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Dean's Research Award for Master's Students 2023–2024

For the 2023–2024 academic year, the Duke Graduate school awarded 65 Dean's Research Awards for Master's Students. Each award provides up to $1,000 to support a master's student's research and professional development. Here is a look at some of the recipients and their current projects. (Complete list of recipients)

Shiraz Ahmed

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

I am a documentary filmmaker making a film about the local Muslim community in the Triangle Area. My work involves community engagement through focus groups and participatory arts exercises.

The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students allowed me to host an event with a local nonprofit where I led a group of young adult Muslims through a "journey mapping" exercise developed by the Center for Documentary Studies' Literacy Through Photography program. The award also funded several trips out to Cary, Apex, Morrisville, and Fuquay-Varina to film at various events hosted by the local community.

Sara Alghesheyan

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

My thesis, titled "Between Memories and Dreams," delves into the intersection of visuals and the narratives I convey. This exploration is centered around the concept that our memories play a significant role in shaping our identity.

The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students has been instrumental in facilitating the development of my video installation. It has supported the creation of essential materials such as building panels and fabric, making it easier to transport them to and from campus. Additionally, the award has played a crucial role in covering film and processing costs, contributing significantly to the overall production.

Given the emphasis on audio in my thesis show, particularly in highlighting the memories of children through folk songs and rituals, the award has enabled collaboration with audio producers. This collaboration has proven invaluable in addressing the technical aspects of the audio component, enhancing the overall quality of the project.

Yuchen Bi

Statistical Science

In computational advertising, optimizing the use of new and under-tested apps in marketing campaigns remains a significant challenge. We seek to derive an optimal computational advertising strategy for allocating advertisement impressions across apps with varying degrees of prior utilization and known effectiveness in a dynamic environment. This award will be used to purchase access to academic journals and computational resource.

Lindsey Bloom

Medical Physics

My thesis project is centered around the idea of taking pre-existing prostate biopsy needle-tracking technology and developing techniques to apply it for GYN brachytherapy; these cases will use real-time transrectal ultrasound image guidance and fusion with MRI to assist physicians with insertion of interstitial needles during high-dose-rate brachytherapy treatments.

Due to the importance of accurate source placement in brachytherapy, these GYN patients undergo various imaging modalities- including CT, ultrasound, and MRI. Our industry partner, Eigen Health, has commercially available technologies that are applicable for prostate biopsy procedures, but with the use of our optimized female pelvic phantoms, we can translate these image-guidance technologies into GYN brachytherapy treatments.

Our previous phantom studies have demonstrated that it is feasible for this prostate biopsy system to be translated into a GYN system, and our team has recently received IRB approval to begin patient studies. Now, we are verifying various components of the system, such as the MR/3DUS deformable registration that drives the needle tracking system to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Hutton Chapman

Global Health

Despite years of improvements made in the care for children with cancer in high resource countries, outcomes for children who live in low resource countries remains incredibly poor. These disparities are multifactorial in nature and need significant research and work to address. In a portion of our work in Northern Tanzania, we explored the association of nutrition status and outcomes for patients with a type of lymphoma known as Burkitt lymphoma. This award gave me the opportunity to travel to an international conference, the American Society of Hematology annual conference, to learn from other experts in this field and to have the opportunity to talk about our work. It proved to be a highly valuable experience in getting to discuss my research and network with other investigators. I am very appreciative to the Graduate School for this award which helped facilitate this opportunity.

Andie Z Chen

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

I am a first-year master's student interested in documenting religion, immigration, and family dynamics.

I will use the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students to purchase video and audio equipment and to fund travel relevant to my research project.

Purity Chepkoech

Global Health

Cervical cancer remains a significant threat to the well-being of women in low and middle-income countries. With help from Dr. Megan Huchko and her team, we designed a stigma-sensitive training curriculum for Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) focused on client-centered care in the delivery of cervical cancer prevention in Kisumu, Kenya. The objective of this training is to empower CHVs with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and self-efficacy needed to educate and counsel women in their communities about the advantages of HPV screening and treatment of pre-cancers, ultimately contributing to the reduction of the cervical cancer burden. I am grateful for being selected as a recipient of the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students. I intend to utilize the funds to acquire necessary supplies and tools that will aid in the successful completion of my thesis.

Xuhang Fan

Economics

I am planning to study the moderating effect of moral cost in the uncertainty-affect-morality process. I believe that this research has the potential to make a valuable contribution to our understanding of human decision-making and ethical behavior.

To facilitate this research, The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will assist in conducting lab experiments. In the laboratory setting, I will be able to carefully control variables and ensure the accuracy and validity of my findings.

This research can have significant implications in psychology and decision sciences, as it explores the intricate relationship between uncertainty and moral judgments.

Avinno Faruk

Economics and Computation

My degree program places me in a unique position to learn deeply about both disciplines and venture into the realm of interdisciplinary work with both the underlying foundations and technical know-how. I intend to use the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students to support my research, with Prof. Erica Field as my faculty advisor. This is a study based on Bangladesh that will combine very granular, high-frequency financial data and the open-entry responses of the economically disadvantaged. This will be a perfect blend of displaying my trajectory over the courses I have taken at Duke, and a culmination of my degree focusing on interdisciplinary research between Economics and Computer Science. It will also help in my professional development since it perfectly aligns with my current research interests.

Amy Gao

Computer Science

I am currently a first-year master's student specializing in computer science. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students covers my travel expenses to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computingconference. This conference serves as a valuable platform for women engineers seeking employment opportunities.

My interest lies in backend development, and I intend to pursue a career as a software engineer in the industry upon completing my degree.

Jie Gao

Population Health Sciences

I'm focused on health economics and statistical methods in healthcare. I hope that my research can help improve healthcare delivery and policy-making.

I seek the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students to attend the Academy Health Annual Research Meeting 2024. This conference is crucial for gaining insights into the latest developments and networking with experts in my field. The award will also be used for memberships in Academy Health and the American Statistical Association, which is essential for developing statistical methods.

Nikhita Gopisetty

Global Health

Diabetes is a global epidemic, and by 2045, it is predicted that over 700 million adults will be living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). To address the knowledge gap and emotional burden attached to T2D, the research team (myself, my mentors Dr. Eve Puffer and Dr. Sumi Ariely, and researchers at the Public Health Research Institute of India) developed an education and goal-based peer support model for young adults living with T2D in Mysore district, Karnataka, India. My study piloted a peer support intervention, Kanasina Gulabi (Kannada: My Dream Rose), designed to improve quality of life and diabetes management among young adults living with T2D. Participants were assigned to an intervention group, connected 1-1 to non-specialist providers—trained young adult peers who are also managing T2D—and developed action plans to improve their physical and mental health outcomes. Feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of the intervention were assessed over 3 months. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will help support the dissemination of the research findings at the American Diabetes Association's 84th Scientific Sessions.

Ayush Gupta

Interdisciplinary Data Science

Given my extensive experience in the oil and gas industry, winning the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students marks a significant milestone for me. Armed with expertise in this sector, I'm poised to channel my understanding of data science and prior industrial experience to work on a more sustainable future by aiding industries in reducing carbon emissions and advancing global efforts toward achieving carbon neutrality.

With access to cutting-edge resources like high-performance computing, I'm ready to leverage data-driven insights to drive meaningful change. Through meticulous analysis, I aim to uncover actionable strategies that not only optimize industrial processes but also significantly reduce carbon footprints.

Moreover, this award opens doors to top-tier conferences and workshops, where I'll connect with fellow innovators and exchange ideas on sustainable practices. By forging collaborations and sharing best practices, I'm confident that we can collectively redefine the future of carbon emission reduction.

I'm excited to embark on this journey and make a lasting impact in advancing global sustainability efforts

Seulbin Han

East Asian Studies

My research project focuses on analyzing the global success of Korean popular music, or K-Pop, with an emphasis on the phenomenon's consumers. Particularly, I'm interested in finding out if diasporic consumers of K-Pop in the United States play an important role in bringing attention to the K-Pop phenomenon as a globally profitable music industry. The success of K-Pop in recent years has not only drawn increased attention to the Korean music industry, but has contributed to the rapid expansion of South Korea's economic, social, and cultural "soft power" across unconventional boundaries. Against this background, my study begins by posing the simple question: Who are the consumers of K-Pop? I then follow up with my primary research question: What percentage of K-Pop consumers in the US can be categorized as members of Asian diasporic communities? Building on the quantitative nature of my second question, my research also poses a third, qualitative question: How do diasporic K-Pop consumers impact the transnational flow of global cultural goods and products? As a part of this research, I intend on conducting a demographic survey of live K-Pop event attendees in early 2024. This data will be used to categorize K-Pop consumers into diasporic communities, which will help answer my second research question. I'm honored to have been selected for the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students, which will cover expenses related to the survey component of my project.

Kyungeun Jeon

Statistical Science

I am currently working on a research project that delves into causal inference and external control studies within clinical trials targeting idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Hwanhee Hong and Dr. Laine Elliott Thomas. Our objective is to assess the performance of estimators in estimating treatment effects when combining Randomized Controlled Trials with other external controls, such as historical and Electronic Health Record data. I am preparing to present an oral summary of this project at the 2024 Eastern North American Region (ENAR) conference, a renowned gathering for biostatisticians.

Receiving the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students has opened a significant opportunity for me at ENAR. I anticipate engaging with a diverse group of biostatistics experts and gaining valuable feedback on the project and its practical implications in clinical settings. I am also excited about the prospect of connecting with professionals in the field of biostatistics, exchanging insights on their research, and discussing innovative statistical methods that enhance the efficiency and accuracy of estimating treatment effects. Additionally, the series of short courses offered at the ENAR conference promises to be immensely beneficial, providing informative sessions that will not only aid my current research but also offer practical advice for analyzing clinical data.

Layan Kaushik

Economics and Computation

My research is centered on refining data science models, particularly those challenged by measurement errors and outliers. A notable project of mine is the enhancement of a flood insurance data set. This involves incorporating new, relevant data and rectifying anomalies in critical variables. The aim is to make this improved and trustworthy data set publicly available, serving as a resource for more accurate flood damage modeling, vital for insurance assessments and cost-benefit analyses.

The support from this award is crucial for my academic progress. It facilitates my participation in machine learning and data science conferences, where I can learn advanced concepts, present my findings, and connect with industry experts.

Scott Lai

Interdisciplinary Data Science

My research explores the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence, specifically focusing on how electroencephalogram (EEG) technology can interface with AI to interpret human brain waves. This study, known as "NeuroComm: Bridging EEG and AI for Cognitive Insight," seeks to understand the underlying patterns of brain activity and apply AI to analyze these patterns, offering insights into human behavior and cognition.

The prestigious Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will be instrumental in advancing this work. It will primarily fund the purchase of sophisticated EEG equipment, which is crucial for accurately recording and analyzing the electrical activity in the brain. Access to this technology will enable a deeper analysis of cognitive processes and foster advancements in AI applications related to brain-computer interfacing.

This research stands at the cutting edge of technology and psychology, with the potential to revolutionize how we interact with machines, understand mental processes, and even predict behaviors. The support from the Duke Graduate School is not only a testament to the project's potential impact but also a crucial enabler of the exploratory steps this study will undertake.

Natasha Lehner

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

I have spent the last year and a half researching my recently discovered biological grandfather, Harvey Karman. Harvey was a fierce advocate for women's rights and the inventor of an abortion tool called the Karman cannula. This cannula is still used today around the world and hailed as being one of the greatest innovations within the abortion community. In addition to this, Harvey was also a sperm donor who gave women, such as my grandmother, a chance at motherhood that they would not have otherwise had. I have since discovered at least 13 children that Harvey has fathered and had the incredible privilege of meeting with many of these (now grown) children in person. Mysubsequent project, "More of Everything," presents images and text made by three generations that never existed as one. This imaginative union interweaves my work with that of my father and grandfather, to be exhibited together for the first time with the help of the Dean's Research Award.

Ke Liu

Interdisciplinary Data Science

I am currently a second-year master's student and am interested in Explainable AI (XAI). I believe it's essential for AI systems to provide clear and understandable explanations for their decisions. I believe XAI could also help us to use data science to combat the problem of Truth Decay, which is closely linked to data science challenges. In today's world, where misinformation and disinformation are widespread, it's crucial to present trustworthy and easily comprehensible information. I am grateful for the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students. I will use this grant to cover my conference travel.

Ziwen Liu

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

I hope that through my movable music box space, I can connect people who love music. The space is used to uncover people's stories and to learn more about the deeper meaning of musical healing. My final work will be composed of photos, sounds, and videos of people and will be presented in the form of a documentary.

In order to minimize "my" subjective thoughts and participation, I would like to leave the camera and notebook in the space for those who would like to leave a sound or a trace to take a photo or video of themselves. They can also write down what they want to say. These photos and videos can be put directly on the TV screen in the space. In this way, a direct interaction between subjects is reached, with the possibility of discovering people and stories for further interviews and filming.

Stanysha Lowery

Population Health Sciences

Currently, I am working at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health Care System on the evaluation and implementation of Complimentary and Integrative Health (CIH) interventions for veterans.

The Dean's Research for Master's Students will support my travel for research to an annual conference this spring, where I will be presenting a manuscript assessing the acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility of auricular acutherapy among nurses who were trained to deliver CIH treatments.

Yang Lu

Biomedical Engineering

I am a second-year master's student, and my research interest lies in the intersection between machine learning and neuroscience. I work in Dr. John Pearson's lab in the Neurobiology Department.

My project focuses on building multimodal variational autoencoders (VAEs) to analyze the behavioral patterns of mouse social communication. I apply the model to learn the shared information between the mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) and orofacial movements. The model helps provide evidence for underlying neural mechanisms.

The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students provides me an opportunity to attend academic conferences and communicate with other researchers to learn more about the field.

Yimeng Ma

Computer Science

I am deeply engaged in research on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), human-AI teaming, and software engineering. My current research activities are centered at the General Robotics Lab, in collaboration with Duke-Raleigh Hospital. Here, I am dedicated to creating innovative algorithms and methodologies aimed at enhancing hospital workflow efficiency. Over the past year, my research has delved into exploring the intricate dynamics between interruptions, objective metrics, and subjective experiences within the realm of software development. Receiving the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students is a significant boon, as it will not only facilitate the dissemination of my research findings to a broader academic audience at an upcoming conference, where my paper has been accepted, but also provide financial support for my ongoing research endeavors.

Wafiakmal Miftah

Interdisciplinary Data Science

I am a second-year master's student, and I am interested in utilizing data science and machine learning to help provide insights and automate repetitive processes. My current research focuses on using computer vision for satellite image recognition in the energy field. Building a machine learning model for computer vision will require abundant computing power. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students allowed me to purchase supporting equipment with better-powered processors and GPU, which will supplement my study and research.

Victoria Parker

Medical Physics

Radiation therapy is a necessary component of current treatment for many brain tumors. However, improvements are needed to reduce radiation effects on the normal brain such as radiation necrosis and neurocognitive dysfunction. FLASH Radiation Therapy is a novel cancer treatment method that involves delivering radiation at ultra-high dose rates. Although the precise mechanisms are not well understood, multiple models have demonstrated FLASH can provide tumor damage/control comparable to conventional therapy, with reduced toxicity to healthy tissue. The FLASH effect has clear potential to improve radiation therapy treatments, with reduced side effects, for many patients.

Duke has a unique research facility through the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), which has a High Intensity Gamma-ray Source (HIGS) linear accelerator capable of providing FLASH dose rates. Our previous work with TUNL has demonstrated tumor control comparable to conventional therapy. This platform provides Duke with the opportunity to continue exploring the FLASH effect and its potential clinical applications.

I will use this grant to aid in travel expenses and computer expenses for my thesis presentations, conferences, or research.

Fariha Rahman

Population Health Sciences

I plan to use the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, in order to take an intensive course on global health policy over the summer.

By participating in this course, I hope to develop a better understanding of global health policy, build connections with like-minded peers and health policy professionals, and work toward the completion of my Graduate Certificate in Global Health.

Ryan Sanford

Medical Physics

High dose rate (HDR) gynecological brachytherapy is a form of radiation cancer treatment in which a sealed, radioactive source is placed inside the body, near the tumor, to provide the necessary dose to the diseased tissues, while sparing nearby healthy ones. My advisors, Oana Craciunescu, Ph.D., and Julie Raffi, Ph.D., and I submitted a proposal centered around our continued work towards implementing real time interstitial and intracavitary needle-tracking technologies into the clinic. We are partnered with Eigen Health, who provided this needle-tracking software. Throughout the course of this work, we have developed multi-modality and anatomically accurate imaging phantoms in order to be able to experimentally validate the needle-tracking software. These phantoms will also help me to design and implement the necessary quality assurance (QA) protocols to transition the hardware and software to be used for gynecological cases. The funding from this award will go towards material costs for the construction and further development and optimization of these phantoms, as well as the further optimization of the Eigen system.

Yicheng Shen

Statistical Science

My project with Professor Alexander Volfovsky started in my first semester at Duke. As a two-time recipient of the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students, I graciously appreciate how the Graduate School has supported my research over the past two years. Previously, the award provided me with help to purchase essential equipment for computation tasks in my work.

This time, I have used the research award to attend academic conferences to present our methods and findings. Currently, we are in the stage of summarizing the findings and finishing write-ups. The abstract of our manuscript, titled "Exploring New Ideal Point Estimation Strategies with Twitter Social Networks and Text Data," was accepted by TADA 2023: New Directions in Analyzing Text as Data conference.

The annual TADA meeting is a leading forum for interdisciplinary research on the study of politics, society, and culture through computational analysis of documents. I am proud to be invited to their research presentations on new work related to text-as-data methods and applications, specifically in this year's in-person conference and the poster presentation session at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Shuvan Shrestha

Religious Studies

My research emphasizes the need to pay closer attention to fruits in religion—the religious practices, texts, and narratives that make use of fruits in perhaps unseen ways because we rarely care to take notice of them. My own ethnography is about mangos in ashram communities across South Asia. This work has major influences from Joyce Flueckiger’s material construction of the sacred, as well as Sophie Chao’s recent ethnography about oil palm. So often things that seem inherently religious—Gods, guru, or sacred texts—inform our understandings of religion. A piece of fruit like mango is consumed and thrown away, without much thought about its entanglements with ashram-specific rituals, conceptions about guru, bhakti, seva, gender, caste and class dynamics, Islamophobia, climate change, colonialism, and South Asia. Overall, my intention is to allow fruits to unfurl religious life, without allowing the most dominant voices to constitute the overarching narratives about religion.

Paavana Srinivas

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Inspired by my upbringing in India, where agriculture is a lifeline, my research at Duke aims to help farmers globally. I'm developing a robotic system to automate the harvesting of delicate fruits like raspberries and blackberries. Traditionally, this task is labor-intensive and costly, often limited by the availability of seasonal workers. My goal is to streamline this process with technology.

The project involves designing a robotic arm with a soft, flexible gripper, akin to a gentle hand, which can pick berries without damaging them. This robot will use a camera to identify ripe berries and delicately pluck them, combining human-like precision with robotic efficiency.

The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will be instrumental in advancing my research. It will fund materials for the robotic gripper, sensors, and a camera system. Additionally, it will allow me to visit berry farms for practical insights and real-world testing.

This work transcends academic pursuit; it's about creating a tangible impact on agriculture worldwide.

Liwen Sun

Analytical Political Economy

My research is inspired by the different flows of foreign direct investment in authoritarian or democratic countries. Beyond the content differences in policies, I believe there are inherent structural nuances that play a significant role in shaping these policy patterns. Such thoughts have been the motivation for my research project. My research aims to examine the policy stability and time horizon associated with policy designs and their implementation in authoritarian regimes. How could different institutions, central-local relationships, and the structure of power-sharing contribute to distinct political paradigms? Such questions are key for my research through theoretical development and data analysis. This award will be instrumental in advancing my research project by helping me cover some conference travel expenses. This will enable me to seek feedback from researchers and gain insight from related research work.

Brenda "Bren" Vienrich-Felling

MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts

I'm researching documentary mediums and stories tied to my family that live in the rainforest of Peru. I'm a graduate student as well as a printmaker and photographer with a background in creative direction and graphic design. I'm researching different forms of natural pigment-making in combination with printmaking and analog photography, as well as documentary filmmaking.

I intend to experiment with these mediums to document stories centered around immigration and cultural identity, as well as topics related to the human condition. With the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students, I plan to use the grant money towards travel and equipment expenses when I travel to Peru. I plan to gather footage about my family and topics related to the social constructs within Peru, through analog photography and digital film. I also hope to seek inspiration and knowledge about natural pigment-making that is traditionally done in the rainforest of Peru by native communities. I'm very grateful for the opportunity this grant will provide me to continue my research centered around culture and identity.

Zoe Waddell

Population Health Sciences

North Carolina Project AWARE grants are designed to improve school systems' capacity to respond to students' mental health needs. There are 60 grantee sites nationally, with two in North Carolina. Despite promising initial data, funding for the sustainability and expansion of Project AWARE is not guaranteed, making a rigorous economic evaluation of this program necessary to garner political support and secure ongoing state and local funding. This benefit-cost analysis aims to transform the educational system in North Carolina and beyond by using rigorous economic methods to calculate the true costs of implementing comprehensive, school-based Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) programs and quantifying the benefits in real economic terms. With this data, we aim to enhance policymakers' decision-making regarding the tangible value of investing in and sustaining school-based programs like Project AWARE and increasing equitable access to children's mental health supports. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will allow me to present our team's findings at the 2024 Southeastern School Behavioral Health Conference, where we can disseminate our team's preliminary findings. During this trip, I also hope to connect with other academics in my field to form collaborative relationships for future projects of shared interest.

Wenjia Wang

Economics

My research interest lies in the intersection of health economics and industrial organization. I am motivated to explore how market structure accounts for the complexity in the healthcare market and to study the role of government in improving social welfare through policy intervention in the health field.

I am currently conducting research on the impact of government procurement on pharmaceutical firms' innovation in the context of the Chinese pharmaceutical market. China has emerged as the second largest pharamectical market in the world. In 2020, the nation's total pharmaceutical market reached 300 billion dollars. The national government procurement implemented in 2018 escalates the bargaining power of hospitals, which leads to a sharp decrease in generic drug price. Our research focuses on how the increase in expected return of innovative drugs and the reduction in cash flow influence firms' innovation investments and outcomes. With the help of the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students, I can obtain detailed drug sales data and clinical trial application records and extend my sample period to 2022.

Haoxuan Wang

Statistical Science

I am passionate about the intersection of Statistics and Ecology. In today's data-driven world, we face a deluge of real-life data that offers immense potential for research and analysis. Over the past year, I am fortunate to work with Professor David B. Dunson on an intriguing research project.

Our project involves the processing and exploration of extensive bird species annotation data collected from the Finnish Kerttu web portal. This initiative harnesses the expertise of birdwatchers to annotate the species of birds vocalizing in audio recordings. Our overarching objective is to build a Bayesian hierarchical model capable of effectively aggregating these annotations and evaluating the birdwatchers' bird song identification skills.

One key aspect of our research involves posterior inference for model parameters. To accomplish this, we intend to utilize Gibbs samplers to draw samples from their full conditionals. However, this computational method demands significant hardware capabilities and computing power.

The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will help address this crucial need. Specifically, I plan to allocate the award funds towards upgrading my current computing device to one equipped with multi-core processors. This upgrade will empower me to conduct our research more efficiently, accelerate progress, and contribute meaningfully to the field.

Yicheng "Catherine" Wang

Statistical Science

I am a first-year statistical science master's student, and I appreciate receiving the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students to focus on climate change research. My current focus involves analyzing the resilience of power infrastructures, specifically examining the transition from steam to renewable energy sources and the integration of microgrids in disaster settings. I utilize an optimization model and apply multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) within geographic information systems (GIS) to enhance my insights. Additionally, I explore risk analysis in insurance sectors using machine learning methods. The award would greatly support my research endeavors by potentially covering expenses related to research travel and attendance at conferences focused on climate change and energy.

Shurui Wang

Global Health

I would like to research antimicrobial management in resource-limited settings, including determining the prevalence of antibiotic use, indications for use, and the factors associated with inappropriate use. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students will allow me to purchase professional books, register for conferences, and support part of my flight expenses, enabling me to improve my skills and knowledge, stay updated with the latest developments, and network with experts and peers.

Jordan Woltjer

Economics and Computation

I am honored to have received the Dean's Research Award for Master's Students, supporting my research in flood damage modeling, a field traditionally limited by data availability. This scholarship enabled me to present at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall conference, and I plan to attend further significant conferences in this field.

My research is centered on enhancing FEMA's flood insurance claims data set, updated in 2023, which includes vital data on flood damages from 1978 to 2023. We are enriching this data set by integrating additional census and weather data, such as wind speeds, and improving geographic data accuracy. This enhanced data set, which will be made publicly available, aims to facilitate more precise flood damage predictions using machine learning techniques.

The goal is to develop a robust tool for better understanding flood impacts, contributing to effective flood management and insurance studies. This award is crucial in advancing this research, allowing me to share and refine our work through academic collaborations and conferences.

Yanjiao Yang

Statistical Science

Missing data has been a persistent and multifaceted challenge for data analysis. Multiple imputation is a powerful technique that replaces missing values with multiple potential values to account for the uncertainty about imputation.

I have been working with Professor Jerry Reiter on a research project regarding multiple imputation to handle missing data. We intend to use the auxiliary margins on population distributions to develop a novel imputation approach that is less vulnerable under model misspecification and adaptable to real-world datasets. The Dean's Research Award for Master's Students is an invaluable opportunity to facilitate my research journey. I plan to use this award to update my electronic device to conduct my research more efficiently.

Ruixin "Edna" Zhang

Computer Science

I am a first-year master's student concentrating in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Over the past three years, my research in computer vision has spanned various projects. These include constructing a multilayer perceptron model to simulate the neural network in the cerebellum, developing a 3D U-Net convolutional neural network for segmenting active neurons in zebrafish whole-brain imaging videos, and curating a substantial pre-training data set for climate analysis containing 10 million satellite images that capture geospatial and temporal diversity in remote sensing data. Additionally, I have contributed to the development of natural language processing applications and models, such as creating a context-aware chatbot for Duke OIT and extracting named entities from listing titles on eBay's German website. Currently, my research focus lies in the development of interpretable computer vision and natural language processing algorithms.

Chenyu Zhang

Analytical Political Economy

The primary objective of my research is to produce quality political economic research on the topic of how availability cascades influence environmental policy. The term "availability cascades" refers to the phenomenon where an idea gains traction and becomes widely accepted, not necessarily due to its inherent truth or value, but because of its repeated exposure and emotional resonance. In the context of environmental policy, understanding these cascades can shed light on the often complex interplay between public perception, media influence, and policy formulation.

By gaining a comprehensive grasp of these dynamics, my research aims to contribute meaningfully to academic discussions and policymaking considerations in the realm of environmental strategies and their socio-political implications.