Project Archive 2021
Project Archive: Spring 2021
COOKIE RECIPE OPTIMIZATION
Project Advisors: Jacky Liang, Nina Fisherman
The goal of this project is for the students to learn about optimization techniques and how to apply them in a real world task of optimizing cookie recipes. Throughout the project students learned how to design experiments, how optimization algorithms work, and how to bake cookies. With remote workshops, everyone had to bake in their own kitchens and could not rate each others' cookies, so students had to tinker with the baking procedure so the outcomes were more reliable. At the end of the project students produced a chocolate chip cookie recipe that the group rated much higher than the initial recipe.
INTERSTELLAR EXPLORATION
Project Advisors: Anoop Bhat, Michael Nguyen
The project was framed around the idea that we have a resource-limited extrasolar probe: what planets should it explore and in what order? Students spent the initial workshops learning about programming, path planning algorithms, and previous NASA missions. By the middle workshops, they decided to split into two groups. One group focused on designing the probe and selecting star systems to explore, while the other group focused on path planning and visualization. The final product proposed a hypothetical interstellar probe which included an analysis on sensor and structural components for the probe, a justified list of stars to visit, and a visualization of a breadth-first search to find the shortest tour through the selected star systems.
ENvironmental Technology
Project Advisors: Mahima Pannala, Steven Zhang, Sydney Dunn
The goal for this project was to make it easier to maintain house plants with the idea that small changes in our day to day lives can make big impacts on climate change. Students worked on using different plant sensors to create a website where they hosted information about house plants and how to maintain them. Most of the students had never worked with sensors or created a website before, so it was definitely a learning process! The biggest challenge was having both hardware and software involved in a virtual setting, but they were still able to create a great final product that they were proud of! Here is the link to the final website: https://carmenhagerty.github.io/Website/index.html
VIDEO GAME TRAILER
Project Advisors: Caleb Koo, Caleb Lille, Jonathan Huang
Our group set out to design an entire video game and figure out the best way to market it in the form of a trailer. We had to learn a variety of things from editing to design to animation. One of the biggest issues was consistently time and technological difficulties, leading ultimately to having to give up on having actual gameplay in the trailer. This left us scrambling in the last few meetings; however, the students were able to pivot quickly and put together a more story-based trailer using the assets that we had in creative ways.
AI-M OF THE GAME
Project Advisors: Brandon Wang, Brandon Wei
The goal for this project was for the students to learn basic AI game algorithms to beat simple 2-player games like tic-tac-toe and Connect Four, then create their own game algorithm to solve a more challenging game. Students learned game theory and code optimizations to improve their algorithms, and the biggest challenge was balancing between learning theory and writing code with the limited time we had. Eventually, we completed an unbeatable checkers AI that you can see at https://codesandbox.io/s/romantic-firefly-xuydb and play against at https://xuydb.csb.app/.
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE COMMUNITY
Project Advisors: Emily Jordan, Peter Joseph Sauer
Our project consisted of a behavioral experiment created and designed by participants. In particular, our students designed a test determining the effect of Memory Bias and the COVID-19 pandemic. Students had to learn how to design a balanced experiment, use statistical tools correctly, and draw conclusions based on tests and graphics. The biggest challenge was to select the topic itself; students had to search for scholarly publications on various websites to find the premise for their experiment. The result of the project was a presentation on the results and implications of their findings.
POLITICS IN THE INFORMATION AGE
Project Advisors: Jasmine Cheng, Snigdha Agarwal, Tyler Sikov
With the polarization and divisive politics in our contemporary society, what can we do to make changes and help make this world a better place? Create a website, app, design workshops, or studies to make an impact on our community and help people engage in peace talks, local politics, and gain different perspectives.
Keywords: social study, peace study, political science