Showcasing Impactful Students – Fall '24 Symposium

Student: Emily Simms 
Major: Architecture, Senior 
Hometown: Rome, Georgia 
High School: Model High School 
Faculty Advisor: Robin Puttock 

Description: Along Martha Berry Boulevard in the City of Rome, Georgia, is the proposed Tax Allocation District (TAD), which slates redevelopment for blighted areas, including motels that have been a hot spot for criminal activity in the area. A new long-term facility is proposed within the Tax Allocation District that blends the community of Rome within the threshold of the facility, as well as designing patient rooms and day rooms to control daylight and artificial light to regulate circadian rhythms, therefore reducing self-harm incidents and improving recovery for patients diagnosed with depression.   
 
Inspiration: The inspiration behind the project comes from my background in social work and government. I earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Berry College in 2015, and I worked for local and state government in different capacities. I saw firsthand the need for mental health facilities and resources in the Northwest Georgia area. This research merges my prior experience and my new knowledge in architecture at KSU and applies existing research in mental health to the design of spaces within a community that I am intimately familiar with. 
  
Challenges: The challenge I have faced with this research is narrowing my research to depression and harm reduction. Because of my previous experience, it was difficult to specify an issue of focus within mental health because there are many to address. However, I have found that making the research more direct and specific has given my thesis more direction regarding the design process. 
  
Lessons: I have learned that the path of research is not a straight path. The research has taken me down different paths than I first imagined, but I have really enjoyed diving deeper into the research as research decisions created turns in my journey. 

Students: Javier Haro, Reece Freeman 
Majors: Public Health, Senior (Haro); Software Engineering, Senior (Freeman)  
Hometown:  Forsyth, Georgia (Haro); Indian Trail, North Carolina (Freeman) 
High School: North Oconee High School (Haro); Central Academy of Technology & Arts (Freeman) 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Melissa Osborne 

Description: In 2021, >1 million emergency room visits and >2800 deaths occurred among children under 6 due to unintentional injuries. With most incidents taking place at home, evidence-based parenting programs (EBPP) are a key opportunity to reach parents with injury prevention education, and ultimately to improve outcomes.  Using immersive virtual reality (IVR), our team is developing a home safety program for parents of young children aiming to simulate a home environment, allowing parents to learn and practice their home safety and supervision skills without introducing real risk. 
  
Inspiration: The incidence of injury as the leading cause of death in children under 5 years old was a major driving force for this project to become reality. Developing an effective, evidence-based parenting program that will educate parents on injury prevention and other safer practices became the goal in order to see improvement in the issues related to child injuries. — Haro 
  
Challenges: Some challenges I face as I work on this project come down to providing an experience that feels engaging and intuitive for users, while also providing an educational experience. For example, when I begin working on some of the scenarios we have in place, it takes me a bit of brainstorming to figure out exactly how I can implement the functionality. There are already many caveats to consider when it comes to VR development. However, when you combine that with a more serious/educational approach to game design, it provides some unique opportunities and challenges. Certain things that might be fun in some games might feel out of place here. — Freeman  
 
Lessons: There are quite a few lessons that I've learned throughout my time on the project. Naturally, I've been able to build upon my skillsets as a game developer and work with tools that I previously didn't have access to. However, above all else, I learned a lot from working with people outside the CCSE/CGDD program. Their input and feedback have taught me new approaches to game design that prioritize our project's goal of home safety and harm prevention. Overall, I've learned more about how games and Virtual Reality can be used to educate and reach audiences about everyday issues people encounter. — Freeman

Student: Maranie Brown  
Major: M.S. in Healthcare Management and Informatics
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia  
High School: South Cobb High School 
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Valero de Clemente 

Description: The threat of cyberattacks continues to drive a sense of urgency across hospital systems and providers. This increase can be attributed to the data infrastructure, lack of protection standards, the increase in telehealth and medical devices, and more. By blending a critical topic with the learning delivery mechanism that encourages engagement, we hope to arm students with the tools to make the decisions, when they receive an email that is a clear phishing attempt that can expose their health records, for example, and thus reduce the number of cyberattacks and data breaches across the health industry. 
  
Inspiration: First, cybersecurity in healthcare is such a critical and urgent issue, and the concerns range from having a person's identity compromised or having medical devices hacked.  
  
Challenges: Challenges are opportunities. We haven't faced any challenges, but I have had the opportunity to learn more about how younger generations learn and gather information. At the core of this engagement, we want to educate high school students to become champions of their health information and understand these types of risks. Technology greatly influences how this audience consumes information, so it's been interesting to learn more to ensure that the content we're creating is most effective. 
  
Lessons: I've really been able to apply what I'm learning in my classes to this research. I'm currently a graduate student in the KSU Healthcare Management and Informatics program. This research perfectly blends two topics that I'm really passionate about. So, I've learned that I absolutely love healthcare and cybersecurity. I've been exposed to a whole new part of the industry that I want to explore. At the moment, I'm balancing a full-time job, school, and research, so I'm constantly seeking the best ways to integrate work, life, and study time. 

Students: Sheridan Hildreth, Katy Sullivan, Scarlett Bittle, Brandon Mitchell, Cari Eason, Patrick Kinsella 
Major: Biology 
Hometown: Cartersville, Georgia (Hildreth); Smyrna, Georgia (Bittle); Lawrenceville, Georgia (Mitchell); Lawrenceville, Georgia (Sullivan); Woodstock, Georgia (Kinsella); Lyons, Georgia (Eason)  
High School: Cass High School (Hildreth); South Cobb High School (Bittle); Archer High School (Mitchell); Etowah High School (Kinsella); Toombs County High School (Eason)
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Thomas McElroy 

Description: Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that boasts many gut health benefits. It is a large business with many brands consumed worldwide. Each different brand claims to use their own starter cultures, all with slightly different microbial species listed on the labels. Our purpose is to determine the accuracy of these claims and if they contain bacteria that’s not listed. The main questions are, what is the difference in bacterial community between brands and are the bacterial communities listed completely accurate? 

Inspiration: This project started off in class as an idea similar to the television show “Shark Tank,” where our classmates brought in their own ideas and briefly presented them in front of the class. These ideas were then grouped together if they had similarities and were whittled down to about five total ideas we had to choose from to start our research on. One of those ideas was “kombucha,” or specifically, what is the microbial community of kombucha like? Since our class task was to focus primarily on microbial communities, that’s where our group focused our efforts.  
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Kombucha in general is a very interesting drink, with the process of creating it on an industrial scale for retail sale being very monitored. Our group really wondered what bacteria were actually in the drink; were the bacteria listed on the manufacturers website true to what was actually in the bottles we tested? This idea seemed perfect! — Hildreth

Challenges: The first challenge we faced was in picking the brands we wanted to survey. The initial goal was to find three identical flavors with similar flavoring methods in order to keep it to one variable being tested. We ended up finding brands that all had ginger flavors, but some had secondary flavors and differing flavor methods. We also chose to take two samples from different bottles with different batch numbers so that our results would not be biased towards that single batch. Unfortunately, for the greenwise brand we could only find one batch. — Sullivan
 
Another challenge we faced was during the sampling of the kombucha for DNA extraction. When taking the sample of kombucha from the bottles, it was a slight challenge dealing with the carbonation, as well as the thick film of ingredient sediment buildup in some bottles. We did not want much carbonation when micro-pipetting because the sample taken would not be an accurate volume due to the gas. The sediment presented its own set of challenges as it would not stay mixed in solution, we wanted the sediment to be evenly distributed as the goal was to get a sample of the total contents of the bottle not just the liquid component.  
 
​Additionally, it was a challenge to find the listed microbial communities for each brand of kombucha we sampled from, as not every brand we used in the study had this information available to view. Most food/drink products that have microbial communities such as yogurt or kombucha list the types used to produce the food/drink, and having this information as a reference for our findings would have been very helpful. — Hildreth

Lessons: Personally, I think that the main lesson that I have learned from working on this research project is that group work is almost essential during research, and that it can be fun to work with your peers on an idea that we all agreed on. Having many minds that all think alike during a task that requires a lot of thought was very helpful. — Hildreth
  
My time on this project has taught me some valuable lessons about collaborative research as well as the intricacies of molecular biology techniques. Firstly, I learned the importance of clear communication and task delegation within a group setting. As we navigated the complexities of DNA extraction and other necessary processes, it became evident that each team member's strengths contributed to our overall success. Secondly, this project deepened my understanding of the practical applications of ecological genetics, particularly in food science and consumer product analysis. Finally, I gained a newfound appreciation for the power of DNA barcoding in uncovering the true composition of commercial products, highlighting its potential in both research and industry settings. — Bittle 
  
During this project the main lesson that I have learned is that teamwork is key to be able to complete successful research. If I did not have these amazing people as my group partners, then this project would not have been possible. The ability to have the knowledge of so many intelligent individuals who are all committed to completing the same task is something that should not be undervalued. — Kinsella
  
I have also learned about the power of teamwork and ways to work in a team. I have learned how to delegate responsibilities and communicate effectively. DNA barcoding is a concept that I have known about for a while now, and getting the opportunity to work with these techniques hands-on has deepened my understanding and appreciation of them. As we move into the data analysis part of the project, I expect that I will learn many things about data analysis that will be very useful skills to have. This will also be my first time presenting at a symposium, so the experience of presenting will teach me a lot of useful skills. — Sullivan