Dimitrios Efstathiou participated as a research intern in the Brady IPG Research Center at Medtronic. Under the guidance of Dr. Orhan Soykan, he was responsible for the development of a model system by which the beating of the human heart can be simulated and studied. Dimitrios created a system that simulated a thoracic cavity to be used with a mechanism that mimics the sound transmissions of the heart. This involved the measurement of mean volumes and sizes of the major parts of the thorax (heart, lungs, liver, fat, and muscle). Substitute materials for each thoracic part were identified and tested. Dimitrios then designed and built a test jig for the model system.
Brett Tande worked at the laboratory of Dr. Karen Oberhauser at the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. He aided in discovering the natural factors that determine whether a monarch is a summer- or fall-generation butterfly. Another portion of his research focused on a disease which currently affects roughly 10% of the eastern North American monarch butterfly population. Not only did he assist Dr. Karen Oberhauser and her graduate students in learning more about the disease, but Brett also developed and carried out his own research project, which is now helping the University staff to understand how the disease is transferred from one butterfly to another.
Alexandra Yamnik tested the effects of auxin, a growth-stimulating chemical, and wounding on the formation of adventitious roots in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. She worked with Dr. Wes Hackett at the University of Minnesota to determine the difference between two genotypes. Once the seeds developed hypocotyls, Sasha worked in sterile conditions to wound and apply Indolebutyric Acid (IBA), the auxin. She discovered that wounding decreased adventitious root formation and that the application of IBA dramatically increased root formation. Sasha’s experiments were part of a much larger project, mapping the plant genome.
