by Jacob Fuhrer & Alina Rosenkranz |
Students got dressed up on Tuesday to present and to attend presentations at Founders’ Day. For many students, Founders’ Day was just a day to pick up some extra knowledge (or sleep in). But for many seniors presenting their research, it was a day of culmination, a keystone to their studies. We talked to a few seniors about their research and where it’s leading them.
Students work to understand climate change on a local level
As the climate changes on a global scale, four UP students are trying to understand what that means for Oregonians and for our forests. In their project, which they presented on Founder’s Day, seniors Abigail Merrill, Kelsie Orikasa and Alex Russell and junior Audrey Huff explored climate change’s impact from a social and ecological position.
According to Merrill, it’s some of the first research examining climate change from a constructive, social perspective.
“It's an important issue that people need to pay attention to,” said Merrill. “Here in Portland, all of us like to go camping and hiking...but it's going to be impossible to do that if the forests are gone or you're not able to access them.”
The group focused on something called social feedback loops, which according to Merrill, can be both destructive and constructive. The group is looking at constructive ways to mitigate or adapt so that the destructive cycle of climate change can be stopped.
After a great deal of research, the team doesn’t feel optimistic.
“It’s so depressing, it really is,” Merrill said. “We are finding that there are a lot of laws right now as well as guidelines that help people to mitigate in their certain regions.”
But according to Orikasa, it’s not enough.
“It’s just really broad,” Orikasa said. “We don’t really know with climate change what will happen… and we try to have a management plan, but it’s not really specific.”
Merrill says it’s been tough to find solutions that can actually be put into practice but remains hopeful for the future.
“It’s just getting the time, the money, the resources to actually implement the rest of these goal which would be how to mitigate the issue,” Merrill said.
Staying connected at the touch of a button
You’re at the happiest place on earth, about to board Splash Mountain...but where’s Jimmy?
Your absent-minded younger brother has seemingly wandered off into the endless crowds. He never answers his phone, and that’s if he even has it with him.
UP seniors Lupita Carabes, Taryn Delhotal, Alvaro Garay and Jonny Harper think they have found an answer to such a situation with a wearable device called Linc.
According to Harper, an electrical engineering major, Linc acts as a long range walkie-talkie allowing users to communicate with anyone else wearing the device while connected to the Internet.
“We knew that wearable technology is booming right now, “Garay said, “so we decided to do something wearable and came up with Linc.”
To get started, the device, which looks like a wristwatch with a black box on top, pairs to a cell phone wirelessly through bluetooth. Once the initial pairing is done and two of the devices are brought in close proximity, they will link with one another and be able to communicate.
It’s been a long journey to get a working prototype of the device together.
The group began working in August and Harper figures they’ve collectively spent around 500 hours working on Linc. After all the work, the team considers it a success.
“For the most part, it works the way we want,” Harper said. “It has some improvements we could make.”
The students would like to make the device smaller and more aesthetically pleasing. There’s also some software tweaks that would help to make pairing the devices easier.
Garay says he and the team have plans to continue working on Linc even after graduation.
“It was a lot of fun,” Harper said. “And a really good learning experience.”
Searching for a hands-free keyboard alternative
Most college students type on a normal keyboard every day and think nothing of it. But for someone missing a hand, a keyboard is a big obstacle.
Senior Blair Pearson, a mechanical engineering major, is working on a keyboard interface that is supposed to make typing easier for someone with only one hand.
Pearson, who plans on getting a medical degree after his engineering degree, is especially interested in working in a field where both overlap.
“(That’s) the real world version of what I’m doing, where you take a medical device and get it ready for the actual clinical use,” Pearson said.
According to Pearson, the device works through a move, which causes a signal that goes from the nerve into the muscle. This signal can be used by a microprocessor. Different motions correspond to different letters.
Pearson’s faculty advisor, Deborah Munro, said he works independently.
“He has done something really unique and special, where instead of using an opposing muscle groups he is using a single muscle with different contraction patterns to type,” Munro said.
While Pearson says he has overcome most of the technological challenges, he is still working on making the device as comfortable as possible for potential users.
One of the goals is to make the user practice even though it gets frustrating. Most existing training environments are boring and ineffective, according to Pearson. In order to make the training with the device more enjoyable, Pearson connected it to flash games.
“If I can open up this whole world of games, suddenly I don’t have to make it entertaining,” Pearson said. “There is this whole industry, this gaming industry. I just have to bridge the gap between a regular controller and their limb. And that seems to work and I’m excited.”
Confronting the cycle of domestic violence
Seniors Laura Forsythe and Patricia Stein completed a research project on how victims of domestic violence parent their children.
Forsythe focused on the psychological aspects, while Stein took on the child and behavioral aspects in domestic violence situations. They analyzed the mental, psychological and social factors that go into parenting.
Forsythe did her social work practicum at the Raphael House, an emergency domestic violence women and children shelter, where she runs a parenting group.
“I’ve had a lot of experience, and I realized that there is so many different layers and factors that go into parenting in general,” Forsythe said. “But then also with that added stressor of domestic violence, there is just so much there that anybody could really address. So I’m hoping that after graduation I get to stay within this field.”
Forsythe and Stein came to two conclusions. First, domestic violence is a cycle that a lot of families get into and it’s hard to break. Second, there is a great need to strengthen support systems for those parents.
Faculty advisor Kevin Jones said it was important to let Forsythe and Stein take the project in their own direction.
“To be able for our undergraduate students to understand and effectively engage with this kind of complex social problem and managing these issues professionally and independently on a daily bases really makes me very proud of our program and of our students,” Jones said.
Jacob Fuhrer is a reporter for The Beacon. He can be reached at fuhrer17@up.edu. Alina Rosenkranz is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rosenkra17@up.edu.
