Report on Academic Showcase

Humphrey Huang
Joseph Tran
Alexander Gipson

Humphrey Huang
Affiliation: Science, Technology, and Society. Majoring in Computer Engineering
Title of Project: The future w/ location-based applications

Decscription of Project: I am arguing in support for improvements in location-based technology. Apps such as Facebook use this technology, and you see it as the little notification saying where a post was submitted at.

What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?:Through doing this project I learned more about the nature of my major through research. After researching location-based applications, I am firm in my belief that computer engineering is a good choice for me on a personal and intellectual level.

What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: Many people do not know much about my topic, and so trying to make it easily understandable was very difficult. The nature of computer engineering itself is a bit dry at times so simplifying it was pretty tough.

If you could redo your project what would you change about it?: I would definately include more pictures and statistics, rather than a lot of text. People look at the text and get bored easily, so visuals and numbers would be great and getting people to read it more thoroughly.

Joseph Tran
Affiliation: Science and Global Change, with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in Neuroscience and Physiology
Title of Project: Search for potential ligend insertion sites in a novel retroviral envelope to use in retargeting gene delivery

Description of Project: This project was mainly to find the proper insertion site with a Gibbon Ape Leukemia virus, which is a highly tumurous retrovirus that can be found in mammals

What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?: Through doing this project I got to learn more about the trials that neurologists needed to perform and extract the virus samples correctly. This stuff is really cool, so I want to keep learning more about it after reading up on it! It definitely made me not regret my decision to pursue a degree in Neuroscience as well

What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: It is extremely technical and dry for the majority of people who take a look at this project. It is really hard to get people interested in something that they do not even know of or heard of in their lifetime.

If you could redo your project what would you change about it?: I would include a lot more visuals and make it easier to comprehend. It's hard to find good pictures of the virus and the procedures because it isn't well known, but I feel that it would help immensely. Also I would let people know what a Gibbon is. It's an ape.

Alexander Gipson
Affiliation:Science and Global Change Program, majoring in Civil/Environmental Engineering
Title of Project: Recreational Boating and its Effecton Water Quality in the Magothy River

Decscription of Project: THe Magothy River is one of the least healthy rievrs feeding into the Chesapeake Bay, so I wanted to see if recreational boating and water sports play a role in the water quality of Magothy

What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?: What i'm doing now is something that civil engineers in the water resources track have to do to test the water supply, so by doing it for my research project I am getting field experience towards my major. Plus, I got to go on a trip to the river!

What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: Arranging a day to drive to the Magothy River was tough with the crazy weather lately. That, and conflicting dates with Dr. Peter Tango delayed the date for a while

What was the most memorable part of doing this project?: The whole thing! The weather was perfect, there was a fair wind, and it was smooth collecting. It honestly could not have gone any better. We met a few recreationers while doing this experiment, and they asked us questions about what we were doing and were really intrigued by the tests I was doing, especially the kids!

Last modified: 11 May 2014