Author: Matthew

Applied Memory and Decision Making Lab (AMDM Lab) (Nydia Ayala)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/23/2025 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 8/1/2025.

Project Description

Eyewitness misidentifications have played a role in approximately 70% of the wrongful conviction cases that have been overturned on the basis of DNA evidence. This lab focuses on evaluating how the behaviors witnesses exhibit (e.g., confidence, decision-making processes), can be used to predict the accuracy of an identification attempt. Summer Research Scholars will work on two distinct projects. The first involves a series of experiments on forensic object lineup procedures (vehicles) and the second investigates outside observers’ appraisals of eyewitnesses’ behaviors when presented with video recordings of lineup procedures. Throughout this experience, students will gain experience with stimuli generation, photo and video editing, programming experiments, and experimental methodology.

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Prerequisites

Preference will be given to students who have already been trained in the AMDM Lab and/or have taken CBSC 250 or Psychology and Law.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/23/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/1/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Nydia Ayala (email: nayala@wlu.edu)

Gastroimaginaries: Dreams of Food and Place in Peru and the American South (Catarina Passidomo)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/9/2025 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 7/18/2025.

Project Description

This project traces dominant and subversive narratives linking food and place in Peru and the American South (specifically: hospitality, nostalgia, multiculturalism, and sustainability). Summer 2025 research will focus on the aesthetic and ethical ideal of sustainability and how it is conceptualized in contemporary food movements. The broader project is situated within interdisciplinary critique of popular representations of food that celebrate its cultural significance without attending to the socioeconomic and ecological devastations wrought by contemporary (global, industrial, and corporate) food systems. Student researchers will assist with (1) ongoing scholarly literature review; (2) analysis of existing qualitative data; and (3) potentially engage in new qualitative data collection and analysis. Students will also serve as collaborators and thought-partners for the broader project

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Prerequisites

No.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/9/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/18/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Contact Information: Catarina Passidomo (email: cpassidomo@wlu.edu)

Documenting deformation conditions of the mid-crustal Rockfish Valley Deformation Zone in the Virginia Blue Ridge (Jeffrey Rahl)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

The Rockfish Valley Deformation Zone (RVDZ) in the Blue Ridge of central Virginia preserves intense and localized deformation developed during convergence between Africa and North America ~320 million years ago. The RVDZ is a major structure developed within the crystalline basement of the Blue Ridge province; it has a thickness of at least 3 km and has been traced for over 120 km through central Virginia. These rocks represent an ideal naturally laboratory with which to investigate the rheology and microstructural evolution of mid-crustal shear zones, features essential to the strength and mechanical behavior of continental crust. In this project, we will document spatial variations in the deformation conditions of the RVDZ. Our work will involve literature review, field work, petrographic analysis, and electron-backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis to quantify crystallographic fabrics.

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Prerequisites

Students should have completed EEG 200. There are no other requirements, though students will benefit from having taken classes such as Structural Geology and Earth Materials.

Special Comments

This work will involve day trips to visit localities throughout the Blue Ridge.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Contact Information: Jeffrey Rahl (email: rahlj@wlu.edu)

Automatically Generating Cost-Effective Test Suites for Web Applications (Sara Sprenkle)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

Web applications are pervasive and must be well-tested to maintain high quality. Test suites should uncover faults in the software, represent typical usage, and be generated and executed at a relatively low cost. In this project, we will explore applying genetic algorithms to web application testing using actual user requests. Genetic algorithms have many tunable parameters (e.g., fitness function and mutation operator probabilities) that greatly affect their results. We will explore the parameter space and recommend the combinations of parameters that yield the best results for several subject web applications. We will then empirically compare test suites generated using genetic algorithms with those generated with other techniques.

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Prerequisites

Taken CSCI-209

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Hybrid

Contact Information: Sara Sprenkle (email: SprenkleS@wlu.edu)

Transmission of Intergenerational Wealth through Dating Markets (Hugo Blunch)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

The intergenerational transmission of wealth is facilitated in part by a marriage market preference for higher income. However, it is unclear how this wealth displayed in a marriage market. This study investigates how wealth is displayed in a dating market and the dating market advantage wealth can provide market actors.

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Prerequisites

Applicants must have completed Econ 202, Econ 203, and Econ 210 as well as the Math Sequence through Linear Algebra. Applicants should have some research experience before applying.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Hugo Blunch (email: blunchn@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Deconstructing Free Cash Flow: How Varying Definitions Affect Financial Analysis and Decision Making (Aliaa Bassiouny)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/23/2025 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 8/1/2025.

Project Description

In this research project, I will be working with Professor Tanlu (Accounting and Finance) to examine the impact of variations in the calculation of a company’s free cashflow (FCF) across financial data providers (FDPs). Over summer 2025, we aim to work with one summer research scholar on data collection of FCF figures from the various of FDPs such as FactSet, Capital IQ, and Bloomberg, as well as from corporate disclosures from firms that provide FCF calculations.

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Prerequisites

Pre-requisite courses: ACCT333 and FIN359 by end of Winter 2025. Proficiency with data retrieval from the following financial data providers: Essential: Factset and Bloomberg, Preferred: CapIQ .

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/23/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/1/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Aliaa Bassiouny (email: abassiouny@wlu.edu)

Bureaucracy in Political Philosophy (Angela Sun)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

Students will provide research assistance in the early stages of a project on the philosophy of bureaucracy. The role will involve synthesizing work in philosophy, political science, law, literature, and film to frame key arguments about the role and effects of bureaucratic governance.

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Prerequisites

Students should be rising junior or senior philosophy majors.

Special Comments

N/A

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Angela Sun (email: asun@wlu.edu)

Empire of Guano: Tracing the Socio-Ecological Impact of Bird Dung Extraction from the 19th Century to the Present (Mauricio Betancourt)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/9/2025 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 7/18/2025.

Project Description

This project examines the historical significance of guano (bird dung) as a global commodity and its lasting impact on contemporary issues such as agriculture, legislation, and global trade. The student researcher(s) will contribute to investigating the evolution of Peruvian guano extraction throughout the 20th century and into the present, focusing on its ecological and social aspects. The goal is to establish a historical continuum from the 19th century to the present. Tasks may include online archival research, literature reviews, analyzing data, and co-drafting sections of a book manuscript. This project offers hands-on experience in interdisciplinary research, data analysis, and academic writing.

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Prerequisites

Interest in environmental history, ecology, sociology, and global studies. Interest in academic reading and writing. Familiarity with basic research methods is a plus but not required. Completion of ENV 201 and ENV 202 is preferred but not required. Proficiency in Spanish is a plus but not required.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/9/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/18/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Mauricio Betancourt (email: mbetancourt@wlu.edu)

Lattice regularization of one-dimensional field theory (Son Nguyen)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

Lattice regularization is a technique for studying quantum field theories (QFTs). It involves breaking continuous space into discrete points, forming a “lattice.” In continuous QFT, the mathematics often leads to infinities that are ambiguous and difficult to handle. Discretizing space is an efficient method to remove these infinities and allow calculations to be performed numerically. This makes the theory more straightforward to study on a computer. In the limit where the lattice spacing approaches zero, one crucial question is whether we can get back the physics of the continuum theory. This approach provides the foundation for simulating particle interactions on quantum computers.

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Prerequisites

PHYS 111, PHYS 112, Modern Physics, Quantum mechanics and some experience with SciPy or NumPy.

Special Comments

N/A

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Son Nguyen (email: snguyen@wlu.edu)

Ovid’s Amores and Ancient Poetic Books (Caleb Dance)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/16/2025 and run for 6 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

Although composed more than 2000 years ago, Ovid’s Amores, a collection of Roman amatory poetry, still attracts the attention of casual and scholarly readers alike. The student will work with Professor Dance on research related to a commentary for Latin students on Book 3 of Ovid’s Amores. Special attention during these six weeks will be devoted to book historical inquiries, particularly the economic demands related to the circulation and preservation of ancient Latin poetry books from the 1st c. to the 10th c. CE. Additional activities will include transcription of ancient witnesses of the Ovidian text (using TEI), exercises in textual criticism, and the development of a database of Latin vocabulary from Amores Book 3 for use by students at the (college) intermediate level.

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Prerequisites

Advanced competency in Latin (such as that attained through completion of LATN 202) is required. Familiarity with the poetry of Ovid is also desired.

Special Comments

This project has been developed in collaboration with a specific student scholar. Other interested students are encouraged to contact Prof. Dance before applying.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/16/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 6 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: Hybrid

Contact Information: Caleb Dance (email: dancec@wlu.edu)