Projects by Category

1. Humanities: Literature, arts, civics, ethics, social systems, politics
2. Sciences: Biological and physical science, and math
3. Education: Teaching & learning approaches
4. Business and Technology
5. Health-related: Physical, emotional, psychological

Humanities Science Education Business and Technology Health-Related

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Humanities

Recovering Indigenous Voices in the Jesuit Archives

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Michelle Zaleski
Academic School	School of Humanities
Contact Information	mzaleski@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	While we know the history of famous Jesuit colleges in the U.S. and Europe, schools like Georgetown and the Gregorian, we know less about Jesuits universities established outside the West. And, we know even less about the students they taught. Jesuits became famous during the Renaissance for teaching rhetoric, but what kind of voice did this give their indigenous students in the colonies? This project involves looking for indigenous voices within digitized 16th century Jesuit letters and reports about their mission to Portuguese colonial India. Students will gain familiarity with decolonial, multimodal, and translingual archival research methods. Proficiency in Portuguese, Latin, or Spanish is preferred.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Depictions of the Police on Television

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Sarah Fischer
Academic School	School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Contact Information	sfischer@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	Research demonstrates that the public learns about crime and police procedure primarily through television. However, most research on television’s depiction of the criminal justice system to date has analyzed who television shows portray as criminals and how shows depict the use of forensic evidence. This project involves analyzing episodes of two television shows—NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU) and BBC’s The Fall to examine their depictions of police procedure, police officers, and the decisions police officers make.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Literature in Context: Open Access Digital Humanities Project;
Project 2: Horror Film: A Book Project

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Tonya Howe
Academic School	School of Humanities
Contact Information	thowe@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any/All — especially Literature, Digital Writing & Narrative Design, History, and IT
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Literature in Context: Open Access Digital Humanities Project
Description Project 1	I am working on a federally-funded Open Education Resource web application called Literature in Context. I need help annotating and preparing for the web a selection of canonical literary texts. Once complete, these materials will be available on a publicly-accessible database for students like you and faculty like me to use in the classroom. We will learn basic XML development on our way. See the current website and sample texts: https://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu
Title Project 2	Horror Film: A Book Project
Description Project 2	I am planning a book on horror film, focusing especially on the history of horror film technology (innovation) and the self-conscious or “meta” horror film. This project will involve students watching a lot of horror films, doing research on horror films, and writing annotations of those films and research materials.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Urban Legends in the Middle Ages

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Katie Peebles
Academic School	School of Humanities
Contact Information	kpeebles@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Art, Communication, English, Graphic Design, History, Liberal Studies, Philosophy, Politics, Theology, Education, Psychology, and Sociology
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	This project will contribute to a book and online database of urban legends from the Middle Ages. The student researcher will investigate the social and historical context of urban legends, analyze the social and psychological motivations behind the legends, seek out more examples of hidden legends, and/or improve and add to the project website.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

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Science

Project 1: Analyzing Coronavirus Data;
Project 2: Exploring the Role of Cell Adhesion Molecules in Cancer;
Project 3: Brain Games

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Amanda Wright
Academic School	School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Contact Information	awright@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Biology or Biochemistry
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (Project 1: May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.) (Project 2: On Campus)
Title Project 1	Analyzing Coronavirus Data
Description Project 1	We will be analyzing data available from various sources to examine the spread of coronavirus through the US and other countries. Using this data as a baseline, we will use NetLogo, an agent based modeling program, to predict viral spreading behavior under different situations and circumstances. The culmination of this project will be a written case study on viral community spread that will be submitted for publication.
Title Project 2	Exploring the role of cell adhesion molecules in Cancer
Description Project 2	Recently, cell adhesion molecule, CHL1, has been identified as an important regulator in several cancer types. In this project, we will be exploring the expression of CHL1 in different tissue types and analyzing data regarding the prevalence of this mutation in tumors.
Title Project 3	Brain Games
Description Project 3	We will use the popular television show to develop learning modules for undergraduate neurobiology students. During this project, we will explore neurological concepts and create learning scenarios that can be implemented in the classroom.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Designing Pedagogical Chemistry Games;
Project 2: Developing Chemistry Case Studies

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Deana Jaber
Academic School	School of Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Contact Information	djaber@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Biology, Biochemistry, Math, Education
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Designing Pedagogical Chemistry Games
Description Project 1	Game-based instructional design is well established in the literature as a creative teaching supplement. Games have been used for teaching purposes and have yielded successful pedagogical results. In this research project, the student researcher will design a card game for a chemistry concept that students struggle to understand. The student will get to choose the topic they want to work on! Our research group has developed two card games that have been published in the Journal of Chemical Education in 2017 and 2019. We are adapting these card games into a digital card game that will allow students to play these card games online. We are also currently designing a periodic table game that would be appropriate for the public in an informal learning environment. These projects would be a perfect fit for a student looking to work on a research project where chemistry and education intersect.
Title Project 2	Developing Chemistry Case Studies
Description Project 2	Are you interested in a research project that allows you to explore science education? Do you enjoy writing fictional stories based on real-world examples? If the answer is yes, then this project might be of interest to you! The student researcher will investigate the release of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances into the environment with the hope of understanding the science behind how these compounds react in the human body and our surroundings. Based on the findings, a fictional story featuring a real-world example will be developed to help students understand the chemical reactions that the PFAS compounds undergo. The case study will be used in a chemistry course and will be evaluated for its effectiveness on student’s learning of the science at hand.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Creating Immersive Virtual Worlds!

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Eric Bubar
Academic School	School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Contact Information	ebubar@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	The student(s) will learn an open source game engine (Unity). They will complete basic tutorials to explore the use of this software in creating virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) experiences. A focus will be made on creating virtual worlds that are usable on Android/iOS cellular devices as well as the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. Students will first create a simple virtual environment making use of premade assets available within the chosen game engine while simultaneously exploring digital asset design creation. Final project goals include the creation of a game-based forensic crime scene investigation teaching/learning experiences and/or creation of science themed puzzle escape rooms. Additional VR/AR games can be discussed/developed based on the student’s interest. Significant technical skills and/or interest in computers (preferably Windows), possession of a high-quality gaming-caliber computer with advanced GPU and an interest/familiarity with virtual reality gaming are desirable (though not strictly necessary) qualifications for interested applicants.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Investigations of Companion Planting in the MU Plot Against Hunger Garden and its Implications for Increasing Pollinators;
Project 2: Investigations of Companion Planting on the Prevention of Insect Pests in the MU Plot against Hunger Garden;
Project 3: Identification of Differential Expression of SCAMP in Different Staged Breast Cancer Cells

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Susan Agolini
Academic School	School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Contact Information	sagolini@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Biology/Biochemistry
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Investigations of Companion Planting in the MU Plot Against Hunger Garden and its Implications for Increasing Pollinators
Description Project 1	This project will investigate the impact of companion planting high pollinator plants in the MU Plot Against Hunger garden. In this study, students will work closely with the faculty mentor to identify appropriate companion plants to place in the MU Plot Against Hunger garden that could attract an increase in pollinators to the vegetable garden. Students will measure the impact of the companion plant by taking daily measurements of the number of pollinator visits of both the pollinator plant and the vegetable plant. Comparisons will be made with the same vegetable plants grown in beds without the companion plants.
Title Project 2	Investigations of Companion Planting on the Prevention of Insect Pests in the MU Plot against Hunger Garden
Description Project 2	This project will investigate the impact of companion planting in the MU Plot Against Hunger garden to decrease the appearance of insect pests . In this study, students will work closely with the faculty mentor to identify appropriate companion plants to place in the MU Plot Against Hunger garden that could decrease the number of pests that are present in the vegetable garden. Students will measure the impact of the companion plant by taking daily measurements of the number of pests seen on or near the vegetable plant. Comparisons will be made with the same vegetable plants grown in beds without the companion plants.
Title Project 3	Identification of differential expression of SCAMP in different staged Breast Cancer Cells
Description Project 3	In this project students will study the levels of expression of various SCAMPs (Secretory Carrier Membrane Proteins) in breast cell cultures that are at various stages of transformation. Students will need to be available from 9am -5pm during the course of the 6 week research project, although they will not necessarily be in the lab the entire time.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Sea Turtle Tagging and Monitoring;
Project 2: Turtle Egg Physiology – What happens inside the egg?

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Todd Rimkus
Academic School	School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Contact Information	trimkus@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	All
Position Availability	Summer 2021 Project 1: (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.) Project 2: (On Campus)
Title Project 1	Sea Turtle Tagging and Monitoring
Description Project 1	Sea turtles are explored in Belize. We have internship opportunities and research opportunities in Belize for the summer. Being part of a research team and exploring the possibility of tagging a turtle and monitoring it’s movements as it forages and rests between nesting events.
Title Project 2	Turtle Egg Physiology – What happens inside the egg?
Description Project 2	From trapping to hatching. We will explore the environment of these turtles and then select a site to trap several gravid female turtles. Once the turtles are obtained, we will bring them to the lab so they can lay eggs. The eggs will be incubated to hatching and we will monitor their progress with candling. Eggs will be cared for through hatching. Hatchling care and maintenance will be discussed and planned for the upcoming year.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

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Education

On Campus Literacy Lab and Camp for Elementary Students

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Ana Lado
Academic School	School of Education
Contact Information	ana.lado@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any major.
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (On Campus)
Description	You will be collecting data about the development of a new project in our summer camp, a Literacy Lab. The camp will run July 12th – 23rd. You will have choices. 1) You can work before camp begins or during the camp. 2) You can choose to work directly with children along with other MU students, to work with individual campers, or work directly with Dr. Lado and a graduate student. We will be exploring information about what works, why and how it works, and ways to improve what does not work.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Interview Data – How to begin making sense of it

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Jessica Marotta
Academic School	School of Education
Contact Information	jmarotta@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	All – requires reading interview data on teaching experiences
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	For four semesters, I have interviewed students at the end of the student teaching semester to have them reflect on their experiences in the classroom, with their mentor teacher, and how their coursework prepared them for the realities of teaching. This project will include helping the researcher read through the transcribed interviews and begin the coding process to look for common themes and experiences. Coding is a process that requires reading through data, in this case student interviews, and analyzing them for categories and themes by finding common words or phrases that capture the essence of what they are explaining. Once all the interviews are read and coded, the next step is to try to pull these identified themes or categories together and analyze which ones really fit and why, as well as recognizing which ones are unique to that student and not mentioned frequently by the other students. This is one way that researchers conduct qualitative research.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Relationship Between Leadership and Team Performance;
Project 2: Program Evaluation and Assessment;
Project 3: Where are all of our doctoral students from? What professions are they employed in?

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Lisa Turissini
Academic School	School of Education
Contact Information	lturissi@maqrymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Any interested major
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Relationship between leadership and team performance
Description Project 1	Begin the process of developing an annotated bibliography of appropriate research on leadership and team building. Research styles of leadership; how teams respond to different styles of leadership; Team-building success stories in relation to leadership.
Title Project 2	Program evaluation and assessment
Description Project 2	Research, develop, and/or evaluate rubrics specifically designed to evaluate EdD program learning outcomes to industry standards.
Title Project 3	Where are all of our doctoral students from? What professions are they employed in?
Description Project 3	Categorize all EdD students by geographic area, profession, educational background and determine similarities and/or any trends.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

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Business

Project 1: Credit card anomaly detection using data mining tools;
Project 2: Analyzing Job Post Prediction Using Data Mining Tools;
Project 3: The impact of COVID-19 on students’ online performance.

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Faleh Alshameri
Academic School	School of Technology and Innovation
Contact Information	falshame@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Information Technology, Data Science
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Credit card anomaly detection using data mining tools
Description Project 1	Use Machine learning to detect fraud in credit card transactions
Title Project 2	Analyzing Job Post Prediction Using Data Mining Tools
Description Project 2	Analysis job post prediction using data mining tools
Title Project 3	The impact of COVID-19 on students’ online performance.
Description Project 3	This research explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college students.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Teaching Children to Code;
Project 2: Using Python for Analyzing Workforce Needs

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Susan Conrad
Academic School	School of Technology and Innovation
Contact Information	Susan Conrad
Appropriate Majors/Programs	IT majors (any discipline in IT)
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Teaching Children to Code
Description Project 1	This project is designed to identify strategies to engage and teach children computer skills. It will look at using a device such as a Rasberry Pi to develop coding games, robotics and puzzles. The project will research effective teaching strategies to teach children about computers focusing on children ages 5-10. This research will employ a practical component and by employing applications for children to use.
Title Project 2	Using Python for Analyzing Workforce Needs
Description Project 2	This research will research posted jobs on internet sites involving IT skills and analyze requirements for categories of positions. It will look to map these requirements with Marymount classes to identify gaps in education for workforce readiness of Marymount students.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Project 1: Cybersecurity Policy Compliance During the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study of Leadership Commitment, User Experience, and Cybersecurity Awareness Training;
Project 2: A Cross-Disciplinary Study on the Role of Cybersecurity Measures in an Electoral Process

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Michelle Liu
Academic School	School of Technology and Innovation
Contact Information	xliu@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Cybersecurity
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Title Project 1	Cybersecurity Policy Compliance During the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study of Leadership Commitment, User Experience, and Cybersecurity Awareness Training
Description Project 1	Social engineering attacks facilitated by the Internet and Social Media Networks combined with lack of awareness and compliance with organizational security policies are frequently cited as one of the greatest cybersecurity concerns in organizations today. These concerns are exacerbated in the current environment, where the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly increased the prevalence of telework and associated remote access and collaborative technologies. As the human component of information systems is a potentially high impact target of cyberattacks, more and more organizations have attempted to address the threat using a number of means including security access control, threat intelligence hunting, and risk assessment and mitigation. However, even the most robust technical controls have limits. Addressing the threat also requires providing training that effectively informs end users of security policies, threats and risks facing the organizations. This empirical study seeks to assess the effectiveness of organizations’ implementation of the security awareness training at influencing user behaviors. The student researcher will work with the faculty to design a survey study to evaluate the influence of security awareness training and security culture on security policy compliance via leadership prerogative. The ultimate goal of this study is to gain a better understanding of multi-faceted factors including organization culture and user experiences of security measures implemented in workplace, and their impacts on an end user’s intention to support or undermine security policy goals.
Title Project 2	A Cross-Disciplinary Study on the Role of Cybersecurity Measures in an Electoral Process
Description Project 2	The use of new technology enables a higher degree of efficiency and accuracy in an electoral process including electoral planning, voting registers and results reporting. However, even with careful planning and management, it also introduces cybersecurity risks which might significantly damage public trust in election outcomes and voters’ confidence. Presently, there is no particular way of addressing this lack of voters’ trust. This study attempts to examine this phenomenon from a cross-disciplinary lens by exploring how cybersecurity measures could by utilized to better fulfill the requirement of people, democracy, and society. In this exploratory study, the researchers will examine voting systems in the U.S., conduct historical overviews, and investigate how the voting systems could conform to new technology to protect the elections. The study will also determine the potential threats actors interfering in elections, the types of cyberattacks the actors use to affect election integrity, and the reasons that inspire them to disrupt the traditional selection processes. This study aims to illuminate how elections can be protected by suggesting the best cybersecurity measures that could be used to maintain voters’ trust. The student researcher will perform a qualitative research design and collect data by interviewing election practitioners and cybersecurity experts. The final product of this project is an overarching cybersecurity best practices that can be used to assess and manage cybersecurity risk in the electoral cycle.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

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Health-Related

The Lived Experience of Acute Care Nurses During the Covid Pandemic

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Judith Rogers Fruiterman
Academic School	Malek School of Nursing
Contact Information	jrogers_@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Nursing
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	My doctoral dissertation examined the lived experience of nurses who cared for victims of the World Trade Center Attack on September 11. My intent was to consider how participating in this response crafted the nurse’s perception of their work, their value systems, their future careers and their recommendations for nursing research. Above all, I believed the body of nursing knowledge needed to capture the narratives of these exceptional individuals who faced this extraordinary moment in history. I am launching a research project to do the same for our front line nurses who work in acute care as they experience the challenges of this pandemic. I think their stories will be telling and imperative for the knowledge of future nurses. My project will be a Phenomenologic Qualitative study.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Mother-infant interaction in U.S. Immigrant Families

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Linda Cote-Reilly
Academic School	School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Contact Information	lcote@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Psychology majors
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	Student will assist Dr. Cote-Reilly with literature review, data analysis, research report writing with her research on mother-infant interaction in South American, Japanese American, and Korean American immigrant families. The focus will be on children’s language development or mother-infant socioemotional interaction. All data are collected and ready to be analyzed and written up for publication; student has potential to be a co-author on a publication.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

Exploring Civic Engagement Among Registered Nurses

Faculty Mentor	Dr. Terri Gaffney
Academic School	Malek School of Nursing
Contact Information	tgaffney@marymount.edu
Appropriate Majors/Programs	Nursing
Position Availability	Summer 2021 (May be held on campus or remotely, as mutually agreed with the faculty mentor and as pandemic conditions require.)
Description	Project 1- Conduct focus groups, analyze data, and prepare a manuscript based on civic engagement among registered nurses. Civic engagement involves individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern (APA, 2020). Influencing and shaping health policy is central to nurses’ work, yet it is also one of the least actualized roles of nursing (Salvage & White, 2019). In order to influence policy development, one must demonstrate political astuteness and civic skills such as voting, communicating with elected officials, attending and or speaking at public policy gatherings, working as a volunteer for an elected official, monetary contributions to campaigns, serving as an elected official and working with others in the community on policy initiatives. Although nurses have been encouraged to participate civically, the literature in this area is limited.
Date Posted	10-Mar-21

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