The 2016 COSET Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP)

2016 SURP students

This summer, a total of 23 students from 7 departments participated in the 2016 COSET Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP). The 10-week program was designed to provide opportunities for talented undergraduates to gain hands-on experience on how to develop research projects, generate meaningful data, and disseminate them through oral presentation and written publication. They conducted various unique research projects ranging from assessment of tree diversity in urban parks and contamination of tap water by lead pipes, better understand mechanisms of breast cancer cell proliferation, create rap music using mathematics, and examine interactions between species in biological networks using mathematical models. They also developed a low-cost wireless carbon monoxide sensor, studied evolutionary history of birds using gene sequencing, investigated impacts of natural toxins in vegetables and fruits on gastro-intestinal disturbance, and compiled database of major factors of large cargo truck crashes in Texas. Their oral presentation and manuscripts revealed that they successfully achieved the goals they set at the beginning of this program. Two surveys conducted at the beginning and the end of the program indicate that SURP substantially increased their intention to proceed to graduate programs in STEM fields, which is one of the major goals of SURP.

Students who received awards for the summer of 2016 are listed below along with their project titles and supervisors.

Annabella Awazi	Determination of efficient wicking materials for use in self-watering planters	Hyun-Min Hwang
Anish Patel	Application of computer vision	Daniel Vrinceanu
BreiAnica Mason	Measurement of tree richness to assess the health of urban parks	Hyun-Min Hwang
Erica Martinez	Dynamics of Negative Feedback Loops with and Without Extra Interactions	Yunjiao Wang
Francis Ishioye	EFNMR (Earth’s Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spin-echo and spin lattice salinity test	Daniel Vrinceanu
Filmon Asfaha	Applying fuzzy logic to improve in-situ soil	Yachi Wanyan
Hyder Aljanabi	Sequencing the mitochondrial genome of Luzon Lowland Scops-Owl (Otus megalotis) and Phylogeny of Old World Otus	Hector Miranda
Inami Bass	Sequencing, mapping, and annotation of the complete mitochondrial genome of mountain peacock-pheasant Polyplectron inopinatum	Hector Miranda
Jaida Rice	Periodic maxilinear difference equations	Roderick Holmes
Kany Makanguile	Frequentist and Bayesian inference on experimental data of multistable perceptual rivalry	Yunjiao Wang
L’Anne Bell	Cloning of has-miR-3613 into pmR-ZsGREEN1 DNA expression vector and its expression in PC-3 cells	Shodimu_Emmanuel Olufemi
Leandra Stewart	Effects of α-Solanine on Protein Synthesis in stably transfected BEAS-2B Cells expressing pmR-ZsGreen1 (GFP)	Desiree Jackson
Lisa Nunez	Gene Expression Analyses of the p38 Mapkinase Isoforms and Select Genes in Breast Cancer Cell Lines	Audrey Player
Modesta Trejo	Constructing periodic difference equations of orders two and three	Willey Taylor
Najib Lawal Sami	Safety and mobility performance measurement for work zone projects with ITS deployment	Mehdi Azimi
Naomi Walker	Assessment of lead in Houston area tap water	Abate Wolde-Kirkos
Oladimeji Ogunyemi	Bridging Mathematics and Rap Song (Freestyling)	Tong Wu
Precious Oguonu	Application of GIS in Water Quality Assessment in Houston Area	Abate Wolde-Kirkos
Rana Asif Ali	Wireless hazardous gas dector for air quality monitoring system	Oskar Criner
Rashad Cartwright	Development of database expert system for transportation: classifying electric vehicles	Fengziang Qiao
Tessy Attamah	Characterisitcs and contributing factors to large truck crashes in Texas	Yi Qi
Valerie Dozier	Sequencing the complete mitochondrial genome of Bronze-tailed peacock-pheasant Polyplectron chalcurum	Hector Miranda