Day 3, Breakout Room 1
- Central Bank Independence and Political Business Cycles
I worked on this research when I took the Theory and Practice of Central Banking seminar last fall. Recognizing the role of central banks in maintaining a barrier between politics and monetary policy, I performed a case study on 4 East African countries. The purpose was to explore the independence of central banks in these countries given the tumultuous nature of elections ,levels of corruption, and the constant inference of government entities in policy. Given the central bank independence rankings, I tested the relationship with monetary tools. Is volatility in monetary policy especially prominent in election years and what is the economic effect? Is there a trade-off between political liberation and economic development?
Presentation deriving from ECO 375 Research Paper with Roisin O’Sullivan, professor of economics.
Patriciah Wambu ‘21
- The Gendered Healthcare Wealth Gap
Social distrust of women establishes doubt, even with regard to their own bodies, creating fissures in women’s ability to access healthcare. Women struggle to receive equitable care within the healthcare system, creating years of untreated/mistreated chronic pain through lack of research for diseases predominantly affecting women, the consistent dismissal of women’s pain, and the use of sedatives rather than pain medication — actively disabling women and resulting in what I coin the gendered healthcare wealth gap*. Disparities in wealth accumulation between men and women due to exorbitant medical costs (prescriptions, doctors visits, and medical procedures); loss of productivity and diminished participation in the labor force; and increased disability as a result of gender-biased healthcare and pain management, the gendered healthcare wealth gap compounds the gender wage gap representing another quantifiable consequence of gender bias.
Presentation deriving from senior honors thesis with Carrie Baker, professor of the study of women & gender.
Isabel Fields ‘21
- A Journey Through the Gate: Translating Tawada Yōko’s Essay “The Gate of the Translator, or Celan Reads Japanese” from both the German and the Japanese
My project, “A Journey Through the Gate: Translating Tawada Yōko’s Essay ‘The Gate of the Translator, or Celan Reads Japanese’ from both the German and the Japanese” will focus on two source texts: Tawada’s German-language literary essay “Das Tor des Übersetzers oder Celan liest Japanisch” from the volume Talisman (1996) and her Japanese-language literary essay “翻訳者の門、シェランは日本語を読む時” [Honyakusha no mon: Sheran wa Nihongo wo yomu toki] from the volume カタコトのうわごと [Katakoto no uwagoto] (1999), both about thirteen pages in length. Profesor Kono is advising me for the Japanese translation, and Professor Keyler-Mayer for the German translation. The two texts are an enigma: although arguably the same essay by the same author, they are written in two different languages and at times contain diverging content. Her essay(s) address the translatability of Paul Celan’s poetry into the Japanese language, exploring the ways in which certain texts resonate, or, in her words, “peer into” their target languages through the act of translation. As an exophonic writer, Tawada writes in multiple languages, transcending typical boundaries of language, nation, and identity to produce new and creative ways of understanding all three such realms. It is this author’s aim to, in producing two translations from different source languages into the same target language, unify the two source texts and illuminate the effect of the “gate” of translation upon them.
Presentation deriving from capstone seminar with Rayes Lázaro, director of the translation studies concentration.
Kerry Walker ‘21
- Translating “Cosmic Theater” by
This semester, I’ve collaborated with Prof. Sujane Wu of the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures to translate a short fiction titled “宇宙剧场” from Chinese into English. “宇宙剧场,” or “Cosmic Theatre,” is a dystopian science fiction story written by Hao Jingfang in 2016. Chinese sci-fi has gained immense popularity among both Chinese and international audiences over the past decade. Hao was the first Chinese woman to win a Hugo Award and is gaining recognition, but many of her shorter works have not been translated into English yet. I hope to contribute to the growing visibility of Chinese sci-fi through my translation, especially for female authors who have been taking the genre by storm in recent years.
Presentation deriving from a semester-long research and translation project with Prof. Sujane Wu of the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures.
Elizabeth Carney ‘21
- Write of Passage: Letters From Home
It’s not often that I catch a glimpse into my parents’ early relationship, but whenever I do, I am presented with new ways to understand, cherish, and love them. After meeting at Inha University in Seoul, South Korea, my parents spent the first years of their life together separated by the Pacific Ocean when my father’s family emigrated to California. While he adjusted to his life in LA, and later in Berkeley, my father wrote prolifically to my mom to fill in the gaps between his visits back home. And though I’d heard before about their penpalship, it wasn’t until this past December that I actually got to see them – while “cleaning” out the garage, my father “stumbled upon” a box full of old letters and photos that the two of them had shared. Unfortunately for me, and despite the English scattered here and there, the letters are handwritten in Korean. Presented with this opportunity to learn more about my father’s initial experiences in America, the nature of my parents’ lives before marriage, and the devotion communicated between them over thousands of miles, I will be transcribing and translating these letters for my translations capstone project as a tribute to my growth as a speaker of Korean and to my parents for sharing themselves and their language with me.
Presentation deriving from a Capstone project for the Translation Concentration with Prof. Irhe Sohn, Assistant Professor of Korean Language & Literature.
Estelle Yim ‘21
- Energizing Communities Around Climate Change: How Public Art Can Spark Change
This project was inspired by Neighbor 2 Neighbor Holyoke’s plan to create a series of energy use and climate change-related public art exhibitions in Holyoke to spark discourse and gather input from residents about the future of their city. The project examines this and other climate change-facing public art projects to investigate how art brings together various community stakeholders at the intersection of energy education and activism, with an emphasis on energy utilities, colleges and universities, and schools. Specifically, we will be looking into what factors allow public art to call in community stakeholders with typically conflicting interests. In addition to producing an academic presentation, we hope to condense our findings into a zine for kids (or people of all ages!), a format more generally accessible to the local community members and therefore more capable of actually informing public discourse.
Presentation deriving from collaboration between Neighbor 2 Neighbor Holyoke and the Jandon Center with Madeleine DelVicario, experiential learning coordinator at the Jandon Center.
Abby Golden ‘23, Denielle Mary Audrey Amparado ‘23, Phoebe Farrell-Sherman ‘22
- Project SPARC – The Springfield Participatory Action Research Crew
A video outlining our research that looks into the power of out-of-school programs on the transition from high school to adult life. Researchers will answer questions about the program and share meaningful takeaways. We will then hold a Q&A following the video presentation.
Presentation deriving from Participatory Action Research and Community Engagement with Sam Intrator, Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 professor of education & child study, and Erin DeCou, program manager participatory action research.
Nicole Lussier ’22, Annick Lamar, Essence Deras ’23, Jessica Polin ’23, Carolyn McDonald ’24, Sheena Nomura ’23, Ashley Rodriquez ’21
Day 3, Breakout Room 2
- Generalized Splines on Dual Graphs to Triangulations
Splines are a fundamental tool across applied mathematics and analysis, used in areas such as computer graphics, engineering models, and data interpolation. Our research considers a more abstract idea of splines in which we work with an algebraic-combinatorial generalization of splines on an edge-labeled graph dual to a triangulation. A spline on a graph is a way of labeling the vertices such that if two vertices share an edge, then their vertex-labels differ by a multiple of the edge-label. As part of a longstanding open problem sometimes called the “upper-bound conjecture,” we are developing approaches to find a basis (and/or the dimension) of the space of splines when using polynomial labels of degree at most 2. We will introduce the basic mathematical objects involved in this research and build up to some approaches we’ve been working on to answer this question.
Presentation deriving from research with Julianna Tymoczko, professor of mathematics & statistics.
Hope Pungello ‘21, Tayler Fernandes Nunez ‘21, Claire Yun ’24
- Visualizing Springfield Health Indicator Data with Interactive Maps in R Shiny
As members of the Spring 2021 cohort of DSC-WAV (Data Science Corps – Wrangle, Analyze, Visualize), we partnered with the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts to develop a web application for public health professionals in Western Massachusetts displaying levels of health indicators in the city of Springfield. We gathered data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on health status of individuals in Springfield, and compiled the data into an interactive map using leaflet and R Shiny.
Presentation deriving from DSC-WAV program with Ben Baumer, associate professor of statistical & data sciences.
Grace Hartley ‘23J, Sunni Raleigh ‘23J, Seren Smith ‘22, Sarah Bingham AC ‘22, Michelle Flesaker ‘22
- Creating optimal conditions for reproducible data analysis in R with ‘fertile’
Science is currently facing a reproducibility crisis. There have been attempts to address this in many different domains, but many of these have significant flaws—they are often inaccessible, too narrow in scope, and/or burdensome to users. In an attempt to address this issue, I have developed a software package, called ‘fertile’, written for users of the R programming language. ‘fertile’ provides tools to improve the reproducibility of R projects without the shortcomings of many other solutions. It is accessible, simple to use, broad in scope, and flexible in its operation. It also attempts to be educational, teaching its users why their projects are not reproducible and how to improve. This short presentation will consider a brief overview of reproducibility, current solutions and their shortcomings, and a brief overview of ‘fertile’, along with information about how to learn more about the project.
Presentation deriving from STRIDE research and senior honors thesis with Ben Baumer, associate professor of statistical & data sciences.
Audrey Bertin ‘21
- Proteomic Profiling of Aging and Omega-3 Supplementation in Skeletal Muscle
Abstract: I conducted a bottom-up large-scale shot-gun proteomic study comparing age and diet. I used 20 Sprague Dawley rat soleus samples fed different diets and divided into four different groups (n=5 for each group): young controls (6 mo); aged controls (22 mo); and young and aged rats fed an ω-3 supplemented diet. The proteomic analysis extracted solei, followed by the splitting of each extract into a pellet (contractile cellular components) and supernatant (soluble proteins) fractions so as to increase the dynamic range of the protein identifications. The protein concentration of each of the 40 aliquots (supernatant and pellets) was estimated by the Lowry protein procedure (Lowry et al., 1951). Then, the proteins were reduced with dithiothreitol, irreversibly alkylated with iodoacetamide, and finally digested with trypsin. The resulting peptide mixture was quantified in order to label peptides from each sample with tandem mass tags (TMT). Ultimately, the differentially expressed proteins among the groups were identified using a nano liquid chromatography-coupled tandem Q Exactive HF-X Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer and Protein Discoverer 2.4 software.
Presentation deriving from research with Stylianos P. Scordilis, professor of biological sciences.
Francesco Maria Del Re ‘21
- Oxidative Phenol O-methylation with Methylboronic Acid
Existing reagents used for methylation are toxic and require harsh reaction conditions. Our work builds upon the Chan-Lam reaction; specifically, we use methylboronic acid to O-methylate phenols via oxidative cross coupling. Results of our work show that methylboronic acid is a successful substitute for the hazardous electrophilic reagents typically used in methylation.
Presentation deriving from special studies with David Gorin, associate professor of chemistry.
Miranda Wu ‘22, Angela Chavez ‘23
- Precious Plastics Shredder Redesign
In this presentation we will showcase the work that we have done in redesigning the open source Precious Plastics plastic shredder into a portable, easy to use, community driven machine. We will discuss our design process and decisions, as well as our plan for the machine’s integration into the community. Additionally, we will provide updates on the fabrication process, and documentation of the machines current state.
Presentation deriving from special studies with Emily Norton, co-designer of the design thinking initiative, and Laura Lilienkamp, prototyping studio coordinator.
Espy Thomson ’21, Kate Spencer ’22, Morgan Donovan Jones ’22, Maeve Morrow ’23J, Bailey Butterworth ’24
Day 3, Breakout Room 3
- Community Engagements and Social Change
Presentations deriving from capstone seminar in the community engagement and social change concentration with Denys Candy, director of the Jandon center for community engagement – including the impacts of sports on youth; meritocracy and affordable housing; approaches to educational inequalities and more.
Oumou Kanoute ‘21 , Sarah Stapleton ‘21 , Lauren Tinglin ‘21 , Kiara Mickens ‘21 , Maeve Conway ‘21 , Claire Bunn ‘21 , Emma Walker ‘21, Marubini Muswede ‘21, Sophie Hatcher Peters ‘21
Day 3, Breakout Room 4
- Exploration of a sediment core through a coral reef from the last Pleistocene interglacial on San Salvador Island, Bahamas
This group presentation will review progress made to date on examining a 30-meter-deep core through a Pleistocene coral reef from San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. This coral reef existed about 125 thousand years ago, during the last interglacial time period when the climate was warmer and sea-levels were up to 6 m higher than today. Understanding the history of this fossil reef can offer insights into the impact of global warming and sea-level rise on modern coral reefs. The research involves analysis of high-resolution scans of reefal rocks taken under a microscope to document any evidence of stress on Pleistocene corals, including their encrustation with algae, microbes, foraminifera and worms as well as bioerosion by organisms that bite or bore into coral surfaces.
Presentation deriving from a special studies with with Bosiljka Glumac, professor of geosciences.
Sierra Weirens ‘23, Miriam Boardman ‘23, Lucy Hansen ‘21
- Development of an Interdisciplinary Web-Based Resource for Improving Climate Literacy Through Exploration of Connections to Arts and History
This presentation discusses the development of a resource aimed at improving climate literacy across disciplines. This resource, found at www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/, documents the impacts of climate throughout Earth’s history by connecting various aspects of human society and culture to specific climate events and explaining the science behind them. We have been compiling, researching, formatting and posting information on climate-related topics in the subject areas of social studies, literature, and art as well as communicating with climate science and teaching experts to improve our content. This website aims to increase climate literacy and improve understanding of the effects of climate fluctuations, which is becoming more important as we move into an increasingly uncertain future regarding climate changes initiated and accelerated by human activities.
Presentation deriving from special studies and STRIDE research with Bosiljka Glumac, professor of geosciences.
Julia Herzfeld ’21, Caroline Davock ’23
- Comparing hot and cold stress in sea anemones (Aiptasia).
We investigated the effect of temperature on the activity, health, and mortality of sea anemones (Aiptasia). As a model species for corals, these organisms are studied in both their symbiotic and aposymbiotic states, which can be achieved through bleaching. The mechanism for bleaching is not fully understood, though it is common thought that bleaching through cold temperatures (instead of hot) is less stressful on the organisms. To study this, we examined the difference between externally applied heat stress and cold stress on the physical response of the anemones to study whether one temperature had a more detrimental effect than the other.
A poster derived from research work with Rachel Wright, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
JoyAnne Joseph ‘22, Natalie Morgan ‘24, Eyananda Ahmed ‘23 and Kadin Kristjansson ‘24