Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program

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Yael Stochel ’22 COMPUTER SCIENCE Certificate in Environmental Studies CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY THESIS TITLE Making Models and Mining Mimics: Insights From Computer Vision Into How Biological Systems Solve Visual Problems ADVISER Daniel Rubenstein, Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology The butterfly genus Heliconius exhibits Mullerian mimicry, in which unrelated toxic species evolve to share one another’s warning signals as a defence against predators. A common point of contact between biology and computer science uses machine learning and computer vision to classify species. Building upon previous work in this field, my research sought to expand classification to capture the biological mechanisms underlying mimicry. By modifying the training methods and inputs used in machine learning, computer vision is capable of creating representations of natural systems of mimicry. One approach — which modified the training method — trained classification on one Heliconius species before testing on its mimic in order to approximate the training and learning process undertaken by avian predators in the wild. The other sought to account for the visual complexities of butterfly mimicry by adjusting the visual acuity of the images to better represent butterfly and bird vision. These methods were successful, with significant results indicating that the model effectively represented the mimicry system. 15
Bryan To ’22 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY Certificate in Environmental Studies; Senior Thesis <strong>Research</strong> Funding Awardee THESIS TITLE A Contemporary Look at the Aquarium Trade for Wild-caught and Captive-bred Saltwater Fish ADVISER David Wilcove, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute The multimillion dollar saltwater aquarium-fish trade poses many potential threats to marine wildlife and the environment. Sustainable practices such as aquaculture and captive breeding could benefit marine communities, but studies and data on globally imported aquarium fish are lacking. My research examined four elements of the aquarium fish trade: The percentage of aquarium fish species available as captive-bred or wild-caught; the price differentials for species available as both; the traits that correlate with a species’ availability as captive-bred; and the traits that correlate with wild-caught fish pricing. Species and price information and prices extracted from online aquarium dealers were combined with traits listed in the species database FishBase and the IUCN Red List. More than 10% of 612 assessed species across three dealers were available as captive-bred and captive-bred fish were significantly cheaper than wild-caught. There also was significant correlation between species’ traits and the likelihood of captive-bred availability, as well as with the price of wildcaught fish. These results helped identify the factors that influence the aquarium-fish trade and provided a deeper understanding of the industry that could allow for a better balance of the demand for the aquarium trade with the conservation of marine wildlife and ecosystems. CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY 16
Page 1 and 2: MAY 2022 Undergraduate Research: An
Page 3 and 4: Undergraduate Research: An Archive
Page 5 and 6: Index of Student Research by Catego
Page 7 and 8: THESIS TITLE Natural Halogenated Me
Page 9 and 10: THESIS TITLE Deploying Deep Learnin
Page 11 and 12: Sean Crites ’22 ECOLOGY AND EVOLU
Page 13 and 14: Madison Hamilton ’22 ECOLOGY AND
Page 15: Hannah Reynolds ’22 ANTHROPOLOGY
Page 19 and 20: Emily Cruz ’22 CIVIL AND ENVIRONM
Page 21 and 22: Pooja Parmar ’22 ECONOMICS Certif
Page 23 and 24: Ruth Schultz ’22 INDEPENDENT LING
Page 25 and 26: Aria Buchanan ’22 ECOLOGY AND EVO
Page 27 and 28: Emily Yu ’22 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIO
Page 29 and 30: Connor Larson ’22 OPERATIONS RESE
Page 31 and 32: Claire Wayner ’22 CIVIL AND ENVIR
Page 33 and 34: THESIS TITLE Towards a Walkable Per
Page 35 and 36: Jeffrey Barzach ’22 CHEMISTRY Sen
Page 37 and 38: Katherine Irelan ’22 ECOLOGY AND
Page 40: High Meadows Environmental Institut

Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program

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