Currently, in cities across America you can book a character, specifically princesses, to entertain parties and events. These characters are based on Disney fairytales, and other pertinent children’s stories. This project takes a student experience in what we call, “princess(ING)” and pushes it in a scholarly direction, including qualitative and quantitative research into who is participating in these events, where they are taking place and reflections into the lived experience of becoming a princess.

Food insecurity（FI） is prevalent among Puerto Rican(PR) adults. In this study, we did a secondary data analysis on the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study Cohort（n=923）. We aimed to explore the longitudinal association between several psychosocial factors (Acculturation, depression, stress, social and community support, and life events) and FI status over 5 years. We found depression and stress may increase the risk of FI among PR adults.    

Creating the real word in virtual reality has been a challenge for a long time.  NVIDIA has managed to make a very good representation of fluids and its associated components that can be integrated into Unity.  However, mastering the physics of aerodynamics and implementing it into a computer platform has not been properly accomplished yet.  When completed, this will pose an adequate environment to test the performance of the planes being made in the lab.

Working along Alfonso Mejia and my coworker Gitau Kimani was a problem solving engagement experience. Facing problems such as softwares not working or time limitations was something I have not faced before. Coming up with solutions was a really useful experience and the skills I have learned will be useful as I continue my engineering career. 

Active transport (AT, walking or biking) to, from, and on campus can help students be active and benefit their health. This study examined how AT varied based on the time during the semester and season. Students reported demographics, residence, distance from campus, and AT behaviors. In fall semester there was a significant decline in AT. By contrast, AT remained unchanged in spring semester. Findings indicate that season influences the college students’ AT behaviors.

Automation usage is increasing in our critical infrastructure systems, especially in port shipping. Comparing risks, rewards, and trade-offs, we use the qualitative method of SWOT analysis to contextualize the ethical issues and the effect of automation on human labor and port operations. To further deconstruct this effect, the data analysis of the Department of Transportation's Freight Analysis Framework consolidates a graph structure and analytic processes to make sense of the trend towards increasing port automation.

I will present the skills and experience that I have obtained from working in a microscopy lab for seven semesters.  My experience includes learning histological techniques, training users on histology equipment, optimizing immunofluorescent staining protocols, and imaging samples with research microscopes. I also helped in developing a protocol to prevent solution from running-off the slides during incubation. 

This study investigated how social responsibility is managed between for-profit and nonprofit organizations. It used key informant interviews to seek an answer for this question, which will be subsequently coded and analyzed for common themes. The interviews are still underway, but preliminary findings indicate that within the same industry social responsibility includes similar practices, but for-profits tend to incorporate donations more than nonprofits and nonprofits organize work towards building a community more than for-profits.

Despite the fact that the NCAA indicates that student-athletes are students first, my partner and I will document how few college athletes study the sport they play in a scholarly manner. We will present survey results regarding student perceptions of “studying” their sport and student self-perceptions of their identities. Additionally, as a former athlete, I will reflect on the process of treating the athletic field as my new field of study by researching Women Coaches.