Research
Monmouth College
During my time at Monmouth College, I participated in a number of research projects. These projects are described below.
Mathematics Capstone: Evaluating Horror Text Generated by Probabilistic Language Models
During the 2017 - 2018 school year, I completed my capstone project for the mathematics major. For my mathematics capstone, I trained n-gram models to generate horror text and investigated methods to quantitatively evaluate the quality of the generated text. The fall semester of my senior year, I wrote a proposal paper and gave a proposal presentation. I implemented my project during the spring semester. Code for the project is written in Python. The project culminated in a final paper and a poster presentation.
Computer Science Capstone: Writing Horror Text Using Generative Adversarial Networks With Memory
During the 2017 - 2018 school year, I completed my capstone project for the computer science major. I trained a generative adversarial network with competing recurrent neural networks — similar to work by Press et al. — to generate sentences of text in the style of horror stories. The fall semester of my senior year, I wrote a proposal paper and gave a proposal presentation. I implemented my project during the spring semester. Code for the project is written in Python. The project culminated in a poster presentation.
SOfIA 2017
During the summer of 2017, I participated in the Summer Opportunities for Intellectual Activity (SOfIA) program, a three week research experience through Monmouth College focused on introducing freshmen to research. I worked as a returning student mentor for the Analog and Digital Sound Synthesis project under the supervision of Professor James Logan Mayfield. After some preliminary work with mapping the sound space of the LittleBits Synth Kit, the group used the LittleBits components to explore frequency modulation (FM) sythesis with non-sinusoidal carrier waves.
Honors Capstone: Chaos Theory and Free Will
The culmination of the Monmouth College Honors Program is an interdisciplinary capstone project. With the help of supervisors Professor Michael Sostarecz and Professor Hannah Schell, I researched and integrated topics in the mathematics of chaos theory and philosophical questions of free will. My capstone project involved an oral presentation and a final paper.
SOfIA 2015
During the summer of 2015, I participated in the SOfIA program as a returning student mentor for the High Speed Imagery and Mathematical Modelling project under the supervision of Professor Michael Sostarecz. The group experimented with applications of TEMA tracking software and explored fundamentals of chaos theory.
Independent Research: Particle Image Velocimetry
During the 2014 - 2015 school year, I conducted independent research in the high speed imagery lab under the supervision of Dr. Michael Sostarecz. I used particle image velocimetery (PIV) to explore water flow around an airfoil at various angles of attack.
SOfIA 2014
During the summer of 2014, I participated in the SOfIA program as an incoming freshman. I worked on the High Speed Imagery and Mathematical Modelling project under the supervision of Professor Michael Sostarecz, in which we modelled the popping of a soap bubble.