Abstract from St. Lawrence University Festival of Science

In Summer 2009 I participated in the NSF-funded SURF-IT (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Information Technology) at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) involved creating an iPhone/iPod Touch application called Teenvity that is designed to motivate teenagers to exercise by playing games that require movement. The application is molded to the user’s personality; the system selects an agent, motivational phrases, and games to suggest to the user based on a short personality test.

Abstract from St. Lawrence University Festival of Science

The North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) currently occupies a wide range of terrestrial habitats across the United States and is expanding its range to include much of the North American continent (Ilse and Hellgren, 2001). It is the only porcupine in North America, and its habitat includes hemlock and deciduous forests, which often brings it into close contact with humans who have monopolized such areas for development and agriculture (Roze, 1989).

Abstract from St. Lawrence University Festival of Science

A web crawler is a program that scours the Internet moving from website to website. Web crawlers have many different purposes, such as sending out junk mail, finding dead links within a domain, and searching websites and databases for relevant information like that of Google. This project focuses on using a web crawler to map the hierarchy of links within a particular domain. Starting at the St. Lawrence University’s home page, the web crawler gathers all the links that are found while crawling the St. Lawrence domain.

Abstract from St. Lawrence University Festival of Science

The purpose of this project was to determine the nonwinter and winter home ranges of porcupines in a mixed hardwood forest in northern New York and to monitor den activity to determine daily and seasonal changes in den use. Primarily, I a) measured the home range of three radio collared porcupines to determine seasonal and yearly variability; b) monitored den usage to determine time of day of peak activity, seasonal activity differences, and instances of den sharing; and c) observed sexual differences in home range and den usage.

Abstract from St. Lawrence University Festival of Science

Given the increased interest of educational institutions to raise awareness of environmental issues, there is a desire to inform students of their personal usage of resources. Generally, this is in the form of the quantity of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are produced by the lifestyle that they lead. The volume of carbon produced either directly or indirectly by an individual’s lifestyle is dependant on a wide range of factors and is almost impossible to precisely calculate.