Join the CWIT Scholars and Affiliates to learn more about the internships and research projects of nine members of our CWIT Community. Dinner will be served following the conclusion of the presentations.

Presetations:

Jessica Izumi (Chemical Engineering) Investigating the relationship between microstructure and charge transport in P3HT films. Research. During the summer of 2011, I participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the Georgia Institute of Technology where I investigated how changing the crystallinity of poly3hexylthiophene films affected their mobility. To examine the various structures of each film, the film processing method was changed as well as the semiconductor dielectric interface. In addition, regioregularity and the testing material was also changed.

Lilian Johnson (Chemical Engineering). Nanofluidics of Polymer Chains Under Confinement. Research. Nanofluidic devices can be used to manipulate and transport individual biomolecules, typically, single strands of DNA.  A device under study at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a nanofluidic staircase which consists of an array of nanoslits arranged in steps.  Experimental observations show that a DNA molecule will diffuse down the staircase in an effectively one-dimensional path.  The molecular dynamics simulator LAMMPS was used to simulate the behavior of a DNA molecule in the staircase.  The model will be evaluated for its ability to correspond to experimental data and to elucidate the behavior of the polymer in various levels of confinement.

Sam Celmer (Chemical Engineering). Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center Internship An introduction of the work I performed at Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center for two years.  Will contain brief descriptions of what I worked on, what I learned and my favorite part of working with the government.  It will also contain a brief description of the organization itself, what I did after I stopped working there and hopefully my plans to continue to work there.
   
Rachel Sweeton (Computer Science) Hacking the Network Internship. During my internship at SAIC in the summer of 2011, I worked with a group to research different ways to hack 2G mobile phones and then looked into intercepting phone calls using a modified femtocell. My presentation will briefly discuss this project and our findings.

Amy Ciavolino (Computer Science). Getting a cool Job: A How-To Guide Professional Development. Awesome jobs are hard to find, and applying to them can be a little intimidating, but once you know where to start, it gets a lot easier. Since I just looked for and found exactly the job I wanted, I'll share the tips and tricks I picked up along the way.

Morgan Madeira (Computer Science). The Perks of Being a Google Intern. Internship. I will talk about my internship at Google in Kirkland, WA during the summer of 2011. My talk will include details about applying for the position, the BOLD program, my project, and life as a Googler.
   
Alec Pulianas (Computer Engineering). Access MT: A Multi-touch Tabletop Built with Accessibility in Mind. Research AccessMT is a an accessible multi-touch table designed with accessibility in mind. AccessMT is a self-contained hardware prototype consisting of a projector, computer, infrared lights, and a modified camera. Users can interact with AccessMT using simple touches, gestures, and tagged objects. Using the open source software packages Community Core Vision and BSQSimulator, we are able to track a user’s fingers and translate each of them into touch events. AccessMT builds upon prior multi-touch tables, but was designed to enable it to be easily adapted for use by people with disabilities. This presentation describes the challenges we’ve encountered and overcome in developing this new prototype. Research is being conducted in UMBC’s Department of Information Systems with Dr. Shaun Kane.

Emily Scheerer (Computer Science). Booz Allen Hamilton Internship Report InternshipThis presentation reports my learning experience during the course of a summer internship at Booz Allen Hamilton, during which I worked as part of the team building an automated testing capability for the E-Space project enabling repeatable, autonomous testing with a deep regression suite. In addition, I obtained Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) and EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA) certifications, and will be discussing the benefits of obtaining these certifications.

Shreya Mohan (Information Systems) Mobile Touch and Gesture Interactions for Children. Research With the popularity of mobile devices increasing, their respective audiences are expanding as well. Many of today's mobile devices require touch input and are designed primarily for adults. However, recently, it's been seen that children are starting to use these devices more- be it cell phones, tablets, or etc. Children have a variety of limitations that can affect their user experience with touchscreens. This study seeks to determine what differences lie in adults and children's touch interactions with mobile devices. The overall goal is to provide research findings that will help application developers create better touch user interfaces for children. Research is being conducted in UMBC’s Department of Information Systems with Dr. Lisa Anthony.