UROP Project

Adolescent Health; LGBTQ+; HIV Prevention; Statistics

Research Mentor: Dr. Henna Budhwani, She / Her / Hers
Department, College, Affiliation: Institute on Digital Health and Innovation, Nursing
Contact Email: hbudhwani@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to health realted majors or statistics majors. Strong writing skills are required.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote
Remote or In-person: Fully Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10 hours a week,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

In this 12-month study, we conducted survey data to inform the develop a culturally appropriate (for Deep South contexts, to be adolescent friendly) modular HIV prevention mHealth intervention, targeting behavior change related to HIV testing, HIV prevention knowledge, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake for men who have sex with men (MSM) 14-17 years of age, that can be seamlessly integrated into the existing school and community environments. To do so, we assessed adolescent MSMs' knowledge, sentiments, and beliefs related to HIV risk, HIV stigma, and HIV prevention including preferences related to modality of PrEP and PrEP acceptability. Our singular aim (objective) is to elucidate knowledge, beliefs (including perceptions of HIV risk), and preferences related to HIV prevention among MSM adolescents in the southern United States through the conduct of an online survey to inform intervention development.

Research Tasks: UROP students will conduct literature searches and write up findings using scienctific language. UROP students who have skills in quantative analyses will analyze data for trends and associations. The team of students who will be working on this project will have a once a week meeting with a Research Team lead.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: strong writing skills. Recommended: familiarity with research, quantative methods, commitment to addressing health disparities.

disease, ecology, evolution, game theory, mathematical biology, social norms

Research Mentor: Bryce Morsky,
Department, College, Affiliation: Mathematics, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: bmorsky@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors with skills in mathematics
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Wednesday, Sept 4, 4PM-4:30PM (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/95559669072)

Project Description

My research program has been primarily concerned with understanding biological and social systems through mathematical modelling. I am interested in understanding questions in theoretical ecology and evolution from the general to the specific. Additionally, much of my work focuses on sociality in a variety of settings, such as cancer, infectious diseases, and human communities. Sociality has many roles in nature from explaining multicellularity to civilization. Cooperation is important for the acquisition of resources for tumours, and for the establishment of effective herd immunity from vaccination. The research project is to study such a system in a game theoretic framework that features social dilemmas, where the socially optimal state is untenable due to individual selfishness. We will be interested in cases where social dilemmas arise, how they arise, and how they may be ameliorated.

The specific subject is to be decided with the mentee, but can include: public goods games among microbes, behaviour during an epidemic, social finance, and social norms and the evolution of human cooperation. We will couple a biological/economic/physical system with a social dynamic in a mathematical model, and then study the impact of the social behaviour on that system. The model may be a system of differential equations or an agent-based model, depending on the students' skills and interests.

Consider altruism in the ecology of cancer and bacteria as examples. Cancer and bacteria can produce public goods that are prone to being taken advantage of by free-riders. Examples include angiogenic factors in tumours, and siderophore production in bacteria. Because cheaters do not pay the cost of production of these goods, they have more energy to compete against altruists. There are several questions that arise from this social dilemma: how can altruists survive with competing cheaters? What role do cheaters play within the infection? If altruists and cheaters can coexist, how do they interact and evolve? How can we use our understanding of cooperation in this system to better treat disease?

Another example is the spread of pathogens in human populations, which crucially depends on social, political, psychological, and economic factors. Behavioural factors may promote or inhibit the spread of disease, and thus have implications for public policy. Events of the past few years have demonstrated with unusual force how critical the interactions between social and epidemiological dynamics are to controlling disease, and how much we still have to learn about them. Examples of the role of behaviour in epidemiology include: social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic; emergence of MRSA from antibiotic overuse; burial traditions and the spread of Ebola; and anti-vaccination movements. Such behaviour is often influenced by social norms, which help determine the expectations individuals have on both what others will do and what they should do and thereby guide personal decision making. How does this affect the trajectory of an epidemic, and what public policies should be recommended to mitigate the spread of disease? Other types of contagion outside of disease can also be studied in this framework.

Research Tasks: conduct research, develop code, literature review, mathematical analysis, mathematical modelling, writing

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required: Calc 1, 2, & 3, ODEs, linear algebra, coding (any language)

Content analysis of professional athletes's social media accounts

Research Mentor: Dr. , Professor. Patrick Merle, he/him
Department, College, Affiliation: School of Communication, Communication and Information
Contact Email: pmerle@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: "open to all majors"
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

The study will be a content analysis of selected social media accounts (mainly instagram/youtube channels) from professional athletes to understand the proportion of content associated with advertising of brands/partnerships.

Research Tasks: literature review
data collection
data analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: attention to details
meticulous

Studio Art, Art in Public Places, Murals, Installation Art, Grant Writing, Project Proposal Writing, and Community Based Art Projects

Research Mentor: No preferred honorific, Hannah Keats Hannah Keats, she/her/they/them
Department, College, Affiliation: College of Fine Art, Fine Arts
Contact Email: hjk22@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Tuesday September 3 from 10am-12pm
https://fsu.zoom.us/j/94320394579

Project Description

Throughout Tallahassee art in public places, murals, and community based art projects are prevalent and provide a rich cultural experience for members of the community. For Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, undergraduate students will assist with art in public spaces projects as well as murals and installations that can be enjoyed by the community. Through this process they will learn how to create art for community spaces and learn how to write grants and project proposals.

Research Tasks: Research Assistants will help: plan and create community based art, assist me in my studio practice, work collaboratively with me to write grants and project proposals, and work hands on with community organizations such as the Tallahassee Cultural Council, 621 Gallery, Thomasville Center for the Arts, and the Fab Gallery

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended Skills: ability to write professionally

Human Strengths, Virtue, Cardiac Diseases, Open-heart Surgery

Research Mentor: Dr. or Prof. Amy L Ai, SHE HER
Department, College, Affiliation: Amy L. Ai, Social Work
Contact Email: amyai8@gmail.com
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 4
Relevant Majors: Premed, Psych, Nursing, Social Work, Gerontology, Sociology, and other majors related to health and mental health
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 4-8,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

This interdisciplinary study will evaluate long-term survival effects of psychological strength factors (e.g., spirituality, character strengths) in an PI’s (Ai’s) existing sample of older patients who underwent open-heart surgery (N=481, female 42%). It significance lies in several facts. Nearly 92.1 million American adults have some form of cardiovascular diseases that accounts for 1 of every 3 deaths in the US. Costly open-heart surgery is a life-saving/extending achievement in cardiac medicine but is also a stressful life event. Further, recent population students have shown health benefits of psychological strength factors in aging—health relevant areas, especially survival benefits of religiousness/ spirituality and character strengths, mostly in general populations. Yet, studies have rarely examined the survival benefit of psychological strength factors in clinical cardiac patients over a decade. Moreover, aligned with the World Health Organization’s concept of health with a whole-person’s view, a JAMA article posits that spiritual interconnection could inform future strategies for both public health and individualized, patient-centered care. It also noted that health providers have paid limited attention to such psychological strengths that can be an impetus for promoting healthy behaviors. Clearly, more clinical research is needed to provide robust evidence on potential protection of strength factors to advance this area of studies. The PI’s publications on this sample have showed the positive role of preoperative strength factors (e.g., optimism/ hope, sense of reverence in secular contexts, positive religious coping, using prayer for coping) in short-term recovery. Based on the literature in three interrelated areas (Spirituality, Aging, and Health, Positive Psychology and Health, and Psychological Resilience), the proposed study aims to address important unanswered questions.

Research Tasks: literature review, format and other preparation for presentation and publications if engaging in dissemination.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Second year students preferred with capacity to perform AMA and APA style abstract database. Ability to conduct extensive search using multiple lib data base for literature. Creativity in designing posters at the professional level, not just UROP! Willingness to conduct tedious and seeming boring work as a testing process for cultivating scholarly qulities.

public transportation, bus occupancy, data collection, data analysis, machine learning, deep learning, Wi-Fi probe requests, internet of things

Research Mentor: Dr. Qianwen Guo, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: qguo@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Mr. Ziyue Li he/his
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: lzy@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators: Mr. Jiaqing Lu
Faculty Collaborators Email: jl23br@fsu.edu

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 6
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: The data collection will be done on FSU campus shuttle buses
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

This study proposes leveraging IoT-enabled devices, particularly smartphones, using Wi-Fi technology for transit data collection and analysis. It aims to develop a monitoring system that detects smartphones in real-time, capturing data like MAC addresses and GPS coordinates to infer transit patterns. Challenges include Wi-Fi signal range and device detection inconsistencies. Pilot studies in Florida will validate the system's efficacy across diverse transit systems. Implementing this system enables transit agencies to optimize vehicle dispatching and scheduling while enhancing the overall user experience by providing valuable insights into transit travel flow patterns.

Research Tasks: The primary objective is to collect Wi-Fi data from FSU campus shuttle buses and manually count the bus occupancy for each station.
Students interested in analyzing Wi-Fi data and developing machine learning or deep learning models can pursue additional opportunities.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Complete the task diligently and ensure accurate counting.

origin-destination matrix, Bayesian inference, public transportation

Research Mentor: Mr. Ziyue Li, he/his
Department, College, Affiliation: FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: lzy@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: STEM majors
Project Location: RIDER - Resilient Infrastructure & Disaster Response Center
Research Assistant Transportation Required: FSU Shuttle Bus Available, near FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

Origin-destination (OD) demand matrices are crucial for transit agencies to design and operate transit systems. We want to build a Bayesian model to estimate transit OD matrices from bus occupancy data.
A similar study to estimate OD using boarding/alighting counts is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04742

Research Tasks: Derive a Bayesian model to estimate transit OD matrices from bus occupancy data.
A similar study is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04742

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Interested in this paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04742
Taken a statistics course and understand Bayes' theorem required.

Nutrition, Health, Cardiovascular Disease

Research Mentor: Dr. Andrea Lobene, she/her/hers
Department, College, Affiliation: Health, Nutrition and Food Sciences, Health and Human Sciences
Contact Email: alobene@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors with a preference for students interested in nutrition, cardiovascular physiology, and the relationship between diet and chronic disease risk.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

For this study, we will recruit human research participants between the ages of 18-45 who will complete three different study interventions. The interventions will include a consuming laboratory-prepared diets as well as providing education to guide participants' self-selected dietary choices. The goal is to encourage participants to modify their potassium and/or sodium intake to align with current dietary guidelines. After each intervention, participants will come to our laboratory in the Sandels building for a variety of tests including blood pressure measurements and tests for vascular health. Biochemical analyses will also be conducted.

Research Tasks: Research tasks will include interacting with human research participants, data collection, data analysis, food preparation, conducting interviews, handling biological samples, biological sample analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required skills: effective time management, effective written and verbal communication skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office, comfortable working with human research participants, comfortable handling blood and urine samples, willingness to learn, able to work as part of a laboratory team
Recommended: basic understanding of kitchen/food safety, understanding of how to find and interpret research articles

object modeling, CAD, SolidWorks, Blender

Research Mentor: Dr. Erim Yanik,
Department, College, Affiliation: Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Contact Email: ey23@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Mechanical Engineering and/or related engineering disciplines.
Project Location: FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

Looking for students to assist us with human organ modeling using software such as AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and Blender.

Research Tasks: 1. Literature review
2. Object modeling
3. Mesh generation
4. Dataset creation

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required:
1. Modeling software experience, e.g., AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Blender and/or related software.
2. Excellent communication skills.
3. Being able to work in a team setting.
4. Microsoft Office skills.
5. Most importantly curiosity and an open mind.

Recommended (NOT required):
1. Background in human anatomy.
2. Technical Writing Skills.
3. Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop.

differential equations, data science, numerical analysis

Research Mentor: Mark Sussman,
Department, College, Affiliation: mathematics, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: sussman@math.fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10 hours,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

There have recently been many new developments in solving differential equations using data science techniques. See for example the "PINN" ("Physics Informed Neural Networks") method developed by Prof. Karniadakis at Brown University. Are these methods better than classical methods (finite element, finite difference, finite volume, or Runge Kutta methods) for solving differential equations? It could be that the new ``data science motivated'' methods are a transformative development since the methods are "embarrassingly vectorizable" (for GPU processing) and have anecdotally been shown to represent solutions using a minimum number of degrees of freedom. There are many test problems to try and compare classical methods to data science techniques, all ranging in level of difficulty.

Research Tasks: Research tasks:
1. develop a classical numerical method (your choice) for solving an ODE or PDE. Computer language is flexible.
2. develop a data science numerical method for solving the same ODE or PDE as in step 1.
3. Compare (1) to (2) in terms of (i) ease of implementation, (ii) accuracy, and (iii) efficiency.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: required:
basic programming skills. Calculus II or higher.