Summer research students to present their findings this week

Students participating in the 2024 Summer Research Program will present the results of their work at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 28.

Their projects included:

Angelo De Asis ’26, Jason Farnsworth ’26, and Brad Spendlove, computer science professor: Handwritten or Digital Notes? Why not both! Using language and knowledge modeling to improve OCR for handwritten class notes 

Alaina Snider ’26, Gregory Wietrzykowski ’26 and Peter Sheldon, Charles A. Dana Professor of Physics & Engineering: “The Bumpy Ramp Problem” (Dynamics of an accelerating vehicle with regular obstruction)

Madeline Dearie ’25 and Taryn Robertson, professor of education: Understanding Teacher Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Lynchburg: A phenomenological inquiry

Alex Archinal ’27, Jarad Walker ’27, and Sarah Sojka, professor of environmental studies and physics: Examining variation in photosynthetic pigments in eelgrass and cordgrass 

Tristan Gregory ’25, Maegan Lloyd ’26, and Gerry Sheryako, professor of history: Oral history of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College 

Ethan Caldwell ’25, Gracie Oliver ’25, and Erin Heller, professor of biology: Ticked Off: Determining the presence, abundance, and distribution of potentially pathogen-carrying ticks across an urbanized landscape in Lynchburg, VA, with an emphasis on determining the prevalence of Borrelia Burgdorferi infected ticks

Reese Cooper ’25 and Timothy Patrick, professor of psychology: Not So Fast: The influence of auditory rhythms on the speed of perceptual decision making 

Shauna Shephard ’25, Luke Chapman ’25, Peter Sheldon, and Katrin Schenk, professor of physics and engineering: Analyzing the potential effects of satellite constellations on telescopic observations and long exposure images over the next five decades