Ebrahim
- “Assistive Stander” by Alexandra Torres, Antonio Garcia. Faculty mentor: Brendan Smith.
Mathematics
- “Counting the Maximal Chains of Bond Lattices” by Brian Macdonald, Jake Soldera. Faculty mentor: Joshua Hallam
- “Predicting Sports Readiness in Collegiate Female Soccer Players” by Gavin Butts. Faculty mentor: Junyuan Lin