Whether used for auto-pilot in planes, walking robots, medical devices, industrial chemical processes, or just getting your room to the right temperature, control algorithms are vital to an array of applications. Just like human operators, autonomous systems (processes that regulate themselves) require feedback in order to adjust and adapt.

Our goal is to introduce students to the field of microbial ecology by having them learn how microbes are affected by their environment and vice versa. We want them to have the ability to make this project their own by having them select an unidentified microbial genome of their choice from an online database, figure out the potential taxonomy of that organism by reconstructing its evolutionary history, and then figuring out what it is capable of doing in the environment by examining the function of its genes.

Superconductors, materials with zero electrical resistance, have many applications, from Magnetic Levitation trains to electronic devices. One fascinating phenomenon of superconductors is called the Meissner effect: they completely expel magnetic fields, so they float when placed over magnets. In a modern materials science laboratory this is the definitive test of superconductivity and the best way to determine obustness in devices.

Categorization decisions can be a matter of life or death. For example, animals must learn the categories of plants that are dangerous in order to avoid being poisoned. Humans can learn categories using at least two different brain systems; a rule-based system and a procedural system. The rule-based system categorizes objects according to simple verbalizable rules and relies on working memory, executive attention, and logical reasoning.

Investigation of cancer growth is a heavily researched subject, one which a multitude of research labs focus on. Until about the 1970s, most of these researchers studied only biochemical cues of cancers to develop drugs and modalities of treatment. However, with the advent of advanced imaging and measurement techniques, the biophysical and mechanical cues have been proven to play important roles in cancer growth. They hold great potential to un-ravel the mysteries of cancer in the future.

The activation and functionalization of robust carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds in alkanes remains an active field of study due to its promise to yield valuable chemicals from relatively inexpensive sources. Ultimately, gaining a mechanistic understanding of this type of reactivity will have implications for better catalyst design as it pertains to the renewable production of common chemicals. Our approach to do this involved studying an iron-based system that has shown a similar type of reactivity.

In this project I would like to show the students how epidemics (which refers to any phenomena that propagates in a population including infectious diseases, flow of information, spread of wildfires, etc.) are modeled as differential equations and how they run and spread through a group of individuals. We would see how the connectivity and interactions among individuals can speed up or slow down the process and come up with effective strategies to prevent the propagation or to facilitate it.

Making category judgments is an essential part of the human condition. Is the dog hungry or not? Is this person friend or foe? Our ability to categorize things allows us to respond appropriately for the situation and is an essential survival trait (responding to a mountain lion the same way you would a cat is not a viable long-­term strategy). One of the most mysterious aspects of human categorization is how we learn to generalize knowledge to new environments and situations.

C-­H bond activation is an attractive avenue to explore for its wide applicability in many fields including energy storage. The mechanism behind the activation of robust C-­H bonds remains of great interest due to the myriad of benefits it promises to bring to these fields once it is better understood. With this in mind, the goal of this project is to investigate this phenomenon in a well-­defined bimetallic iron complex. To study this system, a series of model compounds will be synthesized and subsequently characterized via NMR, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and X-­ray crystallography.

Making category judgments is an essential part of the human condition. Is the dog hungry or not? Am I hungry or not? Is Trump a serious candidate or is this some sort of publicity stunt? Our ability to categorize things allows us to respond appropriately for the situation and has been an essential survival trait (responding to a mountain lion the same way you would a cat is not a viable long-term strategy).

Urate oxidase (UOx) is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of uric acid to 5-hydroxyisourate with the aid of molecular oxygen and water. One of the most unique features about this enzyme is that the oxidation of uric acid can occur without a metal cofactor such as Fe, Cu or Zn. Most enzymes of this class need to utilize a metal cofactor for the reaction to occur. Another key importance of this enzyme is that recombinant UOx is used medicinally for the treatment of gout, which is a painful arthritis caused by build-up of uric acid.

Deposited oxide thin films are used in many advanced electronic applications such as logic and memory devices, III–V power and high frequency devices, optoelectronics, tunnel junctions, and spintronic. Oxides are thermodynamically stable but there are obstacles like poor mechanical properties and conductivity. The Holy Grail is the capability to tune electronic properties of oxides to reach an all oxide solid state device. This would be specially interesting for power device applications as power devices are expected withstand high current, voltage and power.

This project is dedicated to gravity or turbidity currents. A gravity current propagated above the floor of the ocean, namely, turbidity current, is a main source of fossil fuels, and for this reason tracking them there, and finding their exact locations is one of the major interests of oil companies these days. In order to reach to this goal, studying the physical properties of gravity currents, such as their density distribution, their height and their velocity looks necessary.

How does the autopilot keep an airplane on course without the pilot adjusting the rudders and engines? How does the thermostat keep a room at a specified temperature without anyone turning the radiator and/or A/C on and off? How do Segways transport people instead of planting them on their faces? The answer to all these questions is "mathematical modeling and feedback." Control Engineers use knowledge of the behavior of airplanes, room temperatures, two-wheeled platforms, and other engineering systems to write programs that react in the right way: Is it too hot? Turn on the fan.

The objective of the lab is to tackle various problems using reinforcement learning and deep learning techniques. We are working on a problem called 'Multi Armed Bandits' in which the task is to be maximize the reward obtained in an unknown environment. We are also working on a project based on Optical Character Recognition(OCR).

The Gaines Lab conducts research on a wide variety of marine ecology, fisheries, and biological conservation topics. Researchers use experiments and models to help understand past and current environmental conditions, and forecast future events. Our overarching objective is to produce science that supports the sustainable use of shared natural resources. Sometimes our research is finding an answer to an unknown ecology question, for example how a predator and a prey species interact with one another.