Robot Dog

By: Roxanne Cortner

Georgia Southern University’s robotics lab developed an advanced robot to interact with people. 

In the robotics lab, a robotic dog has been created to interact with people who have disabilities. The target of this project is for people with disabilities, specifically children with autism, to be able to interact with something “real” even though they may not like physical touch or interaction. 

“It is difficult for them to interact with people and living things, but easy for them to interact with toys,” Dr. Rios, an associate engineering professor, said. 

Dr. Fernando Rios got his Ph.D in electrical engineering and helped develop the robotic dog to apply his research in artificial intelligence. One of the principles of this research is robotics. With artificial intelligence and robotics, Rios wants to mimic the way the human brain works. Rios described this process as being more complicated than mimicking the brain of an animal and needing a bigger computer to code the information in a human brain to put into a human robot. 

A lot of coding takes place to develop a robot and get it to respond to verbal and nonverbal commands. 

To develop the dog robot, instructions are programmed into a series of Arduino boards. Commands and responses are coded and then put into a program. This is then connected to the robotic system. The system is then programmed with sensory mechanics to take in movements.

The robotic dog has cameras and five different sensors. These cameras make it possible for the dog to see the commander and respond appropriately. The autonomous sensors allow for the dog to function on its own. Along with autonomous sensors and Arduino boards, microcontrollers allow for the robot dog to be controlled without a remote or another person physically controlling the robot. 

Essentially, the robot is acquiring it’s actions and responses through its programming, and anyone who knows the language that it was programmed with can interact with it by changing or altering its actions through its coding.

The combination of these applications allows the robotic dog to mimic the actions and emotions of a real dog. The robot dog can find a bone, move his ears, wag his tail and recognize objects. 

“It’s combining mechanical engineering with electrical engineering and applying them to make something happen,” Nicholas Walsh, an engineering student, said. 

Dr. Rios says we are still not at the level to mimic humans, but we are getting there. Movies show that advancements in technology are allowing for the development of robots close to human-like, but it has not fully been developed yet. 

Students in the engineering department have created humanoids, or human-like robots, that are able to kick a ball and move, but due to costs, the robot was not human-like to the potential they would like it to be.

Students have also developed other non-human-like robots that use autonomous sensors that allow people to mow their lawn without being on a lawnmower. This bot has been programmed to respond to commands from an app on a phone. The controller can put the design or outline of the lawn into an app and the bot will follow the instructions. 

More advanced drones are also being developed within Georgia Southern’s robotics lab. Currently, these drones are able to follow commands by a remote control, but researchers are hoping they will one day be autonomous as well. Some researchers have already begun this advancement with hand signals to a camera that the drone responds to. 

Dr. Rios talked about drones and how they have become advanced enough to fly on their own or go into a burning building, find the fire and put them out. This is a more advanced version of the drones and robots that go into natural disasters with cameras to find survivors. 

With more research, humanoids could become a thing of the future if researchers continue to advance drones and robot animals.

Robot Dog Demonstration Video

IS LAUNCH ANGLE THE BEST METRIC?

By: Chase Martaus

The evolution of technology and science has made its way into the game of baseball. The way a baseball game is presented to its fan on television is more specific and complex.

Television networks are not just broadcasting baseball games. They are adding metrics and science to their broadcast.

 As soon as a ball comes off the bat, viewers know how far the ball was hit, at what speed the ball comes off the bat, and the direction down to the degree the ball went, which is now referred to as launch angle.

Every ball that is hit has a launch angle; a result-based system that measures in degrees exactly which direction the ball leaves the bat.

The angle is 10 degrees or lower for a ground ball, a line drive is 10 to 25 degrees, a fly ball is 25 to 50 degrees off the bat, and a popup is a higher than 50-degree angle.

This phenomenon was formally introduced to baseball fans in 2015, when Josh Donaldson, who put together an MVP season the year prior while playing third base for the Toronto Blue Jays, introduced it while appearing on the MLB Network for a segment on hitting.

“If a coach tells you to get on top of the baseball, tell him no,” said Donaldson. “In the big leagues, these things that they call ground balls are outs. They pay you for home runs.”

Not everyone agreed with Donaldson’s statement. Dr. Daniel Czech is a former pitcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization who coaches high school and travel baseball. He expressed his concern for the young athletes who watched Donaldson.

“Broadcasters use this word and they do not really know what they mean or express the validity or liabilities of it,” said Czech. “Then, those words become the lexicon of baseball.”

Prior to Donaldson’s segment in 2016, the average launch angle in baseball was 9.96. In 2020, the average launch angle in Major League Baseball was measured at 11.9 degrees, which is a substantial increase.

According to metrics from ESPN, Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers had the highest launch angle in 2020 with a 26.8 degree angle. The next closest hitter was 3.6 degrees lower than Gallo.

It did not lead to more home runs from Gallo. He hit just 11 home runs in the 60 game season in 2020. He also hit a career low .181, and had the fourth most strikeouts in all of baseball with 79.

Gallo’s numbers appeared to be an outlier though, as the number of home runs across baseball have gone up as the degree of the swing increased. Over the course of a 162 game season, the total number of home runs hit in the MLB was 4,909 in 2015; however, in 2019, the number shot up to 6, 776 home runs.

Launch angle is not only used in the major leagues. It has made its way to all levels of baseball including the college ranks, high school and travel ball.

Kermit Smith is the head baseball coach at Appalachian State. He and his staff use it to decide which prospects to pursue in recruiting.

“We have a new evolution of metrics that we are using to recruit that were not available to us 30 years ago,” said Smith.

With hitters taking bigger swings, it forces pitchers to make adjustments to the way that they pitch. Zach Sanders, a pitcher at Tusculum College in Tennessee, says that pitchers look for a hitter’s launch angle when preparing to face them.

“We are not just looking for tendencies from a hitter anymore,” said Sanders. We are looking to see whether or not there is an uppercut in their swing, and the location in which we pitch is determined by the degree of their swing.”

It remains to be seen how long this phenomenon remains in the game of baseball. There are proposed changes in the MLB to change the baseball in a way that will reduce home runs.

 

 

 

Photodynamic Therapy

Nia Dorsey

A professor at Georgia Southern is studying the comparison of photolysis capabilities between protonated and unprotonated tetraphenyl porphyrin solutions. Jim LoBue is a physical chemistry professor at Georgia southern. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College in 1978 and his Ph.D. from Wesleyan University in 1986. His graduate work involved the study of van der Waals molecules using microwave spectroscopy in a molecular beam under the direction of Dr. Stewart Novick. 

Dr. LoBue is involved in two very different projects in this area of research. His students at Georgia Southern investigate the photochemical properties of tetra-substituted porphyrins. These molecules have properties that make them candidates for a type of cancer therapy called photodynamic therapy. This work involves using various spectrometers available in the Chemistry Department, principally the ISS-K2 Phase Modulated Spectrofluorometer.

In Lobues laboratory, they have many molecules that are derived from something called Porphyrin. They use molecules with a core unit that looks like a structure similar to the outer of a spider web. “It is a chemical formula, showing you the pattern that the atoms choose to connect.” Chemists have a shorthand because they don’t have to draw everything out. After all, they have so much detail that you cant see everything. So what they do is draw different line segments in the web that represent chemical bonds and wherever there is a vertex. There are spaces with no symbols representing an element; you are to imagine a carbon put there. A basic ring would have 20 carbons around it. In the center, there would be nitrogen atoms. And another grouping of atoms which again is a shorthand. 

They have a whole series of “webs” that are different based on what the PH is. So they have between 25 and 30 other molecules that are different based on a choice of whatever you wanted to put on the outer segments. The molecule is noticeably very symmetrical. The center is called a Porphyrin unit, and it appears a lot in biochemistry. The hemoglobin molecule has four units and what they are supposed to have in the middle is an iron atom, and the iron atom carries oxygen. So the hemoglobin when fully oxygenated as four oxygen molecules in every hemoglobin molecule. In your lungs, the hemoglobin grabs these very favorably oxygen molecules and carries them into the bloodstream wherever your tissues need them, which is all over your body.

A student of his, Megan Dempsy, aided in explaining his research, “Photodynamic cancer therapy (PDT) is an effective way to treat external cancers. Due to their ring structure and double bond character, porphyrin molecules work well as photosensitizers in PDT. Tetraphenyl porphyrins have four phenyl groups attached to the central ring.” 

Dempsey introduced me to the methods they used to reach results. Stock samples of porphyrin solutions were created and diluted to 5μM. 180μM DPA was added to the answers to make them 2.5μM Porphyrin and 90μM DPA. The solutions attempted titration with varying levels of HCl. The level was determined with previous research done in porphyrin titration. Microliter aliquots of HCl were added to the diluted Porphyrin, and DPA solutions and UV-Visible light spectra were taken. Unprotonated solutions undergo photolysis with 514nm laser light, but protonated solutions undergo photolysis with 635nm laser light. UV-Vis spectra were taken every 15 minutes for 90 minutes total. The spectra were analyzed in excel for DPA depletion.

This study found that it was inconclusive if the protonated Porphyrin worked as well as the unprotonated Porphyrin in photodynamic cancer therapy (PDT). The work towards a usable porphyrin is essential because the laser light for protonated porphyrins is longer. This longer laser light can penetrate tissues more deeply and make PDT more effective for the patient.

Short-tailed Shrews

 By: Alexis Southward

For an entire summer season, Georgia Southern Associate Biology Professor J. Michelle Cawthorne took a dive into the world of Short -tailed Shrews.

 

Short-tailed Shrews, known for their being the largest specie of Shrew and the only Venemous mammal in North America were the topic of Michelle Cawthorne’s PHD research at Bowling Green State University.

 

“Short-tailed Shrews are very popular mammals in Europe and Russia. They aren’t looked over like they are here in the United States. Spreading my knowledge about how intricate and energetic their lives are could allow for people to have a better understanding appreciation for the species,” said Cawthorne.

Their size and venomous nature were only few characteristics that caught the eye of Cawthorne, but she decided to take a further look into the daily lives of the Short-Tailed Shrew. 

 

When asked why she felt this kind of research was necessary, Cawthorne expressed that small mammals greatly piqued her interest, especially Shrews due to the United States’ ignorance toward them, and that spreading more awareness about shrews would better educate the world on the true complexities of the species. 

 

 

  

“Researching things such as this may seem insignificant to some, but I believe that researching and having a better understanding of other species’ beside our own and unknown things around the world in general can give us more motivation to conserve and preserve," said Cawthorne.

Cawthorne’s research was based on examining their eating habits, examining how they nested and how often throughout the day, and exactly how they handle prey and retrieving other food. 

 

Her research was conducted by way of radio telemetry, which is the process of using radio signals to determine location.

 

With this technology, Cawthorne was able to track specifically three shrews at a time each day to get a glimpse of where the mammals were going, how often, what they did when they reached certain destinations, and how often they came back to their nesting place.

 

From this experiment, Cawthorne gathered that the short-tailed shrew have fairly defined home range and are active about 80% of the day. 

 

She also solidified that shrews use their venom in order to catch prey, stating that “they must eat more than half their body weight to survive, so the venom makes them a very dangerous predator, contrary to what some may believe due to their size”

 

While Cawthorne was very grateful to be conducting this research, she was very concerned with an imperative piece of the experiment, which was getting the radio transmitters into the shrews.

 

“I Was extremely worried because in order to track the shrews, a radio transmitter had to be surgically injected into them, and it saddened me to think about if they would make it or not once we let them back into their habitat,” said Cawthorne.

 

Another factor Cawthorne believed to be a disadvantage was the time intensity. Due to the shrews very vigorous lifestyle, she had to stay up for long hours to track the actions of the shrews. 

 

When asked what she would do differently or advice she would give someone conducting the same research in the future, Cawthorne stated that she would take full advantage of the new DNA and transmitter technology.

 

The most rewarding part of the research to Cawthorne was getting past the hurdle of problem solving.

 

According to Cawthorne, there were many unforeseen obstacles, and her biggest accomplishment was being able to move past them and successfully finish her research.

 

“I like the problem solving part of science. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and success to know that I was able to persevere," said Cawthorne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artificial Intelligence in Education

By Jacob Johnson

 In a world of smartphones, self driving cars and autonomous robots, society is engulfed in technology, more specifically Artificial intelligence, which may be the future of education. 

AI is used throughout daily life, so much so that it is typically not even thought about and AI might not be what you expect. 

“When people think about artificial intelligence, most of the time they just think that means robots, but there are a lot of forms of AI,” said Chase Queen, an engineering major at Georgia Southern University. “To me artificial intelligence is giving a program a method to make decisions and learn from itself and those decisions that it makes.”

AI can be found in a variety of places including Smartphones, commercial airplanes and even email spam filters all have AI.

Most, if not all, smartphones are equipped with voice assistant software, which is one of the most commonly used forms of AI. 

The use of Artificial Intelligence has also integrated itself into education. With new technologies such as AI assisted tutoring, students are able to receive personalized lesson plans to help them in areas they may need help in. 

Queen said that AI being integrated into schools will help free up teachers from grading so they can spend more hands on time with their students. He went on to add that AI systems are designed to maximize efficiency in order to save “man hours” on things outside of teaching students. 

Other forms of AI in education include testing systems, which helps to determine if the overall goal of a certain lesson is being achieved through the current curriculum, and if not, then how to improve it.

“One form of artificial intelligence I have researched is a program that can read essays from students and grade them based on certain criteria, which has shown to cut grading time in half,” said Jack Huesman, a mechanical engineering major at Georgia Southern. 

 

When thinking about AI, there are a lot of movies and books that show them eventually taking over by learning far more than what their creators originally thought, but that is not something many scientists are too concerned about, at least not yet. 

Huesman believes that humans will always hold more of a facilitator role, being there to guide the AI where it needs it and establishing a deeper human connection where it is needed. 

Looking at the essay grading Huesman discussed, the AI would be able to show what was wrong or what could be improved, so that the teacher could then step in to help struggling students and provide deeper explanation where needed.   

Implementing AI into the classroom is about helping teachers instruct, not to replace them, which is a concern for many, in industries where AI has been introduced, like self driving cars and delivery trucks. 

Self driving cars are designed to eventually replace drivers, cutting payroll costs and reducing car accidents by up to eighty eight percent in some studies, however it would be much more difficult to replace teachers. 

AI has also been implemented in the curriculum for learning different languages. A study by Blackburn (2020) showed that students are immersed into a simulated world where they would have to order food at a restaurant in another country or even find transportation to the hotel they are staying at, all in order to help guide their learning of the language and culture. 

Cheryl Aasheim has been working in the information technology field for several years and since her time at Georgia Southern, she has researched and reviewed studies on how information systems can help in education.  Her research has guided policies to make educating more efficient. 

Aashiem believes AI can be involved in education but believes there are challenges that can come up with how you implement it into educators routines because if an educator feels overwhelmed or threatened they may reject it. 

AI may one day change what education looks like, however for now, changes are much slower but professors like Aashiem and students believe AI will one day revolutionize the way we teach and learn. 

New Covid-19 Variant Found In Georgia

Semaj' Williams

Covid-19 cases in Georgia have been on the steady decline, though cases of the main strain continue to drop there have been new variants of the virus detected in the state. 

In a press conference the Georgia Department of Public Health announced and confirmed that there has been one case of the variant from Brazil found in Georgia.

 The Brazilian variant is the third one found so far and is said to be the most contagious. The other variants that have been found in Georgia are from the United Kingdom and from South Africa. The county of the confirmed variant case was not released during the press conference.

    Bulloch County Health Department recommends that citizens continue to social distance, wear mask and not to remain calm. “This is not a time to panic and go see loved ones to make sure they are okay. It has not been released where in Georgia the variant was found, so going out and vising people is not the wisest thing to do. The best thing to do is to keep social distancing and wearing mask, as for the new variant that was found it is important that they do contact tracing to keep others safe and hopefully stop the spread of this variant,” said nurse Jackson.

    According to CDC officials Georgia currently 367 confirmed Covid-19 variant cases, there are 351 cases of the UK variant, 15 cases of the South African variant, and one case of the variant from Brazil.

    Georgia Southern student and Covid-19 survivor Hailey Lovelace does not feel as though the new variant should bring about any major changes in the way that people proceed in their daily lives. “I don’t think this new variant should lead to a shutdown, I understand that it is more contagious and more dangerous, but there is only one case of right now, so we really should not worry right now, let’s worry when there are 100 cases,” said Lovelace.

    According to the CDC the new variant has the potential to lead to more cases of Covid-19 because of its ability to spread easier and quicker than the main strain of Covid. 

    Reports from the CDC also suggests that antibodies in the Covid-19 vaccination may be able to recognize and help fight off these variants.

    Georgia Southern alumnus Rickey Beltran voiced his concerns with the new variant, “I have the vaccine but I’m still kind of nervous, I mean the vaccine isn’t a guaranteed protection from the virus, and now on top of that there are more strains being detected. If the vaccine covers the various strains then okay, I’m satisfied but if not, then I’m going back in line for the new vaccine whenever it drops,” said Beltran.

     Statesboro resident Adam Hampton has doubts about the new variant, “I’m not doubting that it exists, what I doubt is the severity of it. If the virus variant was really as dangerous as people believe that it is then why not say where it was found so we know to stay away from that area, I have had Covid already and it was not that bad, so if this new strain is like the old one then I’m not too worried.”

Georgia has expanded the eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccine which now includes all Georgians from the age of 16 and older.

    According to Georgia’s vaccination dashboard there have been more than 1 million Georgians that have received both doses of the vaccination and more than 2 million that have received the first dose. 

    The CDC still recommends that people wear a mask and to remain social distancing to help slow the spread of the virus.

Preparing the unprepared

By: Eliel Ramirez

Saying the coronavirus pandemic was and continues to be an inconvenience is an understatement. 

With the ability to spread through close contact and through the air, it made it difficult to be in the same room as others without the fear of contracting the virus. 

Schools took a big hit having to close and were forced to adopt a virtual way of learning. 

Colleges and universities around the world had to send students home, leaving many unsure when they would be able to return.

“It was important to go online because large groups of people together was not safe,” Wilekia Mayes, senior education major and college teaching assistant, said. “If we had continued in-person learning we ran the risk of parents pulling students out of school so it was just easier to just switch to online learning.”

Mayes said the challenge was switching all the curriculum to an online format. “Staring at a screen all day isn’t fun,” she said. “Finding new resources to make virtual learning fun and effective was difficult.”

As the number of students, faculty and staff allowed on campus decreased, the dependence on technology rose. 

According to Mayes, one issue educators had with technology was assignments would get turned in and it was difficult to verify if the student was being honest so educators had to figure out which assignments deserved a zero or a pass. 

Going virtual seemed like an easy fix, especially for students in programs such as accounting or journalism. But for students in more hands-on programs such as nursing, it left them lost and feeling unprepared.

“I definitely would not say going virtual last year was ideal,” Jarred Warren, a Georgia Southern accounting graduate student, said. “It for sure made learning harder, but I wouldn’t say we are a hands-on program like nursing. They for sure had it worse.”

Mayes said a big plus for the dependence on technology has allowed the students to challenge themselves in ways that hadn’t before. Preparing them for the future.

As hospitals were closing because of the pandemic, educators had to teach using simulations to replace in-person clinical experiences. 

“Going virtual totally ruined our learning,” Ana Mora, a Georgia Southern graduate and current nurse at the Aiken Regional Medical Center on the cardiac floor, said. “Some hospitals adapted to a longer orientation when hired to offset the learning needing to work since we missed it.”

Nurses were already stretched thin during the chaos, applying that on top of having to make sure unprepared students are keeping up with them just added to the stress.

Mora says that a lot of the nurses were worn out from over working because the patients did not want a student nurse. 

“Nobody wanted student nurses,” she said. “I can’t blame them though, I wouldn’t want someone who was getting a degree from zoom university.”

Technology was used heavily to make up for the lack of in-person training. Educators were forced to teach through a camera. 

Being a medical profession, the professors in this program understood the severity of the virus and had to go to great lengths, creating new ways to teach the material.

Although virtual training may not be as effective as hands-on training, nursing educators had to adapt in order to ensure the students were as prepared as possible for the real world.

“What we were learning online, is not even a percentage of what we learn in person,” Mallory Mahue, a senior nursing student at Georgia Southern, said. “Patients aren’t black and white like they are in textbooks.”

In a way, the pandemic was their first lesson in expecting the unexpected. Every shift is different, a nurse never knows what to expect when they walk in. Having to adapt throughout the day to whatever is thrown their way. 

This hurdle compelled them to become flexible in their learning, even if it is not the ideal way to learn. 

The major difference between virtual and in-person is the patient. 

“Once you have them in person, it’s like you’re looking at the patient as a whole person with a lot of problems,” Mahue said. “Rather than looking at a fake simulation focused on one issue at a time.”

With advancements in technology, virtual simulations allow students to practice techniques and challenge their medical knowledge to better prepare for a real-life situation. However, it still seemed to be a problem.

Mora said she had nurses that refused to have students because they did not have the time to teach them something they should have learned before arriving there. 

Hospitals were forced to extend their orientations in order to better prepare new hires for the job. 

One downside to advancements in technology is the price. Many companies offered their services for administrations at a discounted rate or even at times free. 

However, access to a computer or internet is not something that everyone has the privilege of having. 

Mora said she graduated feeling unprepared. She said that the simulations helped a lot, but she quickly realized after beginning her job that it could never replace the real deal.

I reached out to a nursing professor asking her how she handled the transition and what were some of the obstacles she faced in ensuring that her students were prepared. I also asked her how the coronavirus and the way it spread hindered their learning, however I have not received a response as of yet.

Should College/Pro Sports Have their Stadiums at Full Capacity Again?

With the Covid-19 pandemic allegedly on its last leg, Georgia Southern is potentially looking at having 80%-100% capacity at its football games this Fall. With baseball season approaching us, the NBA in midseason form, and the football season only a few months away, we are now entering the peak of sports. For sports around the world, last season was as unique of a season as we’ll ever see due to little to no fans at sporting events. As sports are now picking back up, there have been several rumors of the possibility of allowing up to 80% to full capacity crowds in stadiums. Numerous college football programs are flirting with this idea, which has caused plenty of mixed reactions from both sides of the spectrum. Georgia Southern Biology professor John Carroll has been studying vaccines for over a decade and is very confident on what this may mean for the pandemic. “If we didn’t have any vaccines, it would’ve been idiotic for schools to make such a huge leap in allowing a full capacity stadium.” “I do feel like 100% may be a bit of a stretch, the smarter and safer approach would be 75-80%”. When looking at the data, it’s easy to see why people may get blinded by the numbers of 137 million vaccine doses given in America. Although 137M have been vaccinated, 48.7M of those 137M have been fully vaccinated which is only 14.87% of the US population. Although things tend to be heading in the right direction, it’s still awfully quick to determine whether it will be safe to allow stadiums at full capacity this Fall. On the brighter side of things, with four different vaccines available, Carroll also sees a path where having stadiums at full capacity could become a reality. “All the vaccines have a 90-95% success rate, which is way above everyone’s expectations”. “The vaccines are clearly effective, so if schools continue to push the envelope on getting vaccinated, I think it’s very possible.” In a conducted interview with 50 Georgia Southern Students, 36 students said they would feel safe going to game that is fully capacitated, while 14 of the 50 students said they would not feel safe. Public Health Grad student, Kinsey Morelock contributed the results of the survey to “real life evidence”, and statistical data. “The leading cause of Covid outbreaks were linked to campus parties, bar gatherings, and huge social gatherings with no masks in sight,” she said. “Classrooms on campus and sporting events were surprisingly a non-factor regarding the covid outbreaks that took place during the Fall semester.” In a Washington Post graph, data shows that bars were followed by a rise in cases, and in 23 different states. Some of the few states that make contact tracing data public 41% of all cases can be traced to bars and restaurants. 41% was the highest percentage out of all the categories while sporting events only had an eight percent effective rate. Indoor dining, especially when capacity is capped at 25%, appears to be less of a problem than bars. But in bars, physical distancing is harder to control, and people talk more and louder when alcohol is consumed, which could contribute to the production of more virus aerosols. Which is why the nation’s top infectious diseases official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have consistently stated, “when bars open, infections tend to follow.” “If we’re being honest, having a fall stadium really shouldn’t be a discussion,” Georgia Southern student Evan Rowe said. “The super spreaders were linked to parties and bars, notice how after the super bowl and other major sporting events with a decent crowd had no outbreaks”. Although it is understandable that many people are not too fond of the idea of fully compacted stadiums, remember that this was never that cause for outbreaks. With four vaccines available and a few more rumored to be the horizon, scientist have predicted that at least 80-85% of people will be fully vaccinated come September. “It’s tough to predict what may happen in six months,” Carroll said. “But if we continue to do what we’ve been doing for a year now, and continue to listen to the scientist/doctors, everything will play out the way it was intended to."

How Engineering Research Has Played A Role in the COVID-19 Vaccines

 By: Tyler Miller

Engineering can help with a lot of different things in today’s world that most people don’t even realize that it helps out with. Engineering played a big part in producing the vaccines for COVID-19 that are being distributed all over the world. Some people do extensive research on stuff like vaccines, especially Laura Rives.

Laura is a chemical engineer that works for a company that helps ship out some of the vaccines in coolers. She said that she really doesn’t do much research since she is always working, but when she gets free time, she does research on how engineering helped play a part in producing the vaccines. “I do work a lot and help ship out some of the vaccines in our coolers, and don’t get a lot of time to do my own research on things. But I do some research on how engineering has really helped produce the vaccines that people get today,” Rives said in an email. She also said that since her and the people she works with have to go through the process of putting the vaccines in coolers to ship them out to be distributed, it always interested her to research how engineering played a role. “Engineering plays a huge role in a lot of things today, especially vaccines and it always interested me to do some research on it,” said Rives.

She said her extensive research includes finding out how much chemical engineering has done for vaccine distribution and making of the vaccines.

Even students at Georgia Southern University who are engineering majors, don’t realize how much engineering plays a part in vaccines and the role it has in helping make and distribute them.

Peyton Iturrian, an engineering major at Georgia Southern, said that even he didn’t realize till he thought about it, how much engineering helped when it came to the vaccines. “Students like myself don’t realize how big a role engineering plays in the world. Especially when it comes to the pandemic that we’ve been in for over a year now. Once you think about it, you’re like oh yeah engineering does play a big role in the world especially when it comes to the vaccines,” said Iturrian.

Iturrian also said that once somebody does research on what role engineering plays, you realize how big of an impact you’re having in today’s world by being an engineering major. He said that engineering always interested him and when the pandemic hit, he realized after a while that he picked the right major because of his interest in it, and how much engineering really does for the world.

Clay Hester, also an engineering major at Georgia Southern, said that he had interest in being an engineering major back when he was in high school. He also said when it came to the role it plays with the vaccine, “When I first started being an engineering major at Georgia Southern, I had thought about what the impact was on the real world when it came to what I was doing. And recently with this pandemic and how dangerous COVID-19 really is, you start to research how much engineering has helped with the vaccines.”

Hester also added that he thinks that engineers don’t get enough credit for how much they helped with the vaccines and how much work they had to put in for it. “Those of us who are engineers I feel like don’t get enough credit for how much we’ve helped with the vaccines. All the work we’ve done to help make them so they can get distributed. We deserve more credit for that.”

Until somebody starts researching how much of an impact engineers have had on the COVID-19 vaccines, they don’t realize how much their work has helped.

 

 

 

Alternative Energy

lilRami · AlternativeEnergyAudio

Professor Makes Small Steps Forward Towards Cancer Research

(Statesboro, GA) A screenshot of an illustration by Tolentino over a zoom call to show the process of growing the cancer cell to be tested, a diagram to show what it is tested in, and a graph to show how the results are analyzed based on concentration of the compound, and the amount of time. Image does not include Tolentino's other parts of the image.

By John Roberts 

    A professor at Georgia Southern University is conducting research this semester to confirm the creation of a compound that shows activity against some cancer cells.

    Christine Whitlock, a professor and synthetic organic chemist, has been working with an iron compound called tris-indole amines for almost 20 years.

    The National Cancer Institute has a program called the NCI-60 Human Tumors Cell Lines Screen that allows scientists and researchers to send in compounds for free, and test their activity in 60 human cancer cells. 

    Whitlock sent in multiple compounds, but only received interest about the iron compound that showed some activity with cancer cells. 

    These surprising results for Whitlock from this compound led to the creation of a few derivatives, which are compounds arising from another compound already made. 

    Whitlock partnered with a colleague and cell biologist, Timothy Tolentino to test some of these derivatives in some cancer cells. 

    Tolentino tested them in prostate cancer cells and leukemia cells, and Whitlock said that the results in cell culture are just as active as some drugs that are on the market.

    Tolentino has a plethora of samples of cancer that he obtains, grows, and stores for tests for professors like Whitlock.

    The process to test the iron compound involved taking the sample of the cancers out of their freezer, providing nutrients and circumstances that would grow the amount of these cells to a strong place.

    Once this cancer cells grew up this point, Tolentino placed it in a certain contained environment, and places different concentrations of the the compound over different periods of time. 

    These results showed Whitlock and Tolentino the anti-cancer properties that the NCI program identified as well.

    Whitlock's research on iron compounds were not originally intended to treat cancer, but rather for chelating iron for people that have too much iron in their blood, also known as hemochromatosis. 

    This iron chelating process is designed to where a compound can grab or bond to iron in the bloodstream, and filter it out of the system.  

    The structure of the compound that Whitlock is working with is like claw of 3 molecules that grab onto iron, but differs from the original by using molecules Whitlock has chosen that are able to dissolve the iron more.

    "I think it has a lot of potential," Tolentino said.

    Both Whitlock and Tolentino observed that this iron compound is not toxic, shows anti-cancer properties, can treat for other medical issues and has the ability to act as a transporter based on its claw shape and iron chelating. 

    Tolentino said one of the biggest issues in cancer research is the fact that most treatments do not effectively target specific areas, and this compound possesses the ability to transport a drug to a certain location.

    Cancer treatment in most ways looks like a pouring food coloring in water to diffuse, rather than a precision missile to a specific area.

    The other issue has come that with more stronger doses of some cancer treatments has come to negatively affect other cells besides cancer cells. 

    Whitlock's research on this iron compound moves past these barriers.

    "It's not toxic, not radioactive, and kills cancer cells," Tolentino said, "Sounds good to me."

    Whitlock's research on the iron compound has a long distance to go before these observations get to a point where this could be a viable treatment.

    "You can spend years making a compound and then it doesn't work," Whitlock said.       

    

    Whitlock and her team have spent this semester making derivatives, and trying to confirm if she is the first person to make this compound, and to make it correctly.

    Once this point of the research is completed, it would move to tests on more cell culture, and then there would possibly be multiple years in between tests in cell culture, writing about it, peer reviewing it, and publishing it. 

    From there it would go to be tested on animals to be written about, peer reviewed, and published. It then would approach the possibility be used to be treated on a person. 

    Maegan Morrow, a senior undergraduate student in Whitlock's research, said that this research makes her very hopeful for future cancer research.

    "Even though we are far away from human trials, I believe this type of research and others could be a great alternative to current cancer treatments, and could possibly be able to cure it with future research and testing," Morrow said.

     

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

Cancer Research Progresses at Georgia Southern

By: John Roberts

2John · Cancer Research Progresses at Georgia Southern

"Health Services Robot" Senior Project Audio

 https://soundcloud.com/user-321619623/stem-hsrobot-mixdown

AI in the Field of Medicine: Advancements of Robots in the Healthcare Industry

With the rise and prominence of technology, it is argued that artificial intelligence has progressively become the future of virtually every industry-- including the healthcare industry. 

Recent innovations have been on the rise due to COVID-19 being the world’s current reality. Scientists and engineers are using artificial intelligence to program healthcare robots and implement them into the healthcare industry, making it possible for robots to take on tasks commonly performed by human healthcare professionals.

Robots in medicine have been around for decades. According to Matthews (2019), robots in the medical field first emerged in 1985 when a robotic arm called PUMA successfully assisted with surgery for the first time. 

However, according to healthcaredegree.net today’s robotic innovations are even more advanced. healthcare robots help to relieve “medical personnel from routine tasks that take their time away from more pressing responsibilities.”

Currently, the responsibilities of healthcare robots are programmed to disinfect patients’ rooms, carrying meals, and taking samples to transport, analyze, and store them. However, the future of healthcare and artificial intelligence strives deeper than the everyday tasks. Robots are now responsible for surgeries in small places and transportation of dangerous substances. 

In terms of daily routine tasks, Kayla Mullins, Licensed Practical Nurse at Candler Hospital located in Savannah, Georgia said that her routine tasks include providing vaccines and administering medications.

“I’d be nervous if they were providing medications, because certain patients need certain dosages, and of course robots are able to calculate dosages because they are programmed to do so, but who’s to say that your patient won’t have a reaction,” Mullins said. “The robot wouldn’t be able to actually revive the patient, or perform proper precautions if something happens.”

There have been questions raised regarding whether or not robots are unreliable in terms of healthcare, due to unavoidable inconsistencies that come with technology. Breyanna McCoy, senior Public Health major at Georgia Southern agrees with Mullins about the tasks that robots should be limited to. She expressed that healthcare robot’s jobs should begin and end with tasks such as storage and data collection, but feels strongly that most healthcare professionals' jobs are safe in terms of threat from robots infiltrating the industry. 

McCoy's main concern regarded the general reliability of computers, the cost and the funding it would take to incorporate them into the industry. 

“After a while computers start to die fast, they get viruses if you don’t routinely maintain and update them,” McCoy said. “The healthcare industry is a trillion dollar industry, with the money it takes to fix machines, I’m not sure why we would add a billion dollar problem to that.”

According to Mohammed Sorez, an Information Technology graduate from Georgia Southern University, artificial intelligence is essentially a handyman for technology.

“The whole premise of IT is that something is going to break, and you need to know how to fix it,” Sores said. “When it comes to a robot or AI messing up, that’s just what technology does, even when it comes to humans, there is always human error-- it’s just going to happen.” 

Funding is a major reason healthcare professionals aren’t sure just how fair AI in the healthcare industry will go. 

According to rn.com “robots in U.S. hospital workforce tend to fall into two categories: robots that replace a job previously handled by humans, and telemedicine-based robotics that connect clinicians and patients.”

In terms of future innovations of robots, as it relates to the field of medicine and artificial intelligence, questions have been raised regarding just how far advancements can and will go. Hope Fields, Medical doctor for Kaiser Permanente located in Smyrna, Georgia mentioned that in medicine, practitioners have to be both subjective and objective, but robots are only able to be objective. 

“Robots aren’t able to practice discernment,” Fields said. “In medicine we have to be able to be subjective, objective, assess, and plan-- I’m not worried at all about robots infiltrating this industry, you can’t replace humans when it comes to medicine.” 

The future of robots will likely have a strong foothold in the healthcare industry. Future innovations of robots will involve an integration of robotics and telemedicine which healthcare professionals refer to as tele-nursing. Tele-nursing involves robots becoming the nurse’s eyes, ears, and body. The advancements and components necessary to make tele-nursing possible are becoming increasingly mature with time.

From Race Horse To Race Power

Georgia Southern University offers the Excellence in Research Program to young engineers who are competitive in their focus.

Through this program young engineers are invited to use state of the art technology in a lab that took over 12 years and $3 million to build.

The Renewable Energy and Engines Laboratory is directed by Dr. Valentin Soloiu , a professor and engineer for over 30 years who is the Distinguished Chair of Renewable Energy and a Professor in  Georgia Southern's Department of Mechanical Engineering.

‘“The lab has about 10 students who are researchers and seven or eight trainees,” said Dr. Soloiu. “We start very early, we start practically sophomore year introducing students into research and they do research in three years undergraduate two year’s masters.”

Students in the lab are a part of Georgia Southern’s Excellence in Research Program which absorbs all the costs of what it takes to accommodate students during their time as researchers.

The knowledge the students gain from the research they do is evaluated through conference and journals papers peer reviewed at a national and international level.

 One of the students a part of this intensive, five-year program that requires a minimum of 10 hours of research a week, is Amanda Weaver in order to remain a part of.

Her research began two years ago and she is now a Georgia Southern graduate who is using her skills from the Excellence in Research Program to enter an even more competitive environment.

Ms. Weaver's abstract from her on-going research has been approved for her to display the progress of her research.

She is designing a high-pressure injection system that has a variety of different sensors to determine the different characteristics of fuels, how they affect injection systems, and  how they behave when injected.

She will showcase her research at a Virtual national conference in May which will determine the 10 students from across the country who will be accepted into the even more focus summer engineering program called the Department of Defense- National Science Foundation Research Experience for graduates that Georgia Southern hosts.

Ms. Weaver will continue testing the different types of fuels through her project and this will help focus on better ways to tackle the complexities of internal combustion.

Automotive engineering research such as Ms. Weaver’s are being done to accomplish better internal combustion in cars for them to be able to go faster.

“We have a jet engine in the lab that we run, we have special fuels from aerospace applications, both civil and military fuels,” said Soloui. “We tried to find the best fuels that produce less nitrogen oxide and greenhouse gases”.

The testing of these fuels will not only make cars go faster but they will also begin to help environmentally because the results will help to produce fuels that produce less carbon dioxide, less noisy jet engines and ground support.

Richard Smith, an undergraduate researcher, also works in the The Renewable Energy and Engines Laboratory.

“We do RCCI research, which is reactivity-controlled compression ignition, “said Smith. “It is using a bio-alcohol with traditional diesel compression ignition methods to produce lower emissions in the test engines”.

Ms. Weaver's love for cars and the automotive industry may stem from her interesting hobby, horseback riding.

Her agility and competitiveness from her equestrian adventures prove to give her the same need to produce speed.

In the future, Weaver has her sights already set as far as her occupation.

“I’m really into the industry, I want to go to Detroit to the automotive industry and work for Dodge,” said Weaver. “ I like their attitude toward automotive manufacturing and performance.”