12th IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (On Demand Recording available now)

Session Introduction: Introduction
Session Keynote-1: Keynote Speaker 1: Sami Kahn Session Keynote-2: Keynote Speaker 2: Steve O'Brien Session Keynote-3: Keynote Speaker 3: Sharnet Chavis
Session Full-01: Track 1 — Full Papers I Session Full-02: Track 2 — Full Papers II Session Full-03: Track 3 — Full Papers III Session Full-04: Track 4 — Full Papers IV Session Full-05: Track 5 — Full Papers V Session Full-06: Track 6 — Full Papers VI Session Full-07: Track 7 — Full Papers VII Session Full-08: Track 8 — Full Papers VIII Session Full-09: Track 9 — Full Papers IX Session Full-10: Track 10 — Full Papers X Session Full-11: Track 11 — Full Papers XI
Session Poster-1: Poster Session 1 Session Poster-2: Poster Session 2 Session Poster-3: Poster Session 3 Session Poster-4: Poster Session 4 Session Poster-5: Poster Session 5 Session Poster-6: Poster Session 6
Session WIP-01: Track 10 — Works-In-Progress I Session WIP-02: Track 11 — Works-In-Progress II Session WIP-04: Track 13 — Works-In-Progress IV Session WIP-03: Track 12 — Works-In-Progress III Session WIP-05: Track 14 — Works-In-Progress V
Session Workshops: Track 15 — Workshops
Session Closing: Closing Remarks

Session Introduction

Introduction

Conference
9:00 AM — 9:15 AM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 9:00 AM — 9:15 AM EDT

Welcome to ISEC 2022

Ashutosh Dutta (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab)

0
This talk does not have an abstract.
Session Chair

Ashutosh Dutta (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab)

Session Keynote-1

Keynote Speaker 1: Sami Kahn

Conference
9:15 AM — 10:00 AM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 9:15 AM — 10:00 AM EDT

Another ‘M’ for STEM: Moral Considerations for Advancing STEM Literacy

Sami Kahn

3
While career readiness and global competitiveness are often cited as rationales for quality STEM education, a broader view of scientific literacy, one that envisions students as members of an informed citizenry able to reason thoughtfully and ethically through increasingly complex STEM issues, is critical. Particularly with an increased emphasis on engineering in U.S. science education standards, STEM education, Dr. Kahn will argue, must serve as both a context for moral development by expanding student argumentation and discourse to include the consequences of STEM decision making and also a conduit for advancing a more just and equitable society through broader engagement and participation. To illustrate how these visions might be realized in the K-16 classroom, Dr. Kahn will discuss how educators can transform a typical STEM lesson into a “moral” STEM lesson through the incorporation of two curricular frameworks, Socioscientific Issues (SSI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the manner in which STEM content, practices, and rigor can be preserved and enhanced while widening curricular objectives to include the development of an informed, reflective, and inclusive STEM-literate citizenry.
Session Chair

Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)

Session Keynote-2

Keynote Speaker 2: Steve O'Brien

Conference
10:00 AM — 10:45 AM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 10:00 AM — 10:45 AM EDT

Stories of Integrative-STEM, K-12 and HigherEd

Steve O’Brien

0
Dr. O'Brien will review how Integrative-STEM approaches have been used successfully in the K-12 space, and HigherEd. Some of these experiences are "classroom only" where the impacts are intended for a single classroom, while other experiences are intended to change how a whole school functions.
Session Chair

Roger Ding (US Navy)

Session Keynote-3

Keynote Speaker 3: Sharnet Chavis

Conference
10:45 AM — 11:30 AM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 10:45 AM — 11:30 AM EDT

IEEE- Honoring Your Resilient Spirit

Sharnet Chavis

0
It’s takes many things working synergistically for a person to achieve to their full potential. Resiliency is a key factor to every persons success. Today you will learn how to build your resiliency, how to harness your strengths, how your connects offer support, ways to utilize joy and gratitude in your daily experiences, and you will be able to develop a set of practical mindful techniques to support your resiliency. Today we will, IEEE- Identify, evolve, embrace and endure to lay a good resilient foundation for your social and emotional well being. Everything offered today will be useful for students, parents, teachers and learners of any age or abilities.
Session Chair

Ashutosh Dutta (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab)

Session Full-01

Track 1 — Full Papers I

Conference
11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT

An interdisciplinary approach to high school curriculum development: Swarming Powered by Neuroscience

Elise Buckley (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Joseph Monaco (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA); Kechen Zhang (Johns Hopkins University, USA); Kevin Schultz (JHU/APL, USA); Robert Chalmers and Armin Hadzic (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Grace M Hwang (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory & National Science Foundation, USA); M. Dwight Carr (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA)

0
This article discusses how to create an interactive virtual training program at the intersection of neuroscience, robotics, and computer science for high school students with equity of access. A four-day microseminar, titled Swarming Powered by Neuroscience (SPN), was conducted virtually through a combination of presentations and interactive computer game simulations. The SPN microseminar was delivered by subject matter experts in neuroscience, mathematics, multi-agent swarm robotics, and education. The objective of this research was to determine if taking an interdisciplinary approach to high school education would enhance the students learning experiences in fields such as neuroscience, robotics, or computer science. This study found an improvement in student engagement for neuroscience by 16.6%, while interest in robotics and computer science improved respectively by 2.7% and 1.8%. The majority of students (64%) strongly agreed that they enjoyed learning from an interdisciplinary team of experts and 70% strongly agreed that the microseminar emphasized the need to have instruction teams with diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The curriculum materials, developed for the SPN microseminar, can be used by high school teachers to further evaluate interdisciplinary instructions across life and physical sciences and computer science.

Extracurricular Student-Centered Projects to Learn Computer Programming

Wei Yu, William Haynes and Diane DiMassa (Massachusetts Maritime Academy, USA)

0
Out-of-class learning environments, such as student clubs, workshops, camps, etc, provide students unique opportunities to grow their potential interests, enrich their knowledge and strengthen their self-efficacy. It is demonstrated in STEM fields that out-of-class interdisciplinary activities allow students to build relationships of multiple subjects, blend them properly and apply them to solve practical problems. Encouraged by the outcomes of out-of-class activities and the growing interest of computer programming at our university, two extracurricular projects on developing a graphical user interface (GUI) for double girders and writing a script to batch-process images were conducted recently in a student club. The projects were assigned to the students to enhance their learning interests, improve their computer programming abilities, and build their confidence in software development. The extracurricular projects were designed by considering students' curriculum courses of interest and previous co-op training experience. The students dug into various computer programming skills and implemented them appropriately to address the project requirements. They were also challenged to consider both fundamental programming techniques as well as software system structure. It was observed that the extracurricular projects had triggered the students' learning curiosities, increased their programming proficiency, and deepened their understanding of the computer programming field. The feedback from the students suggests that the project experience was more than satisfactory and contributed to their future career preparations.

Design and Development of a Smart Cities General Education Online Course for Undergraduates

Mohammad U. Mahfuz (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA)

1
In this paper, a design and development of a Smart Cities general education (Gen Ed) online course for undergraduates have been presented. In this design, a detailed description of course contents, course modality, access to materials, and a typical assessment scheme have been presented, So far, this ENGR 202 (An Introduction to Smart Cities) course has been taught successfully to the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay, USA, students for the last two years every January and summer terms respectively with 3 weeks and 4 weeks in duration. Thus far, the course has been very successful in providing the students with an introduction to the smart cities and their functionalities. Experience learnt from teaching this course has been presented in this paper. The detailed design of this Gen Ed course has been presented in such a way that the same or a similar course could also be designed and taught at another academic institution as a Gen Ed course. Finally, this course also stands as an example that an engineering course can successfully contribute to the Gen Ed course pool of an institution reducing the historical gap between engineering and Gen Ed curricula moving forward.

Design and Development i-AVEN|GER as High-Tech Virtual Remote Teaching and Learning Platform with Experienced Based Learning and Self-regulated Learning Approaches in facilitating STEAM Education

Ken Nee Chee (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia); Noraffandy Yahaya (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia); Mohd Hishamuddin Abdul Rahman (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia); Rafiza Abdul Razak (University Of Malaya, Malaysia); Nor Hasniza Ibrahim (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia)

1
With centuries-old lecture-based teaching methods, ingrained institutional biases, and obsolete classrooms, the slow pace of change in global education and academic institutions is lamentable. COVID-19, on the other hand, has acted as a catalyst for educational institutions worldwide to seek out novel solutions within a short or long timeframe. It is critical for countries to address the situation in such a way that the crisis fosters innovation and inclusion rather than exacerbating learning disparities. Schools are utilising distance learning programmes, educational apps, and platforms such as radio and the internet to reach students who live in remote areas. However, closing the so-called "digital divide" - the divide between those with access to computers and the internet and those with limited or no access - is a difficult task. We propose in this paper the Interactive Accessible Virtual Education Network - Grand Educational Repository (i-AVEN|GER), the world's first comprehensive futuristic hi-tech, comprehensive, and inclusive online structured learning platform with all types of interactivity, namely, educational app and portal. We've discussed the architecture and all of the associated functionalities thus far. This proposed app and portal will be enhanced to ensure inclusivity for all people without regard for prejudice, as well as the incorporation of cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, it will be capable of operating in an offline mode, allowing learners to download educational materials to their mobile devices or computers and watch them later. Numerous parties from around the world will collaborate to develop a comprehensive whitelisted educational app and portal to help close the "digital divide."

Automated Car applying Artificial Intelligence

Satyam Mishra (Vietnam National University - International School, Vietnam)

1
This paper discusses researching a vehicle model using artificial intelligence; training its neural network using the AlexNet model, using YOLO for object detection phase, and for practical deduction and judging component we have used Open Neural Network Exchange format. Our Car model is agile and cost-efficient. It detects objects efficiently in front of it and movement of it is smooth. It moves through sensors in motors which makes it different than other models in the world. We created and managed to deploy a deep learning system using real-world visual input for everyday objects. We used a novel deep learning-based obstacle avoidance perspective for practical object detection training. Special data gleaned via the use of technologies and various sensors in this part could alter skill demand and achieve security levels. We built it from scratch and trained this model to avoid collision and follow a given path by using deep neural network-based training.
Session Chair

Mithun Mukherjee

Session Full-02

Track 2 — Full Papers II

Conference
11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT

A Personality Types Research Study Based on Personal Values in an Ethics Course for the Engineering and Computer Sc. Undergraduates

Atma Sahu (Coppin State University, USA)

1
This research study explicitly unfolds differences among the various personality types of School of Engineering undergraduate students (N=75) and these students have taken a full-semester ethics course titled "Human Values and Professional Ethics". As improving the ethical thinking and analysis of university students' personality styles is becoming an essential goal of modern curricula and program designers in various disciplines, this timely study addresses issues of ethics and personal values teaching and learning of engineering students. The findings of this research should provide underpinnings for advanced engineering education novelties in designing ethics courses. This study addresses uniquely how students relate with Myers-Briggs Test Inventory preferences types, as surfaced in the study when personal values are factored in the statistical analysis, and how students communicate across MBTI preferential characteristics. Additionally, in the context of the subject's personality type and personal values across several research variables such as age, gender, religion, and professional ethics, the computer educators and ethics researchers will gain a deeper insight as to how the research results of this study on learning and teaching have been applied to create or design engineering ethics course.

Motivating Potential of the ESP Course Themes at Russian University of Transport

Natalya V Matveeva (Russian University of Transport & Serpukhov College, Russia); Elena Fedotkina (Russian University of Transport, Russia)

0
New learning paradigm in higher education means new approaches and teaching methods are used in vocational training, these include new specialities introducing, interdisciplinary educational projects within the multidisciplinary students teams developing, flipped learning, digitalization of education, and other learning methods implementation. This also means that the role of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as an educational subject at the university changes significantly. For sure, students majoring in engineering specialities should study English for Specific Purposes (ESP) within the course of English as a Foreign Language in order to read papers, magazines and manuscripts in their subject area, as well as to communicate with the peers on professionally oriented topics being ready to work over international projects related to railway transport such as new units of rolling stock development, international freight and passenger transportation, international transport corridors, international logistics, ecological issues of international value, and in the international teams. This paper discusses the Russian University of Transport expertise in the ESP within the EFL course for students majoring in railroad specialities creation in the context of the University Strategic Development Program. The research includes a thorough examination of the freshmen common reference level, the students and stakeholders' interests and needs in professionally oriented communication within the new learning paradigm, selection of the discourse themes to be included into the syllabus, and the ESP online course relevance in the context of future experts and leaders of transformations in the transport sector vocational training. The selected themes were examined from the point of view of their motivating potential using the Computer Aided Quality Data-Analysis Software NVivo. The results obtained proved the students' ability to study ESP and discovered the most motivating for them railway discourse themes.

Immersive-Experiential Business-Technology in Simulated Business Cases

Stephen Andriole (Villanova University, USA)

0
Business school learning strategies have remained traditional for decades even as enrollments fell and calls for change increased. Even today, "sage on a stage" delivery remains dominant in most US colleges and universities. Immersive/experiential learning (EIL) represents a new way to educate business technology students. This paper describes EIL progress at the Villanova University School of Business and describes an approach to EIL that integrates cases, scenarios and technology into the undergraduate and graduate (STEM-approved)
Management Information Systems (MIS) program. Some of the technologies include AI and machine learning, the Internet of Things (IOT), augmented and virtual reality, robotics, 3D modeling and manufacturing, edge and fog computing, blockchain, cryptocurrency and
quantum computing, among others. A technology adoption scenario - which ends with demonstrations of high impact technologies - guides students through an immersive-experiential due diligence process via a simulated business technology adoption case complete with roles, deliverables and outcomes. The adoption of emerging technology is a goal for most - if not all - corporations as they maneuver through The Fourth Industrial Revolution. At Villanova, we've delivered a course on Emerging Business Technologies for several years. But the course was delivered "traditionally" to undergraduates and graduate students. The course has been converted to an immersive-experiential course where students are expected to solve technology adoption problems through role-playing: they are immersed in the case and experience a range of digital technologies. These cases simulate how CIOs, CTOs and other technology leaders must decide how and where to invest in existing (and mostly) emerging business technologies.

Pandemic and Natural Disasters Driving the Need for AI Driven NEXTGen Medical Services

John Lamb (Pace University, USA); David Marimekala (Farmington High School, CT, USA)

5
Our pre-pandemic Medical services were primarily focused on providing health services in person and less on using the virtual methods. The pandemic has changed the landscape of medical services, as a greater number of patients are using alternate methods for medical services such as telemedicine, Virtual Assistance and video conferencing to communicate with the physicians and healthcare providers. As a result, there is a shift in the paradigm on how these services are being catered to different age groups. IT has played a vital role in keeping up with the increasing demands during the pandemic and natural disaster. There has been a constant effort from the business, healthcare providers and IT industry to provide simplicity and ease in usage of alternative methods so that all age groups can communicate to physicians, healthcare workers and healthcare providers easily. This change has brought in new ways of providing services to patients of all age groups. During the pandemic there was little hope of finding the vaccination for Covid-19. Medical researchers and Scientists were constantly working on finding breakthroughs. In this period the IT services, Artificial intelligence, Hybrid Cloud, Security and Compliance, automation and cognitive analysis paved a way for researchers and scientists to reach a breakthrough in finding a vaccine. In this paper we study the importance of Medicine, Technology and Energy for mankind.

Assurance of Learning in Technology Management by Curriculum Alignment to A Professional Body of Knowledge

Andres Fortino and Ming Cai (NYU, USA)

1
We created an assessment instrument and evaluated its effectiveness in improving management knowledge, skills, and competencies of students in a technology management graduate program. Our study shows that the program being assessed had many deficiencies in educating them on management-related topics. We also discovered that the assessment instrument is a useful tool to help students to gauge their learning outcomes and progress. The assessment can also assist faculty and program administrators in modifying and improving the curriculum.
Higher education institutions prepare students with skills that better prepare them for a highly competitive labor market. Aligning the learning outcomes of a program to industry specified knowledge and skills is highly desirable. The recently developed American Management Association Certified Professional in Management (CPM) certification is an important source of industry-based knowledge for incumbent and aspiring managers. We based our assessment instrument on the AMA CPM Body of Knowledge for our assessment.
We researched several questions for this project. 1) do students of management-related majors graduating from a technology management graduate program have adequate management competencies and skills? 2) can an assessment instrument based on an industry derived standard be a useful tool to assist students in having a better understanding of their learning outcomes and progress, and thereby improve their learning? 3) how can such an assessment instrument assist faculty and administrators modify and improve their curriculum?
The curriculum was reviewed, and an assessment instrument created with topical course coverage pertinent to the AMA CPM BOK. The assessment was administered to capstone students, and results were analyzed.
Using the existing curriculum, we found that most students could not pass the assessment and identified many deficiencies in the knowledge domains. The assessment results were sufficiently granular to help faculty modify the curriculum and course content and improve students' acquisition of the required knowledge.
Session Chair

Mithun Mukherjee

Session Full-03

Track 3 — Full Papers III

Conference
11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT

An Integrated Approach to Sustainability-focused Instruction in Undergraduate Engineering Curricula

Mohammad U. Mahfuz (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA)

1
In this paper, an integrated approach to sustainability-focused instruction in undergraduate engineering curricula has been presented. Teaching sustainability-focused contents currently stands as a demand for the present world. Therefore, the field of engineering education needs to address this for the betterment of future generations of humankind. Several sustainability-focused instruction models that could potentially be incorporated within engineering curricula have been discussed in this paper. Case studies from the current undergraduate engineering curricula, particularly in the general education (Gen Ed), electrical engineering (EE) and electrical engineering technology (EET) programs at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay, USA, have been presented. The paper also includes an overview of opportunities and challenges of including sustainability-focused instruction in undergraduate engineering curricula. While it is acknowledged that the concept of sustainability is quite broad, interdisciplinary, and, therefore, may have discipline-specific scenarios and requirements, it is strongly believed that the instructional approaches presented in this paper should be helpful in designing similar sustainability-focused learning materials at other academic institutions within and beyond undergraduate engineering curricula.

Acknowledging Perceptions, Behaviors, and Beliefs: Exploring What Faculty Need to Integrate Technology into Instruction in Qatar

Ibrahim M Karkouti (The American University in Cairo, Egypt)

1
This study explored faculty members' views regarding the factors that facilitate the integration of technology into their instruction. The study was conducted in Qatar and comprised 14 participants from different schools and departments at a public midsized postsecondary institution. Davis's technology acceptance model guided this study and served as a lens through which data were collected and analyzed. Data were collected using in-person, semi-structured interviews. The interview guide was researcher-developed and designed to align with TAM's (Davis, 1986) constructs. In order to elicit a broad range of responses, the interview questions were informed by the research questions. Salient findings that were derived from this study including sufficient Arabic content and technological resources, adequate technology skills, and self-confidence could be of primary importance to faculty trying to use technology for teaching and learning purposes. A noteworthy finding was that cultural restrictions have the potential to enhance the use of technology for teaching purposes. These findings could be of primary importance to Qatari policymakers, educational leaders, and postsecondary faculty members.

Reading in the Dark - Radar Imaging Demonstrator for STEM Outreach of Autonomous Systems

Michael A Saville, Ryan Ball, Garrett Harris and Sarah Willenbrink-Sahin (Wright State University, USA)

1
A radar-based artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrator is developed for STEM outreach to K-12+. A team of faculty and students of different engineering disciplines developed the radar-AI system to collect radar images of model airplanes for sponsored research of AI algorithms. However, the lab also drew attention of administrators, prospective students and their families and evolved into the STEM demonstrator presented in this work. Radar images are similar to grayscale optical images but require advanced signal processing and have different characteristics. Human interpretation of the scene viewed by the radar sensor is straightforward but requires advanced training and considerable time usually unavailable to the application. AI offers an autonomous system solution and is an ongoing area of research.
The demo is portable and permits hands-on participation for workshop events. Participants create a radar target of their choosing using a set of custom-made reflectors. Primary school students typically create smiley faces and such and watch near real-time imaging much like a medical image. Older students and parents are encouraged to form alpha-numeric characters with the reflectors but to simulate a dark room by laying a shroud over the target. In addition to watching their character appear in the image, the visitor also witnesses the computer AI read the character. The system is described with examples of how the demo uses its different stages to support STEM outreach to a wide variety of students. Lastly, future developments to make the system read words and learn more complicated shapes are discussed.

A New System for designing a 'Student Aide' Application

Ira Nath (JIS College of Engineering, India)

0
Due to the current scenario across the continents, the premises of all the schools and colleges have been shut down to stop any kind of mass gatherings and, thus, avoid any unnecessary issues. To compensate this loss classes have been taking place online via various platforms. Students and guides check different online platforms in order to carry out various tasks, making the system a bit uneasy to work with. The main reason is to systematize the whole process enabled us to produce a computer-based application. The computer applications can be used to study contents, solve questions based on those contents and attend to or start online classes via a web browser. These are achieved by the use of JAVA Swing, which is a JAVA feature to produce desktop applications by using various GUI components, and NetBeans, an application tool, which provides the environment to work with these components. The main objective of the work is to provide a basic interface for a student at home to attend classes and get the required study help needed.

Project-Based Exploration of Cluster Computing and Parallelization Using Raspberry Pis

Taylor R Powell, Ayman Elmesalami and Soad Ibrahim (Old Dominion University, USA)

2
This paper introduces an affordable, scalable, and hands-on series of projects for teaching parallel computing and networking concepts to undergraduate STEM students. A cluster computer composed of Raspberry Pis is presented along with a proposed design concept and basic instructions for configuring the cluster. Use cases are presented for exploring the performance of the Pi cluster and examining the consequences of unbalanced task distribution across the cluster. The performance of the cluster is tested using both simple numerical integration and adaptive integration methods. In the case of simple integration, results show that the cluster provides speedup in accordance with expectations due to the equal time-complexity of individual computations. Adaptive integration serves as an educational point about the importance of equitable task management across the cluster since the tasks assigned to individual threads may be of different time-complexities. This project is suitable for advanced undergraduate STEM majors and can be tailored to the preferences and goals of the course or instructor.
Session Chair

Mithun Mukherjee

Session Poster-1

Poster Session 1

Conference
11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT

Hamstring Injury Detection Using Body-Centric Nano Networks

Lawrence He (Princeton High School, USA)

2
Hamstring injury includes any strain or tear of any of the muscles or tendons within the hamstring group. It occurs frequently among athletes of all types of sports. As a Division I athlete, I suffered from a hamstring injury a couple of times. Hamstring injury impacted my results in several national tournaments.

The hamstring group consists of many muscles and tendons. It is critical to accurately detect the injured part before applying any treatment. In this research project, Body-Centric Nano Network (BCNN) is implemented for hamstring injury detection.

I first propose an architecture to support hamstring injury detection. My architecture includes two types of nodes to collect bio-parameters for injury detection: nano sensors and data collectors. The nano sensors enter the patient's circulatory system via either injection or drinking with solutions. The data collectors are wearable devices covering the hamstring group area. Bio-parameters, such as blood cells, muscle enzymes, swelling, bruising, and dislocation, are collected by the data collectors for diagnosis purposes. By using the nano sensors for in-body monitoring, accurate bio-parameters can be collected to determine the root reason.

Performance of my proposal is further analyzed by evaluating key elements in the architecture. These elements are nano sensors, the hamstring area, the blood circulatory speed, and the frequency of collecting bio-parameters. The goal is to minimize the deployed nano sensors while collecting enough information to detect the injury. A mathematical model is established to relate all of the aforementioned elements. My model is based on the nano-scale communication framework in the IEEE Standard 1906.1. Its enhancement relies on employing the hamstring specific parameters to relax a portion of the constrains and thus reducing the computational complexity. Practical values from the bio-research literature are implemented to compare multiple scenarios. Results show this model provides salient guidelines for hamstring injury detection.

Controlling Wildfires though Aerial Seeding

Mrinalini Suresh Kumar (USA)

1
In recent years through the news I've seen many wildfire incidents which had harmed wildlife, human-beings and structures. Initially I thought wildfires needed to be prevented completely, but later through research I realized wildfires help a lot in continuing the forest's cycle. Now I am proposing a solution without breaking this cycle, while protecting the people. We found an effective approach which not just can be used for reforestation but also to control and contain the wildfires.

According to my research, 90% of the wildfires are caused by humans, and 10% are caused by nature(although more are caused by humans, there is a greater impact when the fire is caused by nature). In 2017, 12,306 structures were burned, in 2018, 25,790 were burned, in 2019, 963 structures were burned, and lastly, in 2020, 17,904 structures were burned, all during wildfires. Forest Fires occur during various conditions: drought, heat, and wind participate in drying out the timber or other fuel, making it easier to ignite. Once a fire is burning, drought, heat, and wind all increase its intensity. The arrangement of the natural and physical features of the area also affects wildfire, which spreads quickly uphill and slowly downhill. Dried grass, leaves, and light branches are considered flash fuels, and fire spreads quickly in them, often creating enough heat to ignite heavier fuels such as tree stumps, heavy limbs, and the organic matter of the forest floor. Such fuels, ordinarily slow to kindle, are difficult to extinguish. Green fuels-growing vegetation-are not considered flammable, but an intense fire can dry out leaves and needles quickly enough to allow ready ignition. Green fuels sometimes carry a special danger: evergreens, such as pine, cedar, fir, and spruce, contain flammable oils that burst into flames when heated sufficiently by the drafts of a forest fire.

To help stop the spread of wildfires near human settlements, I recommend a solution through Aerial Seeding. Aerial Seeding is when either a plane, helicopter, or drone drops seeds onto land. We propose dropping seed balls instead of raw seeds as this will greatly and precisely land the balls on soil surface even in mountain ranges.

To carry this project to the next level, I want to collect historical data from the types of trees and shrubs which were most effective in the spread of wildfires in the past. So that in the future I can use this data to create predictive models and help state and federal agencies to manage wildfires effectively.

Understanding the Geographic and Temporal Evolution of Asian Hate Crimes in the United States

Arthur Wang (Canada)

3
Though Asian immigrants have settled in the United States from the last century, the Asian communities are still viewed as foreign and vulnerable among many residents and have often been accused of stealing job opportunities from the rest of the American population. The initial breakup of Covid-19 started in Wuhan, China, consequently leading to the national hate crimes towards the Asian communities in the United States. Criminal activities have evolved from online harassment to severe physical attacks and violence, threatening the life and possession safety of the Asian community. However, up to now, most reports about Asian hate crimes are from public media, and we lack a deeper understanding of the impact and extent of this social phenomenon on the civil life of US residents. In this study, using data gathered from Police Departments in the major American cities, such as New York, as well as data from the FBI dating back to the 1990s, we manage to identify how Asian-hate-related crimes evolved and their occurrence frequency compared with other similar racial crimes, e.g., anti-black crimes. We found that though the number of Asian hate crimes surged during the pandemic compared to the past, the occurrence frequency is still much less than other racial crimes during the same period. We also plot the geographic distribution of Asian hate crimes and the country's racial crime rate over time. We found the propagation of hate crimes from more populated regions to less populated regions. We conclude that though the media heavily reported the Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, the situation may not be as bad as what the public, especially Asian communities, perceives. This study portrays the hate crime across the US during the pandemic time, highlights the severeness of the discriminative crimes against minorities. We hope to use this work to provide more data-driven, rational insights to raise awareness of the problems and release the frustration among Asian communities.

Using Mycelium for the Packaging and Transportation of Fossils

Victor I Robila (Hunter College High School, USA)

2
Despite surviving hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, fossils could be very brittle once unearthed. Insulation against outside elements is needed in order to protect the fossil on long trips from remote locations. Unchanged for decades, current fossil packing approaches rely on simple materials such as Plaster of Paris, toilet paper, and water, all in large amounts. While easily accessible, such materials also result in significant waste, are difficult to apply to the fossil, and also become difficult to remove. In this project, an alternative eco-friendly packing approach based on mycelium is proposed and evaluated. Mycelium is a part of a fungus that helps it absorb nutrients from its environment and usually comes in a thread-like mass. The mass is found in various forms and can be quite strong depending on the species. Unlike paper or Plaster of Paris, mycelium is a renewable material that has been shown sturdy enough to replace bricks in home construction. The experiment was conducted using 4 cups of Plaster of Paris and 4 cups of mycelium with a bone embedded into one of the cups from both materials to simulate the fossil. The mycelium cup was left for two weeks to grow and the materials were then evaluated in terms of their physical aspects. The weight, density, volume, and water resistance were experimentally determined. The experiment showed that while taking longer to create, the mycelium was lighter and less permeable than the Plaster of Paris. The use of mycelium both in fossil transportation and other applications could have great benefit for the climate, and could also be used as an affordable substitute for packing materials.

Using K-Wave to Simulate Ultrasound for Optimal Intravascular Ultrasound Device Frequencies

Zewen Ha (Canada)

3
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide; they accounted for 17.9 million deaths or an estimated 32% of all deaths in 2019. The rupture of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques is a major cause of cardiovascular diseases. Atherosclerotic plaques are characterized by the thickening or hardening of blood vessel walls due to the build-up of fats, cholesterol, and other materials, between the intima and adventitia. Angiography is commonly used for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. However, it is more for vessel stenosis detection with a general overview of vessel structure; it is challenging to apply angiography for meticulous examination of plaques.
Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a catheter-based diagnostic device using echo-pulsed ultrasound for imaging from within arteries. IVUS can be used as an adjunct of angiography and, in contrast to the latter, it is critical for detailed imaging by detecting the exact location and morphology of plaques. A conventional IVUS device employs a piezoelectric transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasound waves with a single frequency. Although higher ultrasound frequencies enable greater image resolution, it suffers stronger attenuation within biological tissues, which diminishes the penetration depth of the ultrasound signal and thus limits the view of imaging. This means that a single frequency cannot account for all situations as plaques may have various morphologies and sizes, and employing an IVUS catheter with a suitable frequency is crucial for the accurate identification of atherosclerotic plaques. Therefore, a systematic study of the impacts of ultrasound frequency on IVUS imaging of atherosclerotic plaques is significant. The ideal method would be testing IVUS catheters with different frequencies for various plaques, however, the cost of IVUS catheter and plaque prop fabrication will be staggeringly large as ultrasound frequency has a very wide range.
To address this issue, we present a solution in this work: a numerical simulation platform to mimic IVUS imaging of atherosclerotic plaques. The platform is built off the K-Wave toolbox in Matlab which is designed for time-domain acoustic simulations in complex and tissue-realistic media. The ultrasound transmitter and sensor functions were combined to simulate a piezoelectric transducer, which was spatially scanned to mimic imaging implementation in IVUS. The frequency of the IVUS was made adjustable in the simulation, and IVUS imaging of the same plaque was achieved with varying frequencies. The evolution of image quality was quantitively characterized with edge spread function, indicating that high-frequency IVUS can produce images with higher axial resolution but less penetration depth while lower-frequencies have the inverse effect, which is consistent with the physical theory. IVUS images of plaques with various shapes, sizes, and mechanical properties were also demonstrated. As such, this simulation platform offers a tool for the study of IVUS imaging. Further steps on this project will be taken to create a graphical user interface that is more user-friendly for clinicians, so it is promising to be used in clinical scenarios to guide IVUS catheter selection for the identification of atherosclerotic plaques.

Fueling the Future: A Study of Nuclear Fusion Reactors and Their Modern Capabilities

Suzanne Keilson (Loyola University Maryland, USA); Dahlia Shafiq (River Hill High School, USA)

1
In light of current global issues concerning the depletion of non-renewable energy sources and degradation of our atmosphere, there has been an increased interest in the topic of nuclear fusion. Fusion, a process that was discovered in the early 20th century, began development internationally in the 1930s, and continues to be studied today. As the nature of the atomic nucleus was being explored, it was hypothesized early on that fusion was the process behind the power generated by the sun and stars. This quickly led to the idea of harnessing that power, but it seemed as if the problems would not be overcome. Within the past 20 years, the intensity of fusion research has increased as a result of the growing sustainable energy problem the Earth faces. There are a number of practical engineering problems that implementing functional fusion reactors face. Two of the most daunting have been creating strong enough magnetic fields and maintaining the necessary conditions of temperature, pressure, density for a long enough period of time to generate sufficient amounts of energy to be competitive with current power plants. In addition, politically fusion has often been conflated with an anti-nuclear (bomb and fission) movement. Due to the frequent comparisons between the two, there may be stigma against the construction of fusion reactors. As the climate and energy crisis have changed public thinking, however, it is possible that the public opinion has changed. There are a number of important positive aspects to exploiting nuclear fusion. It does not produce greenhouse gasses. It has an abundant supply of initial fuel (which are isotopes of hydrogen). It does not generate dangerous radioactive waste. And unlike wind and solar power it is not an intermittent source of energy and can be integrated more easily into the existing power distribution grid.

One aspect of this work is to assess what people know and are interested in learning about nuclear fusion. Another is to introduce and explain current efforts to develop fusion reactors on a global scale. A survey has been developed to assess attitudes towards nuclear fusion. In particular, the survey is being distributed to high school students as they will be the important future decision makers about sources of energy. We also looked at some global data of the distribution and development of energy sources, which show that developed countries are not necessarily changing their power sources, but new sources may be more likely to be implemented in other parts of the world. The effort for a sustainable fusion reaction remains very much an international effort. This poster serves to illustrate the background and general process of modern nuclear fusion reactors, as well as dissect the benefits (both numerical and psychological) and roadblocks our planet faces to integrate fusion into our energy grid. From these factors we determine that the benefits to fusion are far beyond the problems that serve as walls towards its implementation.

Continuous-Release Mist Diffusion of Essential Oils For Varroa Control: A Field Study

Kaitlyn N Culbert (Toms River High School North, USA)

1
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) pollination is responsible for approximately 80% of all cultivated crops. Unfortunately, reports suggest losses of 30-50% of all bee colonies in the US. The greatest single contributor to the decline of bee health is the Varroa mite. Synthetic chemicals are currently used to control Varroa, but the mites are developing resistance. Essential oils may be a viable alternative. Essential oils are cheaper, environmentally-friendly, pose fewer health risks to bees and consumers, and most importantly Varroa have not developed resistance to essential oils. Its' shortcoming is the limitation of exposure. Humidity and temperature affect the rate of evaporation and therefore the mites' exposure to essential oils. Currently, all commercially available thymol-centered systems are gel-based and work only by direct contact with the mite. Following the laboratory investigation (Part I), a field study (Part II) examined the use of thymol-based essential oils, dispersed via battery-operated mist diffusers, to provide effective miticide efficacy without causing harm to honey bees in the hive environment. The use of the mist diffusers effectively eliminated fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Miticide efficacy was recorded as follows: thyme>oregano>rosemary > control (glycerin). Across all tested essential oils, the highest miticide activity occurred during the first two weeks of treatment. The safety of the tested essential oils to honey bees was found to be comparable to the vegetable glycerin control. Furthermore, a brief cost analysis demonstrates the use of mist diffusers was more cost-effective than commercially available thymol-based systems (US$3.20 versus US$15-$18 per application). Continuous-release mist diffusion permits the disbursement of essential oils throughout the entire hive and effectively provided early elimination of mites as they emerged from the brood cell, while remaining safe for honey bees.

Evaluating the Safety of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines by Comparing Its Side Effects to Conventional Vaccines'

Shichun Zhang (Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, Portugal)

1
mRNA vaccine is one of the newest vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the hesitancy of vaccination has always been one of the main problems that impact the extent of vaccine coverage. The largest concern that leads to hesitancy is the lack of knowledge on its safety and side effects. Therefore, our work aims to investigate the safety and side effects of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, compare that with the conventional vaccine through literature review, and propose potential causes of those side effects. The hypothesis is that the side effects after receiving the mRNA vaccine are similar to conventional vaccines. We chose studies on Pfizer mRNA and conventional influenza vaccines in this work. Systematic reactions such as fever, muscle aches, headache, and fatigue occurred among recipients in both studies. We found that the percentage of mRNA recipients who experienced systematic or adverse reactions could be close to or less than the percentage of people experiencing the same reactions in the conventional vaccine. These results support the previously stated hypothesis, and our work will help reduce public concern about mRNA vaccines by sharing these results. Future work will focus on a detailed study on potential causes of the side effects.

A review of bionics for bird flight and potentially applicable mechanisms

Shu Zhitao (The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, China); Lufan Wang (Florida International University, USA)

2
Researchers from different disciplines have been learning from bird flight and were inspired to design and optimize novel flying machines. Though lots of bird bionics have emerged, the mechanisms of different bird flight capabilities still remain unknown. By studying the mechanisms of some birds' special flying abilities, researchers can design new flying machines easier and better. The advancement of studies on bird flight bionics in recent years is fast. Rich discoveries have been reported by scholars about the mechanisms of bird flight from different disciplines. However, there is a lack of review efforts that combine bionics for bird flight and potentially applicable mechanisms. Therefore, a review of recent publications reporting bird flight bionics and the underlying mechanisms of bird flight is needed. Here we reviewed 41 recent studies about bionics for bird flight. We analyzed these bird flight bionics from three perspectives - energy efficiency, material characteristics and signal control. We found that energy consumption per mile of bionic machines is still higher than birds in nature and the energy efficiency can be improved by optimizing aerodynamics. The studies about materials characteristics mainly investigated how to mimic the feather of birds, while how to use shape memory materials to bionic the muscle of birds is a new direction. Finally, we found very few studies bionic the signal processing systems of birds. With the increasing knowledge of neuroscience, if we can mimic the signal control circuits in bird's brain, it will help us a lot on designing more agile flying machines. We also summarized 20 studies about the mechanisms of bird flight, three main categories of research have been identified, i.e., flight agility bionics, long-distance flight bionics and stabilizer bionics. Some special species give us good examples to imitate in these three categories, such as bee hummingbirds, ibises and pigeons. These potential mechanisms may provide us new direction for future bionics for bird flight. By summarizing these bird flight bionics and predicting applicable mechanisms, this review identified new directions to advance the current status quo in the bionics domain, which will eventually benefit our real life, such as controlling drones to fly in groups for shipments or achieving stable hovering in the air for aerial photography.

The Impact of Blurb Sentiments on Crowdfunding Success

Siyuan Liu (Beijing 101 High School, China)

2
Crowdfunding is a newly emerged fundraising method in domains such as art, filmmaking, and product design. Prior research studied many factors (e.g., demographic and project type) predicting the success rate of crowdfunding projects. However, limited studies focused on exploring whether language use can impact the success rate of a crowdfunding project. In this research, we use scraped data from Kickstarter, the largest crowdfunding platform, to explore the impact of blurbs on project success rate. In a crowdfunding project, a blurb is a short introductory paragraph under the project's title. Blurb might affect the success of a project because it is one of the most important ways potential funders look specifically into the project. Therefore, in this study, we aim to leverage natural language processing to measure the positivity and subjectivity of blurbs, and find the relationship between blurb sentiments and the project's success rate. Specifically, we focus on technology products, art products, and game products. We conducted three Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions analyses for technology, art, and game respectively, to get the estimated coefficients of blurbs' subjectivity and positivity, controlling variables such as demographic location, time, funding duration, etc. We found a significant positive correlation between blurb sentiment and success rate for game and technology categories, but an insignificant relationship for art projects. Similar coefficients between game and technology are found, indicating the similarity between these two types. A possible explanation is provided and discussed, that artworks are more subjective on their appearance, but game and technology are not. This work extends the understanding of current literature about factors impacting crowdfunding success. The result of this study will help future funders to understand how their language use can affect their fund amount, therefore selecting the optimal blurb writing method to maximize their profit.
Session Chair

Weihsing Wang

Session WIP-01

Track 10 — Works-In-Progress I

Conference
11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 11:30 AM — 12:30 PM EDT

Low Cost and Lightweight Boat for Water Lake Cleaning: A Work in Progress

Rodrigo Alberto Cordero (Turing Lab, Guatemala); Erick Petersen (Universidad Galileo, Guatemala); Oscar Rodas (Universidad Galileo & Tesla Lab, Guatemala)

0
Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) can be used in many applications, especially in water cleaning, which is very important now more than ever because there are many lakes and parts of the ocean that for many years have accumulated tons of waste, affecting all the living creatures and tourism, which is very important for the economy of some countries. Our proposal to start cleaning the water is creating a mono hull USV made by a low cost and lightweight material with an optimal design to navigate in different environments, using a Jetson Nano to control the boat's cameras to find the garbage and with this help to reduce all the contamination, especially in developing countries that only depend on human labor, making this work a lot harder and time-consuming.

Junior High-School study of RoboPhysics

Ofer Danino (Technion, Israel); Gideon Kaplan and Itamar Feldman (Ministry of Education, Israel); Joseph Shapira (Consultant, Israel)

1
Many educators are seeking programs which are directed towards the development of soft capabilities (like collaboration, creativity and more) of the students. RoboPhysics program is a STEM-integrated educational program for teaching and learning of Physics, combined with engineering and mathematics. Here we present some examples of our methodology for Junior High School students. It is a task-based program based on Constructivist principles, learning STEM through our senses, team work and development of inner motivation and systemic high level thinking. A special technological platform (called 'RoboPhone') has been developed, adding quite a few added-value capabilities to the educational Robot, to assist in students' engagement and meaningful learning. A few recent citations point out that the program does touch the young students.

Exploring Coding Attitudes of Chinese Elementary Students: A Preliminary Study

Shuhan Zhang and Gary K. W. Wong (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong); Xiaojing Sun (Weifang Dongming School, China)

2
Computational thinking (CT) has been integrated into K-12 curricula globally, and coding has been the main vehicle in CT education. While great effort has been made in exploring cognitive effect of coding, limited has been done in attitudinal aspects. To bridge this gap, this study validated the existing Elementary Student Coding Attitudes Survey (ESCAS) in Chinese context and use the scale to explore how students perceived coding. Also, the association between coding attitude and CT performance was investigated. A total of 217 elementary students were involved. Psychometric qualities of ESCAS were examined, and the effect of coding attitudes on CT performance was analyzed with linear regression. Results showed that ESCAS was a valid and reliable attitudinal scale, and coding interest could predict CT performance. Future directions for the study were discussed.

A3Sat: Using CubeSats to Inspire the Next Generation STEM Professionals

John Moore (Institute for Earth Observations, USA & NASA GLOBE Mission Earth, USA); Sriram Elango and Maxwell Friedman (Institute for Earth Observations, USA); Jin Kang (United States Naval Academy, USA)

1
A3 Sat, to "Acquire-Analyze-Apply Using CubeSats", was designed, developed, and
constructed to both strengthen existing curriculum taught in class and incorporate topics commonly missed. Incorporating a wide variety of fields simply in its construction, domains such as computer science, mechanical engineering, spatial structures, electrical engineering, and material science are embedded within it, allowing students to explore these fields and build vital technical skills. The rapid development of CubeSats over the past two decades (1999-present), from research to significant mission integration, has
occurred. The capabilities of CubeSats continue to expand and are being deployed in a wide range of sophisticated scientific and commercial missions,
demonstrating that CubeSats have earned a legitimate place in the Aerospace Enterprise. Extending outward from these topics, the nature of satellites and their close intricate ties to big data is what will further thrust the topics learned to a higher, more advanced level. In this model, the collection of data from environmental aspects allows students to further understand such topics
as chemical compounds and concentrations, atmospheric phenomena, geographical data sets, imagery, and other physical science topics integral in both foundational and advanced knowledge of the scientific world. As this data is collected, students gain the ability to map, plot, deeply analyze and interpret the data, catalyzing the process of scientific thinking and experimentation.
The A3 Sat, not only intelligent in its design, serves as a gateway for students to immerse themselves in STEM fields far out of reach - developing schools and minds alike with the processes and methodologies utilized by the world's leading
scientists, and further establishing a foundation for the next generation to build upon.

Why The Trans Programmer?

Skye Kychenthal (USA)

2
Through online anecdotal evidence and online communities, there is an in-group idea of trans people (specifically trans-feminine individuals) disproportionately entering computer science education & fields. Existing data suggests this is a plausible trend, yet no research has been done into exactly why. As computer science education (traditional schooling or self-taught methods) is integral to working in computer science fields, a simple research survey was conducted to gather data on 138 trans people's experiences with computer science & computer science education. This article's purpose is to shed insight on the motivations for trans individuals choosing computer science paths, while acting as a basis and call to action for further research.

A Unified Aviation STEM Program

Lyndsay Digneo (Federal Aviation Administration, USA); Holly M Cyrus (Research & Development & FAA, USA); Somil Shah (Federal Aviation Administration, USA)

0
Aviation outreach has been a tradition for employees at the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center for years. However, until recently, there was no program to manage outreach efforts and measure its impact on students. This paper explores how the William J. Hughes Technical Center established an Aviation STEM Program and details key elements of its success: passionate employees, streamlined communication methods, and data collection. Additionally, this paper explains how new initiatives, including educator workshops and virtual outreach, were combined with existing outreach activities to reenergize efforts and inspire students to become the next generation of aviation professionals.
Session Chair

Jay Roy

Session Workshops

Track 15 — Workshops

Conference
12:30 PM — 1:30 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 12:30 PM — 1:30 PM EDT

Coding with Tinkercad and the Use of Sustainable Printing Material

Aditya Dutt (Middlesex County Academy, NJ, USA)

4
In the future, most industries will be influenced greatly by 3D modeling and CAD software. We already use CAD for robotics, prosthetics, civil engineering, and other realms of science. Using sustainable, recyclable, and bio-degradable materials used to 3D print reduce the carbon footprint.

In this workshop, we will learn how CAD and 3D printing is changing the world of innovation. We will learn how to design a Snowflake/Mandala using pattern modeling with coding. This workshop can be run remotely as well as in-person.

Details:
Tinkercad offers an environment for coding similar to the professional software "OpenSCAD", where drag-and-drop coding is used to create 3D models.

In this workshop we learn:
-Basics of CAD and its effect on innovation and our earth
-The various coding blocks that are in the Tinkercad environment
-Basic programming such as sequential coding, loops, and functions
-Basic pattern modeling with coding to make a snowflake or mandala

Prerequisites:
Tinkercad knowledge is not required. Workshop starts with some introduction to Tinkercad.

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Anni Leming (Professional Management Consulting Services, USA)

0
The purpose of the NSF-GRFP is to help ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in any of the eligible fields and subfields at accredited US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution. The National Science Foundation has a strong commitment to diversity and actively encourages women, persons who are members of groups historically underrepresented in STEM, persons with disabilities, veterans, and undergraduate seniors to apply.

This session will provide the audience a brief overview of the NSF-GRFP, such as its goal, eligibility requirements, application process, and timeline. Additionally, the session will include information on the NSF-GRFP's efforts to increase representation of women and members of groups historically underrepresented in STEM with a follow-up discussion on how the audience can encourage women and members of groups historically underrepresented in STEM to apply for the program or become reviewers. The last part of the session will be reserved for Q & A. We strongly encourage interaction among the audience and presenters.

To boldly go where no young mind has gone before…

Jose L Lopez (Seton Hall University, USA)

0
What do young people dream about when they think about the future? Do they imagine exploring the unknown? Reaching the limits of the known and seeking out new frontiers of knowledge? Maybe discovering new worlds, new forms of life, or even new civilizations? Do they dream of boldly going where no one has gone before? In many ways, the will to simply dream and the drive brought on by pure curiosity have instilled a pioneering spirit in humankind, that has been one of the main driving forces of much of the scientific and technological progress that humanity has achieved over the course of human history. Outer space has undoubtedly been a natural destination for our collective dreams and a place that inspires endless curiosity about our future. Nowhere have these dreams of the future and focus of curiosity to explore unknown space been more evident than in our science fiction stories. An especially successful science fiction that has inspired dreams of the future and endless curiosity for over a half century has been Star Trek. This workshop will discuss ways in which Star Trek can be used to inspire and more easily teach young people complicated science, as well as engineering and advanced technologies. During the workshop, we will explore the many fun ways in which the accurate science depicted on Star Trek present a means to explain very tough scientific concepts especially in physics and astrophysics. Furthermore, we will look at how many fictional Star Trek technologies have lead to actual real world technologies. Particularly, given the workshop presenter's expertise in plasma science and technology, there will be a study of the many ways in which plasmas are used as major story plot elements throughout the many Star Trek series. Furthermore, this workshop will seek to look at how the often use of plasmas on Star Trek, allows a convenient approach to help introduce the rather complex subject of plasma physics and science to young people and the broader public.

Create life-long learners with practical hands-on interdisciplinary STEAM kits and programs

Shubhendu Das (STEAM Works)

0
Young minds get inspired, delighted, and challenged when they use everyday materials or kits that bring out STEAM concepts from design thinking to building solutions to practical problems. "MAKING" practical projects ex. a 3D printed drone or a solar phone charger is never perfect the first time around. It's ok to fail many times but stay resilient and determined. It's probably the best way to develop a broad minded scientific temperament & confidence! 

Spark an interest with some practical interesting projects and see what spectacular ideas they come up with. Also, make sure to add art as a powerful tool into everything you create as that brings in elements of design thinking, creativity and personalized fun. Those are the ideas that remain sticky for a long time. 

In this workshop we will display STEAM WORKS STUDIO kits, program ideas that we have been creating and sharing with global schools & communities everyday. In addition to making a curious life long learner, practical excellence,  equity in education, direct measurable engagement, keeping youth out of trouble, nurturing an entrepreneurial mind set, providing a ray of hope and joy in some conflicted and troubled parts of the world are all meaningful outcomes from such an approach.
Session Chair

Ralph Tillinghast

Session Full-04

Track 4 — Full Papers IV

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

A Semantic Text Processing System for Free-Write English Papers

Ryan DePascale and Stefan Robila (Montclair State University, USA)

2
We present the development and evaluation of a semantic text processing system that evaluates student essays. The system can process n-many documents and provide a letter grade, identify papers that may need additional teacher action based on component/composite scores, allow optional teacher input on features to generate to generate the grade. The system was developed in Python using open-source libraries and is also available as open source. Using a human-in-the-loop approach, expert teachers were interviewed as part of the design process. Assessing the documents on token, sentence, readability, dependency distance, and part of speech with user guided feature selection the system generated automated results where the true letter grade and machine letter grade corresponded exactly in ~46% of papers and in a ±1 letter grade interval in ~86% of papers. The program can be further extended to flag grades for potential human review based on user defined criteria with example code provided for papers marked as written above the high school level.

Building Student Engagement in Mathematics with Interdisciplinary Study of Voting Systems

Teresa Piliouras (TCR, Inc., USA); Aaron Kershenbam (University of Pennsylvania, USA); Robert Schiaffino (Iona College, USA); Steffi Crasto (TCR, Inc., USA)

1
Many students perceive mathematics as an unpleasant, abstract discipline with little relevance to other studies, or practical use in the real world. This perception, though pervasive, does not reflect reality. What can educators do to encourage students to explore ways math plays a significant role in their lives? Seymour Sarason, a noted child psychologist, wrote extensively about the need for creating contexts of productive learning to foster students' curiosity and interest in challenging subject matter, and mathematics in particular. A productive learning environment is active and hands-on, and encourages students to ask questions and express opinions freely. With this in mind, this paper presents suggestions for interactive, interdisciplinary classroom learning activities by exploring voting systems. The goals are to: i) Increase student knowledge of voting systems and their respective pros and cons; ii) Encourage students to consider how solutions to seemingly non-mathematical problems may be aided by mathematical thinking, iii) Introduce concepts of algorithms, decision-making, model-building, testing, and validation as applied to real-word problems, iv) Prepare students to use basic math concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways, by incorporating historical precedents, traditions, cultural mores, conflicting goals, and varied perspectives into model formulations and solution choices, v) Foster students' appreciation of math literacy and their role in a democratic society.

Impact of Student Research in Engineering: Case Study of a Non-Doctoral University in the Arab World

Sawsan Samir El-Zahr (Lebanese American University, Lebanon)

1
Student collaboration in research work is often done at the graduate and mostly postgraduate level. Universities with doctoral programs have a higher number of students involved in research projects and hence have a higher research output. On the other hand, non-doctoral universities suffer from a limited number of masters programs and graduate students but rely on faculty members to conduct research
projects with the collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students. In this work, we investigate in the field of Engineering, the current status of student research and their impact on the quantity and quality of research in non-doctoral universities in the Arab world. Results show that publications with student collaboration are mostly high-quality journal articles or conference proceedings. Moreover, departments with higher student contribution have higher amount of research output. Finally, the h-index of faculty members is found to be positively correlated with the number of students involved in research.

Quality, Quantity and Impact in Engineering Research: Case Study of a Non-Doctoral University in the Arab World

Sawsan Samir El-Zahr (Lebanese American University, Lebanon)

1
Academics aim to increase their impact in their field by increasing the quantity and quality of their publications. However, the researchers' productivity may be affected by the ranking and the location of the research institution they are
involved in. The case of universities in the Arab world is not studied previously especially for non-doctoral institutions. Universities in developing countries have limited funding and hence a relatively low research output. This work investigates the associations between quality, quantity and impact of research in the field of Engineering for faculty members in a non-doctoral university in the Arab world. Results show that the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) is more correlated with quality than quantity of publications while the h-index is more correlated with quantity than quality. Also, a positive correlation is reported between the quantity and quality of publications for the Engineering field. Finally, faculty members with a higher credit-load have relatively lower quality of publications.

Synchronous Online Army Educational Research Program for High School Students

Anitha Sarah Subburaj (West Texas A&M Univerisity, USA); Ilham Osman (Design Release Engineer, Electrification Power Conversion Release, General Motors, Michigan, USA); Gail Alleyne Bayne and Stephen Bayne (Texas Tech University, USA)

0
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought chaos on education systems worldwide, affecting several billion students all over the world. This has had far-reaching consequences in every part of our life. Traditional educational techniques have been considerably disrupted because of social alienation and restricting mobility policies. Innovation, implementation of alternative educational systems and evaluation methodologies are in demand. The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a chance to lay the groundwork for digital learning. Army Educational Research Program (AEOP) is a summer internship program that allows students to do research in a real laboratory environment with the help of a professional STEM mentor and researcher. For the past 12 years, this program has been delivered as an in-person apprenticeship at Texas Tech University (TTU). Face-to-face apprenticeships were canceled and shifted online because of the pandemic, resulting in the emergence of online learning, which has allowed learners to complete their study. Students, instructors, administrators, and education leaders have faced several issues because of the abrupt shift from face-to-face to online learning. This article aims to provide a comprehensive assessment on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transition of the AEOP program from face-to-face to an online teaching mode at TTU.
Session Chair

Mithun Mukherjee

Session Full-05

Track 5 — Full Papers V

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

Identifying Students' Progress and Mobility Patterns in Higher Education Through Open-Source Visualization

Ali Oran (Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA); Andrew Martin, Michael Klymkowsky and Robert Stubbs (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA)

0
For ensuring students' continuous achievement of academic excellence, higher education institutions commonly engage in periodic and critical revision of its
academic programs. Depending on the goals and the resources of the institution, these revisions can focus only on an analysis of retention-graduation rates of different entry cohorts over the years, or survey results measuring
students level of satisfaction in their programs. They can also be more comprehensive requiring an analysis of the content, scope, and alignment of a program's curricula, for improving academic excellence. The revisions require
the academic units to collaborate with university's data experts, commonly the Institutional Research Office, to gather the needed information. The information should be highly informative yet easily interpretable, so that the review committee can quickly notice areas of improvement and take actions afterwards. In this study, we discuss the development and practical use of a visual
that was developed with these key points in mind. The visuals, referred by us as "Students' Progress Visuals", are based on the Sankey diagram and provide
information on students' progress and mobility patterns in an academic unit over time in an easily understandable format. They were developed using open
source software, and recently began to be used by several departments of our research intensive higher-ed institution for academic units' review processes. Our discussion includes questions these visuals can address in Higher-Ed, other relevant studies, the data requirements for their development, comparisons with other reporting methods, and how they were used in actual practice with actual case studies.

Blockchain-based Electronic Voting System for Modern Democracy: A Review

Dylan Weiss and Jacob Wolmer (Tenafly High School, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)

0
Electoral integrity is not only imperative for countries that are ruled by democracy, but it is also influential in enhancing public voters' confidence and accountability. Also, security, integrity and, trust are three essential pillars of fair and modern democracy. The use of blockchain technology leverages the expected level of protection. Also, it provides cheaper, faster, and immutable service to the liquid democracy where voters can review their casted votes at any instant. Thus, there is a need to use blockchain-based electronic voting systems. E-voting systems can be defended easily and efficiently using the blockchain principles of universal ownership, transaction format, and storage in a chain. Another wall between freedom and the fall of democracy is that to change results; one would need approval from everyone who voted and to go back through each block in the chain to get to a specific transaction. Using Smart Contracts erase the middleman of current systems and are digital documentation of the transaction and proof for certification of votes. Also, this system fulfills the essential requirements of e-voting systems which includes: no coerce to voters, no traceability of voters' identity, the assurance and proof of vote, no one could change the casted votes, the counting of votes and election result must be decentralized, security and integrity of ballot to cast individual votes. There are many proposed frameworks are available in the literature. Therefore, this paper reviewed those existing frameworks and found the essential requirements and possible solutions to implement in the e-voting system.

Understanding Natural Disasters Through Participatory Simulations: A Pilot Study

Patricia M. Davies (Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Saudi Arabia)

1
There is growing interest in climate change by young people across the globe. Even though STEM courses typically discuss issues relating to the long-term changes in temperatures and weather patterns, there is a need for students to develop more contextual understandings of natural events taking place away from their surroundings. For example, students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia need to understand the havoc caused by earthquakes and hurricanes happening in other countries. Likewise, students in the United Kingdom should be able to comprehend what living through a sandstorm feels like. This paper reports on the first of several studies involving the use of participatory simulations to understand natural events relating to climate change. The 487 participants are students at a private university in Saudi Arabia. The study examines their experiences of using participatory simulations of two types of natural disasters-earthquakes and hurricanes. The aim is to gather perspectives on how their comprehension of these events develops, through the use of the simulations, beyond what they would see in a TV or online news report. The participatory simulations are designed to provide a contextual experience by setting the natural events within the locale of the user; in this case a university campus. The findings show that the simulations increased participants' comprehension of natural disasters not typically occurring in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and heightened their awareness of the dangers of climate change.

Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles: An Open-source Hands-on Robotics Course at MIT

Luca Carlone (MIT, USA); Kasra Khosoussi (CSIRO, Australia); Vasileios Tzoumas (University of Michigan, USA); Golnaz Habibi (University of Oklahoma, USA); Markus Ryll (Technical University of Munich, Germany); Rajat Talak, Jingnan Shi and Pasquale Antonante (MIT, USA)

0
This paper reports on the development, execution, and open-sourcing of a new robotics course at MIT. The course is a modern take on "Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles" (VNAV) and targets first-year graduate students and senior undergraduates with prior exposure to robotics. VNAV has the goal of preparing the students to perform research in robotics and vision-based navigation, with an emphasis on drones and self-driving cars. The course spans the entire autonomous navigation pipeline; as such, it covers a broad set of topics, including geometric control and trajectory optimization, 2D and 3D computer vision, visual and visual-inertial odometry, place recognition, simultaneous localization and mapping, and geometric deep learning for perception. VNAV has three key features. First, it bridges traditional computer vision and robotics courses by exposing the challenges that are specific to embodied intelligence, e.g., limited computation and need for just-in-time and robust perception to close the loop over control and decision making. Second, it strikes a balance between depth and breadth by combining rigorous technical notes (including topics that are less explored in typical robotics courses, e.g., on-manifold optimization) with slides and videos showcasing the latest research results. Third, it provides a compelling approach to hands-on robotics education by leveraging a physical drone platform (mostly suitable for small residential courses) and a photo-realistic Unity-based simulator (open-source and scalable to large online courses). VNAV has been offered at MIT in the Falls of 2018-2021 and is now publicly available on MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) and at vnav.mit.edu/.

Educating educators on social engineering: Experiences developing and implementing a social engineering workshop for all education levels

Katorah N. Williams, Rachel Bleiman and Aunshul Rege (Temple University, USA)

0
There has been a noticeable increase in social engineering (SE) attack across the world, especially those that use phishing, vishing, and smshing. Despite the prevalence of cyberattacks that rely on these tactics and techniques, education about SE and how to defend against it is lacking. Instead, the focus of cybersecurity education has been heavily concentrated on technical skills. Recognizing that gap, this paper describes a case study of an attempt to improve SE education by hosting workshops for educators from diverse backgrounds. The workshop that was developed included education on the basics of SE and the psychology behind these attacks, the ethics around SE, and methods for implementing SE exercises in the classroom. Details are also provided on the experiences of those who attended the workshop. Lastly, challenges related to the implementation of the workshop are discussed as well as rationale for the continued use of workshops of this kind.
Session Chair

Eman Hammad

Session Full-06

Track 6 — Full Papers VI

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

Identification of Important Factors in Digital Citizenship Learning Curriculum

Alex Budiyanto (University of Indonesia & Indonesia Cloud Computing Association, Indonesia)

0
The risk of cybercrime is essential knowledge to the public. However, not many people in Indonesia understand this essential concept in practice. In addition to cybercrime, ethics in cyberspace needs special attention. There have been many curricula and literature discussing this in various countries. However, it is deemed unsuitable to adopt all the various curricula offered. For this reason, a literature review is needed to map the development of the current digital citizenship curriculum and find out what factors are essential and dominant. Our results show there are three main domains in the curriculum of Digital Citizenship. The three domains are in line with the maturity phase in using and utilizing technology. The maturity phase in the use of technology requires much knowledge in digital technology. This is what underlies the importance of digital citizenship knowledge. The more knowledge about how to be a good digital citizen, the more the value of the benefits obtained from digital technology will increase. The results of this literature review are expected to be a reference for preparing digital citizenship curriculum materials in Indonesia. In addition, this literature review can be used as a reference for future studies.

Challenges and good practices in STEM: a systematic review and implications for higher education institutions

Eirini Christou (CUT, Cyprus); Antigoni Parmaxi (Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus); Anastasios A. Economides and Maria Perifanou (University of Macedonia, Greece); Maryna Manchenko and Jelena Mazaj (CESIE, Italy)

1
This study maps the challenges and good practices applied in the real life of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). We conducted a systematic review selecting published manuscripts published between January 2018 and January 2021. The search strategy included a systematic search in two well-known online research databases which are related to STEM, ProQuest and Scopus, using the same protocol. After the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 35 papers were included in the corpus. The review demonstrated the challenges and good practices in STEM careers which include personal challenges and good practices for STEM professionals; challenges and good practices encountered at the workplace; and challenges and good practices at social and public space in general. Findings demonstrate that there are still challenges encountered by professionals, especially women and minorities, in STEM fields but there are also some good practices that when applied can reduce the barriers and help overcome those challenges. The paper concludes with implications for educators, policy and decision makers, retention officers as well as suggestions for future research.

Understanding Obstacles in the STEM Career Pipeline through System Dynamics Modeling

Daniel C Appel (US Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, NM & AEgis Technologies Group Inc., USA); Carla Winsor (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA); Ralph Tillinghast (US Army & CCDC Armaments Center, Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, USA); Mo Mansouri (Stevens Institute of Technology & University of South-Eastern Norway, USA)

1
The importance of student achievement in STEM fields remains a key aspect of academic and career success affecting society. Understanding the obstacles and setbacks which affect students is a key aspect to minimizing attrition losses observed in STEM career pathways for underrepresented student demographics. Through developing a system dynamics modeling and simulation framework and evaluating survey responses specifically related to offsetting events in the careerization pipeline, insights can be gained into mitigation strategies. Analysis of system dynamics modeling outputs demonstrates the detrimental effects of obstacles to student achievement; however, elucidating mechanisms present in counterexamples suggests that bolstering student resilience is achievable. Implementing active learning and project-based learning strategies with the specific goal of enabling failure and student development to overcome initial failures can foster development of key individual student traits and behaviors. This approach can be combined with events such as family STEM nights, focus on gateway curriculum that enables student self-efficacy, and implementing near-peer mentoring strategies. The modeling and simulation framework results show that promising improvements can be achieved with resources available across the education and outreach ecosystem, providing substantial benefits to all students with STEM aspirations and to society as a whole.

Adapting a STEM Robotics Program to the Covid-19 Pandemic - a validation of the proposal presented at ISEC in 2021

Neville E. Jacobs (IEEE Baltimore Section, USA); Eric V Sudano (Eric V. Sudano System Solutions LLC, USA)

0
In late 2020 the hosts of the IEEE Robot Challenge, a STEaM project requiring close teamwork among high school and middle school students, realized that it would not be able to comply with the COVID-19 restrictions that would likely be in place in early 2021. The project, originally developed by the IEEE Baltimore Section for the Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) as part of their Maryland Engineering Challenges program (MEC), would need to be modified significantly, yet it had to maintain a high level of teamwork (now likely to be on-line), and a comparable level of "challenge" to the earlier in-person version generally held at the BMI. The 3 phases of the Challenge event as well as the robots themselves, would need to be re-designed, and there would be little time for mistakes or rework, as all details of the project would need to perform correctly the first (and possibly only) time they would be used. With the assistance of a group of Systems Engineers, all steps were analyzed and evaluated for their effectiveness and reliability, and on May 25, 2021, the Challenge was held using Zoom as the controlling system. The methodology that we planned to employ was outlined in a paper with this name that was presented at the 2021 ISEC conference [1]. The purpose of this 2022 paper is to measure and evaluate the success of the systems engineering studies and how they could be applied to other projects. Unexpectedly, Covid 19 is still with us, so the Virtual Challenge will again be offered for the April 23, 2022 event, though an "in-person" Challenge will also be available on another day.

Developing surveillance applications with Raspberry Pi, Django, and cloud services

Ravi Rao (Fairleigh Dickinson University)

0
The Raspberry Pi has become a popular platform for teaching students about embedded systems. There are many potential applications including environmental sensing, process control, and security. At the same time, there has been significant growth in the software ecosystem for utilizing embedded systems in practical applications. We select a specific use case based on deploying cameras for the surveillance of physical spaces.
Though there are multiple tools available, we chose an all-Python-based workflow for the sake of simplicity. We describe the use of Django, a Python-based open-source web framework. We created a surveillance application where a camera attached to a Raspberry Pi collects images and transmits them to a cloud-based service. We used the Google Cloud Platform for its cost and simplicity.
Educational institutions and students will benefit from the design and implementation of our system. Though we describe the process for image data, any sensory stream can be used in a similar manner. Our framework can also be used for any remote monitoring application.
Session Chair

Eman Hammad

Session Poster-2

Poster Session 2

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

Applying Face Recognition on Smart Family Album Player

Eckart M Schneider (Poolesville High School & John's Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Shunguang Wu (Johns Hopkins: Applied Physics Laboratory, USA)

2
The past decade has seen large advances in technology allowing for technologies only available to governments and large scale companies to now be accessed by anyone with a phone. One such example is the access to facial recognition software with apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok identifying faces and applying filters based on the user's request. These apps make it as simple as swiping a screen and immediately the user's face is recognized and an additional layer is added on top. Facial recognition has capabilities beyond applying filters as it allows people to quickly sort and group images based on a person. Moreover, facial recognition has the flexibility of being added to any previous programming project from beforehand. Therefore, to give users an easy method of sorting images, we intend to create a simple graphical-user interface (GUI) that can sort through hundreds of images without human input.

In this poster, we present the design and function of a GUI that would work on many different devices with little set-up. At this moment, the GUI is programmed with C++ and the facial recognition engine is programmed with Python. The graphical-user interface was already programmed in C++ on a Windows device from a previous project before being used for this one. Python was the chosen programming language for facial recognition software as there are large sources of troubleshooting information and it can be implemented in a C++ program without much difficulty. The program as a whole would work through the user specifying a folder of images they have and the program would go through each file in the folder, including files inside other folders, and cluster them based on the people identified. For instance, the folder chosen contains photos of a family of a dad, mom, and a child. From there, each photo is clustered together under the respective person. The libraries used in both the GUI and facial recognition program will be shown and explained on the poster.

At the current stage, the facial recognition software is mostly complete as it is able to identify and recognize faces if given training data. In short, the program works by analyzing the commonalities of the training images and determining if the other images match with the data. Currently, the software is being worked on to allow for unsupervised machine learning, meaning the user doesn't need to give training data from beforehand. Furthermore, integrating the current Python program into the GUI is being looked at. With this project, we hope that any user will find it simple and efficient to sort their memorable family photos without spending any of their own precious time.

Effect of Cycle GAN in Melanoma Classification

Tyler R Jan (USA); Ava Miller (Tenafly High School, Tenafly, NJ, USA); Q'Andre Small (Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro, NJ, USA); Ayushi Kumar (Monroe Township High School, Monroe Township, NJ, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)

1
Skin cancer is a common form of cancer that affects many. Melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, takes thousands of lives every year. However, if Melanoma is diagnosed early, treatment can be provided to prevent further harm. Lesions can specifically recognize melanoma on the skin. Skin with lesions can be visually surveyed to identify Melanoma.
In this paper, we explore a method to alter skin images to make it easier to identify whether a person has Melanoma. For example, if an image of a mole has a great deal of hair throughout the image that obscures the area, this method would increase the visibility of the mole by removing the hair. By doing so, Melanoma can be diagnosed more quickly and then receive medical care. For this, we will use the deep learning technique, Cycle GAN. Cycle GAN is trained through unpaired images. So, accessing data to train the algorithm will not be as problematic as finding paired images. Cycle GAN functions by translating an image into a new domain and translating an image again to recreate the original image. We are planning to implement this method onto data. We expect it to translate an image to make the image clearer such that performance metrics of classification methods (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) may be improved.

Using Computational Methods to Identify Small Molecules for Cancer Immunotherapy

Nicole Liang (USA)

1
I identified this project by researching related papers and discussing with my mentor. I conducted all the experiments and analyzed all results under the advisory of my mentor. The goal was to identify small molecules for cancer immunotherapy treatment.

One immunotherapy treatment against cancer activates the body's immune response by inhibiting interactions between cancer cells and T-cells (cells that fight against foreign substances or in this case, cancer). On the surface of T-cells lie immune checkpoint proteins, such as programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), that, by interacting with proteins on foreign cells, signal to the T-cells whether or not to attack. Cancer bypasses this system by presenting proteins, like programmed cell death ligand 2 (PD-L2), that could bind with PD-1 and thus not elicit an immune response.

Small molecule drugs aim to inhibit such PD-1/PD-L2 interactions and increase the immune response against cancer. None are FDA-approved yet, but research has been done with success, analyzing similar interactions between PD-1 and PD-L1 (another ligand found on cancer cells). Other inhibitors have also been researched, including IgG and monoclonal antibodies. Small molecule treatments are advantageous in that they have oral bioavailability, lower costs, better tissue penetration, and a shorter half-life.

Computational methods are highly effective ways that can be employed to screen a large number of small molecules to help identify potential candidates for drugs. Four steps are taken in this research project.

The first experiment determines whether possible binding sites exist on PD-1 for small molecules. A geometric method was used to find binding sites with the correct size. Next, an energy-based method was used to identify sites with a reasonable binding energy level.

The second step involves virtual screening of small molecules using Pocketquery (Pocketquery) to find ones that match the amino acid clusters on PD-L2 that bind with previously identified PD-1 binding sites. A series of screening tests were conducted in search of the optimal RMSD scores, indicating a good fit.

The next experiment conducts the molecular docking of the selected small molecules from the second experiment and quantifies the energy of the interactions with Swissdock (Swissdock) to ensure that the corresponding molecule can successfully bind to the protein.

Lastly, the small molecules with the right docking energy were inputted into SwissADME (SwissADME) and checked for any violations of Lipinski's rules, which ensure the drugs perform well when taken by a human.

Despite issues with database codes, unsuccessful file procedures, and many failed results, revised techniques eventually produced successful outcomes after applying computational screening to a large candidate pool.

16 small molecules have been identified to inhibit PD-1/PD-L2 binding, including one with an especially promising result. Since all experiments were conducted entirely with virtual tools, the next step would be to verify the bindings in a lab with actual compounds. With further physical screening, these molecules may be eligible for drugs for future use in patients.

Development of chitosan encapsulated thyme essential oil as an alternative fruit fly repellent for household use

Vivian Wu (Palo Alto High School, USA)

1
Fruit flies not only cause unsightly scenes, but also carry food borne pathogens that can pose severe health risks. They are common in food service facilities, and can also infest regular households, particularly when a family composts food waste. Although these small pests are a nuisance, there is still no established ready-to-use method to control fruit fly infestations at home, and most people resort to using homemade fly traps from everyday items such as vinegar and dish soap. To address this issue, in this study, a thyme oil encapsulating chitosan product was developed so that it can be used in household compost bins to help control fruit fly infestations through the repelling and killing of fruit flies. The experiment was conducted in two steps. First, a 2-choice fruit fly repelling assay was established and 18 different essential oils were selected through literature research for reported insect repelling effect and tested in the assay. A separate toxicity assay was also conducted through recording the number of fruit flies killed by the essential oil. Thyme oil was selected for further experimental design because it showed the highest repelling effect, and it is safe and environmentally friendly for home-use. Second, to prevent fast depletion and reduce the need for repeated application, the thyme oil was encapsulated into a chitosan matrix for controlled release. Chitosan was selected due to its biodegradability and unique property of turning into semi-solid form through ionization gelation. After testing different experimental conditions of encapsulated thyme oil concentration, type of surfactant, and surfactant concentration for optimal encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity, a prototype product was generated using 2% chitosan, 2% thyme oil and 1% Tween 80. The prototype demonstrated 100% fruit fly repelling effect and 65% fruit fly killing effect after 24 hours in the 2-choice repelling assay and the toxicity assay, respectively. Encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity, measured by thyme oil absorbance at 270 nm, were 65.1±3.5% and 61.2±3.3%, respectively. No significant loss of thyme oil content or insect repelling capability was observed after six weeks. This study created a prototype product suitable for household use to help control fruit fly infestations and may provide useful information to guide encapsulation of a wider range of pesticides to replace insect sprays that are of very short effect duration. Further studies will be conducted to determine the long term stability of the product, and more materials (e.g., other natural polymers such as agar, gelatin, and alginate) will be investigated to determine the optimal encapsulation with affordable price and promising fruit fly repelling efficiency.

GAN Assistance in Diagnosis of Melanoma

Ava Miller (Tenafly High School, Tenafly, NJ, USA); Tyler R Jan (USA); Q'Andre Small (Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro, NJ, USA); Ayushi Kumar (Monroe Township High School, Monroe Township, NJ, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)

1
Malignant melanoma is an exceptionally dangerous skin cancer due to its ability to spread if not treated promptly. While early detection of malignant melanoma is essential in increasing the likelihood of curing skin cancer, diagnosis is often difficult due to the suboptimal quality of images used in dermoscopy practices. The hazy boundaries, artifacts, and noises make accurate and timely detection using skin lesion images difficult. This paper applies the GAN (Generative Adversarial Networks) to preprocess skin lesion images to better use classification algorithms. GAN will produce images absent of artifacts with clear borders by attributing our dataset of skin lesion images into the Generator of the algorithm.
Moreover, in order to classify skin images among benign or malignant or other types of skin cancer, the skin images are used for accurate testing and prediction by trained classification algorithms. These data-centric-based deep learning methods may detect skin cancers accurately and in the early stages and delineate them properly from healthy tissue. These methods use multiple layers of nonlinear models to recognize correct patterns. Therefore, The GAN's outcome will be processed through classification algorithms (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) and measured their six performance metrics - loss, accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and ROC - and compared against the performance metrics of original images of the dataset.

Tactic classification of broadcast soccer videos by using AI

Jioh In (Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science)

1
Modern soccer games are exciting to watch not only for individual techniques of stylish players but also for managers' sharp and creative tactics. As if playing chess, managers set the number of strikers and defenders and manage the game through various formations and flexible tactical changes. Since tactics have become a key factor in winning, soccer clubs hire high-quality managers for tactical knowledge and data scientists for better data analysis. Sports data scientists analyze previous game videos to identify past games' problems and analyze opponents' game styles. By combining scientists' data and the data of the players collected through the wearable tracker, the manager predicts the opponent's tactic and prepares the tactic of the next game.
However, data scientists' game video analysis has problems. Data scientists directly review the game and add labels to the video hand by hand, which is a time-consuming task and makes it impossible to analyze the game in real-time. In addition, wearable trackers are expensive and heavy, which can be a price burden for amateur clubs and affect players' performance. This research aims to extract tactics from broadcasting soccer game videos automatically. Since it analyzes soccer broadcast videos, I expect that not only coaches and data scientists but also ordinary soccer fans can easily analyze tactics.
There are two ways to do this research. The first method is detecting the players and the ball in the video with convolutional neural network(CNN)-based object detection. Teams and player names are assigned to each player after object detection. The objects are tracked by using the deepSORT algorithm. The detected players and ball location information and interactions such as passes, shots, and tackles between players and players or between players and ball are quantified in each game. Using the quantified information from videos as inputs, the tactics are finally classified with supervised machine learning algorithms. The second method is to train and classify preprocessed frames with the deep neural network model without going through the detection process.
I am currently working on player identification and object tracking. Broadcasting soccer video datasets are preprocessed with action labels and video labels. I used You Look Only Once(YOLO) v5, which is CNN-based object detection algorithm, to detect players, balls, and referees in preprocessed videos.

A Quantum Optimization Algorithm for Single Machine Total Weighted Tardiness Minimization

Youhao S. Wang (Union County Magnet High School, USA); Julian Cheng (University of British Columbia, Canada)

1
Since quantum computers were proposed in the 1980's, quantum computing has attracted widespread interest as it appears to be more powerful than classical computing, especially for certain types of problems. One such example of quantum computing's power is Grover's quantum algorithm for unstructured searches.

Grover's search algorithm uses quantum mechanics principles to search an unstructured list, in which items are arranged in a completely random manner and no knowledge about the structure of the solution is assumed or used. The algorithm identifies the item in the list satisfying a given condition as the solution. For the unstructured search problem, while the computational complexity of classical algorithms grows at least at the order of the list size, the computational complexity of Grover's quantum search algorithm only grows at most at the order of the square root of the list size. For this type of problem, quantum computing is more efficient than classical computing.

Furthermore, there is another class of search problems in which quantum computing excels, and this class is called the combinatorial search problem or combinatorial optimization problem. In these problems, a cost value is associated with each item in the searching list and the goal is to find the item associated with the minimum (or maximum) cost value. This type of problem is NP-hard and has no known solution using classical computers that has computational complexity increasing in a polynomial relationship to the searching list size. While multiple suboptimal classical algorithms were developed based on classical computers, hoping to find suboptimal solutions with polynomial computational complexity, Trugenberger's quantum optimization algorithm was proposed for unconstrained combinatorial search problems based on quantum mechanics principles. Its idea, like that of Grover's quantum search algorithm, is to manipulate quantum parallelism so that the desired solution can be measured with a higher probability compared with nonsolutions. The computational complexity of this quantum optimization algorithm is independent of the list size.

However, combinatorial optimization problems with constraints occur in certain practical applications. For example, the total weighted tardiness (TWT) minimization problem, which is a well-known NP-hard problem, can be found in operational planning. This problem requires the construction of a schedule for a single machine with a fixed start time and multiple tasks with various due times that minimizes the sum of weighted tardiness of tasks relative to their respective due times. The problem can be formulated as a constrained combinatorial optimization problem.

To solve the TWT minimization problem, we propose a novel efficient quantum optimization algorithm based on Grover's quantum search algorithm and Trugenberger's quantum optimization algorithm to ensure that the desired solution satisfying the searching constraints and showing the minimal TWT value in the searching list will be measured with the highest probability. In the proposed quantum optimization algorithm, a more powerful cost function normalization method is also proposed.

Statistical Analyses for Fantasy Sports

Zachary Wu (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA); Vince Pulido (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

1
Fantasy Sports, a continuously rising field of entertainment, allows sports fans to manage a virtual team of athletes and compete with friends based on their players' real life performances. Fantasy Premier League (FPL) (https://fantasy.premierleague.com/) is a fantasy soccer game based on the English Premier League that is played by managers worldwide. This season, over eight million managers play the virtual sport. To improve, managers will consider factors such as their own player and team preferences, sports pundit insight, and social media opinions. While these sources will suffice for an average manager, they hold many subjective biases that humans are susceptible to. Therefore, we have used statistical and data analysis to gain an objective understanding of Fantasy Premier League and how to create optimal Fantasy lineups. By doing so, we were able to go beyond conventional methods of Fantasy sports prediction and utilize the plethora of data available to make optimal managerial decisions.

In this poster, we present the steps it took for our FPL lineup, from data collection to mathematical analysis. Initially, for data collection, Premier League data CSV and XLS files from the past five years were acquired to make our analysis. However, since these data files did not include live data, it was difficult to achieve our task of continuous and live FPL predictions. Therefore, we then resorted to using the official FPL application programming interface (API) (https://fantasy.premierleague.com/api/bootstrap-static/), in order to request and pull live data from their database. Our work then moved on to player analysis: determining how much opponent difficulty impacted certain player performances. To do this, we created a Points vs. Fixture scatterplot for Premier League soccer players. The "r-squared" value indicated how much a difficult fixture impacted a player's performance. Looking at these scatterplots, it was evident which players needed to be targeted in order to optimize fantasy points. Since an athlete's FPL points are significantly boosted when they score a goal, we then looked at which factors most influenced goals scored over the past season. Correlation matrices were created through Python which allowed us to see that assists and fixture difficulty were largely correlated with goals scored. Finally, in order to draft our optimal team, a Python program was created using Pandas dataframes. Using the previous factors that were deemed significant (player goals scored and opponent difficulty) an optimal lineup was drafted.

Our team_picker program shows that statistics, math, and computer science can all be fused to make objective FPL decisions that are smarter than the average human. Currently, only opponent difficulty and goals scored were considered with our model. Given sufficient data, it is able to go use the API and go through the dataframe and draft a team. In the future, dozens of other factors could be considered (Ex. Home/Away Status, Game Time, Defensive Stats, etc.) to further optimize this drafting algorithm. Our project is not limited to FPL and we hope others will do the same with other Fantasy Sports such as Baseball, Cricket, Football, and even in the real world field of using data-driven decisions for professional sports management.

Coding Classical Logic Gates on the D-Wave Quantum Annealer

Naren K Sathishkumar (American High School, USA)

2
Rationale: The D-Wave Quantum Annealer is a machine that uses qubits in place of bits since they have special behaviors desirable for solving optimization problems. These machines are not able to natively replicate logical gates (AND gate). Logical gates process binary information in order to output processed information in binary too. Without the basic function of these gates, larger circuits, such as a multiplication circuit, are impossible to replicate.

Objectives: This project was conducted in order to build and write a program which would allow the quantum annealer to replicate the behavior of classical logic gates. Given a certain input, the quantum computer should be able to realize the correct outputs based on the behavior of the gate that is being encoded.

Methods: The technical report "Boosting Integer Factoring Performance via Quantum Annealing Offsets" was used in order to formulate a binary quadratic model which replicates the behavior of the AND gate, and the half- and full-adder circuits. These models use the Ising penalty model, where constraints are set in order to achieve the wanted behavior; these models are encoded using binary, or in this case, the Ising model. This project took place over the course of 5 months, under the mentorship of Professor Terrill Frantz and Alex Khan from Harrisburg University.

Results: In the report, the binary formulation is used to encode the constraints. In practice, it is more practical to use the Ising formulation, which encodes 0 as -1, and 1 as 1. In this binary quadratic model, two dictionaries are required as inputs: the linear dictionary (for the values of qubits) and the quadratic dictionary (for the connections between these qubits). These values were taken from the charts and graphics from the "Boosting" report, and then implemented in a Python program. The results showed inputs and outputs that correspond with the expected values from an AND gate, and the half- and full-adders. The results of the project were posted in full detail in an article on Medium.com (https://tinyurl.com/yj55fc7m).

Conclusion: The program successfully replicates the AND gate and other small circuits (the half- and full-adders). Continuing on the success in encoding logical gates (such as the AND gate), more complex and useful circuits can be created, to solve problems never done before on a quantum annealer.

Bird Audio Recognition Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Kelsey H Lo (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA)

1
With modern-day technological advances, creating and developing innovations that greatly improve the standards of life, it is also important to consider their environmental impact. Side-effects of these innovations are costly to the environment. A method to monitor environmental sustainability is to use birds as a bioindicator of an area. The greater variety of bird species present in an area suggests a superior habitat quality. People can take pictures or set up cameras to capture photographs of birds to record the species present. However, to capture an identifiable photo is difficult birds are erratic and sensitive to movement. In contrast, the sounds of birds travel far distances and are easily recorded. Therefore, we propose to develop a program to identify bird species using audio recordings.

In this poster, we present our method to identify the species of birds through analyzing audio profiles in convolutional neural networks (CNN). The first part visualizes the audio profile, using a MatLab program. The CNN algorithm analyzes two-dimensional images instead of one-dimensional audio files. Therefore, the MatLab program applies the Short-Time Fourier Transform onto the waveform audio file to create a spectrogram. It visualizes an audio profile by representing the magnitude of the signal frequencies in relation to time. The spectrograms are cropped to four seconds segments to increase the amount of training data and unify the spectrogram dimensions. Then, the next section inputs the spectrograms into a CNN algorithm. The CNN algorithm analyzes the spectrograms to extract the distinct features present throughout the spectrograms of one species. Since each bird has a distinct vocal sound, it has a distinct pattern in the spectrogram. This two-part process is reiterated for various species to introduce variety in the database as well as test the accuracy of the algorithm.

In the current stage, the CNN algorithm is trained to identify a few local species in Maryland. The algorithm requires additional fine-tuning to ensure accurate identification for every input. To create a program that promotes user convenience, integrating the components of the MatLab program and CNN algorithm into a streamlined program is in development. Moreover, once the CNN algorithm is finalized, we plan to expand the database of recognized birds by training the algorithm with more data. With this program, we aspire to encourage environmental sustainability by using birds as bioindicators. People can be a part of monitoring the welfare of their environment by recording nature's music.
Session Chair

Weihsing Wang

Session WIP-02

Track 11 — Works-In-Progress II

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

Retrieval of Data from the Database of a BCT-Voting System

Jacob Wolmer and Dylan Weiss (Tenafly High School, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)

0
Voting is one of the key processes of modern democracy. It gives freedom to the people to choose a representative leader to implement their ideas and wants. Elections can also be audited to ensure each vote is counted correctly. However, the major issues are associated with the voting process - corruption: ballot forgery, coercion, etc. Thus, BCT-Voting [8] - a fully secure and decentralized blockchain technology-based e-voting system (DApp) - was proposed. BCT-Voting system has been deployed on the Ethereum framework. It includes five modules - nomination process, voter identity, vote tampering, donation module, and counting of votes and announcement of the winner. However, the knowledge retrieval, sorting, searching of information from the Ethereum blockchain is a complex process since the personal identity of voters is not known. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an Ethereum Query Language (EQL) to query in a smart contract of the BCT-Voting system. The query allows voters or Federal Election Commission (FEC) to retrieve the required information from the Ethereum chain. These queries provide fast and minimally labor-intensive audits in elections. It includes recounting ballots, mishandling of data, and efficiently tracking the history of casted votes to ensure that votes are counted and handled correctly. Also, finding duplicate and fraudulent voters will be easy and will increase the efficiency and transparency of the electoral process.

Developing MATLAB Data Acquisition and Control Functions for the LABVOLT Electromechanical Training System

Hussein Abdeltawab (Burke Center & Penn State Behrend, USA); Keven Rall (Penn State Behrend, USA); Sohail Anwar (Penn State Altoona, USA); Mesude Bayrakci Boz (Penn State Hazelton, USA)

0
The LabVolt Electro-Mechanical System (EMS) is a comprehensive educational training system developed by Festo-Didactic and is adopted by various higher education institutions. The LVDAC-EMS is the software developed by the manufacturer for data acquisition and preliminary control functions; However, customized monitoring functions or tailored control tasks are not supported by the LVDAC-EMS. On the other hand, MATLAB contains various functions and toolboxes for data analysis and control; thus, it would be an ideal software to interface with the EMS to expand its data analysis capabilities. While Festo-Didactic provides a software development kit (SDK) to interface MATLAB with the EMS, the SDK functions are complicated and not user-friendly. The development of a LabVolt MATLAB Interface would simplify the SDK to allow for the easy integration of MATLAB with the EMS so that researchers can use MATLAB to analyze data collected from the EMS. The developed interface contains various functions to acquire data, plot data, and control the outputs and power supply of the EMS. Future work will be creating additional functions and sharing a toolbox for the MATLAB- LabVolt EMS interface

Engineering Project Activities Designed to Promote STEM Engagement

Zachary Dickinson, Tyler Seelnacht and Ramakrishnan Sundaram (Gannon University, USA)

0
This paper discusses the design and delivery of engineering laboratory and project activities for pK-12 STEM students as part of the outreach program to recognize and exploit the links between the pK-12 STEM curriculum and the undergraduate engineering degree programs. Hands-on laboratory and project-based experiences are among the most effective means to introduce and reinforce concepts in engineering disciplines. The faculty and students from undergraduate engineering programs interact with pK-12 students either by (a) organizing visits by the pK-12 students to the engineering laboratories or by (b) travel to the STEM school to demonstrate and engage pK-12 students in engineering laboratory and project activities at their school. The engineering laboratory and project activities for middle and high school students comprise the assembly and testing of wireless sensor networks for radio frequency imaging of space. Radio frequency signals can be used to perform non-invasive and device-free target localization of objects or entities in space. Radio tomographic imaging uses wireless sensor networks to form images from the attenuation of the radio frequency signals. The radio tomographic imaging system is comprised of three subsystems the wireless sensor network, the command and data collection platform, and the user interface. The distinction between the two groups of students - middle school and high school - is made through the complexity of the design of each subsystem.

Study of the eruption mechanism of Saturn's moon Enceladus plume using the mathematical model of a geyser (periodic bubbling spring)

Hiroyuki Kagami (Tokuyama University, Japan)

0
The mathematical model of a geyser induced by gas inflow was applied to clarify the spouting mechanism of the plume of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Since Plumes are thought to be caused by the intermittent spouting of underground sea water from crevices on the surface of ice covered globally, Plumes are similar to geysers on Earth. The spouting dynamics of the plume was able to be reproduced using parameter values that matched the characteristics of Enceladus based on numerical simulation of the mathematical model. By this research method using the mathematical model of a geyser, it is possible to estimate the underground structure of Enceladus under the plumes.

AI-Based Recipient Blood Type Matching Blood Transfusion Medical Device Design System

Atma Sahu (Coppin State University, USA)

0
Acquisition of blood products is costly and blood transfusion increases the risk of adverse events in acute and delayed medical complications. Coupled with the increase in oncohaematological therapies and numerous types of major surgeries, the demand for blood products is growing year after year. In this paper, an AI-based favorable or unfavorable donor selection medical device is proposed. The paper charts out the medical device production implementation plan, identify data sources, forms AI-based device design structure, and medical device regulation standers for product quality identified. The authors predict that using AI (machine learning) end-to-end lifecycle of transfusion decision-making device as proposed will significantly reduce diagnostic, treatment protocol, and mismatch products errors.

Design and Implementation of an Educational Suit

Seyed Ebrahim Esmaeili, Abrar Aleidan, Aishah Almajedi, Abdulazziz Alqattan, Fatmah Alramezi and Amal Alateyah (American University of Kuwait, Kuwait)

0
The applications of information technology and automation solutions have reached far limits in various sectors such as the industrial, medical, and even the educational field, which recently have witnessed a great development through implementing the automation of educational path methods and strategies for different levels: school and university. Implementing new technologies in the educational sector and in every classroom is essential attract students' attention in the classroom and encourage open-discussions and engagement in the subjects being taught. New teaching methods are emerging, and old ones are improving due to technological advancements. This paper presents and discusses the design and implementation process of a system of wearable technology that provides visual indicators and graphical displays of human body organs. The system aims to help instructors explain the human body parts through using multi-LEDs and sensors mounted on a suit. For example, when the instructor wearing the suit points at a certain part of the body such as the heart, the LEDs connected to the location of heart will light up and display visuals representing the heart, and this is applied to the rest of human body parts. The proposed educational suit aims to enhance students' engagement in the classroom and capture their attention, which in return will help improve the learning experience.
Session Chair

Eric Sudano

Session WIP-04

Track 13 — Works-In-Progress IV

Conference
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 1:30 PM — 3:00 PM EDT

Credibility based Teaching Assessment in Smart Campus

Ruizhi Liao, Qianyu Ou, Wenjun Zheng and Zhan Shi (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China); Shuzhen Li (Nankai University & Binhai College, China)

0
Student evaluation of teaching is widely used to assess teaching quality. Regression studies reveal that there is a positive correlation between students' expected grades of a course and teaching assessment scores (TAS) rated by students in that course. Thus, faculty may have an incentive to water down the course content or be lenient with students in order to get higher TAS. It leads to the so-called grade inflation or TAS distortion. In this working paper, we propose a credibility model to calculate weighting factors for revising student assessment scores of their instructors. The credibility model aims to alleviate TAS distortion by integrating study information of students (e.g., usage time of library or study rooms), which is faithfully recorded by devices and applications in smart campus.

Virtual summer research camp for incoming Freshmen students in STEM

Sanish Rai (West Virginia University Institute of Engineering, USA)

0
In Summer 2020, our university organized a two weeks summer research experience for 16 recently graduated first-generation and underrepresented high school students who would be joining University as incoming freshmen in various STEM majors. The summer camp was originally planned to be in-person with students residing in the university dorm to receive an early university experience and plan for their college life. But due to COVID-19, it had to be changed to a completely virtual format. This was the first time the faculty were organizing a two weeks camp in a complete virtual format. In this work, we discuss the overall virtual camp experience, challenges faced to provide effective experience to students in the online format, and evaluate the program based on student's feedback. We found that frequent breaks, activities that include students move around for some physical activity, interactive lesson plans, good communication tools, better planning and information tools are required to organize an efficient virtual program. In summer 2022, we plan to have second cohort of summer research camp and use the experiences from 2020 to improve the program.

An Integrated Project-based Learning Approach in Engineering Technology Undergraduate Curricula

Mohammad U. Mahfuz (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, USA)

0
In this paper, an integrated project-based learning (PBL) approach has been presented for the engineering technology (ET) undergraduate curricula. Two major ET curricula, namely, electrical engineering technology (EET) and mechanical engineering technology (MET) curricula, have been focused in this paper while keeping in mind that ET programs have more hands-on experience than their engineering counterparts. Two different categories of courses, namely, lower-level and upper-level courses, within the EET and MET curricula at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Green Bay have been investigated. An integrated PBL approach has been presented in the form of case studies. In general, it has been found that an integrated PBL approach is quite successful in providing students with a significant level of hands-on learning experience to all students regardless of their academic years, technical and general education (Gen Ed) backgrounds as well as any kind of special interests and needs. Finally, we strongly believe that such an integrated PBL approach could also be applied to any full engineering programs with similar style and requirements.

Creating an Appropriate Computer Science and Computational Thinking Graduate Curriculum for K-12 Teachers: Context and Initial Results

Katherine Herbert (1 Normal Ave & Montclair State University, USA); Sumi Hagiwara (Montclair State University, USA); Elizabeth M Rogacki (Mount Saint Dominic Academy, USA); Thomas J Marlowe (Seton Hall University, USA)

0
K-12 computer science education has challenges related to content and to teacher expertise and comfort. This is further made difficult with inconsistent standards and teacher preparation from state-to-state. We describe a K-12 Computer Science Teaching certificate program, located at Montclair State University, aimed at providing current teachers in northern New Jersey with enhanced understanding of computer science concepts, capabilities, and skills, plus scaffolding of equitable and inclusive teacher practices for applied CS pedagogy. We discuss a brief history of the field, our curriculum and approach and then our first graduating cohort's experiences and challenges. Finally, we discuss our future work.

Let the sunshine: learning about solar energy in equatorial Africa to facilitate the use of educational technology

Jorge Santiago-Aviles (University of Pennsylvania, USA); Geraldine Light (Walden University, USA)

1
The inception of a service-learning technology course was a collaborative project involving students and faculty from the University of Pennsylvania, with teachers from village schools located in the equatorial African country of Rwanda. The primary focus of the project is to provide educational resources for the teachers and students to address gaps in educational content. With the introduction of computer technology powered by photovoltaic (PV) means and utilizing a Remote Area Community Hotspot Education and Learning (RACHEL) content server in support of their educational demands. The use of a PV system supports two collaborative missions, first the system provides a constant, reliable, electrical power source for the classroom, and second implanting the PV system allows the students and staff to learn the physics, electronics, and technology pertinent to set-up, use, and maintenance. Needed knowledge of PV systems is available through the RACHEL, a content repository, that provides a wealth of classical information on social and natural sciences, humanities, and languages with the potential of impacting all the conventional courses in a K-12 environment. Implementing a PV system and RACHEL in a school environment concepts such as utilizing renewable energy, wireless technology, and data transmission are experienced firsthand in teachable moments.

Parallel Programming with Pictures - A Second Path (WIP)

Liam J Davis-Wallace and Wu-chun Feng (Virginia Tech, USA)

0
Block based programming is a cornerstone of computer science education in elementary and middle schools across the country. By providing a visual representation of coding, users without prior knowledge can more easily begin writing their first program. Applications like Scratch and Snap! provide accessible block-based programming. The work outlined in this paper is a continuation of a recent study Parallel Programming with Pictures is a Snap! [1] that focused on educating students about the importance of parallel programming in the wake of plateauing computational horsepower in a single computer core. This addition makes the progression of modules more accessible for students of all backgrounds.

Utilizing parallelism in the Snap! block-based coding language, we can program with parallelism and utilize multiple cores of a machine at once. By teaching about multi-core technology, students will be more aptly prepared for the future of computer science and computing technology. Expanding on this with lessons to target different audiences can help broaden the appeal of introductory programming.
Session Chair

Roger Ding

Session Full-07

Track 7 — Full Papers VII

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Integrating Theory and Practice in Undergraduate Education through the Design and Implementation of Pin-Based Multi-Robot Manipulators

Kyle Pichney, Andrew Romero and Yancy Diaz-Mercado (University of Maryland, USA)

1
Undergraduate students within STEM fields are typically exposed to concepts within their major from a largely theoretical perspective - emphasizing procedure, equations, and the development of fundamental skillsets. When included, course projects attempt to emulate a more realistic workforce experience in which students reinforce prior knowledge and establish connections between subject matters, oftentimes leading to improvements in mastery. While these projects provide value to the educational experience, they remain constrained by the bounds of a classroom environment. These limitations are less pronounced in internships and research experiences for undergraduates (REU). Through the presentation of the REU project discussed herein, this paper demonstrates how an interdisciplinary REU project in fields such as robotics can help students integrate theory and practice. Furthermore, REU can also lead to discovery of new techniques or approaches within the field of study of interest to the scientific community. In this paper, undergraduate students address object manipulation by a multi-robot system with non-traditional manipulators. We draw inspiration from the simple yet highly configurable pin-art toys to design, develop, and implement a novel solution. The prototype offers the potential to afford multi-robot systems with a flexible, modular, and low-cost actuation system that would be better suited to collaborative applications.

Role of Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration in Engineering Design Curriculum

Olivia Hall and Deeksha Seth (Villanova University, USA)

0
As technical industries become increasingly interconnected with non-technical ones, engineers must propose and communicate interdisciplinary design solutions to engineering and non-engineering audiences. While recent graduates are expected to successfully navigate this terrain, there is no preeminent curricular model for interdisciplinary design in engineering curriculum. Course case studies have been conducted, but they lack the narrative feedback critical to the establishment of pedagogical procedures. The objective of this research is to investigate the current state of interdisciplinarity in engineering design curriculum and to determine the role of interdisciplinary collaborations in design projects. To meet this objective, seven undergraduate-faculty members participated in semi-structured interviews centering on their experience with integrating disciplines in their design courses. All interview responses were transcribed, and the data was coded using priori and emergent coding methods. All participants shared existence or desire for interdisciplinary or intradisciplinary projects in their courses ranging from integration of various disciplines through projects to formation of multidisciplinary teams. Student involvement in integrated work ranged from student-led interdisciplinary design to instructor-generated project concepts. Collaboration was very popular in courses featuring integration of various disciplines. The collaborators' role was primarily to provide their respective content-specific expertise. Collaborations both internal and external to participant's universities were explored. Several skills to facilitate such collaboration were cited (e.g. clear establishment of class objectives). Primary challenges and strategies for successful integrations were summarized. These findings, in conjunction with previously obtained student data, will be translated into a comprehensive conceptual model for interdisciplinary engineering design education in near future.

A survey of student motivations for enrolling in engineering and technology undergraduate programs

Ravi Rao (Datavani, USA)

0
Despite many efforts to attract and retain students in STEM programs in U.S. universities, it has proven to be a significant challenge. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added to the struggles of students and educational institutions. At the same time, there is significant interest among funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation and philanthropic organizations to encourage enrollment in minority populations. This requires that we need to better understand the student population. Many national surveys and data sources including the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) provide a macro-level view across the entire country. This is insufficient for producing classroom-level changes.
We need detailed information at the micro-level such as student surveys across multiple institutions to probe student motivations and ensure that their expectations are met and nurtured. We present the results of conducting a survey among 32 STEMs students enrolled in an introductory engineering course at Fairleigh Dickinson University. This is the first semester after the pandemic that courses were taught in person.
We found significant differences along gender and racial lines. For the male students, 38% chose their STEM major due to parental or social influence, whereas for females it was 12.5%. For whites, parental/social influence accounted for 28% of STEM choices, whereas for African Americans, it was 0%. Across all students, 50% chose a STEM major due to an early interest in the field, or due to self-realization that they were good at STEM-related activities such as problem-solving.
Our results indicate the importance of hands-on STEM exposure to students at the K-12 level and the role of mentors. Due to the recency of the data collected, we expect our findings to be valuable to the STEM education community.

Closed Loop Digitally Controlled Power Supply Analysis and Design with Register Level Coding Emphasis

John Tsinetakes (Drexel University & Lockheed Martin, USA)

0
There are several different knowledge skills involved in completing a working digitally controlled power supply. The skills involved are power supply converter design, average power supply modeling, loop compensation techniques, frequency response analysis and stability criteria checks. These skills are covered in most Power Electronics and Linear Control courses. Insertion of digital control requires additional skills: the conversion of the analog control loop to a digital control loop through Z transforms and modeling of the analog power supply with the digital compensation in the feedback loop. Actual implementation of the power supply with digital control in hardware requires learning microcontroller programming.

Analysis and Design of the digital closed loop control using a microcontroller is the focus of the course presented in the paper. Many digital control and microcontroller programming courses are not giving the student the tools to program the digital control from scratch. Previous courses use code generating tools or pre-made libraries to handle a lot of the programming functions. This teaching method is fine for an overall example, but it leaves the student with the skill to only repeat the course example and not develop a digital control program on their own. The student is left with a steep learning curve to use a microcontroller to control different power supplies or use the digital control in another application. This course will teach microcontroller register level programming integrated with the design of a digital control loop for a power supply.

Undergraduate research: Cyclostationary plot classification using machine learning

Sanish Rai (West Virginia University Institute of Engineering, USA)

0
Undergraduate students at WVUTech collaborated with Greenbank Observatory, WV to develop models to automatically identify the astronomical data containing radio frequency inference and noise. Normally the identification of noise would be done manually by observing the images built from the data and would take a lot of manual time for processing. A machine learning model could automate the process and save a lot of time in such identification as well as the model can be used in real-time identification. The project was done over the course of two semesters with students from Computer Science majors. Students developed a convolutional neural network model that can run on GPU and obtain an accuracy of more than 90% after training on the available data. This paper discusses in detail the research work done and the results obtained by the students. Students used concepts of image processing and machine learning to develop the model.
Session Chair

Eman Hammad

Session Full-08

Track 8 — Full Papers VIII

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Integrating Animation and Game-making in Teaching JavaScript

Shuting Xu, Shuhua Lai and Lissa Pollacia (Georgia Gwinnett College, USA)

1
Web development is a fast-growing field and there is a high demand on job market for web developers. Web programming using JavaScript is one of the most important skills for web developers. However, like other programming languages, students feel JavaScript difficult to learn because it is hard for them to setup a mental model, and they lack the encouragement, motivation, and the mode of study in learning. To meet these challenges, we integrate animation and game-making in teaching JavaScript. In this paper, we report some examples of the developed animation and game-making teaching materials, and hope they will benefit the educators in web development area. Unlike the common approach of developing a software or tool to create animations or games for teaching, we teach the basic constructs of programming while making the animations or games. The survey results show that the teaching materials can help students better understand JavaScript. Students feel that the teaching materials are exciting but yet challenging, and they are motivated to learn more JavaScript in the future.

Influence of GFP GAN on Melanoma Classification

Ayushi Kumar (Monroe Township High School, Monroe Township, NJ, USA); Avimanyou K Vatsa (Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, USA)

0
Imaging is widely used to detect and diagnose Melanoma skin cancer early. The ISIC facilitates public reposit to collect, label, and categorize malignant and benign images. It also provides relevant metadata for these images from dermatologists, radiologists, or researchers. The ever-growing uses of dermoscopy and the complexity of the imaging process make it difficult to find the correct pattern in images of Melanoma skin cancer. Thus, while evaluation of performance metrics of classification methods continues to be inappropriate or not as per our expectations, many artifacts and noise such as hair, veins, and water residue make images very complex.
Consequently, inspired and motivated by our previous study outcome when applying classification methods (CNN, RNN, and XG-Boost) on Melanomas' images dataset, we found that the border detection and feature extraction for classification methods was challenging. Therefore, we applied Generative Facial Prior (GFP) Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) method to preprocess the Melanoma images. We also changed a few architectures and optimization methods for these classification algorithms. Finally, an extensive evaluation of the validation dataset is conducted. After that, it is compared with the values of performance metrics with previous results. This outcome impacts the dermatologist, scientific, and medical community. As a result, it is an excellent service to humanity to cure the deadliest form of skin cancer - Melanoma.

One Degree of Freedom Copter Design and Control using Smart and Simple PID Controller

Zeyad A. Karam, Zaid Shafeeq Bakr, and Elaf Saeed (Al-Nahrain University, Iraq)

2
A one-degree-of-freedom (1-Dof) copter is designed, implemented, and controlled by an electronically programmed PID controller. The control of (1-DOF) copter leads to rising of the required vision for controlling stability in the designing of (2-Dof's) quadcopter; were copters are used in many fields. Nowadays, the Covid-19 pandemic causes many challenges in health sectors, especially in patient's isolation centers, which forces the health team to take a lot of precautions when dealing with the patient, by using an optimally controlled quadcopter for dealing patients, one can prevent them from infection. The required dealing involves pharmaceutical submission and temperature monitoring which can be handled by these copters with specific sensors and vision. So, there is a need for high stability and accuracy in the movement with a high speed of balancing. This work is testing one axis of these copters by designing, implementing, and controlling a one-axis copter with a simple PID controller, the controller is implemented by using an Arduino controller, with a satisfaction measure for the required balancing of 97% accuracy.

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) Applications Necessity in Real Time Healthcare

Reza Khalilian (Islamic Azad University of Majlesi, Iran & Dr Vita Company, Iran); Abdalhossein Rezai (University of Science and Culture, Iran)

1
The opening of global markets to electronic products and the entry into new fields such as the manufacture of medical equipment and medical care, the electronics industry has become stronger day by day. So, it goes without saying that today more than half of the best world's ten companies are electronic companies. It is worth mentioning that the growing use of wireless sensor networks, evolution in Nano biosensors and micro medical equipment, remote health monitoring, and treatment are affecting. Since people have tended to ubiquitous health and real time of the medical healthcare systems will have great significance. It is crystal clear that offering a new design of WBAN in real time healthcare's system. To pave the way for the discussion, I would like to pay your attention to the previous studies which they have improved energy efficiency and security WBAN. To pave the way for further discussion now, we would like to review the third aspect of WBAN maximum efficiency and performance, with the approaching security and optimal energy consumption in the real time healthcare system applications. Also, monitoring the patient's vital signs and bio signals; next control them remotely. In a word, in this paper urgency of using WBAN for real time healthcare in long distance are to be discussed.

Keywords
Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), Real Time Healthcare, Health Monitoring, Healthy Advancement, World Health Organization (WHO), Health and Hygienic Networks, Applications

Noise Removal of ECG Signal Using Multi-Techniques

Heyam A. Marzog (Al-Furat Al-Awsat University, Iraq); Aws Zuheer Yonis (Ninevah University, Iraq)

0
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are heavily influenced by a wide range of noise sources. The signal can be denoised by removing unwanted components from the representation. The research paper present the new method, demonstrate how it works with signals, and discuss its properties. Power line interference (PLW), baseline noise, electrode motion artifact noise, and Electromyography (EMG) noise are the most commonly influenced noise on ECG signals. Denoising ECG signals is a critical step in obtaining pure signal features that can be extracted for accurate diagnosis. This research focuses on the various sources of common noise in ECG signals, as well as signal processing techniques for removing the noise. The discrete wavelet transform can be used to remove baseline noise from an ECG signal (DWT). Powerline noise can be removed it by Notch filter. Adaptive filtering is thought to be a good way to get rid of EMG noise, and we can solve the problem with a new algorithm. Least mean square (LMS) adaptive filters and recursive least square (RLS) filters are used to remove Electrode Motion artifact noise. The MIT-BIH arrhythmia dataset are utilizing for ECG analysis with Matlab2019b program
Session Chair

Eman Hammad

Session Full-09

Track 9 — Full Papers IX

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Training-Free Lane Tracking for 1/10th Scale Autonomous Vehicle Using Inverse Perspective Mapping and Probabilistic Hough Transforms

Mihir Rao (Chatham High School, USA); Laura Paulino (Montclair State University, USA); Victor I Robila (Hunter College High School, USA); Iris Li (Milburn High School, USA); Michelle M. Zhu and Weitian Wang (Montclair State University, USA)

1
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) present a promising alternative to traditional driver-controlled vehicles with potential improvements in speed, energy, and safety domains. Pipelined approaches to AV development isolate individual facets of driving and produce autonomous systems focused on a specific task rather than developing an end-to-end framework for driving. This paper focuses on the design and development of lane tracking for a 1/10th scale autonomous vehicle. The developed lane tracking system implements inverse perspective mapping to autonomously adjust the perception of the vehicle's camera feed and then applies probabilistic Hough transforms to identify the edge lines of a scaled-down lane. The computed Hough lines are utilized to evaluate the necessary steering adjustment angle in real time for the vehicle. The results of our steering adjustment stability experiments demonstrate the effective performance of the proposed lane tracking system and algorithms. This work provides both a successful approach to lane tracking that does not require computing intensive model training on potentially location biased annotated data and an approach for vehicle vision feed annotation.

Tracking Technology Trends using Text Data Mining

Andres Fortino and Yiying You (NYU, USA)

1
We present a technology trend analyzer that displays the frequency of demand for information technologies based on text data mining of job descriptions. It analyzes the term frequency of the leading technologies required of applicants in job descriptions scraped from a prominent job board. The tool is programmed in the R programming language with a Shiny interface and deployed on a Shiny server. It produces a bar graph of the technology frequency grouped by standard technologies from O'Reilly's taxonomy, a prominent technology information publisher. We based our job search on a list of the most frequently occurring technology job titles from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics O*NET occupation database filtered for STEM IT occupations. We also provide analysis to support our selection of the R development environment (versus Python or Java) given the constraints of the project of the allocated time, the experience level of the analyst, and the expected quality of the final product. The tool supports the download of the technology frequency tables as a CSV file. This tool has applications for students to determine which technology skills are in the highest demand in the job marketplace. Likewise, faculty may use this tool to determine which technology skills the marketplace is seeking in shaping their curricula. Most importantly, it may be used by technology adopters to gauge the readiness for adoption of contemplated technologies in order to minimize adoption risk.

FedNet: Federated Implementation of CNNs for Facial Expression Recognition

Md. Saiful Bari Siddiqui (BRAC University & Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh); Sanjida Ali Shusmita and Shareea Sabreen (BRAC University, Bangladesh)

0
A clever means of connecting deep learning models to the disjointed data located in edge devices is Federated Learning (FL). This paper introduces FedNet, a novel Neural Network architecture inspired by federated aggregation and averaging from FL. FedNet proposes dividing training data into multiple shards and training each data shard individually using the same neural network, followed by aggregating and averaging of the parameters of each model after every few epochs. To conduct this study, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) were implemented using the Extended Cohn Kanade (CK+) and the FER-2013 dataset. Our federated averaging based implementation of CNNs achieved 99.1% accuracy and 100% accuracy for 8 and 7 emotion classifications respectively on CK+, beating the benchmarks for this dataset. It also achieved 65.6% accuracy on FER-2013 without using any transfer learning or data augmentation. Our model shows significantly better resistance against overfitting, resulting in better generalization performances compared to the otherwise similar models except the aggregation and averaging part.

Segmentation Techniques in Iris Recognition Systems

Ruaa Waleed and Mayada Faris Ghanim (University of Mosul, Iraq)

0
Iris is the most attentive technology in today's delicate world among the various biometric technologies, for authentication. The exact segmentation of Iris from its surrounding sounds, including the pupils and the sclera, is one of the major milestones of the Iris Detection System. So the method is pre-processing the first input image using bilateral filtering. The contour-based characteristics of color, texture, and brightness are extracted after pre-processing. To demonstrate greater results than the existing methods of the new segmentation process. The segmenting technique is a crucial move towards ensure adequate pupil and iris identification device selection. The useful knowledge on patterns of iris can be precisely segmented and the precision method of iris description can be improved. This paper is to review the main techniques in iris segmentation and findi the problem analysis and the comparison of the related issues in the segmentation methods of iris are included. There is also the limitation of each method

Quantitative Study on the Anxiety Level of High School Students in Pandemic Life

Mofei Shen (USA)

1
The COVID-19 has impacted life of high school students worldwide. As distant learning became prevalent in the pandemic, the form of social anxiety has been taken from contingent and non-contingent interaction to a new degree of internet interaction, which will be divided into traits of loneliness, self-doubt, and internet reliance. This paper presented a survey resulting from a range of 235 students either distant or in-person learning examining their anxiety level in the three degrees. In addition, results were separated in grade and gender to test a deeper understanding of various factors that affect the level of social anxiety. Two factorial MANOVA analyses were executed with the result indicating no interaction significance between gender*class grade*class but significance difference among the gender level under the three anxiety variables. This contradicts the concept of what we define pandemic and online learning as greatly depressing. As distant learning became prevalent, one cannot conclude this mode had influenced students to become more anxious compared to the in-person learning ones, but the result of the study supported the idea that a higher anxiety level was reached in the general high-school students.
Session Chair

Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)

Session Full-10

Track 10 — Full Papers X

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Transmission Line Fault Detection Using Wavelet Transform & ANN Approach

Jivitesh Nitin Chavan and Atul Kale (A C Patil College of Engineering, Khargar, Navi Mumbai, India); S Deore (University of Mumbai, India)

0
The protection system for the technique of relay has been developed in the past. The protection for the distance in the transmission line with the help of artificial neural network has been developed in the past years. It has been observed that the differentiation in the faulty zone to be considered for the detachment of the faulty line while the estimation in the case of the type of the fault is also important. The determination of the fault zone can be possible with the help of the frequencies in case of double bands. The mother wavelet Haar is extremely helpful for the selection of the faulty phase. In the present work the artificial neural network and the wavelet transform is used for the detection purposes of the fault in the transmission line. ANN was used for the classification of the faults in the transmission line and then the fault zone identification process is also carried out using ANN.

Performance Analysis of Kalman Filter as an Equalizer in a non-Gaussian environment

Ly Vu (International University, Vietnam)

1
This paper analyzed the MSE and BER performances of communication systems which used Kalman Filtering as a channel equalizer in non-Gaussian noise environment. In telecommunication systems, fading and additive noise are two critical factors that significantly impacts on the system performance. Most of existing receiver have been designed to well-handle the AWGN noise, thus, such systems may suffer several performance losses when other noise types as impulsive noises present. The proposed algorithm applies the Kalman filter-based equalizer to overcome the impact of non-Gaussian noise. Multiple non-Gaussian noise models have been developed, among them, Middleton's Class A noise is chosen in the scope of this paper. A Rayleigh flat-fading channel is simulated using autoregressive model approach which makes Kalman filtering being usable. The BER and MSE performances of Kalman equalizer under subjected non-Gaussian noise is analyzed for various SNR and parameters scenarios. Simulation results show that the performance of Kalman equalizer is impacted by the overlapped index and the ratio of Gaussian noise power over Impulsive noise power under class A noise. In the high SNR region, BER performance is significantly impacted by impulsive component and in the low SNR region, the performance is mainly impacted by Gaussian component.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a computerized decision aid for selection of candidates in higher education

Ravi Kumar V v (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India & Symbiosis International, Deemed University, Pune, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)

1
This paper studies the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a computerized decision aid in the field of higher education for the selection of candidates to an MBA program of a Business School from a large pool of candidates. The paper brings out as to how AI as a decision aid tool can improve the speed and quality of the selection of candidates for a postgraduate program in Business Management by simplifying the processes. Usage of AI in the admission process to a Business School has been a pioneering effort and this paper captures this process and its benefits uniquely since there is no research available to capture the usage of AI in candidate selection. The paper compares the admission process of two years - in the year 2020 using the traditional approach and in the year 2021 using AI as a computerized decision-making aid. The results of this comparative study clearly demonstrate the superiority of AI as a computerized tool assisting in decision making for the selection of the candidates thereby leading to process improvement.

Student Perceptions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education

Ravi Kumar V v (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India & Symbiosis International, Deemed University, Pune, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)

2
This purpose of this study was to understand the student perceptions on the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education. AI could form part of higher education in multiple ways whether it be in the Teaching Learning process, Admission process, the Placement process or the Administrative process. The paper brings out the student perceptions on AI usage in business schools from those enrolled in full time program in business management. Online questioner was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative response. Data was collected from 682 student and statistical analysis have been used for arriving at conclusions. Ordination regression and correlation have been used for analysis of the data collect. The qualitative response was helpful to get the views that students have. The results indicate that student have a perception that AI can be effectively used in teaching - learning process, academic administration processes, and should not be used in a few processes related to admission, examination and placements.

Network Communication Intrusion Detection and Classification Security Techniques

Aws Zuheer Yonis (Ninevah University, Iraq)

1
Towards next generation wireless networks and information technology are a patent of apparatus for transmitting electrical energy was given after developing next generation wireless principles. Recently the demands of utilizing energy and climate has been increased, the renewable energy became very necessary for every country. When renewable energy is linked to wireless power transfer, then the applications that depend on this energy will increase because the development of battery-powered devices faces unprecedented challenges. Advanced research in next generation networks (5G) and information technology applications can be used for many applications (military, and civil). The important concept of parameters of next generation wireless networks is the power can be transmitted wirelessly between different entities. In this research paper discussed the concept of network intrusion detection and classification based on-hybrid intelligence techniques. The best solutions which are result from training process will use to test the efficiency of misuse detection with KDD99 testing data.
Session Chair

Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)

Session Full-11

Track 11 — Full Papers XI

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Using Statistical Decision Making for a University Examination Scenario

Vijayakumar Bharathi. S (Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT) & Symbiosis International University, India); Dhanya Pramod (Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology, India); Ramakrishnan Raman (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune & Symbiosis International University India, India)

1
This study aims to show case the power of statistical decision making in crisis scenario. A scenario where one group of students arrived late for a competitive examination were allowed to take the examination and were made to join another group who started the exam on time at a specific exam center. Also, all students at the exam center were given extra time to complete the exam. This created a hue and cry by several thousand as the who took the exam at several other centers across the country. The paper analysis about several real time decision making that could have led to cost and time delays and shows the power of statistical making model for this real time scenario. The use of statistics and its relevance in real time decision making for University is evident in the paper.Statistical tools were used to take a decision which resolved the crisis and was accepted by all the students.

Competitive study on public and private key usage in Voice over Internet Protocol

Aws Naser Jaber Al-Zarqawee (Pilestredet 35, Norway & Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Norway)

1
The Internet was once a small world. At present, an innumerable number of nodes are connected to personal computers and their servers. However, when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services have become widespread, homogeneous VoIP topology and VoIP infrastructure have become vulnerable to attackers who attempt to gain access to VoIP servers. Attacking VoIP servers is no small issue to turn your eyes off. Cryptography has been used for thousands of years to secure messages during war, but today we face cybercrime and hackers attempting to crack public or private keys using a wide range of tools and mathematical clues. It aims to break down all the cryptographic algorisms that are applied to VoIP servers to get three things in one: free calls, user client privileges, and credit card information that is used for topping up VoIP servers. Thus, previous research is insufficient to address the increasing number of attackers. Thus, modern research on VoIP security aims to secure packet telephony and media represented by RTP by using cryptography to increase the confidentiality and enhancing the mathematical approach to reduce the cost of high encryption techniques. This paper intensively studied cryptographic usage, especially with public and private keys. Public keys are more commonly used in VoIP than private keys. Thus, this paper presents a basis for further research on VoIP encryption.
Session Chair

Nagi Naganathan (Northrop Grumman)

Session Poster-3

Poster Session 3

Conference
3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT
Local
Mar 26 Sat, 3:00 PM — 4:45 PM EDT

Analyzing the environmental effect of Chlorophyta using Convolutional Neural Network

Heyu Li (PRISMS, USA)

1
My research is about building a program to identify whether a specific type of species will become an invasive species or not when entering a specific type of ecosystem and using a special kind of Artificial Intelligence to analyze the effect that a certain type of plant has on the environment around it, or them. In this case, Chlorophytes. This type of organism has a very clear effect on the environment, when the amount of Chlorophyta in a certain environment is below a certain threshold, it can benefit the environment by producing more oxygen and recycling the waste produced by other large organisms. However, when the amount of Chlorophyta grows beyond the threshold, there could be many problems that would be triggered by it. The program to do is process images of ecosystems with a certain amount of chlorophytes and try to predict whether the chlorophytes in this ecosystem would become an invasive species within a certain amount of time. A broader purpose of this research is to build this program to detect an invasive species in a certain type of environment by imputing the parameters of the animals and environment. How do we know whether an ecosystem is being destroyed by chlorophytes or not? The method I am currently using is first, to find some databases that are about all aspects of many species, for example, databases about species and their habits. By implying some data in it to make a little education program, and then, maybe import more data so it could be applied for more difficult and complex problems. What I am currently doing is that I am training my program that can process the image and predict the growth of chlorophytes in the ecosystem, by building this camera near the area that we want to detect, and letting it take a picture once in a certain amount of time and let the image being processed by my program to do what I asked it to do, along with other detectors to monitor the environment. For example, oxygen and CO2 sensor, light sensor, and so on. And we can build this whole system that can run on itself to monitor the growth of chlorophytes and give a warning to the control center when it has the trend to grow to an invasive species. Furthermore, this program would be a base of a bigger program, which is a whole system of invasive species forecasts. This system can not only be used to protect the environment but also be able to protect endangered species.

Author: Henry Li
School: Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science

Determining a Correlation Between Common Skin Conditions and Anxiety

Janice Chao (High Technology High School, USA); Ching-yu Huang (Kean University, USA)

2
High stress and anxiety levels are often cited as a cause for acne outbreaks and spotty skin. General anxiety disorder, known as GAD, elevates stress levels, making it a potential cause of problematic skin. However, anxiety may be the cause for not only more temporary malformations like acne but also chronic skin conditions. This research project explores this correlation through the use of the CDC NHANES questionnaire databases. The exact questions used in this project asked: "Is [the surveyor] worried, tense, or anxious a lot more than most?" and "Has [the surveyor] been diagnosed with eczema, dermatitis, or a persistent rash?"

The datasets associated with the survey results were then converted to .csv files in order to load the data sets into the MySQL database. Structured Query Language (SQL) was used to create two tables. Table DEQ contains skin disorder information and it contains the column DED071, which indicates the skin disorder information with possible values 1, 2, and nan. Table CIQGAD contains anxiety information and it contains the column CIQG06, which indicates the presence of anxiety with possible values 1, 2, and nan.

SQL SELECT, INNER JOIN, and GROUP BY statements were used to efficiently join the datasets and generate the 2x2 matrix based on the categorical variables. From the dermatology dataset, 3140 people partook in the survey and the GAD dataset had 850 surveyors. Between the two datasets, a total of 850 common surveyors were found, 55 of which presented valid results in both surveys. A surveyor was excluded from the statistical analysis if it is missing information. A chi-square test based on the two variables was then performed on the resulting data to calculate the p-value of 0.038. This proves the existence of a significant correlation between anxiety and chronic skin problems within this dataset.

Reducing Plastic Consumption with Molecular Gastronomy

Shreya Dutt (MCVTS, USA)

4
Plastic consumption is one of the main causes of pollution and climate change in our world today. Over time, pollution has filled up our oceans and hurt animal and plant life, in water in addition to on land. Plastics do not biodegrade efficiently and they can stay on our planet for over 500 years after being disposed of by a person. As more plastic gets piled up on land and in oceans, the chances of finding a solution get smaller. However, after this issue became more recognized, there have been many interesting ideas on how to create a solution. One of these ideas is known as molecular gastronomy, or food science. Molecular gastronomy can be utilized to create edible replacements for products that lead to high plastic consumption, making it a viable solution. This has been implemented in the last few years into reducing the need for plastic water bottles and using water bubbles made from food grade calcium lactate and sodium alginate. This will assist in creating a brighter future for us and the environment.

Rapid and Automated Detection of Cancer and Immune Cells Using Novel Machine Learning Recognition Algorithms

Nesara Shree (Portland State University, USA); Eva Vu-Stern (Catlin Gabel School, USA)

1
The human body has over 200 different types of cells, each of which has a distinct function. Cures for many illnesses, such as cancer and neurological/cardiovascular diseases, involve killing specific dysfunctional cell groups. In the field of cancer research and immunotherapy treatment, scientists must identify harmful cancer cells and healthy immune cells in a patient sample. Current identification methods are inefficient because a researcher must manually set conditions, or a 'threshold value', to identify each cell type independently. Implementing machine learning image-recognition technologies enables researchers to identify cancer and immune cells faster than with the existing approach because human intervention is not required. We are using Faster R-CNN implemented by Keras Tensorflow, one of the best one-stage object detection models proven to work well with dense, small-scale objects such as cells. The model learns to recognize patterns in the data using JPEG images, CSV renditions, and XML annotations to train. Once training is completed and the accuracy is calculated, adjustments are made to the model or dataset. This training cycle repeats until the model achieves the highest possible accuracy. The subsequent validation process confirms that the model's inferences regarding the cell type are accurate. This engineering project shows that our model has the capacity to identify cancer and immune cells significantly faster than the current approach. Further experimentation includes not only cancer and immune cell identification, but also differentiating between the two cell types within one data sample. Applying this technology will allow researchers to improve upon current immunotherapy treatments.

Chess4Girls - Empowering Girls through Chess

Nesara Shree (Portland State University, USA)

2
The World Chess Federation's report in July 2019 lists 1643 male Grandmasters against only 37 females. This is approximately 44 men for every woman- an unsettling gender gap that is one of the largest observed amongst other male-dominated domains in STEM. A former world champion, Garry Kasparov, stated in a 1989 that "There is real Chess and women's Chess…Women are weaker fighters." These belittling beliefs induce what is known as a stereotype threat, playing into the performance gap. The underlying idea is that minorities underperform solely because they are aware of a convention that people of their kind are anticipated to do worse. This mindset leads to significant confidence decline, waning of interest, and a cycle of self-depreciation- notably in young girls. Bolstered by the stereotype threats surrounding women in Chess, female participation drops off due to deterioration of support and motivation.

As a girl with a thriving passion for Chess and a top-ranked female scholastic Chess player in my grade in the State, I have been frequently bothered by this underrepresentation, which neglects to provide aspiring girls with role models. Many of the friends I started with stopped competing through Elementary/Middle School. I believe that the Chess community is responsible for bridging this gap and motivating girls in the sport to pursue their interest.

My idea to stem this pipeline is by organizing All-Girls Chess Tournaments and tutoring Chess lessons for other girls in an effort to encourage, bring together and create the much-needed space for young female chess players. These events are held online, rated, incentivizing participation, and are regularly ongoing to continually foster girls' Chess careers. I want to help bring to light the valuable life skills that Chess can afford- critical thinking, planning ahead, strategizing, visualization, calculation and tactical analysis.

Visualizing Territorial Overlap of New Jersey Grapevines and Spotted Lanternflies using GIS

Sreya Jonnalagadda (Princeton International School of Matematics and Science, USA)

1
The New Jersey wine industry is growing due to good harvesting conditions and the successful production of a variety of grapes. However, a particular invasive species, the spotted lanternfly (SLF), has targeted many crops, one of its top being grapevines. Thus, in my research, I am visualizing the overlap between NJ's most suitable grape growing territories and spotted lanternfly quarantine zones(zones where higher precautions have to be taken to prevent further spread of the insect) so key areas of overlap can be discovered. This analysis will help point to counties that are at higher risk of infestation and preventative measures can be taken by residents and farmers. Based on the maps I generated in the ArcGIS software using vineyard data from the Rutgers NJ Agricultural Experiment Station, it can be noted that there is a strong correlation/overlap between the insects' infestation locations and grapevines(especially in West Jersey). In addition, it can also be noted that certain counties, such as Burlington and Salem, may be critical areas with vineyards at a greater risk of SLF spreading and damage. The next step is to process multi-spectral satellite imagery to assess the damage over time and use that to create a predictive model.

Color Melting Ice

Bela Sameep Sanghavi (1312 Ashton Falls Drive & O'Fallon Township High School, USA)

1
Color is an aspect everyone sees every day in their lives. From big cities to the country side, color surrounds all environments and objects. Even though to the eye, color is just a simple pigment, it is actually much more complicated than that. Color is part of the electromagnetic magnetic spectrum and takes form of waves in the visible light portion of this spectrum. Each color, like its appearance, is different and unique. All of them have a different amount of energy calculated with the frequency of the waves (ν) and Planck's constant (h) or 6.626 X 10-34 or
E = hν

with red color waves having the lowest energy and violet or purple waves having the highest.

During this experiment, ½ cup of ice will be dyed different colors-red, green, yellow, and blue-with food dye to see which one will melt the fastest. This will determine whether the amount of energy in each color wave will affect how fast the ice melts. 1 teaspoon of salt will be added to the ice to act as a catalyst for the melting process. The ice will be monitored the entire time to note any changes in melting.