It is estimated that 50 million individuals worldwide live with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative progressive disorder that, along with other chronic dementias, cost the United States $355 billion in 2021. Previous research links AD with amyloid beta (A𝛽) aggregation in the brain. Possible therapeutic drugs, including antioxidants and metal chelating agents, need efficient delivery systems that can cross the blood-brain barrier and release drugs appropriately. Recent discoveries in nanoscale materials as targeted drug delivery and controlled release agents have shown that such materials can release therapeutic drugs in a slow manner and increase efficacy. Chief among these carriers are porous materials with high surface areas because of their tunable pore structure, surface chemistry and drug loading capacity. This project focuses on using porous silicon derivatives as a carrier because, in addition to the above properties, it is a known biocompatible material.
This research deals with developing efficient protocols for loading mesoporous silica (pSiO2) with selected metal ion binding agents through systematic manipulation of external variables in order to achieve the highest percentage of loading. Once this has been determined, release and complexation studies are conducted. Known spectrophotometric methods are used to monitor diffusion over time and evaluate the profile of the sustained release. Different derivatives of chelating agents are tested and compared to determine the best suited candidates. The macrocyclic molecule Pyclen was the first tested candidate, followed by its dimer form, and finally a halogen substituted derivative. Stoichiometric complexation ratios with copper ions are measured followed by testing their success of inhibiting amyloid beta aggregation. Developing a slow and steady rate at which drugs capable of inhibiting neurotoxic A𝛽 aggregates in the brain can be released should be more effective and lead to more promising solutions for AD.

The misregulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and transition metal ions contributes to the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). A series of new pyridinophane ligands with indole (L2 and L3) and 4-methyl-8-hydroxyquinoline (L4) modifications were evaluated as a means of targeting the molecular features of AD. These studies contribute to the overall understanding of the therapeutic potential of the pyridinophane backbone as a means of treating AD. In comparison to the parent molecule L1, the order of radical scavenging activity was determined to be L4 > L1 ~ L3 > L2, which is likely related to the reactivity and position of the substitutions. These results demonstrate that the addition of (1) the indole moiety to the pyridine, and (2) the addition of the 4-methyl-8-hydroxyquinoline moiety to the secondary amine on the tetra-aza macrocyclic pyridinophane both disrupt radical scavenging ability, warranting future exploration of these modifications in therapeutic design for AD.

To accomplish many critical reactions and interactions mediated by metals like zinc and copper, Nature uses the amino acid cysteine—often in pairs—that are preorganized in space by a protein. Cysteine proteases are illustrative of the former; zinc finger transcription factors of the latter. Small molecule models of these proteins can serve many roles. They can shed light on the chemical process or ape them for therapeutic gain. Here, a macrocycle is used to preorganize two cysteine residues. These macrocycles are synthesized in three steps. The route begins with a stepwise substitution of a BOC-protected hydrazine group, a protected cysteine, and dimethylamine onto a triazine ring. Next, an acetal is appended onto the compound. Finally, a macrocycle is produced using an acid-promoted homodimerization. The macrocycle product has been characterized using 1H and 13C NMR in 1D and 2D experiments. Additionally, logP, variable temperature NMR, and H/D exchange experiments will be performed to understand the shape of the macrocycle in solution. These studies conclude with a study of how these cysteines bind metal ions. The results of this work will guide their development for biomedical applications including their use as drugs.

Various semiconductor metal oxides such as ZnO, TiO2, WO3, and BiVO4 have been utilized for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting as well as for value added alternative reactions. However, single-phase materials often face multiple challenges including poor charge separation efficiency and surface degradation especially in aqueous environment. BiVO4 is well known as a promising photoanode material, but the above-mentioned shortcomings are still present. Therefore, in order to enhance the PEC performance of BiVO4,our group has focused on doping techniques for BiVO4 with tungsten (W) to yield tungsten doped BiVO4 (W:BiVO4). In addition, polyethylene glycol (PEG) has also been introduced to the material as a morphological control agent. The addition of polymer to the precursor solution helps to control the porosity of the resulting surface film by promoting a less porous and more compact formation of BiVO4 on FTO. The mixture of PEG (1% MW 100,000 : 1% MW 20,000) has been tested. The photochemical oxidation of a solution containing (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) has been performed in acetonitrile with 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAPF6) electrolyte. As a result, photocurrent density of PEG (1% MW 100,000 : 1% MW 20,000) - W:BiVO4 (0.58 mAcm-2 with an applied biased of 0.3 V vs. SCE) has outperformed that of W:BiVO4 without PEG (0.32 mAcm-2). Based on the data obtained, PEG(1% MW 100,000 : 1% MW 20,000) -W:BiVO4 outperformed W:BiVO4 by about 2 times. In the future, the best performing electrode samples will be studied for driving TEMPO-mediated benzyl alcohol oxidation.

Micelles represent an important example of nanoparticles with the ability to host nonpolar molecules in water. Understanding the effect of salts on micelle diffusion is important for enhancing particle insertion into porous materials in the presence of salt brines with application in enhancing oil recovery and soil remediation. In this poster, the effect of two salting-out salts (sodium sulfate and magnesium sulfate) on the diffusion of a non-ionic micelle (tyloxapol) is examined. Micelle diffusion coefficients were experimentally determined in aqueous salt solutions using dynamic light scattering at 25 ˚C. Our experimental results show that the micelle diffusion coefficient is approximately constant until a critical salt concentration is reached. After this concentration, micelle diffusion was found to decrease significantly, and this behavior reflects a corresponding increase in micelle size. To explain our experimental results, we introduce a two-state equilibrium model showing that relatively large surfactant aggregates become thermodynamically more stable than micelles at high salt concentrations. The results of our model were also used to examine the effect of salt gradients on micelle diffusion.

Adamantyl H-phosphinate esters were first introduced by Yiotakis et al. as a protecting group in the synthesis of phosphinopeptides. Gatineau et al. later found adamantyl H- phosphinate esters to be useful in the synthesis of P-stereogenic compounds. Phosphorus compounds have a broad range of applications ranging from pharmaceuticals to agricultural products, making them an area of interest in synthetic chemistry. However, methods for the preparation of P-stereogenic compounds that achieve high enantioselectivity are limited. Gatineau et al. discovered that adamantyl H-phosphinate esters serve as precursors that facilitate this preparation, which they attributed to the ability of the esters to resist racemization when displaced with organometallics. However, their methods were limited by the necessity of chlorophosphine starting materials. In this project, we aimed at developing novel synthetic methods for the preparation of adamantyl H-phosphinate esters which are not limited in terms of available reagents and are less expensive than current known methods. EDC, PivCl, and T3P were utilized in the esterification reactions. Methods were developed to prepare these esters in good yield on a multigram scale without the need for chromatography. An alternative method to the esterification of H-phosphinic acids was also employed that involved the preparation of adamantyl hypophosphite and its conversion into a variety of H-phosphinate esters. However, adamantyl hypophosphite was shown to have limited reactivity.

Artificial photosynthesis utilizes controlled photochemical reactions to store light energy from the sun as chemical potential energy (that of new chemical bonds). This study describes the fabrication and study of nanostructured BiVO4 photoanodes to optimize the capture and conversion of light energy to chemical potential energy. BiVO4 is a promising n-type semiconductor due to its ability to absorb a portion of the visible light spectrum. Moreover, BiVO4 is an eco-friendly material which exhibits an optimal conduction and valence band edge position to perform water oxidation. Research has suggested that the oxidative performance of bismuth vanadate films is based on both the overall surface area and presence of grain boundaries which can alter the chemical conductivity of the photoanode interface. Specifically, this work aims to alter the porosity and structure of the BiVO4 film by controlling the concentration of polymer additive, polyethylene glycol (PEG), used as a templating agent in the precursor sol-gel. Changing the PEG concentration should affect both the surface porosity and film thickness. The application of the film involves a simple liquid-phase, dip-coating deposition which is easily reproducible. We hypothesize that an increase in surface area and porosity of the photoanode interface will result in an increase in overall photocurrent generation. These nanostructured photoanodes were used to measure the oxidation of the stable radical, (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO), via photoelectrochemical analysis. Our findings provide insight into a simple yet effective fabrication procedure of photoanodes for use in renewable solar chemical applications.

Our product seeks to provide a teacher-driven computer programming education platform that allows users total anonymity in communication and grading. The purpose of this software is to provide educators the ability to assign students both in class programming contests that are graded on a time-to-completion basis and to facilitate both guided and collaborative communication about programming and computer software. This product was initially designed to be used in university’s Intro to Programming classes where the professor recognized that students, especially females, were hesitant to participate due to a perceived lack of knowledge of the topic. In any situation, asking questions can be beneficial, and this platform will provide students the ability to ask their peers and professors questions without the fear of negative reflection on their knowledge or understanding. 
The Platform is built on a custom serverless architecture utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Platform hosts a publicly accessible web portal, API layers for integration and data manipulation, and database and object storage solutions for data management and storage. Our choice in using AWS gave us the ability to implement pre-built and managed security solutions for our project. The security of our users information is offloaded immediately to a managed AWS service to minimize potential penetrations.
During the course of the project, we enhanced our time management skills and learnt how to collaborate and communicate within a team. Ultimately the research project will be considered a success if the application promotes better communication and learning within the classroom.

Day traders typically spend most of their day looking at graphs to try to find specific patterns and changes in the market. The chance of making a rewarding investment could be gone while traders try to figure out whether the pattern is good or bad. This tedious and time-consuming job can be made easier and quicker. Our team members, David Greenwell, Alfredo Perez, Zhengwei Zhou, Ahn Nguyen, and Kyle Conte have been working hard to build an algorithm to find one of the best possible market patterns called the three-bar pattern. This three-bar pattern is a pattern one might see in the market, and it shows a turning point in the market. Our client Dr. Zhang, a day trader, was interested in a way to find this pattern in real-time, on a select few stocks. With the help of Dr. Ma, Dr. Wei, and Dr. Kadiyala, our sponsors, we have created the algorithm and are working on implementing a web application for it.

Toyota Financial Services (TFS), being part of a highly regulated industry needs to ensure that all risk management, governance process, and controls are in place to ensure compliance. This entails documenting all the business processes, definitions of their data elements, connecting the defined data elements to the physical attributes in their various applications and databases. Furthermore, they need to document the lineage of the data to ensure that it is flowing correctly through their ecosystem. In addition to these, they must ensure the data quality at the source and through the transformations, it goes through while flowing in their ecosystem.
The problem of the disjointed system to record, store, check and correct all the data in the ecosystem/ no holistic view of data is affecting the employers/ business partners of TFS, the impact of which is unorganized data, manual process of linking physical and business data elements which is time-consuming.
A solution that our team is working towards is to build a data portal where data will be organized by business areas such as Loan Originations, Insurance, Servicing, etc., and various classifications under those areas. We are also implementing a google-like search for any data element which would bring up business definitions, physical attributes, data quality rules, profiles, and any related data associated with it.