In this paper, I describe the process and results of my study on the flight trajectory optimization of a continuously flying solar aircraft. Continuous flight is achieved by cyclic operation, where the trajectory is repeated indefinitely, typically every 24 hours. The word continuously is used in the theoretical sense, as continuous or perpetual flight is not achievable in practice due to degradation of batteries and aircraft components over time. The importance of flight trajectory optimization has been recognized in both general aviation and space applications.

My research began with a news article about PCB pollution in the Hudson River and its effects on a small bottom feeding fish called the Atlantic tomcod. Although this article was geared more toward evolutionary adaptations as a result of environmental pollution, I was drawn to its subtle elements of studying chemical exposure at the molecular level, and I continued to read additional articles and papers concerning toxicology and genetics … My research utilizes Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as yeast, to visualize differences in gene expression following exposure to various concentrations of lead.

Although scientists do not yet fully understand how memories are formed, a protein called phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) is clearly involved. Some children are born with mutated, damaged PDE4D, which results in a genetic condition called acrodysostosis. Kids with acrodysostosis typically have learning disabilities as well as short fingers, short toes, narrow faces, and short height. Currently there is no treatment for acrodysostosis, but this research shows it may be possible to use a small molecule to help mutated PDE4D and treat acrodysostosis.

Each year, nearly 800,000 people in the US suffer strokes. Of these, about 38%, or 300,000, experience some degree of aphasia, or loss of linguistic abilities … Regardless of symptoms, many aphasic patients show marked improvement over time, with some studies reporting up to 40% of patients recovering completely within a year of the stroke … In this project, I analyzed the differences in word use between well-recovered aphasic patients (those that perform well on the Western Aphasia Battery) and normal control subjects on a discourse task.

Synesthesia, he said, is the union of senses otherwise unconnected in a normal brain. He described Albert Einstein using shapes instead of numbers to complete mathematical algorithms, and briefly scoffed at the absurd idea of colored letters. Could it be that none of my classmates saw our teacher’s name in purple with flecks of sandy brown? Were As not inherently fire-truck red nor Z’s metallic gray? Didn’t everyone find it efficient to memorize phone numbers according to their unique color palates?

That summer, I applied to and was accepted to the Wolfram Science Summer School (WSSS) WSSS2012 was hosted at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. At WSSS2012, I met Stephen Wolfram, members of the Wolfram Science team, and numerous computer science enthusiasts from around the world, all with unique and interesting backgrounds. It was after talking to Dr. Wolfram for the first time that I decided to study long-distance cellular automata, or LDCA, a field of cellular automata that had not been extensively documented before.

It all started with social media. Like many Facebook fans of my age, a significant part of my life was spent on social media. As we take knowledge from the infinite pool of cyberspace, cyberspace, in return, instilled appalling social habits, and my social interactions simply became competitions of who can glue eyes to their screen the most. Consequently, for me (and my 819 friends), my speech patterns rescinded to a level akin to OMG LOL I have to get to class.

When I was little I would get indignant when the distinction was made between “people” and “animals.” I would pout and start talking taxonomy, informing some puzzled companion that actually, people are animals. When I read papers on intelligence and memory in slime molds last year, I was reminded of my childhood crusade to unite the animal kingdom. We share a common ancestry with slime molds as we do plants and animals.

When I was in the third grade, ten years ago, my mother constantly felt dizzy and tired. She finally sought medical attention and her blood was drawn for testing, but it wasn’t until a week later that she was told that her hemoglobin levels were so low that she had to go to the hospital immediately. After a stressful series of months following some procedures, including many more blood draws from my anemic mother, she recovered and was able to return to her normal activities … I became fascinated with the … optical properties of blood we could leverage to conduct a wider range of tests … My peers have informed me that the humanities are ever popular because “there’s more than one right answer,” so you can never be wrong.

I’ve always been interested in mathematics. It is the pinnacle of human logic and is unquestionably correct, leading to wonderful models of predicting weather and making transistors. I found math to be a beautiful art form with a personality; some equations are humble, some are lawless, and some are mysterious, teasing for further inquiry … I have conducted research in representation theory, the backbone of many mathematical ideas in algebra, topology, and particle physics.

Living in the intermountain west, I believe that there isn’t a more important resource to both humans and wildlife as water. Along with my early childhood interest in science, I have always been concerned about the availability of water, remembering times when our well water was low, barely yielding enough water for bathing due to the diversion of surface water for agriculture, as well as worsening drought conditions. I was also worried about the overuse of water by humans for seemingly trivial reasons, with little regard to wildlife or habitat needs.

Combinatorics is a field of mathematics that has always fascinated me. Specifically, graph theory, a branch of combinatorics, has always piqued my interest. In general, graph theory deals with the study of mathematical structures, modeled by vertices with edges connecting them. While these graphs can be very simple, they can also get exceedingly complicated in structure; indeed, there are very interesting properties we can say about these graphs. The field is both enormously complex as well as incredibly enlightening … In the summer of ninth grade, I had my first experience with graph theory at a summer math camp called PROMYS.

A year ago I investigated a mathematical problem relating to Latin squares. Most people, whether knowing it or not, have actually seen a Latin square at some point in their lives and many newspapers actually include partial Latin squares on a daily basis in the form of a sudoku puzzle. A Latin square is a grid of cells with numbers in each cell such that no number is repeated in any row or column, so any completed sudoku puzzle is really a 9x9 Latin square.

Current computational devices and techniques are based on silicon microprocessors. Computer manufacturers have been increasing transistor density on computer chip microprocessors at a rate that approximates Moore’s Law, which states that the amount of gates on a single chip will double every two years. Unfortunately, the application of Moore’s Law has been predicted to reach an end because of the physical speed and miniaturization limits of silicon microprocessors. The advantages of DNA Computing include large storage capacity and an ample a supply of DNA, making it a cheap natural resource unlike the cost of fabrication of Si-based computers.

I have always been naturally inclined towards mathematics and science, but a field as foreign as astrophysics seemed like a topic that I would never explore. It wasn’t until the spring of 2013 when I was introduced to the Science Internship Program at UC Santa Cruz, a program that primarily offers astrophysics internships, that I took interest in the topic. Instead of being turned away by the unknown world of outer space, I took it as an opportunity to take a chance and learn something new … I was placed under the mentorship of Dr.

My project originated long ago, when I was barely an infant. Almost every day I visited the Museum of Natural History and had lunch underneath the blue whale after touring the museum, paying special attention to the dinosaurs. Ever since I was young, dinosaurs have held that special interest for me, not in the sense of big scary monsters of a world long gone, but more in the sense of marvels of nature, amazing creatures at the zenith of evolution … when the time came to design my research project, I knew there was only one choice.