2020 Smarti Gras: UTM’s summer celebration of undergraduate research
Established in 2016 by the UTM Office of the Vice-Principal, Research, in collaboration with the Office of the Dean, Smarti Gras celebrates the research conducted by undergraduate students over the summer. Students from the Research Opportunity Program, recipients of the Undergraduate Student Research Awards and recipients of the University of Toronto Excellence Awards share their work in the humanities, the social sciences and the sciences through oral and poster presentations.
This year, we are acknowledging and sharing their work online as below:
- Name: Arvin Jia Qing Chen
Department: Chemical and Physical Sciences
Year Completed in Program: 3
Supervisor: Xiaoyong Xu
Title of Research Project: Characterization of Droughts in Canada Using the ERA5 DataSummary:
Exploring the factors involved in the calculation of climate moisture index in order to gain a better understanding on how much these ERA5 values correlate with drought events in Canada.
- Name: Navkaran Kumar
Department: Geography, Geomatics, and Environment
Year Completed in Program: 3
Supervisor: Laura Brown
Title of Research Project: Changing Lake Ice Conditions in Central Ontario
Summary:
This project is dedicated to a more complex investigation of climate-ice relationship displayed by lakes in the Central Ontario region. Specifically looking at what are the driving climate factors behind the mixed directions of ice break up trends, for specific lakes seen in the region.
- Name: Zhengyu Li
Department: Mathematical and Computational Sciences
Year Completed in Program: 2
Supervisor: Parker Glynn-Adey
Title of Research Project: A Magic Trick Using the SET Deck and De Bruijn SequenceSummary:
What's more magical than mathematics? Mathemagic, of course. Our trick “In TetraCycles'' is a variation on the ``In Cycles'' trick developed by Persi Diaconis and Ron Graham. Four volunteers draw four consecutive SET cards from the 81-card deck. Then the magician can easily predict all four cards, only given information of one random feature. How is such a trick possible? Turns out that the magic of combinatorics, graphs, and sequences are behind this trick and making it happen. The talk will extensively discuss a special type of sequence that is used in ``In TetraCycles'' and how it connects to graph theory and combinatorics. We will also provide a walkthrough of the trick so that anyone can perform the trick with some practice! We dedicate this work to the memory and legacy of Dr. Ronald Graham.
- Name: Jennifer Liu
Department: Visual Studies
Year Completed in Program: 4
Supervisor: Evonne Levy
Title of Research Project: The Technical Study of Bernini's Bronzes: Art History, Conservation and Material ScienceSummary:
The Technical Study of Bernini’s Bronzes: Art History, Conservation and Material Science asks new questions regarding Bernini’s practices in bronze. “36 Editions 201 Bronzes” visually captures the scope of the objects we study. The goal of this poster is to emphasize the quantity and diversity of bronze sculptures created by Bernini. Bernini’s Bronzes deviates from the idealized notion that each of Bernini’s sculptures was a unique work of genius. By organizing the bronzes into editions, it is apparent that several sculptures derive from the same mold. We have found 36 separate cases of this practice. Out of the many Bernini bronzes, there are at least 201 that can be identified as part of an edition. There has been extensive research published on Bernini’s marbles, however, our team aims to fill the gaps in knowledge regarding his works in bronze.
- Name: Taylor Luu
Department: Geography and Planning
Year Completed in Program: 4
Supervisor: Igor Lehnherr
Title of Research Project: Dissolved Carbon and Mercury Levels in Waters of a Large, Sub-Arctic Lake and its Tributaries -
Name: Sofia Pereira
Department: Biology
Year Completed in Program: 4
Supervisor: Bailey McMeans
Title of Research Project: Seasonal and Interannual Variation of Total Mercury Levels in Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush)
Summary:
Mercury is a heavy metal contaminant that exists in two forms in aquatic systems: inorganic mercury (Hg2+) and organic mercury, also known as methylmercury (CH3Hg+). Methylmercury is obtained by aquatic organisms through diet and is the only form of mercury that biomagnifies in aquatic food webs. Fishes, especially top predators like lake trout, tend to occupy higher trophic positions and therefore obtain most of their mercury content through diet as methylmercury, although a small portion of their total mercury is inorganic and acquired through the gills. Lake trout have known seasonal dietary shifts, which likely impacts seasonal variation in the mercury levels of these fishes, hence this study set out to explore how total mercury content in lake trout vary on a seasonal basis across a two year period in two lakes with different food web structures.
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Name: Thomas Emmanuel Tsangaris
Department: Chemical and Physical Sciences
Year Completed in Program: 2
Supervisor: Claudiu Gradinaru
Title of Research Project: Integrative Modelling to Characterize the Intrinisically Disordered Protein 4E-BP2
Summary:
Various data from Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Single Molecule Fluorescence Energy Transfer (smFRET) experiments were utilized in conjunction with the program ENSEMBLE (from the lab of Julie Forman-Kay located at SickKids) in order to obtain a set of fixed structures (an ensemble) in hopes of accurately characterizing the intrinsically disordered protein, 4E-BP2, in its non-phosphorylated (np) and 5-phosphorylated (5p) states. NMR and SAXS data were used as experimental restraints within ENSEMBLE and values from FCS and smFRET were used as validation. Using the ENSEMBLE method, ensembles were calculated in good agreement with paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (for 5p4E-BP2) and SAXS (for both 5p4E-BP2 and np4E-BP2) data while no ensemble calculated had good agreement with the chemical shifts (for 5p4E-BP2) measurements, emphasizing the need for a structure generator capable of producing 5p4E-BP2’s unique secondary structure. The approach yielded interesting results regarding the local and non-local structural behaviour of 4E-BP2, as well as calling attention to an apparent discrepancy that exists between the FCS and smFRET data. A protein structure generator that incorporates physical terms (such as electrostatics, hydrogen bonding and van der Waals repulsion) was also employed in the form of the FastFloppyTail (FFT) program (from Rosetta Commons software suite), which yielded impressive predictions of secondary structure in agreement with NMR measurements despite FFT not having any knowledge of the experimental data.
