Projects 2021

Information: Heritage languages are unique to native or dominant languages because there is a factor of absenceor separation present -those who speak heritage languages live in an environment where their native language is not the socially dominant language. This project will study how people relate to their heritage languages, and what distinguishes a heritage language from other types native or dominant languages.; Serena Luckhoff (Cognitive Science) Zain Mehmood (Journalism and Media Studies) Amelia Metters (Asian Studies) and Yuhan Xie (Psychology); Dr. Doaa Rashed, Director, Language Engagement Project; Associate Teaching Professor

Information: This project is a unique and innovative opportunity for students who wish to share their interests in French language and French-speaking cultures, and engage in a statewide outreach campaign among K-12 classes. Students will use their linguistic and cultural proficiencies, but also, and above all, their disciplinary expertise and their creativity to launch the first online magazine ever designed to inform, educate, and entertain K-12 students through a range of journalistic features such as news articles, interviews, photo reports, contests, etc. In doing so, students will enhance their communication skills, recycle the knowledge they have acquired over the years, keep up with current events and practice in an authentic situation by interacting with their readers; Julia Fuchs (Anthropology) Concetta Vecchione (Psychology and French) and Cecilia Correa (Policial Science); Anne-Catherine Aubert, French

Information: An interdisciplinary team will work with Professor Andrew Urban to conduct research on Rutgers’ policies and procedures governing protests and demonstrations, crowd control architecture, the policing of public space, and student activism. The research team will analyze how Rutgers’ administrators have viewed the intentions and goals behinds protest policies, and the implications of policies and enforcement measures on student protests in practice; Jassie Morcos (Political Science) Khayla Dixon (Political Science and Criminal Justice) Cecilia Ritacco (Political Science) Emily Chow (Economics and English) and Sadiya Kabir (Public Policy); Andrew Urban, American Studies

Information: When the COVID-19 pandemic began, we were told to limit contact with others in order to reduce transmission of the virus. Many places, ranging from grocery stores to parks, instituted one-way foot traffic as a way of minimizing interactions. That strategy makes sense in an ideal situation where everyone moves at the same speed. However, in practice people move at different speeds, and it can actually take longer to pass someone moving in the same direction than someone moving in the opposite direction. In this project, we will use computer simulations to compare one-way and two-way pedestrian traffic flow in terms of risk for virus transmission. For context, we will also review design and policy decisions related to foot traffic. Our ultimate goal is to develop recommendations for when one-way movement should be imposed for public health reasons. The ideal student team will combine knowledge of computer simulations, epidemiology and public health, urban design, and public policy.; Arielle Cohen (Public Health) Quinyuan Liu (Computer Science) Yanaisy Santana (Public Health) Karolin Wadie (Public Health) and Mohammad Wahla (Mathematics and Statistics); Dr. Charles Keeton, Professor of Physics and Dean of the SAS Honors Program

Information: As part of the project, students will build a conversational AI system that helps students plan to fulfill the requirements of the new data science certificate in SAS. https://datascience.sas.rutgers.edu/ The rules for this certificate are a little complicated and there are many ways for students to find courses that match their interests. So we are expecting that it will be useful for students to get help. The basic idea of a conversational system is that it can answer questions about the program and manage the creation of a study plan that fulfills the program requirements. (Note that most of the programming and analysis for this project is actually domain independent, meaning that it could be used for a wide range of information and planning tasks, and that makes this exact application somewhat flexible.); Bianca Caproni (Psychology and Cognitive Science) Vanessa Chin (Computer Science and Philosophy) Mugdhesh Pandkar (Computer Science)Swapneil Singh (Computer Science and Cognitive Science) Nehal Thakkar (Computer Science) Nicole Ross (Informational Technology and Informatics) and Aisha Humaria (Computer Science); Dr. Matthew Stone, Computer Science

IRT Projects