Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program

Prof. Bishop with student Jay Patel

Prof. Jennifer Atkinson with student Rachael Graham

Professor Hirsch, Khadidiatou Lusby, and Lisa Shaw.

Prof. Timothy Born with student Minh Nguyen

Prof. Robin Couch with student Elissa Williams

For more information and resources on Undergraduate Research, please go to the council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) page: http://www.cur.org

Research Scholars Blog

Program Description

The Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program at George Mason pairs high achieving undergraduate students with faculty mentors to undertake original research or creative projects. It provides each apprentice with a $1,000 stipend for the semester or summer to enable them to undertake twelve hours of research-related activities each week and $100 to cover materials, such as posters, lab supplies, and equipment. A committee of four faculty members from diverse disciplines meets to review applications and select apprentices. Feedback is provided to non-selected applicants so that they can reapply for the following term.

Selected apprentices are required to attend three meetings each term, where they gain a greater understanding of academic life and professional issues. The first meeting focuses on effective strategies for presenting one’s research to general and discipline-specific audiences, participating in conferences, submitting research for publication, and applying to graduate and professional school. The second meeting covers designing and developing effective poster or multimedia presentations. Students offer their critiques of presentations. They also provide and receive feedback on resumes and abstracts. The third meeting focuses on the apprentices’ finished posters or multimedia presentations.

Current Participants

MARGARET ALBERT

The purpose of my research is to understand why extremism has become increasingly attractive to young Muslims in the United Kingdom. It has been believed that the children of immigrants, while retaining elements of their parents’ and grandparents’ culture, tend to incorporate more moderation in their religious, political, and social interactions. This prediction not been the case in Britain; beginning in the 1980s, an increasing number of young British Muslims have attached themselves to an international, politically-charged religious identity (that of political Islam) over the more moderate, integrated British identity of their parents. My research will identify why a growing number of young British Muslims are choosing political Islamic sects over their parents’ Sufism sect of Islam.

Zainab benchekroun

The interaction of the nervous tissue with the electrode surface determines the efficacy of the charge transfer of the electrode. A better understanding of the brain's interaction with these electrodes will help in designing electrically conductive interfaces for implantable electrodes. In this project we propose to approximate the behavior of the electrode performance in different media. Carbon nanotube based (CNT) and iridium oxide coated (irox) stainless steel electrodes will be studied using Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) in different frequencies.

jessica brenchick

Writing Fellow

simone erchov

“Assessing Necessity of Calibrating Depression Measures as a Factor of Functional Outcomes and Symptomatology”

ejona fuli

Despite the current economic literature and undertaken research regarding the limited cognitive abilities of economic agents, preferences, and loss aversion, there is still no agreement on what the consequences of deviating from rational and strategic decisions are. I want to further research how decision making is affected by behavioral variations and personal preferences. This is especially important while designing optimal economic systems and building long terms relationships. I will first focus my research on the economic theory regarding risk, preferences, and expected utility, and later I work on designing a mechanism to explain the effect of preferences in making strategic decisions.

maximillian garland

I am working alongside Dr. Lisa Pawloski, the Chair of Global and Community Health Department at George Mason, on two studies; One investigating the relationship between socio-geographic environment and obesity in under-served populations and the other is a similar analysis specific to chronic non-alcoholic liver disease. We are using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to better understand the causes and relationships between social factors. Using GIS, we are examining the foodscape around a patient’s home. The analysis, along with the comprehensive survey, fills an interdisciplinary research need. The information and data gathered is valuable to clinicians like Dr. Zobair Younossi, of the Center for Liver Diseases at Inova Hospital, who we are working alongside.

tiffany ha

“Incorporation of Triazine Groups into pNIP Am/AA Particles to Customize Affinity Baits”

nicholas howell

“Practical Mechanical Wire Stripper”

komal khan

I will be working on a project with Professor Portillo in which we will utilize direct observation of unemployment insurance hearings to explore differences between pro se claimants and their represented counterparts. I will observe hearings that involve pro se and represented claimants and analyze the different ways they frame their legal arguments. I will also conduct interviews with the administrative law judges who oversee these hearings to understand the differences in their approaches when claimants have or do not have counsel.

shadiyah mangru

Under the guidance of mathematics professor Walter Morris, this spring I will explore ‘intradisciplinary’ interconnections between two distinct subfields of mathematics that particularly pique my interest: discrete mathematics and linear algebra. Of especial interest in my research will be the well-known Graham-Pollak theorem that “The edge set of the complete graph Kn of order n cannot be partitioned into the edge sets of fewer than n-1 bicliques.” During this course of study I will read an article by Fischer, Morris and Shapiro detailing their proof, alongside other germane readings, as I investigate the validity of a spectrum of statements, with the combinatorial Fischer, Morris, and Shapiro (FMS) theorem at one end and the linear algebraic Graham-Pollak theorem at the other.

david mcabee

Many prominent environmental writers blame American individualism for our high level of consumption. My research plan is to study factors that influenced consumption in the United States during the 20th century. I hope to apply my findings to the way environmental policy is approached by challenging some of the underlying assumptions in the field.

swati mehta

Working memory is a type of cognitive ability or mental process involved in the temporary storage of task-related information in the performance of such cognitive skills as reasoning, learning, and comprehension. Individuals’ age is a variable that may account for individual differences on working memory performances. Researchers have been able to investigate the genetic effects of a single gene on cognition, but only few have looked at the interactive effects of genes. But, not many have found associations among individuals’ age, and the genotypes of distinct genes. The purpose of my study is to examine the associations among age (younger adults, older adults), and the genotypes of the two distinct genes, COMT and BDNF that are abundantly expressed in memory regions (prefrontal and hippocampus) of the human brain.

amira mohamed-ameen

Automation refers to any device that performs tasks previously carried out by humans (i.e. plugging in numbers into a calculator instead of manually solving a math problem). As automation becomes more integrated into our lives, more and more problems begin to arise. One such problem is automation induced complacency which has been thought of in the past as increased reliance and trust on an automation (automation bias) resulting in lower monitoring and verification of the automation. Complacency has been shown to have catastrophic effects in domains such as aviation and ship navigation. The purpose of my study is to examine the effects of training with an automated aid (experience failure, informed of failure), automation reliability over a network (high/hub, low/node), and task complexity (high, low) on verification behaviors.

patrick mumper

“Facilitation Effects of D-Cycloserine on Variably Induced Fear Extinction: An Animal Model of PTSD”

rizqi rachmat

The need for development aid to Africa is tragically evident and the efforts of a large network of organizations have directed billions of dollars to address this need. The 2007 US financial crisis occurred at an inopportune moment for Africa as aid efforts were showing marginal positive economic growth rates. This project focuses on what is less evident: the internal decision-making processes and policies of US aid agencies - the World Bank, IMF, and USAID- in determining the continual flow of development aid to Africa. Trends in the dollar amounts of aid and policy directives will serve as a measure of the institutional responses to the economic crisis. Answering these questions will help readers understand how these aid agencies have responded to the development needs of Africa in light of the domestic financial downturn.

myurajan rubaharan

Dendrites serve as the principal sites of synaptic and/or sensory input and integration in the developing nervous system. Defects in dendrite development have been directly linked to aberrations in normal sensory perception, learning and memory, aging and a variety of nervous system diseases including schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and mental retardation. The major goal of the proposed study is to substantially extend initial observations that suggest the RNAi pathway plays a critical role in mediating distinct aspects of dendrite development in different neuronal subtypes. To accomplish this goal, I will use the Drosophila (fruitfly) peripheral nervous system as a model to perform loss-of-function (LOF) and gain-of-function (GOF) phenotypic studies of the role(s) of six key genes essential for mediating RNAi in the fruitfly.

eric schiffhauer

My research will focus on the important Biodefense organism, Francisella, in the lab of Dr. Monique van Hoek. The van Hoek lab has previously shown that Francisella is capable of producing biofilms: important biological systems by which bacteria colonize surfaces and create resilient infections. Bacteria which form biofilms usually require a special structure called Type IV pili, which Francisella posess. I aim to determine the role of Type IV pili in biofilm formation in Francisella.

amanda shaver

“Yogacharya in America”