Ike Akinwande

Oklahoma City, OK

Advisor: Dr. Satish Nagarajaiah

Ike is a first-year graduate student in the Rice University's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. This summer he investigated the development of strain sensing carbon nanotubes.

Christina Berry

New Orleans, LA

Advisor: Dr. Robert Raphael

Christina is a junior at Rice University, majoring in bioengineering. She plans to pursue a career in industry upon completing her bachelor’s degree. Her summer research involved investigating the effects of cholesterol on the dipole potential.

Alex Brewer III

Spring, TX

Advisor: Dr. Robert Raphael

Alex is a junior undergraduate student in Rice University's Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department. During the summer, he researched hearing loss in mice. He performed an auditory brainstem response test by sending sound waves into the ears of selectively bred mice lacking the Tecta gene, a critical component of various membranes. After recording any electrical activity, he analyzed the integrity of various proteins and membranes within the cochlea.

Amanda Burch

Advisor: Dr. Charles Koelbel

Amanda is a junior undergraduate student in computer science Carnegie Mellon University. Her research looked at known code optimization techniques and how they apply to the Play Station 3’s new architecture-- the Cell Broadband Engine. In particular she tested the application of a loop fusion algorithm to program code on Cell to lesson cache misses and thereby improve Cell’s overall performance.

Jamie Chatman

Advisor: Dr. Katherine Donato

Jamie is a fourth-year graduate student in Rice University’s Statistics Department. She spent her summer beginning to work on her dissertation, focusing on a clustering algorithm used for university admissions. She also finished working on a meta-analysis on the Hispanic Paradox and infant mortality in collaboration with the Sociology Department. Jamie expects to graduate in 2007

Jose Cienfuegos

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. John Olson

Jose is a senior undergraduate student in neurobiology at the University of Texas at Austin. During the summer, he worked on developing a more efficient way to mass produce hemoglobin in E. coli to use as a blood substitute.

Maya Clark

Monroe, LA

Advisor: Dr. Ed Atkins

Maya is an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at Louisiana State University. During the summer, she conducted computer aided design research under the advisement of Professor Ed Akin. Maya created mechanical models in SolidWorks 2004 and analyzed those models using CosomoWorks. She will graduate in the spring of 2007.

Nita Clark

Baton Rouge, LA

Advisor: Dr. Carrie Masiello

Nita is a junior undergraduate student in chemistry at Louisiana State University. Her research concerned carbon oxidation state or Cox. Cox is a fundamental property of the earth system and is controlled by photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition. Her research dealt with mass lost during litterbag experiments that will allow the development of hypotheses on how Cox will vary with decomposition.

Melodie Cleveland

Winnebago, NE

Advisor: Dr. Lydia Kavraki

Melodie is a computer science major with an emphasis in bioinformatics at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During the summer, she researched Single Nucleotide Polymorphism:rs947198 in Diabetes Mellitus Type II to help reveal variants in evolutionary diseases to aid in the creation of algorithms in computational biology.

Michael Contreras

Anaheim, CA

Advisor: Dr. Satish Nagarajaiah

Daniel Covarrubias

Advisor: Dr. Marek Kimmel

Daniel is a fifth-year graduate student at Rice University, having entered Rice after completing his undergraduate degree in the Statistics Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He researched statistical genetics, in particular the analysis of sib-pairs under various sampling scenarios. Daniel expects to graduate in 2007.

Marvin Cummings Jr.

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Enrique Barrera

Marvin is a graduate of Texas Tech University. Now a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Rice, Marvin’s research is focused on targeted drug delivery for cancer patients. Marvin expects to graduate in 2010.

Emily de La Garza

Houston, Texas

Advisor: Dr. Charles Koelbel

Emily is a junior in the computer science program at the University of Houston-Downtown. This summer she was using the EMAN program to compare and contrast the use of batch queues with performance models and Condor.

Chantal Edwards

Advisor: Dr. Yin Zhang

Chantal is a graduate student in in the Rice University’s Computational and Applied Mathematics Department. During the summer, she worked on her thesis on alternating projection methods for conic programming with applications in compressive sensing. Chantal expects to graduate in 2007.

Rachel Greff

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Mike Gustin

Rachel is a junior undergraduate student in biochemistry at Rice University. During the summer, she conducted research on the function of different genes in the yeast, Candida albican.

Juan Guzman

El Paso, Texas

Advisor: Dr. Pedro Alvarez

Juan is a junior undergraduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso. During the summer, he worked in a research project running computer simulations to complete a sensitivity analysis of a groundwater BTEX/Ethanol contamination, collaborating with Rice University Ph.D. student Diego Gomez, Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Pedro Alvarez, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Garnet Harris

College Station, TX

Advisor: Dr. Frank Toffoletto

Garnet is studying physics and astronomy at Prairie View A&M University, and plans to consider graduate school upon completing his bachelor’s degree. His research involved on developing a numerical algorithm to compute realistic ground magnetic field perturbations.

Debora Huang

Richardson, TX

Advisor: Dr. Marcia O’Malley

Deborah is junior undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at Rice University. Her summer research involved running experiments to find the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) for natural frequency.

Jennifer Jamison

Austin, TX

Advisor: Dr. Vicki Colvin

Jennifer is a fourth-year student in Rice University's Chemistry Department, she joined Rice after completing her B.S. in chemistry (cum laude) at the University of Texas at Arlington in 2003. She spent her summer working on developing analytical ultracentrifugation to characterize solution-phase nanomaterials, such as cadmium selenide and iron oxides, and studying antigen-antibody recognition in nanobioconjugates. Jennifer expects to graduate in 2007. She plans to pursue a post-doctoral position immediately after finishing at Rice and ultimately desires to be a research professor.

Danielle Kramer

Sugar Land, TX

Advisor: Dr. Charles Koelbel

Danielle is a sophomore in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. During the summer, she studied the effect of inaccurate cost estimates on various Grid scheduling algorithms.

Marlen Leal

Sugar Land, TX

Advisor: Dr. Qililn Li

Marlen is a senior undergraduate student studying geography and environmental studies at Texas State University.   Her research tackled the obstacle of membrane corruption by natural organic matter.

Aramis Martinez

El Paso, TX

Advisor: Dr. Patricia Reiff

Aramis received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas El Paso, and is now a graduate student in Rice University's Physics and Astronomy Department. His summer research focused on the integration of the Tsyganenko 2004 storm time geomagnetic field model. He plans to graduate in 2007.

James May

Austin, TX

Advisor: Dr. Joff Silberg

Travis McPhail

Dallas, TX

Advisor: Dr. Joe Warren

Travis is a third-year graduate student in Rice University's Computer Science Department. He spent his summer working on deformation and image processing techniques to create medical tools to assist doctors in planning cancer treatments. He plans to start a consulting company and work with government and industry labs. His undergraduate degree is from Rice University. Travis expects to graduate in 2009.

Rochelle Mellish

Houston, TX

Dr. Andrew Meade

Rochelle is a sophomore at Princeton University. This summer, Rochelle’s research project involved finding a proper mathematical model for the heating patterns in the bearings of a 1/4 scale V-22 Osprey aircraft. This research attempts to use the model to enhance a health monitoring system (HMS) that will be used for the V-22 during wind tunnel testing. The HMS is intended to alert wind tunnel test engineers when temperatures in the V-22 are approaching redline conditions. Upon completing her bachelor’s degree, Rochelle plans to pursue a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering.

Sheila Moore

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Antonios G. Mikos

Sheila is a fourth-year graduate student in Rice University's Bioengineering Department at Rice University. Her research concerned cartilage regeneration using a biodegradable polymer scaffold. Sheila plans to graduate in 2008.

Omar Nava

El Paso, TX

Advisor: Dr. Fathi Ghorbel

Omar is a senior undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at Rice University. His research involved building a power supply to drive two different stepper motors for high-precision positioning of a pipe inspection system.

Josue Noyola-Martinez

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Rudy Guerra

Josue is a fifth-year graduate student in Rice University's Statistics Department. He spent his summer teaching and mentoring students from the Rice University Summer Institute of Statistics (RUSIS) and working on research that aimed at finding a accurate error estimates of the tau-leap algorithm. Upon graduation he plans on pursuing a career in applied statistics either in industry or academia. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Texas at Austin. Josue plans to graduate in 2007.

Joanna Papakonstantinou

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Richard Tapia

Joanna is a fifth-year graduate student in Rice University's Computational and Applied Mathematics Department . During the summer, she researched the historical development of the (n+1)- point Secant method. Joanna plans to graduate in 2007.

Martine Paulynice

Brooklyn, NY

Advisor: Dr. Jane Grande-Allen

Eual A. Phillips

Bakersfield, CA

Advisor: Dr. Enrique Barrera

Eual is a sophomore undergraduate student in chemistry at Grambling State University. His summer research involved analyzing phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA), a heat shield ablator used in thermal protection systems for reentry space vehicles.

Nabor Reyna Jr.

Harlingen, TX

Advisor: Dr. Lydia Kavraki

Grace Rojas

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Enrique Barrera

Grace is a third-year student in the Ph.D. program in Materials Science. Her main research involved studying carbon nanotube nanocomposites, focusing on the synergistic effect of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes in the mechanical and electrical prosperities of epoxy/carbon fiber composites. This work will allow the creation of new multifunctional materials to be used in multiple engineering applications. Grace plans to graduate in 2008.

Delia Shelton

Brenham, TX

Advisor: Dr. Lisa Meffert

Delia is a junior undergraduate student studying animal behavior at Southwestern University. Her research involved natural and stereotypic behaviors in captive animals.

Thomas Searles

Albany, GA

Advisor: Dr. Junichiro Kono

Thomas is a first-year graduate student in Rice University's Electrical and Computer Engineering and Applied Physics Departments. This summer, he performed temperature and magnetic field dependent photoluminescence emission and excitation spectroscopy on carbon nanotube films. The results of these measurements will provide information that later will be used to determine pertinent information for future studies of the optical properties of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. Specifically, he plans to perform optically-detected resonance spectroscopy to investigate dark excitonic states of SWNTs. Thomas expects to graduate in 2010.

Clayton Simien

Port Arthur, TX

Advisor: Dr. Thomas Killian

Clayton is a graduate student in Rice University's Physics and Astronomy Department. His summer research focused on helping to construct and use a laser at a wavelength of 422 nm to image and study ion dynamics in ultracold neutral strontium plasma. Clayton plans to graduate in 2007.

Erica Solis

Dallas, TX

Advisor: Dr. Bonnie Bartel

Erica is a senior undergraduate student at Rice University, double majoring in biological sciences and anthropology. Her summer research focused on the analysis of mutants deficient in peroxisomal processes with the goal of helping dissect the complexity of auxin biosynthesis in plant peroxisomes. She used the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana to identify and characterize proteins that facilitate the conversion of indole-3-bytyric acid (IBA) to idole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which are both naturally occurring auxins. She used a forward genetics approach involving the isolation of IBA response (ibr) mutants.

Evan Stade

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. T.S. Eugene Ng

Evan is a junior undergraduate student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. During the summer, he researched network delay space approximation and modeling under the tutelage of Professor T.S. Eugene Ng and Rice University Graduate Students Guohui Wang and Bo Zhang.

Pedro Tapia

Lockhart, TX

Advisor: Dr. Anne Papakonstantinou

Pedro is an undergraduate majoring in mathematics at Texas State University. He is also a Houston-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Scholar. His summer research focused on the attitudes of teachers toward their career and the consequences of those opinions.

Jesse Turner

Memphis, TN

Advisor: Dr. Dennis Cox

Jesse is a graduate student in Rice University’s Computational and Applied Mathematics Department. His summer project consisted of fixing a model that estimated synaptic conductances from white noise in neural cells. Jesse also plans to continue his study of Markov processes to gain a better understanding of the mathematics involved in the model. Jesse expects to graduate in 2007.

Joseph Valdez

San Pedro, CA

Advisors: Dr. Fred Pereira

Joseph is a Rice University undergraduate majoring in bioengineering. His summer research pertained to understanding the causes and remedies of hearing loss in mice. He will graduate in 2007, and plans to attend graduate school at Rice.

Valerie Valencia

San Antonio, TX

Advisor: Dr. Yousif Shamoo

Valerie is an undergraduate at Texas State University. Her summer research project focused on protein expression and purification of the AK gene in Methanococcus maripaludis.

Monique Vassell

McAllen, TX

Advisors: Dr. Elaine Hale

Monique is completing her master’s degree at the University of Texas-Pan America, will apply to graduate school at Rice University in the spring. During the summer, her research dealt with the mathematical modeling of a batch bioreactor.

Leticia Maria Vega

Friendswood, TX

Advisor: Dr. Pedro Alvarez

Leticia is a first-year graduate student in Rice University's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Her research focused on the inhibition of biofilm formation, specifically the role that nickel phosphate may play in its inhibition. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston. Leticia expects to graduate in 2011.

Kevin Wilson

Houston, TX

Advisor: Dr. Andrew Meade

Kevin is a junior at the University of Notre Dame, pursuing degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial design.  This summer, Kevin’s research project involved using artificial neural networks to monitor various system health parameters on the V-22 tilt rotor aircraft, currently in use with the US Armed Services.  By using the method known as sequential function approximation, these networks allow for faster data interpretation and real time monitoring and adjustment.  Upon completing his degrees, Kevin plans to pursue graduate studies in engineering and design.