Mary Gates Research Scholarships – 2022 Winter Awards

Mary Gates Research Scholarships are competitive scholarships intended to enhance the educational experiences of undergraduate students at the University of Washington while they are engaged in research guided by faculty. With research scholarships, students may be able to focus more attention and time, deeping their inquiry into a discipline or project with a reduced financial burden.

Students receive research scholarships to pursue research in a variety of disciplines.

Applications are accepted twice per year – once in Autumn Quarter and once in Winter Quarter. The scholarships are $5,000 and disburse in installments of $2,500 each over two quarters. Graduating seniors may request to receive a one-quarter award totaling $2,500. Learn more and apply.

Congratulations to the three Bothell Students who received Mary Gates Research Scholarships for the Winter 2022 quarter.

Cameron James Norris
Electrical Engineering, Mentor: Sunwoong Kim, Division of Engineering & Mathematics

I designed approximate and iterative real number multiplier architectures for the IEEE 754 and Posit number systems, implemented them on a Hardware/Software Codesign system that allowed for adjusting between accuracy and efficiency at runtime, and used them to accelerate various image and video processing tasks that led to significant decreases in execution time.

Dessirée Ortaç
Biology, Mentor: Jennifer Davis, Bioengineering & Pathology

Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally. One reason for the large burden of heart disease is that after injury, the heart is unable to regenerate. My research project addresses this key problem and investigates factors that control the fundamental process which underlies heart regeneration- cardiomyocyte proliferation. This project will determine the effects of MBNL1 expression on stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte proliferation and the mechanisms by which MBNL1 acts to regulate this process. I am also interested in studying MBNL1’s effect on cardiomyocyte maturity. This research will contribute to my field of study by identifying novel mechanisms controlling heart repair and remodeling after injury. We hope our findings aid in finding a way to drive heart regeneration in adults who suffer from cardiovascular disease.

Milana Premkumar
Health Studies, Mentor: Sara Webb, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by communication and social impairments deficits. I am investigating alpha power, EEG activity between 8 and 12 Hz, which is found present during quietly resting with greater power (amplitude squared) when the individual’s eyes are closed rather than when their eyes are open. This is thought to reflect increased cortical activation (decreased power) when eyes are open in preparation for attention and cognition. Previous research shows lower alpha power in individuals with ASD as compared to typically developing (TD) and has been associated with attention and cognition and social understanding and imitation in individuals with ASD. I plan to evaluate the association between eyes-closed EEG resting-state alpha power and social responsiveness in youth with and without ASD by gender and diagnosis. We collected data from 152 youth (ASD = 76) ages 8-17 years from an NIH-funded study investigating sex and gender differences in youth with ASD. The youth sat with their eyes closed while we collected high-density EEG data. A fast fourier transformation (FFT) was applied to artifact-free EEG data to extract alpha power for central and posterior electrodes. I calculated the Regions of interest (ROIs) for alpha power over: left frontal, mid frontal, right frontal, left central, left posterior, mid central, mid posterior, right central, and right posterior. Parents of children completed the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS-2), a 65-item rating scale measuring autism traits. I conducted a series of one-way ANOVAs, and correlations to evaluate the differences in frontal, central, and posterior alpha power x group (ASD/TD), gender (male/female), and associations with social responsiveness. Preliminary results comparing alpha power and social responsiveness show significant group differences. This research is important since it helps individuals currently affected with ASD and helps understand the larger class of neurodevelopmental disorders.