Gibbons Summer Research Program
The Gibbons Summer Research Program was established by John A. Gibbons, Jr. '64 to enable students who are rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors to work with members of the faculty on projects that use technology to explore interdisciplinary areas and to develop fresh approaches to the study of complex problems. The students benefit not only by spending the summer focusing on a complex issue, but, as importantly, working closely with a faculty member, and learning how they study and analyze problems. Because the Gibbons Program values interdisciplinary work and thinking, students do not need to be working on projects in their major.
For more information about the program and its opportunities, contact Jennifer Snow (jsnow@bowdoin.edu).
Stephanie Sun '18: Charted environmental change by studying old maps from Inner Mongolia (1930-2010).
Walker Kennedy '15: Developed software to help students learn complex rhythms in traditional Afro-Latin music.
Assessing the effects of the environmental pollutant Dibutyl Phthalate on motor activity in the mammalian spinal cord and the neuroprotective effects of Rosmarinic Acid
Manuel Diaz-Rios, Professor, Departments of Neuroscience and Biology
Sophie Brett '25
Anticipating and removing barriers to the dissemination of educational research: Supporting the Bridging Preschool and Kindergarten Science project (NSF #2201673) through an intentional and robust web presence
Alison Riley Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Education
David Guan '25
Extremal invariants in families of highly symmetric graphs
Eric Ramos, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics
Justin Huang '24
The Effect of Competition, Inflation, and Economic Policy on the Pricing of Electric Vehicles
Erik Nelson, Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Ben Israel '25
The Capability Approach and its Technological Applications
Fernando Nascimento, Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Anya Workman '25
Digital Ricoeur
Fernando Nascimento, Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Zeb Becker '24
Development of a Web Application to Gather Large-Scale Datasets from Multiple Sources
Fernando Nascimento, Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Zoe Becker '24
Impact of COVID Restrictions, Death Counts, and Vaccination Rates on Maine Business Closures
Erik Nelson, Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Harry Cooper '22
Quantifying Carbon Sequestration on Bowdoin-Owned Properties using GIS and Long-Term Datasets
Phil Camill, Rusack Professor, Environmental Studies and Earth and Oceanographic Science Program, Shana Stewart-Deeds, Laboratory Instructor, Department of Biology, and Keisha Payson, Associate Director, Sustainable Bowdoin
Saul Cuevas-Landeros '23
Metaphors and Technology
Eric Chown, Sarah and James Bowdoin Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Brian Liu '25
Building an Application for Algorithmic Composition
Frank Mauceri, Senior Lecturer, Department of Music
Juntao Lu '23
Random Braiding in Graph Configuration Spaces
Eric Ramos, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics
Aggie Macy '24
Place Names and Memory in Greenland
Susan Kaplan, Professor, Department of Anthropology and Director of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center and Genevieve LeMoine, Curator, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Lucy O'Sullivan '23
Using the Software DeepLabCut to Understand the Effects of Ketamine on Anxiety in Rats after Maternal Separation
Jennifer Honeycutt, Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience
Claire Roberts '24
Diakritikos
Robert Sobak, Associate Professor, Department of Classics
Sharif Abouleish '24
Exploring the Queer Possibilities of Rogue-Like Video Games
Angel Matos, Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program
Salina Chin '23
Creating a Virtual Walking Tour Through Queer Portland
Theo Greene, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Stephen Crawford '22
Machine Learning Technology to Analyze the Composition of Award-Winning Photographs
Student initiative supported by members of the Department of Computer Science and the Digital and Computational Studies Program
Kasey Cunningham '22
Examining Municipal Capacity to Respond to Public Health Challenges
Eileen Johnson, Lecturer and Program Manager, Environmental Studies Program
Cobra Curtis '23
Virtual Wayfinding in Oceania: Developing an Engaging and Remote Learning Experience for Bowdoin Students
Willi Lempert, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Jonas Eichenlaub '22
Identifying Gerrymandering Through Mathematics
Jack O'Brien, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
Charlotte Gehrs '24
Applications of Energy Data Compression in Smart Cities
Sean Barker, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Jackson Hansen '23
History Through the Use of Commercially-Available Computer Games
Patrick Rael, Professor, Department of History
Jeremy Hoyne Grosvenor '22
Plant Physiology and Remote Sensing
Barry Logan, Professor, Department of Biology
Ramiro Storni '23
Mapping Moving Pictures
Dana Byrd, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History
Rose Xi '22
Building an App to Support Researchers and Teachers in Identifying Scientific and Engineering Practices in Preschoolers' Play
Alison Riley Miller, Assistant Professor and Lauren Saenz, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Education
John Auer '23
Patterns of Investments and Shareholding in Maine During the Period of Early Industrialization
Zorina Khan, Professor, Department of Economics
Thais Carrillo '23
Increasing Accessibility and Spatial Reasoning in the Earth Sciences using Virtual Reality
Jacky Baughman, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Cobra Curtis '23
Virtual Kent Island: Developing Interactive Virtual Models for Bowdoin’s Historical Environmental Science Research Station
Allen Harper, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Louisa Izydorczak '20
Symbolic Logic
Scott Sehon, Professor, Department of Philosophy
Evan Phillips '22
Concept Tagging Tool
Fernando Nascimento, Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Joosep Vorno '22
Reading Across Genres and Databases: Topic Modeling and its Applications Refined
Birgit Tautz, George Taylor Files Professor of Modern Languages, Department of German
Matthew Donnelly ‘22
Virtual Reality Exploration
Stacy Doore, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Lily Fullam '21
The Hand and the Machine: Post-Digital Printmaking at Bowdoin
Carrie Scanga, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Visual Arts
Abby Gonneville '21
Traditional Structures and Outcomes in Africa
Ericka Albaugh, Associate Professor, Department of Government
Eric Hall '20
Serious Games: Critical Play for History
Patrick Rael, Professor, Department of History
Liam Juskevice '21
beargov.com: A Congressional Database
Mohammad Irfan, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, and Digital and Computational Studies
Cameron Markovsky '21
Leveraging Python and MATLAB to enhance quantitative reasoning and conceptual understanding in the Earth Sciences
Jacky Baughman, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Griffin Ng '22
Debates in Digital Humanities Pedagogy: The Faculty Workshop
Crystal Hall, Associate Professor, Digital and Computational Studies
Minah Nguyen '20
Exploring Scientific and Engineering Practices in Preschoolers' Play
Alison Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Education
Ariana Smith '21
96 Embroidered Textiles at the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator, The Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum
Ishani Agarwal ‘20
Digital Survey of Political Cinema
Allison Cooper, Assistant Professor, Departments of Romance Languages and Literatures and Cinema Studies
Kylie Best ‘19
La depanneuse: Targeted Language Assistance for Non-Native Students of French
Katherine Dauge-Roth, Associate Professor, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Beatrice Cabrera ‘20
Understanding Diversity: Social Networks, Student Engagement, and Campus Life
Ingrid Nelson, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Nathan Colannino ‘19
Can RTF GNSS Provide Insight into Short-Term Fluctuations in Marsh Elevation?
Peter Lea, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Camille Farradas ‘19
Heavy Water: Video and Sound Installation at the Jepson Center
Erin Johnson, Visiting Assistant Professor, Departments of Art (Visual Arts) and Digital and Computational Studies
Augustus Gilchrist ‘20
Mapping Objects and Photographs in The Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum Collection
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator, The Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum
Caroline Godfrey ‘19
Using Copter Drones with Structure-from-Motion Photography and Infrared Sensors to Study Salt Marshes
Peter Lea, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Dylan Hayton-Ruffner ‘20
Digital Ricoeur Concept Searching
Fernando Nascimento, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Digital and Computational Studies
Junyoung Hwang ‘20
Diakritikos: Greek App Development
Robert Sobak, Associate Professor, Department of Classics
Ian Stewart ‘20
Developing Projects for Computational Expressivity
Steve Majercik, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Sarah Bay Cheng, Professor, Department of Theater and Dance
Michael Walsh ‘19
Mind the Gap: Exploring (Mis)alignment in Inservice and Preservice Science Teacher Mentoring Relationships
Alison Riley Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Education
Zoe Aarons '19
Michele LaVigne, Assistant Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Science, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Quyen Ha '18
Birgit Tautz, George Taylor Files Professor of Modern Languages, Department of German
Katherine Henneberger '20
Janet Martin, Professor of Government, Department of Government And Legal Studies
Xin Jiang '20
Susan Kaplan, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center, Arctic Museum And Arctic Studies Program and Genny LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, Arctic Museum And Arctic Studies Program
Jessica Solis '19
Erika Nyhus, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Department of Neuroscience
Stephane Sun '18
Sakura Christmas, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies, Department of History
Michael Walsh '19
Alison Riley Miller, Assistant Professor of Education, Department of Education
Grace Wheeler '19
Hannah Reese, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology
Dean Zucconi '19
Crystal Hall, Associate Professor of Digital Humanities, Digital And Computational Studies, Allison Cooper, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Cinema Studies, Davida Gavioli, Senior Lecturer in Italian, and Arielle Saiber, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of Romance Languages And Literatures.
David Joseph Anderson '19
Erin Johnson, Visiting Artist, Department of Art
Wendy Dong '18
Matthew Klingle, Associate Professor, Department of History and Environmental Studies Program
Article:
Gibbons Student Wendy Dong ’18: Revealing the History of Diabetes and Native Americans
Harriet Claire Fisher '17
Brian Piper, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Hadley Horch, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Diego Alonzo Guerrero '18
Doris Santoro, Associate Professor, Department of Education
Jenny Yuan Chun Ibsen '18
Ann Kibbie, Associate Professor, Department of English
Logan Jamieson Jackonis '17
Ericka Albaugh, Associate Professor, Department of Government and Legal Studies
Salome Lepez Da Silva Duarte '19
Hadley Horch, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
James Isaac Little '19
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Eric Daniel Mercado '18
Allen Harper, Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Erika Nyhus, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology, Department of Neuroscience
Son Duy Ngo '17
Bill Barker, Isaac Henry Wing Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Sean Barker, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, and Mohammad Irfan, Assistant Professor of Digital and Computational Studies and Computer Science, Digital and Computational Studies and Department of Computer Science
Bridget Elise Went '17
Bill Barker, Isaac Henry Wing Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Sean Barker, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, and Mohammad Irfan, Assistant Professor of Digital and Computational Studies and Computer Science, Digital and Computational Studies and Department of Computer Science
Garrett Zachary Carver ‘17
Matthew Klingle, Associate Professor, Department of History and Environmental Studies Program
Garrett Carver spent the summer working with Matthew Klingle to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns in diabetes research and in the distribution of the disease after World War II. In particular, Carver used topic modeling to identify historical trends in biomedical diabetes research among specific demographic groups (e.g., Native Americans, African Americans, etc.).
Ethan Icarus Crow ‘15
Marcos Lopez, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ethan Crow conducted research with Marcus Lopez on the human and non-human aspects of strawberry production in California and Baja California. He developed a visual analysis that included data ranging from water distribution systems to the racial composition of residents in strawberry producing communities. The project's aim was to analyze a complex food system.
Riley Suzanne Cirillo Freedman ‘17
David Hecht, Assistant Professor, Department of History
Riley Freedman ’17 began designing a new website on the history of energy for David Hecht to include maps of global energy production and distribution, energy-use data, a timeline of major developments and key inventions, and biographies of important historical actors. The website will be used for Hecht’s History of Energy course in a future semester.
Laura Jeanne Griffee ‘17
Jackie Brown, Assistant Professor, Department of Art
Laura Griffee spent the summer working with Jackie Brown to develop a space for visitors to virtually explore Brown’s sculptures. She researched 3-D spaces, online galleries, and various software applications to conceive of ways for visitors to interact with the art in ways they cannot in real space. She and Brown would like visitors to be able to rotate the sculptures and learn more about them by clicking on them.
Article:
A New Way of Experiencing Sculpture: Laura Griffee '17 Creates Virtual Installation for Art Professor Jackie Brown
Wildon Rutherford Kaplan ‘17
Susan Kaplan, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Director, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Wildon Kaplan spent the summer working with a map that once belonged to Robert Bartlett, captain of the Karluk ship. In 1913, the ship became trapped in Arctic ice and eventually sank. For the Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum, Kaplan created a digital map using ArcGIS and Story Maps to analyze how sea ice in the Arctic has dramatically changed between 1913 and today. The project examined the journey of the Karluk as well as the effects of climate change in the area.
Ruiqi (Sally) Li ‘18
Mary Lou Zeeman, R. Wells Johnson Professor, Department of Mathematics and
Mohammad Irfan, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Sally Li is interested in how people get inspired to garden and to eat locally. She spent the summer working with Mary Lou Zeeman and Mohammad Irfan to apply a mathematical concept called “diffusion of innovation” to urban gardening. Diffusion of innovation refers to the study of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through a culture. Specifically, Li examined how people’s social networks influence their decision to garden and to eat local foods. She used Brunswick’s community garden as a case study.
Daniel Antonio Mejia ‘17
Nancy Riley, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Daniel Mejia and Nancy Riley worked together to develop maps to highlight her research on the experience of Chinese people in Hawaii, and the role of race and segregation in Hawaiian society. Mejia used ArcGIS to create maps to examine the residential dispersion and segregation of Chinese in Hawaii over the past 150 years.
Caroline Elizabeth Montag ‘17
Sarah McMahon, Associate Professor, Department of History
Caroline Montag spent the summer in the College Archives researching the 15 years that followed after women were first admitted to Bowdoin. She was interested in examining their views on coeducation and how the campus responded to their arrival on campus. Using statistical analysis on quantitative data, she examined various trends, including legacy rates and academic achievement as more women were admitted.
Gabriella Julia Papper ‘18
Crystal Hall, Visiting Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Program
Gabriella Papper worked with Crystal Hall to examine old weather reports, letters, maps and other primary sources to determine what General Joshua Chamberlain saw as he stood on Little Round Top and won the pivotal Battle at Gettysburg during the Civil War. She generated a visibility analysis to see how the vegetation in July 1863 and the topography of the area might have affected what Chamberlain could see and the decisions he made.
Helen Lincoln Wieffering ‘16
Erika Nyhus, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program
Helen Wieffering spent the summer working with Erika Nyhus investigate the cognitive processes involved in remembering the past. She assisted Nyhus in analyzing three electroencephalography (EEG) studies to detect the direction of the flow of information between brain regions during memory retrieval.
Clara Oreskes Belitz '17
Jack Gieseking, New Media and Data Visualization Specialist, Digital and Computational Studies Initiative
Clara Belitz spent the summer working with Jack Gieseking to scrape data from Tumblr to study cultures and identities of transgender men (female-to-male, FtM). Using social network analysis, text analysis, and image analysis Clara examined this data to determine how information is shared, the trends in portraying themselves, and the positive and/or negative senses of self within the FtM community.
Daniel Jordan Cohen '15
Laura Toma, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Daniel Cohen in collaboration with Laura Toma, spent the summer developing an application for creating Admissions Office tour schedules that not only accommodate each tour guide's personal schedule but can also optimize parameters such as diversity. While the application was designed primarily for scheduling the tour guides, the model could be generalized to solve other scheduling problems on campus.
Tyler William DeAngelis '15
Dana Byrd, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History
Tyler DeAngelis spent the summer working with Dana Byrd to explore the material culture of Mitchelville, South Carolina (today's Hilton Head Island). He used ArcGIS, historical maps, topography, artifacts, and photographs to map the town and culture of Mitchelville.
Lucy MacLean Knowlton '16
Sarah McMahon, Associate Professor, Department of History
Lucy Knowlton worked with Sarah McMahon to examine the "community" of shipyard workers at Pennell Brothers Shipbuilding Company of Brunswick, Maine from 1806-1865. She used ArcGIS to map shipping routes and other records from the shipyard with the help of logbooks, payrolls, and other documents from Bowdoin's George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives.
Article:
Lucy Knowlton '15 Delves Into Brunswick's International Past
Christopher Lu '16
Michael Franz, Associate Professor, Department of Government and Legal Studies
Christopher Lu spent the summer developing a framework to scrape campaign tweets during the Fall 2014 campaign season so that Mike Franz can study the influence of social media on voters through November 4, 2014. Specifically, he will analyze the campaign tweets to compare their tone and content with those of televised campaign ads.
Melody Soeun Moon '15
Ingrid Nelson, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Melody Moon worked with Ingrid Nelson to examine rural Maine students' experiences in higher education. She studied the college experience for rural Maine students by analyzing information ranging from graduation rates to recreational and work habits during college.
Roya Madoff Moussapour '17
Doris Santoro, Associate Professor, Department of Education
Roya Moussapour spent the summer working with Doris Santoro to collect and analyze online expressions of teacher dissatisfaction. She used data scraped from Twitter to study dissatisfaction of current and former K-12 teachers from across the country, as expressed in 140 characters or less.
Article:
Teachers on Twitter: A #BowdoinSummerResearch Project
Emily Millicent Mumford '17
Ann Kibbie, Associate Professor, Department of English
Emily Mumford worked with Ann Kibbie to develop a new course as part of the Digital and Computational course cluster, Eighteenth-Century London. She mapped London as experienced by two figures featured in 18th-century literature, James Boswell and Daniel Defoe's fictional Moll Flanders.
Hannah Kendal Rafkin '17
Crystal Hall, Visiting Assistant Professor, Digital and Computational Studies Initiative
Hannah Rafkin worked with Crystal Hall to contextualize Galileo Galilei's library within the literary world of early modern Italy. She achieved this by analyzing and mapping data such as publication dates and geographic origin of 350 works in his library.
Gina Marie Stalica '17
Jack Gieseking, New Media and Data Visualization Specialist, Digital and Computational Studies Initiative
Gina Stalica spent the summer working with Jack Gieseking to clean, analyze, and map LGBTQ organizational records from 1983-2008 in New York City. She used ArcGIS to map the data and to visualize trends in race, income, and property values over time.
Tristan Christopher Van Kote '15
Ericka Albaugh, Assistant Professor, Department of Government and Legal Studies
Tristan Van Kote '15 worked with Ericka Albaugh to generate maps to explore how and why languages spread. He created a series of maps illustrating the spread of eight languages in four African countries: Wolof and French in Senegal, Akan and English in Ghana, Dioula and French in Cote d’Ivoire, and Krio and English in Sierra Leone.
Nicole Amanda Wetsman '16 and Marcela Zegarra-Ballon '16
Hadley Horch, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Nicole Wetsman and Marcela Zegarra-Ballon spent the summer telling the stories of the life cycles and behaviors of a variety of proteins. They produced stop-motion animations to tell the stories of proteins involved in Huntington's disease and other neurological disorders.
Venecia Yan Xu '16
Mohammad Irfan, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Venecia Xu '16 spent the summer working with Mohammad Irfan and Sarah Montross to examine the geometric properties of the objects in Wassily Kandinsky's paintings. She aimed to answer questions about his paintings using computational geometry and visual arts, and algorithm design and computer graphics.
Margaret McBride Bunke '14
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
In 2014 the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum will host a new exhibit celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Donald B. MacMillan’s Crocker Land expedition (1913-1917), based in Northwest Greenland. The Museum recently completed processing a collection of journals, photographs, equipment, and research specimens from the family of Elmer Ekblaw, who was a geologist/ecologist on the expedition. Alexandra Brown spent the Summer of 2012 working with Museum staff to develop an interactive component for the upcoming exhibit based on Ekblaw’s personal journals. Meg Bunke's work with Museum staff built on that work. She developed maps using ArcGIS to highlight the sledging journeys that Ekblaw undertook in northern Greenland as well as his activities collecting and recording scientific data.
Evan Carlos Hoyt '15
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science and
Pamela Fletcher, Associate Professor, Department of Art History
Evan Hoyt spent the summer collaborating with James Miller '14 (Mellon Fellow) and Eric Chown and Pamela Fletcher to identify and evaluate tools and potential student projects for the Gateway to the Digital Humanities course that was taught in Fall 2014. They explored different subjects (i.e. Art History, Religion, Philosophy, etc.), questions, and methods, and decided to focus on four categories: image analysis, text analysis, spatial analysis, and network analysis. Throughout the process they learned about programming, tools being used in qualitative and quantitative research, the current state of the digital humanities, and the many facets of developing a new course.
Walker Davis Kennedy '15
Michael Birenbaum Quintero, Assistant Professor, Department of Music
Michael Birenbaum Quintero regularly leads Bowdoin's Afro-Latin music group and teaches the student performers the complex rhythms that they encounter in the music. Walker Kennedy spent the summer developing software training programs using Max MSP to help those students learn the songs and musical parts, and enable practice time outside the classroom. Over the course of the summer, he developed software to highlight the rhythms of eight songs for eight drums and plans to develop as many as 30 more before he graduates.
Article:
Walker Kennedy ’15 Creates Hi-Tech Tool to Teach Traditional Afro-Latin Music
Gabriela Serrato Marks '15
Michele LaVigne, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Gabriela Serrato Marks and Michele LaVigne spent the summer exploring new technological applications to the study of deep-sea corals. They sought new methods for processing data sets using Excel and MATLAB to analyze the coral samples. Additionally, Gabriela collected new data from Michele's bamboo coral samples to investigate growth band composition and crystal orientation using powerful analytical technologies available within the EOS department, including the scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and electron backscatter diffraction systems.
Ruben Martinez '15
Steve Majercik, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and
Frank Mauceri, Lecturer, Department of Music
Ruben Martinez spent the summer creating a genetic program for generating visually appealing swarm behaviors. Genetic programs work by generating a population of random "solutions" and subjecting them to an evolution-like process. For some number of generations, individuals are evaluated, the better ones are recombined with each other in a process that mimics biological reproduction, and the fittest individuals become the next generation. The swarm behaviors, each of which controlled the speed, size, and population of a swarm, were the individuals in the population. They were visualized via a Java applet, allowing them to be evaluated with respect to their visual appeal by one or more human viewers. The resulting score was then used to decide which behaviors would be recombined to generate the next generation, with the goal of producing increasingly well-rated behaviors.
Matthew Evan Savard '14
Rachel Beane, Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
Matthew Savard and Rachel Beane spent the summer developing workable models for using mobile computing to enhance student learning and to augment field- and microscope-based scientific research for EOS courses and lab sessions. Matt visited Giant Stairs in Harpswell as a test location to try various mobile apps for the collection and comparison of data. Additionally, his work helped to determine when, where, and how mobile apps might complement existing methods and assignments in several EOS courses.
Michael Jay Smith '16
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor, Department of History
Patrick Rael has been joining historical census and voting data with historical maps of the United States for many years using ArcGIS. As a result, he often assigns GIS projects in several of his courses. Last summer Michael Smith continued work on Rael's historical atlas project and prepared data for future courses. He digitized the agricultural census of 1850, mapped votes for and against the secession of southern states in 1861, and formatted census datasets dating back to 1790.
Natasha Soto '15
Krista Van Vleet, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Natasha Soto and Krista Van Vleet spent the summer exploring representations of children and family in popular culture, religious institutions, and NGOs in Cuzco, Peru. Natasha's work focused on digital photos and videos of teenage mothers and their children who live in an orphanage in Cuzco. Her work on the project aimed to accomplish three key components: 1. to catalog hundreds of images taken by young mothers about their everyday experiences, 2. to analyze the video of a play detailing the experiences of a "typical" girl and to transcribe and translate its audio component, and 3. to collect images of teenage mothers and their children produced and circulated on websites to determine how they are portrayed to the general public.
Kaylee Shae Wolfe '15
Ingrid Nelson, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ingrid Nelson collaborated with the Mitchell Institute to conduct a study about parental support, the college application process, and overall college satisfaction. She and students in her Fall 2012 class, Transitions to Adulthood, gathered data on 30 students who received scholarships from the Mitchell Institute. Kaylee Wolfe spent her summer analyzing that data, including responses to interview questions about high school and college experiences, the transition to college, and life since college. She used NVivo to clean and code the data and then to run queries to learn more about the students through their data. Additionally, Kaylee and Ingrid completed a paper and hope to present their findings at an upcoming conference.
Article:
Q&A: Students Investigate the College Application Process for Mainers
Alexandra Sichel Brown ‘13
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
In 2014 the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum will host a new exhibit celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Donald B. MacMillan’s Crocker Land expedition (1913-1917), based in Northwest Greenland. The Museum recently acquired a collection of journals, photographs, equipment, and research specimens from the family of Elmer Ekblaw, who was a geologist/ecologist on the expedition. Alexandra Brown spent the summer working with Museum staff to develop an interactive component for the upcoming exhibit based on Ekblaw’s personal journals, including a blog that shares the highs and lows of the expedition.
John Butterworth, III ‘14
Robert Greenlee, Professor, Department of Music
Nathaniel Wheelwright, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology
The bird family Columbidae consists of more than 300 species of pigeons and doves. Some of these species use rhythm as an important signifier in their songs, and the rhythms of their songs are often organized in ways akin to rhythms commonly employed by humans. John Butterworth spent the summer transcribing the coos of pigeons and doves from around the world using Raven software to measure and analyze the sounds. He collaborated with Robert Greenlee and Nat Wheelwright to summarize the findings and report on them.
Article:
Ornithologist and Musician Team Up to Solve Birdsong Mysteries
Sether Borden Hanson ‘13
Ericka Albaugh, Assistant Professor, Department of Government and Legal Studies
Sether Hanson and Ericka Albaugh collaborated to produce maps of language spread in West Africa using ArcGIS. Certain languages spread beyond their ethnic “core” and become nearly universal lingua francas in a particular region, others spread but do not become singularly dominant, still others stay connected to their ethnic group almost exclusively, and others recede to fewer speakers than their ethnic group and are replaced by another neighboring language. Sether and Ericka’s summer work included creating a “language spread” variable of six language groups in West Africa so that they could map the shifts due to geography, war, boundaries, and education. The results of their project include maps to enable more detailed analysis of the data.
Richard Andres Hopkins ‘13
Allen Tucker, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus, Department of Computer Science
Second Helpings is a regional food “rescue” operation based in Charleston, SC. Its volunteers pick-up food at supermarkets and deliver it to churches, food banks, and senior centers in Beaufort and Jasper counties. Richard Hopkins and Allen Tucker continued their work on a mobile app, Homeplate that will allow Second Helpings’ volunteers to accurately report via mobile devices the quantity of food that is picked up and delivered each year. Their work added functionality to the Homeplate app making it possible for the volunteers to directly enter information into the app at each pick-up and delivery stop in an attempt to replace the manual process that is currently used.
Article:
There’s a Bowdoin App for That: Computer Science Prof. and Student Design App for the Common Good
Min Sun (Sarah) Lee ‘14
John Lichter, Samuel S. Butcher Associate Professor in the Natural Sciences, Department of Biology
Eileen Johnson, Program Manager and GIS Analyst, Environmental Studies Program
Sarah Lee worked with John Lichter and Eileen Johnson on an ongoing project, “Ecological and economic recovery and sustainability of the Kennebec and Androscoggin rivers and their common estuary and nearshore marine environments.” She performed GIS analysis on historic fishing grounds along the coast of Maine and integrated historical records of fishing landings into the research along with the location and distribution of historical fish populations.
Somya Artidiang Mawrie '14
Dhiraj Murthy, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Somya Mawrie spent the summer in the Social Network Innovation Lab working with Dhiraj Murthy and SNIL staff to develop and deploy a number of surveys and interview instruments. She also conducted and documented both face-to-face and virtual ethnographic interviews and gained hands-on experience in transcription and qualitative coding practices. Additionally she worked with a trust dataset that was developed by other student researchers during the academic year.
Alexander Robert Pensavalle ‘14
Dhiraj Murthy, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Alex Pensavalle spent the summer in the Social Network Innovation Lab working with Dhiraj Murthy and SNIL staff on a wide variety of projects. These included the development of applications to collect real-time data from a variety of social networks, working to prepare and transform collected data for analysis and visualization, developing innovative tools to allow for the visualization of collected and created data, as well as exploring a number cutting edge techniques in the fields of machine learning/classification and natural language processing. He learned versatility through exposure to a variety of tools, methods, databases, and programming languages for the desktop and web-based environments under the mentorship of the lab’s resident programmer.
Rachel Nicole Pollinger ‘15
Eric Gaze, Director of the Quantitative Reasoning Program, Center for Learning and Teaching
Meridian Stories is a series of monthly digital storytelling competitions for Middle and High School students utilizing digital content creation to accomplish curricular goals. Each competition challenges teams of students to create short-form stories using images, words, video, and music in the service of core curricular objectives. Rachel Pollinger and Eric Gaze spent time researching and curating the core mathematical curricular goals for Middle and High School students. They developed ten mathematical challenges, developed championship round challenges, and participated in the design and implementation of focus groups to determine the efficacy and engagement of the proposed mathematical challenges.
Niliezer Delia Vazquez ‘14
Brian Purnell, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies Program
Niliezer Vazquez worked with Brian Purnell to chart new immigrants’ settlement patterns as well as changing urban community demographics. She created group-focused charts and intergroup comparative charts. Additionally, she used the Library’s Social Explorer database to generate maps to depict changing immigration patterns in major cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles); declining “Rustbelt” cities (Detroit, Pittsburg, Youngstown); emerging “Sunbelt” cities (Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Diego); and mid-sized to small metropolitan areas (Portland/Lewiston, ME; Minneapolis, MN; Sioux Falls, ND), which did not have noticeable immigration populations from the global regions (Africa, Southeast Asia, Central and South America) that fed the post-1965 immigration waves.
John Robert Visentin ‘14
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
As an assignment in Computer Science 281 (Mobile Computing) in Fall 2011, Rob Visentin and Stephanie Bond (Gibbons Program, Summer 2011) began work on an app designed to provide location information to anyone wandering around Bowdoin’s campus. The app contains a map of campus with interactive buttons at each building to direct users to more information, photos, descriptions, departments, hours, etc. Rob continued work on the app with Eric Chown to make some improvements, including displaying the user’s current location using GPS, offering self-tours of buildings based on one’s location, and posting a list of events happening that day. The app will be available to purchase from the Apple App Store in Spring 2013.
Article:
There’s a Bowdoin App for That: Rob Visentin '14 Builds New Campus Guide
Stephanie Craig Bond
Dhiraj Murthy, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Stephanie Bond and Dhiraj Murthy spent the summer exploring questions about how Twitter is organized and the role of communicative interactions in it. The project uses Twitter as its case study to contribute generally to a more sophisticated understanding of social media websites as evolving socio-technical systems and particularly to the role of social networking technologies in those systems. Stephanie continued where Scott Longwell (Gibbons Program, Summer 2010) left off refining algorithms, rewriting parameters and scripts, and automating the process.
John Nicola Bruno
Phil Camill, Rusack Associate Professor, Environmental Studies Program
Eileen Johnson, Program Manager, Environmental Studies Program
Keisha Payson, Coordinator for a Sustainable Bowdoin, Facilities Management
The Working Group on Sustainability (WGS) is working to implement aspects of the College’s Climate Action Plan. Specifically, the WGS is responsible for those components of the plan that pertain to measurable reductions in carbon emissions associated with changes in behavior amongst the Bowdoin community. The target for carbon emission reductions as part of the overall goal is 5%. Reaching the College's goal of carbon neutrality will require a combination of innovative approaches that appeal to a wide range of audiences. John Bruno spent the summer researching and developing ways of identifying visual aids to show faculty, staff, and students the positive effects of reducing usage of computers or using alternative modes of transportation.
David Allen Dietz
Peter Lea, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
David Dietz and Peter Lea spent the summer working to develop virtual field trips to outcrops of sedimentary rocks (rare in Maine and inaccessible to students under the normal course schedule). With Information & Technology staff, they developed virtual field trips to provide different levels of scaffolding for students (i.e., guided tours, feedback/hints, or expert interpretations). Eventually they would to make the tool available to the broader geoscience community. Additionally, David worked with Eric Gaze in the Quantitative Skills Program and Collin Roesler in EOS to develop Quantitative Skills resources for students in EOS.
Brian Wood Jacobel
Daniela Oliveira, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Brian Jacobel and Daniela Oliveira spent the summer investigating computer attacks and trying to improve computer security. They have a virtual machine (VM) system that is able to detect worm attacks that can wreak havoc on a computer system. The VM system takes periodic checkpoints of memory, registers, and other events and detects attacks using information-control flow. Upon an attack, the system detects the malicious network source (IP address) associated with the attack, goes back to an earlier checkpoint, and then replays system execution while removing the malicious attack packets. They investigated how they can remove the malicious events from the system and regenerate the environment.
Atilano Rodriguez
Dhiraj Murthy, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Atilano Rodriguez spent the summer working in Dhiraj Murthy’s Social Network Innovation Lab studying advanced virtual communities (interaction within the community is done entirely on the Internet) to see how race is negotiated as well as how communities interact with race. He examined what happens in the virtual communities and then analyzed what effect it has on underrepresentation, specifically of minority racial groups, in the sciences. After determining a sampling method, he selected random participants and gathered statistics on the members, he then developed an online survey to ask questions to gather information about demographics, backgrounds, and experiences within the virtual community.
Molly E.C. Taft
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
During the summer of 2011 the Arctic Museum staff began preparing a new exhibit featuring the animals and plants of the North American Arctic that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012. The exhibit will use a combination of natural history specimens, Inuit art, photographs, and digital media to introduce audiences to the plants and animals of the far north, and to Inuit perceptions of their environment. Molly Taft spent the summer identifying the exhibit materials and preparing a series of stations that will enable visitors to see raw Arctic species in their natural environments.
Article:
Museum Intern Offers Arctic Objects to the World
Leah Yen Wang
Nathaniel Wheelwright, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Natural Sciences, Department of Biology
Jeffrey Ward, Ashmead White Director of Athletics, Department of Athletics
Leah Wang spent the summer creating maps of local-area resources and activities. In an effort to generate more interest in natural history as well as the area, Leah generated maps of places within walking or biking distance, including the Bowdoin Pines, Coleman Farm, the Brunswick Commons, Crystal Spring Farm, and the Cathance River Education Alliance (CREA). Additionally, she developed a map that highlights the area’s recreational opportunities, including running routes, biking routes, hiking trails, fishing spots, cross country ski trails, power boat locations, and other natural resource sites of interest. The results of her work are available as a trail guide.
Article:
Leah Wang '12 Creates Trail Guide to Lure Students Outside
Download:
Bowdoin College Trail Guide
Madison Catherine Whitley
Wendy Christensen, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology of Anthropology
Madison Whitley and Wendy Christensen spent the summer examining the ways that individuals are able to use online technology to control the information they and others see. They collected a comparative sample of data from web blogs and analyzed the strategies that blog owners and commenters use to control the boundaries of discussions on blogs. Specifically, they collected the content (posts and comments) of three years of two-dozen blogs written by mothers of military members who are serving, or have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Then they identified and strategically selected mothers’ blogs, with the goal of having a sample that includes all branches of the military, different orientations toward war, and different blogging technologies with varying comment features. Next steps include categorizing the blogs, interviewing the bloggers, and analyzing their findings.
Joshua Bestor Zalinger
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Josh Zalinger is a member of Eric Chown's Robocup team and participated in last summer’s Robocup Championship in Istanbul. Additionally, he conducted research on the Nao robots that competed last summer. Robots have vision problems. The two biggest problems are being able to look at something and understand what it is. The process of accurately translating a picture into meaningful data about the robot’s surroundings is challenging. Even if robots are able to perfectly understand what they are looking at, there is still the more fundamental problem of knowing where to look. If someone walks past the robot on its left side, it is surprisingly hard for it to know it should turn to the left. Josh spent the summer attempting to solve this problem as part of his research.
William Albuquerque
WBOR
Will Albuquerque spent the summer digitizing the College radio station, WBOR's vast CD collection. In an attempt to make the collection more manageable as well as more accessible to the student and community DJ's, Will digitized the collection using iTunes. Additionally, he began cataloging the music so that the collection can be easily searched.
Article:
Maybank, E. (2010, May 7). WBOR manager to digitize radio station's CD, vinyl collection. The Bowdoin Orient.
Edwin Bennett Johnson
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Ben Johnson continued developing iPhone applications, including modifying and updating the code for the Dining Menu app that he originally built last summer. Additionally, he worked with Information & Technology staff to build an infrastructure for future iPhone and iPad development.
Scott Alden Longwell
Dhiraj Murthy, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Scott Longwell and Dhiraj Murthy spent the summer exploring questions about how Twitter is organized and the role of communicative interactions in it. The project uses Twitter as its case study to contribute generally to a more sophisticated understanding of social media websites as evolving socio-technical systems and particularly to the role of social networking technologies in those systems. Scott developed an application to gather data from Twitter about various lists and ongoing conversations. Then he and Dhiraj analyzed the data that they collected.
Sean Patrick McElroy
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor, Department of History
Sean McElroy and Patrick Rael spent the summer gathering data and creating maps for an historical census data project. Since Fall 2003, Patrick Rael has been acquiring historical datasets containing information from the federal decennial censuses (1790-1920) that students in his 200-level courses manipulate and then plot using ArcGIS. Sean's summer tasks included improving the data that currently exists by correcting it, supplementing it, and adding new variables.
Article:
Sean McElroy '12 Awarded Beinecke Scholarship
Danielle Rae McAvoy
Steve Majercik, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Janice Jaffe, Assistant Director for Public Engagement, McKeen Center for the Common Good
Danielle McAvoy spent the summer developing curriculum for a community-service project. She proposed to connect the Computer Science Department to community and non-profit organizations in the Brunswick and Portland areas. She worked to identify organizations that could benefit from a programming project that an undergraduate Computer Science student could realistically undertake and successfully complete. Additionally, Danielle successfully organized a Technology Day that connected the two groups on October 29, 2010.
G. Nathaniel Merritt
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Nathan Merritt spent the summer working on the gait of the robots used by the RoboCup team. He and Eric Chown worked to extend a modular, dynamic gait learning leaning system so that their robots could optimize their gait on the fly. Their research is on the cutting edge of both machine learning and bipedal motion and relies on a machine learning system called particle swarm optimizer (PSO). Nathan started work to develop a system that would benefit the robots in both simulated and competitive situations.
Article:
Computer Science Majors Find Ready Employment Is Part Of The Program
Nicholas Newhall Riker
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Nick Riker spent the summer working with the staff of The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum as they prepared a new exhibit, Imagination Takes Shape: Canadian Inuit Art from the Robert and Judith Toll Collection. Because this exhibit will be the first opportunity for the public to view this new collection, Nick worked with Genny LeMoine to develop concepts for delivering the exhibit's content via mobile devices, including the iPod Touch and iPad.
Chase Blackstone Taylor
Ericka Albaugh, Assistant Professor, Department of Government and Legal Studies
Chase Taylor and Ericka Albaugh spent the summer developing maps of language and political mobilization in Cameroon using ArcGIS. Chase researched the electoral boundaries of Cameroon, scanned paper maps of Cameroon's ethnic groups, and used ArcGIS to view and understand that information spatially.
John Philip Wendell
Thomas Baumgarte, Professor, Department of Physics
John Wendell and Thomas Baumgarte spent the summer working on a project in numerical relativity. They explored coordinate conditions unique to black holes. In order to analyze these conditions, they constructed solutions numerically on a computer. John's summer work supported his academic interests and will result in an honors thesis.
Article:
Dennison, K., Wendell, J., Baumgarte, T., & Brown, J. (2010). Trumpet slices of the Schwarzschild-Tangherlini spacetime. Physical Review D, 82, 124057-1-124057-10. (Featuring John Wendell '11)
Note: PDF of full article is available by subscription to Bowdoin community members
Kauri Ballard '10
Janet Martin, Professor, Department of Government
Kauri Ballard and Janet Martin worked on Professor Martin's play, "Mrs. Roosevelt's Chronicles." The play will be comprised of thirteen vignettes with mini-documentaries that will provide historical, political racial, and cultural context. Kauri spent part of the summer locating images from various sources, including the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress and the National Archives, cataloging them, and obtaining copyright permission. Additionally, she developed the mini-documentaries using iMovie.
Joanna Caldwell '10
Genny LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum began work on a database of Inuit art and artists in their current collection as well as anticipated donations in preparation for an upcoming exhibit (Fall 2010). The goal was to make the contents of the database available to visitors via a public access kiosk. Joanna Caldwell spent the summer collecting data, researching biographical information about the art and artists, entering the data into the Museum’s databases, and thinking about how visitors would access the information.
Sabrina Cote '10
Sarah McMahon, Associate Professor, Department of History
The Times Record donated about 100 years of photographs that they printed to the Pejepscot Historical Society. The photographs present a remarkable pictorial history of the Brunswick-Bath-Topsham-Harpswell area. Sabrina Cote and Sarah McMahon researched the photographs in hopes of finding images to support Sarah's research of the Harpswell community from 1840-1910 and Sabrina's research for an advanced independent study that she undertook in the Spring 2010 semester. In addition to researching the photographs, Sabrina spent the summer scanning the images, cataloging them, and connecting the photographs to historic maps using ArcGIS.
Elise Krob '10
Eric Chown, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Two summers ago new robots were introduced at RoboCup 2008 that presented new challenges and obstacles as well as opportunities to streamline and revitalize the RoboCup Team's robots' code base, specifically to improve their vision. The new robots can see more pixels, which means that they need help processing the additional pixels as well as colors and values that comprise objects. Elise Krob, the Bowdoin RoboCup team, and Eric Chown spent last summer developing a new vision system to insure that the robots could process all of the colors and objects that they would encounter on the soccer field.
Devon Layne '09
Carey Phillips, Professor, Department of Biology
Devon Layne and Carey Phillips worked to develop a virtual world representation of Chersonesos, an ancient Greek colony, as it existed in 300 BC. The virtual city was created on an island in Second Life, a virtual chat environment. Devon spent the summer reconstructing a series of Greek bath houses to demonstrate how their design and functionality evolved over time. Additionally, he created architectural elements of the baths, highlighting the intricate design of the heating and water-management systems, and recreating the period artwork. The virtual Chersonesos will eventually be used by local high schools as part of cultural reenactment and problem-solving exercises.
Danielle Marias '10
Barry Logan, Associate Professor, Department of Biology
Danielle Marias and Barry Logan proposed to use a computer model of plant architecture, Y-plant, to examine the impact of growth deformations on self-shading and photosynthesis in white spruce infected with a parasite, dwarf mistletoe. Y-plant was originally developed for understory broad-leafed shrubs. This project represented the first attempt to use Y-plant on a conifer. Information & Technology staff as well as Professor Logan's colleagues at Fordham University worked with Danielle to recode the software to meet her needs.
Article:
Summer Research: Why is Mistletoe a Kiss Goodbye for White Spruce?
Octavian Neamtu '12
Steve Majercik, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science
Frank Mauceri, Lecturer, Department of Music
Collaborating with Steve Majercik and Frank Mauceri, Octavian Neamtu spent the summer studying swarm models to determine whether they could be integrated with musical parameters. He then developed swarm models and applied them to musical improvisation and performance using MIDI devices for input and for sound generation. The first half of the summer included developing and evolving the swarm models, while the second half was spent mapping the system to the production of music and integrating that with a live performance.
Danielle Willey '12
Peter Lea, Associate Professor, Department of Geology
Danielle Willey and Peter Lea spent the summer developing virtual sedimentary geology field trips of the Reid State Park beach and the Catskill Mountains in New York. With Information & Technology staff, they developed tools to display navigable field photographs on Google Earth and provided students with the ability to take field notes and interact with others. The virtual field trips simulate activities that geology students undertake when they are actually in the field.
Angela Fabunan '10
Charles Dorn, Assistant Professor and Chair, Education
Angela worked with Charles Dorn to design a publication and posters for the September 2008 opening of the McKeen Center for the Common Good. The publication and posters included content from primary source materials, including letters, photographs, and newspaper articles commemorating the College's history of seeking the "Common Good." In addition to scanning images and researching content for the publication and posters, Angela used InDesign to design the posters for the Center's opening.
Hillary Hooke '09
Genevieve LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Susan Kaplan, Director, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
In April 2008, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum opened an exhibit commemorating the centennial of Robert E. Peary's 1908-1909 North Pole Expedition. Hillary worked with Museum staff to develop a blog featuring various expedition members' diary and log entries as well as photographs. She selected daily blog entries from among journals and logs in the Museum's collection and identified photographs to accompany the blog postings. She prepared blog entries in advance of their publication date so that the blog would appear in "real time." (Entries written in February 1909 were posted in February 2009.)
Christopher Jacob '09
Brad Burnham, Head Coach, Swimming
Dale Syphers, Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Christopher worked with Brad Burnham during the summer of 2007 to develop software and instruments to capture, analyze, and display data about swimmers. The data generated from the instruments as well as video helped them analyze swimmers' stroke patterns and underwater gliding. During the summer of 2008 Chris used that software to collect additional information. He and Brad installed sensors around the pool to collect images to measure position on many swimmers at one time. They hoped to use the images to examine the cause and effect relationships between body shapes and speeds. Additionally, they hoped to use the software and sensors to compare a swimmer's speed wearing two different swimsuits and determine whether special swimsuits enabled the swimmers to swim faster.
Benjamin Lovell '10
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor, History
Ben continued gathering data and creating GIS maps for Patrick Rael's historical census data project. Since Fall 2003, Patrick has been acquiring historical datasets containing information from the federal decennial censuses (1790-1920) that students in his 200-level courses manipulate and then plot using ArcGIS. Ben's summer tasks included improving the data that currently exists by correcting it, supplementing it, and adding new variables. He is currently working with some of the data as part of an independent study.
Duncan Masland '11
Matt Klingle, Assistant Professor, History
Eileen Johnson, Program Manager, Environmental Studies
Madeleine Msall, Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Karen Topp, Lecturer, Physics and Astronomy
Duncan worked on two projects. With Matt Klingle and Eileen Johnson he worked on a project exploring the living history of the Androscoggin River. He developed a blog with Information & Technology staff to allow Bowdoin students to communicate with Mt. Ararat Middle School (Topsham, ME) students about the project. Additionally, Duncan tracked down documents and developed an interactive map interface.
Duncan also worked with Madeleine Msall and Karen Topp to develop an online physics placement exam using Bowdoin's course management tool, Blackboard. First-year students (Class of 2012), who needed additional skills in physical reasoning and problem solving, took the online exam during Orientation in Fall 2008.
Chris Necchi '10
Peter Lea, Associate Professor, Geology
Janet Martin, Professor, Government
Chris worked on two projects. With Peter Lea he worked on the Maine Watershed Web project, which is dedicated to collaborative education, research, and stewardship of Maine watersheds. The web site is at http://learn.bowdoin.edu/apps/hydrology/watersheds/. He worked with Peter and Information & Technology staff to develop ways for Bowdoin participants and others to integrate and update weekly water quality data into the web site. Additionally, he took photographs from the field and developed Google Map displays for the web site.
Chris also worked with Janet Martin to research digital imagery to accompany her upcoming play, The Roosevelt Chronicles. The play will consist of vignettes from the past 75 years that illustrate Presidents' interactions with women and issues of concern to women. Historical images will be projected between each vignette. Chris looked for images, reviewed them, researched copyright permissions, and cataloged Janet's image collection.
Zoe Eddy '10
Genny LeMoine, Curator/Registrar, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Zoe's project with the Arctic Museum was an extension of a project started during the summer of 2006 by another Gibbons intern. She will continued work developing an interactive map/timeline of Robert E. Peary's Arctic expeditions for use in the Museum's exhibit, Northward over the Great Ice: Robert E. Peary's North Pole Expeditions . With guidance from curatorial staff, Zoe collected historical materials to use in the exhibit. Additionally, she worked with Information & Technology staff to acquire digital media and incorporated these elements into an interactive exhibit.
Jeffrey Friedlander '08
Vineet Shende, Assistant Professor, Department of Music
Jeffrey and Vin worked on two projects. The first project introduced Jeff to Finale, a notational program to extract and format musical compositions. He worked with several of Vin's compositions. Secondly, he and Vin set-up and wrote programs for the Music Department's Electronic Music Studio. Jeff hopes to work in music technology after graduation; both projects introduced him to software and tools that he will use.
Christopher Jacob '09
Brad Burnham, Head Coach, Swimming, Athletics Department
Dale Syphers, Professor, Department of Physics
Chris developed software necessary to capture, analyze, and display data about swimmers so that it is useful for the subjects. The data was generated from a prototype towing machine mounted to the pool deck and attached to a swimmer through a line wrapped around a drum in the machine, (imagine a very sophisticated fishing reel). The position and voltage sensors in the towing machine collected 3.5 million data-points about the swimmer from each 15 second pass. The goal was to develop the software programs that would transform the sensor data into usable information for athletes.
Carl Morrissey '09
Ed Laine, Associate Professor, Department of Geology
Carl worked with Ed to develop a web site for the Bowdoin Buoy Facility. He focused on the educational aspects of the web site and helped to prepare materials about the buoy to be used in Geology/Environmental Studies 103 and Geology/Environmental Studies 267. The web site enabled Ed to introduce new materials about harmful algal blooms into his courses and focus on the content more effectively in an interdisciplinary context.
Nate Morrow '10
Susan Wegner, Associate Professor, Department of Art History
Katy Kline, Director, Museum of Art
Nate worked with Susan and Katy to develop online interactive programming to accompany the Museum of Art's exhibit, Beauty and Duty: The Art and Business of Renaissance Marriage , which opened in March 2008. With their guidance, he designed and implemented web activities aimed at different audiences, including K-12 students, teachers, and Bowdoin students.
David Thompson '08
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor, Department of History
Richard Lindemann, Director, Special Collections and Archives, Library
David worked with Patrick Rael and Richard Lindemann to research and develop content for the Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Digital Archive.
Allison Weide '08
Anne Henshaw, Director, Coastal Studies Center and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
Allison worked with Anne to develop interactive web-based mapping of Inuit place names and travel routes on southwest Baffin Island, Canada. She created a web interface that integrated GIS vector data (polylines and polygons) from the place name project together with associated attributes so that a user can work with the information in an interactive way. The primary objective was to code that data so that one could scroll over the screen to see which routes are used during the summer versus winter.
Thomas Duffy '07
Peter Lea, Associate Professor of Geology, Department of Geology
Tom worked with Peter to develop materials for an upcoming glacial geology course (Geology 282) using Google Earth. He provided examples of different glacial features around the world using Google Earth satellite and aerial imagery, integrated additional materials (e.g., field photographs, graphs of data) into Google Earth to create virtual field trips, and created self-quizzes based upon Google Earth images and data.
Brendan Mortimer '06
Scott Sehon, Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy
Each fall semester, Scott teaches Philosophy 223, a course on symbolic logic. In this course, students learn to use a natural deduction system for quantificational logic. They learn a formal way to show that one formula implies another. The system is natural in that it is intended to mimic informal or natural ways of reasoning. Each line of the deduction must cite one of about 10 rules. Brendan worked with Scott to create a computer application to help students master the deduction system.
Mark Viehman '07
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor of History, Department of History
Mark continued gathering data and creating GIS maps for Patrick Rael's historical census data project. Since Fall 2003, Patrick has been acquiring historical datasets containing information from the federal decennial censuses (1790-1920) that students in his 200-level courses manipulate and then plot using ArcGIS. Mark's summer tasks included improving the data that currently exists by correcting it, supplementing it, and adding new variables. In addition, he worked with Patrick to prepare materials for a new course in quantitative history.
Lowell Walker '07
John Lichter, Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, Department of Biology
Matt Klingle, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Department of History
Lowell worked on two projects utilizing GIS. He contributed to the GIS database for Merrymeeting Bay by developing a GIS layer of rare and threatened plant species in Merrymeeting Bay and its tidal tributaries. In addition, he acquired and georeferenced historical maps of the area. Both projects contributed to the Merrymeeting Bay area GIS database.
Greg Wyka '08
Ed Laine, Associate Professor of Geology, Department of Geology
Greg worked with Ed to create a detailed bathymetric map of Harpswell Sound to track a new oceanographic buoy that is adjacent to the Coastal Studies Center. The Bowdoin Buoy Facility (BBF) has a dozen sensors at various depths reporting on meteorology, currents, chemistry, and biology real time 24/7. It was used as a focus in Introduction to Marine Environmental Geology and Marine Geology in Fall 2006 and in Coastal Oceanography in Spring 2007.
Emma Bonanomi '05
Genevieve Lemoine, Curator/Registrar, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
Emma Bonanomi worked with Genny LeMoine and other Arctic Museum staff to curate an upcoming exhibit, This Extraordinary Paradise: Life in Northwest Greenland. Specifically, the project proposed to develop audio-tours using Apple iPods to deliver multimedia content (images and audio) to supplement the exhibit. Emma scanned images, wrote text, and programmed the iPods with the exhibit content.
Adam Cohen-Leadholm '07
Vineet Shende, Assistant Professor of Music, Department of Music
Vineet Shende spent the summer completing three compositions - a large multi-movement work, a smaller orchestral work, and a multi-movement work for a chamber ensemble. Adam, who is a music major with a special interest in composition used Finale, a notational program to extract and format these musical compositions as well as create a vocal-piano reduction for the multi-movement orchestral work. In addition, he used Finale to work on his own compositions with Vineet's guidance., which helped him learn more about this complicated program.
Karen Fossum '07
Pamela Fletcher, Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art History
Karen worked with Pamela Fletcher to develop a GIS-based curriculum for Art History 357: The Commercial Art Gallery, an advanced seminar. Specifically, the project attempted to map art galleries in New York and London in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By mapping the geography of the commercial gallery, they explored many questions about art galleries and their historical development.
Gillian Garratt-Reed '07
Ed Laine, Associate Professor of Geology, Department of Geology
Gillian worked with Ed Laine to create an oceanographic database for use in future introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses, as well as faculty and student research. The project included evaluating oceanographic water quality data collected in Casco Bay over the past five years. Gillian gathered metadata and analyzed whether certain data would be included in the database. In addition, she used Ocean Data View, a software package for interactive exploration, analysis, and visualization of the oceanographic data.
Julia Ledewitz '08
John Lichter, Assistant Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, Department of Biology
Matt Klingle, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Department of History
Julia worked with John Lichter and Matt Klingle to examine the role of historical maps in understanding the ecology of Merrymeeting Bay. The project required researching available historical maps and converting the information into scanned images and digital files. Julia conducted that work as well as develop GIS datasets that will be used by faculty and students in Environmental Studies 394: Ecology of Merrymeeting Bay and Environmental Studies 203: Environment and Culture in North American History.
Maxwell Tyler '07
Peter Lea, Associate Professor of Geology, Department of Geology
The Merrymeeting Bay (MMB) project involves both interdisciplinary teaching and research in geology, biology, environmental studies, archeology and history. Max assisted in the development of IT resources for the project, including (1) data collection and processing to construct a bathymetric map of MMB, and (2) development of Geographical Information System (GIS) maps and coverages to make research and monitoring results accessible on the web. Max utilized and synthesized data and information from diverse scientific instruments (notably acoustic-doppler current profiler, Campbell Scientific dataloggers and probes, YSI multi-parameter sonde) with Global Positioning System data and GIS within the evolving MMB database.
David Willner '06
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor of History, Department of History
David continued gathering data and creating GIS maps for Patrick Rael's historical census data project. Since Fall 2003, Patrick has been acquiring historical datasets containing information from the federal decennial censuses (1790-1920) that students in his 200-level courses manipulate and then plot using ArcGIS. David's summer's tasks included improving the data that currently exists by correcting it, supplementing it, and adding new variables.
Daniel Yingst '07
Tom Conlan, Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, Department of History and Asian Studies Program
Daniel worked with Tom Conlan to enhance the Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan web site. Specifically, he created an interactive map and timeline to show the progression of the Mongols during the invasions, both geographically and chronologically. He also used his programming skills to optimize the performance and maintenance of the site and enable easier creation of additional teaching materials and content.
Christina Lynn Furick '04
Clifton Olds, Edith Cleaves Barry Professor of the History and Criticism of Art, Emeritus, Department of Art History
Carey Phillips, Professor, Department of Biology
The Zen Gardens project received a grant from the NEA to enhance it by creating virtual gardens for users to visit. Lynn created 3-D models of trees, rocks, and other Japanese garden elements.
Molly Juhlin '05
De-nin Lee, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and Asian Studies Program
The Chinese scrolls project used the same framework as Tom Conlan's Mongol Scrolls project. Molly spent the summer scanning and manipulating images for this project that De-nin Lee used in her first-year seminar, Stories and Scrolls in Fall 2004.
Sarah Scott '07
James Higginbotham, Associate Professor, Department of Classics
Sarah spent the summer populating the Classics database with images of Mediterranean artifacts and sites, but worked most specifically to edit and improve the existing content.
Matthew Spooner '05
Patrick Rael, Associate Professor, Department of History
Anne Henshaw, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology-Anthropology and Coastal Studies Center
Both projects required extensive use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and shared Matthew, who applied his newly acquired GIS knowledge to help Patrick and Anne create materials for their Fall 2004 courses.
Ella Thodal '05
Adam Levy, Professor, Department of Mathematics
This Webmathematica math project enabled Adam to create problem sets to help his students visualize various algorithms and formulas without having to do a lot of programming. Ella spent the summer creating problem sets and preparing them for Adam's Optimization course.
Will Voinot-Baron '07
Ed Laine, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Oceanographic Science
This project entailed making a bathymetric map of Quahog Bay. Will spent about two weeks on a boat in Quahog Bay gathering bathymetric profiles. He then spent the rest of his summer editing the data and creating contour maps for Ed to use in his courses and student research.