Flow is a mental state achieved by a person performing a task when there is a balance between skill and challenges, thereby evoking focused attention, full involvement, and enjoyment. For education applications, achieving a flow state may accelerate learning, retention and improve learning outcomes. Most current methods for assessing the extent of flow state use a self-reported questionnaire only when participants finish a learning activity. Alternatively, using objective real-time measurement such as electrophysiological techniques to assess the flow state, especially during a learning period, affords the possibility of timely adjustment of challenges to keep up with learners’ growing abilities. Such an adaptive approach may provide a more improved way to enter and sustain flow in learning activities. Previous studies also indicate that gamification is a proven way to induce the flow state, and virtual reality (VR) activities provide learners more immersive experience. The purpose of this preliminary study is to investigate an adaptive approach for assessing flow state during VR learning activities with electrophysiological measurement. This study used a NeuroSky EEG headset with a supervised machine learning algorithm to identify the features of attention, meditation, and eye blinks with flow state while performing VR learning activities. To evaluate the effects of the proposed approach, data collection was through an experiment with 10 UW students by assessing their flow state while playing VR educational games. The first version model trained by the three types of indicators is capable of determining if a learner performing VR learning activities enters the flow state. In turn, the result of this preliminary study serves as a metric for the follow-on research addressing the development of adaptive learning strategies to help each learner enter into a flow state and improve learning outcomes with the sustained flow state.

The goal of the Pulse Tectonics project is to apply the traditional Chinese practice of pulse diagnosis in the radial artery, to detect heart problems in a non-invasive manner. If we can detect heart disease early, we could potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives (there are 610 thousand deaths per year attributed to heart disease in the US alone), as in many cases it is only diagnosed after the first cardiac event (heart attack). Our research is to achieve diagnosis by capturing a short (5-10 second) video of the forearm. This video is then put through a video magnification algorithm developed by MIT, with different frequency and magnification parameters. By varying these parameters we can ‘tune in’ to the pulse in the radial artery and see it visually in full time. The pulse appears as a pattern of peaks and troughs which seem to change in response to a number of variables, from recent eating, exercise, health, etc. Currently we are working to synchronize these visual pulse readings with readings from an EKG and pulse oximeter to identify the information we can obtain from the videos, and thereby achieve diagnosis via visual pulse waveforms. This involves creating a baseline for a healthy pulse, and then identifying which parameters in the video correspond to different health readings. When successful, this technology would bring early heart disease diagnosis within reach of all people in an effort to mitigate heart disease related deaths.

Quantum information systems are reliant on the fidelity of the spectra of their qubits. Diamond nitrogen vacancy centers present many of the best traits among qubit candidates and show promise for scalable quantum computing. Preferential lattice orientation of these nitrogen vacancy centers is a technically difficult, yet essential step to improve the signal to noise ratio of quantum sensing and the efficiency of quantum computing. My research seeks to test our theoretical knowledge of nitrogen vacancy center orientation changes through annealing diamonds at high temperature. I present the techniques I use to return to the same single atomic defects to compare, through confocal microscopy, orientation changes as a function of annealing temperature. I show our preliminary data in relation to the nitrogen vacancy density distributions and orientation changes throughout the diamond to test current theory regarding vacancy diffusion through the diamond lattice near substitutional nitrogen. Finally, I discuss some unexpected results from our first run of this experiment and share our remaining questions and future efforts to preferentially orient nitrogen vacancy centers.  This research is contributing to progress through the Noisy Intermediate-scale Quantum era with reduction of noise generated by local strain near qubits and better signal-to-noise for quantum sensors.

Prior research has shown that virtual reality (VR) has great promise as a science and engineering teaching tool at the primary and secondary school levels. Unfortunately there is little VR educational content for schools since the education marketplace is poorly funded. Our objective is to solve this problem by teaching middle school students how to build their own immersive 3D virtual worlds that can used as teaching aids for other students and schools. To investigate this approach we are working with Robert Eagle Staff Middle School in an after-school engineering club teaching world building tools and processes to 6th graders. We have organized the students into four teams to create VR games that teach STEM concepts including scale, gravity, light, and momentum. University of Washington engineering students are assigned to mentor these teams while serving as role models to the middle school students.The middle school students not only learn world building techniques but also understanding of these STEM concepts well enough to teach others. To create the VR games, we are instructing the students how to use Unity3D as a game engine. The virtual worlds will operate in real time on the HTC Vive VR headsets with high-end Intel-powered computers. In addition to the world building efforts student learn how to set up, configure and operate the technology within the VR workspace at the school. Our final product will be both the educational content designed by the students but also a prototype of the way to do it. We are documenting our findings in scholarly reports and a documentary film that can be used to inform schools across the nation of how to use virtual reality as a teaching tool and to build a repository of virtual worlds that can be exchanged across schools.

Dementia is a neurological condition that impairs memory, cognitive functions, and the performance of daily activities. It is estimated that 5.5 million Americans suffered from dementia in 2017. Currently, the predominant method used to treat persons with dementia is through pharmacological means. However, through a review of current research we have found evidence to suggest that cognitive behavior therapies (CBT) may be more beneficial to patients, with the potential to reverse some symptoms of dementia. Our study aims to improve CBT through virtual environments. Virtual Reality (VR) is not merely a visual platform but an immersive environment that stimulates the brain in the same way real environments do. Patients with dementia living nursing homes are rarely exposed to different environmental interactions or thought inducing stimuli, resulting in an escalated progression of their condition and a loss of “sense of self.” CBT, specifically reminiscence therapy, has shown promising results in improving cognitive functioning as well as morale. We hypothesize that if we use visual and audio equipment as well as tangible artifacts, we could create an immersive therapy to stimulate cognitive functions. We track certain markers like head and eye movement to track the progression of the disease as well. In collaboration with a UK based game development company we have identified a software with both therapeutic and a diagnostic capabilities. We have made connections with senior centers in the area to identify persons wishing to participate VR therapy sessions. This project will offer understanding of how implementing VR therapy can improve patients’ morale and cognitive capabilities, as well as exploring the use of VR as a diagnostic tool.

Small biologically inspired robots have difficulty landing after flight. This work is intended to explore a possible method for small robots in flight to attach to an overhanging surface. The goal of this work is to create an insect sized robot that is capable of jumping from a horizontal surface to an inverted surface and mechanically grip its destination. Previous work on attaching to a surface from flight have used electrostatic or electromagnetic copper coils or adhesive. My method for attaching to a surface was inspired by the sharp-hooked feet of beetles and uses hooks the same size as ten stripe beetle’s to hold the surface. The advantage of this attachment method is that it does not need to be electrically powered to maintain a hold on the surface and is lighter weight than adhesives or copper coils used in other methods. I used an iterative design process to build and test different shapes and angles of hooks as well as to develop a jumping robot base structure that could support the grabbing arms and quickly repeat jump tests. I captured photos and video of beetle and grasshopper legs in motion and recreated the hooks they have on their legs as a starting point for the hooks I developed. In the future, this mechanism could be attached to robots capable of controlled flight, allowing them to perch on a surface indefinitely and then release the surface to resume flight.

Chemically induced dimerization (CID) systems, which are systems that involve the dimerization of two proteins only in the presence of a specific molecule, have shown a great potential in studying and controlling cellular signaling pathways. However, current methods for identifying CID systems for any given target based on small molecule-protein interactions remains a challenge in the area of protein design. Our research team proposes a general approach for identifying new CID systems for which may have clinical and therapeutic applications. To do this, we aim to create nanobody-based CID binders. Using a technique known as “Trinucleotide-Directed Mutagenesis,” our team has been able to create a diverse nanobody library of over 109. Phage display allows us to screen this library for specific nanobodies that can bind with high specificity and affinity to a specific molecule. Currently, we are using cannabidiol (CBD) as a target molecule. After performing several rounds of selection, in order to validate our system’s specificity and selectivity, we use ELISA assay tests as well as Bio-Layer Interferometry to measure the binding affinity and binding rate of our system. In order to ensure the specificity of our CID system we tested it against, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a structural homolog. To date, we have successfully found three different nanobodies that can bind with high affinity and specificity to our small molecule of choice. As we move into phase two of our project, we are currently working on identifying the second nanobody in order to form a complete CID system. Designed CID systems will not only provide personalized choices for patients showing different drug responses, but also serve as orthogonal chemical control of different cell subpopulations and cell behaviors to improve therapeutic efficacy and safety.

Diversity structures within organizations (e.g., diversity awards, diversity training) can create illusions of fairness: the perception that a company is treating all employees equally because of the mere presence of diversity promoting intiatives without confirmation they are being enforced. This leads to both minority and majority group members perceiving organizations as more procedurally just and less discriminatory even in the face of contradictory evidence. This research expands upon such findings by examining how diversity awards influence what types of information people use in determining if sex-based discrimination disadvantaging women is occurring at an organization. Preliminary analyses show that individuals exposed to diversity awards (vs. control condition) are less likely to perceive sexism-disadvantaging women occurring within a company. Additionally, diversity structures lead women and men to seek out different types of information: women are more likely to perceive information relating to formal discrimination as more informative whereas men are more likely to perceive information relating to informal discrimination as more informative. These findings provide insight into what types of information regarding discrimination are acknowledged versus ignored, and they reinforce prior findings that diversity initiatives lead to the perception of a less discriminatory workplace without actual evidence affirming these beliefs.

The nitrogen vacancy (NV) center is a defect in diamond that forms a quantum mechanical system that can be controlled via optical and radio frequency (RF) manipulations. When excited on resonance, the photoluminescence intensity emitted by an NV center decreases as it changes spin state. With an ensemble of NV centers, we can use this feature to create a demonstration that enables this strictly quantum mechanical phenomenon to be observed by the human eye. I created a setup for measuring the change in photoluminescence in order to measure changes in the optical contrast between on and off resonance photoluminescence from varied optical and RF powers. From this data I was able to optimize the contrast in photoluminescence from my sample. Then, I simplified the setup down to the necessary components for visual observation and made the setup portable. This demonstration provides a visual mechanism to understand and observe fundamental quantum mechanical properties while also learning about the NV center and its use in magnetic field sensing.

About 33% of adults age 65 and older and 15% of school-age children (age 6-19) have some degree of hearing loss. Also, 2-3 children in the United States are born with a detectable hearing loss. Although hearing devices like hearing aids and cochlear implants are used by patients with hearing loss to improve hearing, they often complain about the difficulty of understanding speech in a noisy environment. A cochlear implant device sends tiny currents that stimulate auditory nerve fibers which the brain interprets into sound. In this study, filter banks with different number of frequency bands were developed to simulate how people using cochlear implant comprehend speech. We varied the number of bands to investigate the clarity of sound affected by spectrum resolution. When the number of bands increased, the clarity of speech improved, and a spectrum analysis graph showed a visual representation of the result as an improved resolution. In a noisy environment, this mechanism is not capable of attenuating noise in a signal. Noise interference with signal can be resolved with the use of an adaptive filter. An adaptive filter involves the change of a filter parameter over time to adapt to changing signal characteristics. In this research, an adaptive filter would be able to track the harmonics of a signal to separate speech from noise. This algorithm concentrates on specified frequency contents of a signal, and accordingly, noise is attenuated by the adaptive filter. Using the adaptive filter as the means to improve the signal processing technique, noise interference with signals is minimized and patients with a cochlear implant device can improve their understanding of speech in a noisy environment.

Palatal shelf elevation is an essential morphogenetic process during closure of the secondary palate. It has been proposed that palatal shelf elevation results from an intrinsic elevating force while also relying on extrinsic factors associated with development of other orofacial structures, such as the lower jaw and tongue. While in vitro palate culture is commonly utilized to study palate shelf elevation, it requires removal of the tongue or mandible prior to culture, which prevents any determination of the role of extrinsic factors in regulating palatal shelf elevation. Therefore, the aim of our project was to improve upon palate culture methods to better mimic in vivo conditions of palate development for studying the mechanism of palatal shelf elevation. We modified culture conditions to maintain the integrity of the oral cavity by leaving the tongue and mandible in place and cultured these mouse palate explants in suspension in dynamic conditions. Using this technique, the palatal shelves successfully elevated after 24-48 hour culture and displayed morphology like that of in vivo elevation, suggesting that our method improves upon previous culture techniques for investigation of the roles of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors during secondary palate development.

Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a disease that results in aortic valve thickening and calcification, leading to valve stenosis. It is commonly experienced by aging people, especially those suffering from type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There is currently no effective drug therapy to prevent or treat CAVD, mainly due to the poor understanding of its etiology. The proposed study will explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms of diabetic CAVD, focusing on transcription factors Sox9 and Runx2. As the disease progresses, Sox9-expressing cells differentiate into procalcific Runx2-expressing cells, resulting in valve calcification and stenosis. We hypothesize that Sox9-expressing cells in T2DM aortic valves are reparative. To test this hypothesis, I will feed a diabetogenic high-fat diet to a mouse model susceptible to developing CAVD, which will enable genetic fate mapping of Sox9-expressing cells upon administration of tamoxifen intraperitoneally. Aortic valve sections will then be stained with X-gal, a substrate used for detection of the transgene used for the genetic fate mapping of Sox9 cells. X-gal staining will identify cells that once expressed Sox9 and immunofluorescent staining will identify Runx2 expression in cells. Quantification of Runx2+ cells with or without X-gal+ Sox9 will determine if Runx2+ cells are derived from Sox9-expressing cells and, if so, to what extent. If Sox9+ cells indeed give rise to Runx2+ cells, colocalization in staining by X-gal and Runx2 antibody is expected. This research will help identify cellular and molecular targets that may be used as a basis for future diabetic CAVD drug therapies.