[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 149 (Thursday, October 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6325-S6327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
2011 DAVIDSON INSTITUTE FELLOWS
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today, I have the great honor and
pleasure to recognize this year's Fellows for the Davidson Institute
for Talent Development. This year, 18 young people under the age of 18
have been awarded scholarships of $50,000, $25,000, or $10,000 for
having demonstrated superior ability and achievement and having
completed a significant piece of work in the areas of science, music,
literature, mathematics, or technology. I would like to take this time
to introduce each of these scholars and the various projects they have
undertaken.
In the area of science, we have eight young students with remarkable
projects that have contributed to scientific progress. Among this group
of scholars is Shalini Ramanan. A 17-year-old young woman from
Richland, WA, Shalini Ramanan worked with a natural dietary component
of the spice turmeric called BC to test its effectiveness in treating
cardiovascular diseases. Through cell migration assays and western blot
techniques, she discovered that BC inhibited platelet-derived growth
factor (PDGF)-induced vascular smooth muscle cell migration and
signaling. Using bioinformatics, she identified target genes connected
with signaling pathways. PDGF-stimulated cell-migration and
proliferation are key pathological events in a variety of diseases
including atherosclerosis and cancer. Her studies may help design and
characterize novel drug molecules with clinical applications.
A 17-year-old young man from Mahopac, NY, Jayanth Krishnan developed
an approach to infer regulatory mechanisms governing changes in gene
expression and identified possible proteins that induce cancer. By
creating a web interface that could predict transcription factors for
dis-regulated genes, and mathematical models using MATLAB, he was able
to predict proteins that are correlated with certain cancer families.
Using this information, he calculated several combinations of drugs,
for 60 different cancers, that have the potential to counteract the
inducing agents and better guide therapeutics.
Lucy Wang, a 17-year-old young woman from Garnet Valley, PA,
developed a predictive model to detect adolescent depression with an
overall correct classification of 83.66 percent. Untreated depression
is the No. 1 cause of suicide and the third leading cause of death
among teenagers. Using factor analysis and logistic regression, she
focused on quantifying variables that may lead to adolescent
depression, including student self-reported experiences and
demographics. Lucy's model
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will offer a robust instrument for school psychologists to evaluate the
risk of future depression.
A 17-year-old young man from Houston, TX, Sunil Pai constructed an
inexpensive, nanotechnology-based system to determine quantum energies
of superoxide. By examining oxygen in the liquid phase instead of the
gas phase, his potentiostat system can determine the quantum structure
for the electron attachment reaction of oxygen to superoxide. The
determination of oxygen's physical properties is essential to fully
understanding the role oxygen and many free radicals have in cell
processes. This experimentation method may establish other molecular
properties that will offer new insights into biological and
environmental processes.
Caleb Kumar, a 15-year-old young man from Blaine, MN, developed an
algorithm that automates the diagnosis of bladder cancer. Bladder
cancer is on the rise with more than 71,000 new cases in 2009. By first
identifying indicative bladder cancer cellular characteristics, Caleb
programmed morphometric algorithms to quantitatively examine the
bladder cell images, and then engineered a Java neural network that
differentiates cancerous cells from normal cells based on shape, color
and curvature. Caleb's software is accurate, quick and inexpensive
compared to current methods, and has the potential to provide faster,
cheaper and more precise diagnoses of cytological diseases.
A 17-year-old young man from Bloomfield Hills, MI, Siddhartha Jena
demonstrated that the immediate effect of elevated cholesterol is
dysfunction of active water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide transport by
the red blood cells. Using a spectrofluorometer and Zeta Sizer, he
showed that exposure of red blood cells to two compounds: ONO-RS-082
and glyburide, results in an amelioration of cholesterol's detrimental
effects. Results from his work broaden the understanding of one of the
most significant health risks facing our society, and the possible
mechanism for its future treatment and management.
Benjamin Clark, a 15-year-old young man from Lancaster, PA,
determined the frequency at which M stars form close binary star
systems using spectroscopic data from over 39,000 M dwarf stars. Using
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, SDSS, Benjamin designed a methodology to
use the extremely large, but low resolution and signal-to-noise ratio
database, to calculate the close binary fraction. Star formation has
long been an open question in astrophysics and this data can be used to
test theories of how this process occurs.
A 16-year-old young woman from Lancaster, PA, Marian Bechtel designed
a seismo-acoustic method for detecting landmines. Approximately 70
million landmines plague 80 countries worldwide, claiming one victim
every 22 minutes. With Marian's method, two high-sensitivity, non-
contact microphones are swept above buried landmines that resonate in
response to a remote seismic source. The recorded sound is noise-
cancelled in real-time, creating a characteristic, audible null in the
noise-cancelled waveform that isolates the mine's location. This
efficient and inexpensive method could make important contributions to
humanitarian demining.
Raja Selvakumar, a 15-year-old young man from Alpharetta, GA,
developed the gastro microbial fuel cell, GMFC. Based on the microbial
fuel cell, the GMFC generates electricity using gastrobacteria, to be
used to power capsular nanobots. Current lithium ion batteries in
biomedical capsular nanobots are not able to sustain power for long
periods of time; the GMFC has the potential to solve this problem. The
GMFC-powered capsular nanobot can play an important role in treating
gastrointestinal diseases through intracellular diagnosis and surgery.
In the area of mathematics, there are three young people who I would
like to recognize at this time. Matthew Bauerle, a 16-year-old young
man from Fenton, MI, outlined how the Newton direction can be computed
by solving a weighted linear least squares problem. When fitting a
model to data, such as a line to a set of points, the least squares
method is currently the most popular technique. Matthew's work focused
on minimizing the L1 norm of the error which is the sum of the absolute
values of the individual errors. Matthew's work has potential in the
medical imaging and scanning fields, as well as facial recognition and
fluid dynamics simulations.
A 16-year-old young woman from Carmel, IN, Rebecca Chen studied a
generalized version of the Yang-Baxter equation. The Yang-Baxter
equation provides a systematic method for discovering braid group
representations, important in topology and quantum information science.
Using algebraic computations and computer numerical checking, she
classified three families of 8x8 matrix solutions to the generalized
Yang-Baxter equation. These solutions provide a way to generate
braiding quantum gates needed in quantum computing, and contribute to
the ongoing effort to build a large-scale quantum computer, bringing
advances in fields as far ranging as materials sciences and
cryptography.
Anirudh Prabhu, a 16-year-old young man from West Lafayette, IN,
established the first nontrivial analytic lower bounds for odd perfect
numbers. The search for odd perfect numbers is one of the oldest
unsolved problems in mathematics. Many upper bounds for odd perfect
numbers are established, however, no nontrivial analytic lower bounds
had been reported prior to Anirudh's work. By narrowing the gap between
analytic upper and lower bounds, his work suggests an approach for
proving the nonexistence of odd perfect numbers and could contribute to
data encryption technology.
Two remarkable young people received awards for their technology
projects. A 16-year-old young man from Columbia, SC, Arjun Aggarwal
created GNut-III, an anthropometric interactive robot with vision,
intelligence and speech. He found the lack of an economically efficient
and functional human robot has prohibited researchers from continuing
to expand the field of robotics. To counter this, the GNut-III is
economically efficient and functional for testing robotic algorithms.
In addition to the GNut-III, Arjun has outlined a scattered open source
community to work on a standardized platform that could transform
robotics in the same way it has transformed computing.
A 16-year-old young woman from Rochester, MN, Cheenar Banerjee
developed a method for emotion detection by computers. It remains a
challenge for computers to recognize and respond correctly to the
emotional states of an interactive user. After removing some facial
detail by converting facial images to black-and-white sketches, Cheenar
used fractal analyses to differentiate among emotions using the fractal
dimensions. This process has the potential to be simpler, cheaper and
more effective than current techniques of emotion detection by
computers.
In the area of music, I would like to recognize three more scholars.
A 14-year-old young woman from Seattle, WA, Simone Porter, in her
violin portfolio, Performance as Soundtrack of Process and Identity,
examines the progression of performance preparation, from the
development of technique and interpretation, to the emergence of a
professional identity. This process led her to comprehend the
transformative, inspirational and transcendent potency music possesses.
Through performance, Simone believes music has the potential to aid our
society, and help achieve a kinder, more tolerant attitude toward
ourselves and our natural environment. Simone was a featured performer
on PBS' ``From the Top at Carnegie Hall.''
A 16-year-old young woman from Gates Mills, OH, Arianna Korting, in
her portfolio, Celebration of Life through the Piano, showcased Haydn,
Ginastera and Liszt. Through the piano, she hopes to bring audiences
into the lives of the great composers to experience their humor,
tenderness and brilliance. She believes music has the power to
transform space and time because it has been a constant presence even
through the most difficult moments in history. Arianna has been
featured on NPR's ``From the Top,'' and started The Animato Project, an
interactive program of classical music for elementary school children.
Reylon Yount, a 16-year-old young man from San Francisco, CA, created
a yangqin, or Chinese hammered dulcimer, portfolio that has contributed
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to the preservation of Chinese music, to the introduction of Chinese
music to people in the United States, and to the overall
interconnection of the music world. His work attempts to take people
past the conventional shapes and forms of Western music, helping them
appreciate the universality of art. He hopes that such cross-cultural
music will build a deeper connection between the East and West, and
inspire people to love all music.
And finally, I would like to introduce Bonnie Nortz, a 17-year old
young woman with superior achievement in the area of literature.
Bonnie's portfolio, Run and Run and Run, explores relationships,
identity, materialism, oppression and emotion, and covers topics as
broad as tourism, grammar, dreams, cartography, winter and even pre-
calculus. Her goal was to find the extraordinary in the mundane, the
pure in the imperfect, and to describe that moment of awakening when
everything is just the way it should be. Bonnie hopes to teach others
how to go through life with an everlasting energy and curiosity and to
appreciate the fantastic emotional and intellectual complexity that
comprises our human existence.
I have long said that America's gifted and talented students possess
remarkable potential for our great Nation. These 18 young individuals
have demonstrated more than potential. They have already made
significant contributions to their fields and our society in their
short lives and one can scarcely begin to imagine how much they will
contribute to their fields and society in the years to come, thanks in
no small part to the encouragement of the Davidson Institute as well as
their, family, friends, and mentors. These young men and women are an
inspiration and a reminder that if we fully support our most talented
young people, we can look forward to a bright future.
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