Katrina Chao, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Correlation of Music Streaming Behavior and Personality Trait
As the global music streaming industry grows at an increasing rate, with Spotify dominating the market, personalized playlists and recommended artists and songs that are curated for each user are often the reasons behind these popular streaming platforms. In hopes to better understand user behavior with these streaming services, one can look at if personality traits is an indicator towards certain streaming behavior, such as a certain genre of music being played more. The goal of the following study is to determine if there is a correlation in music streaming behavior and personality traits. This was measured through the creation of the Personality Indicator Survey, based on the cognitive function frameworks provided by questions from Type in Mind and Michael Caloz. In addition, streaming data such as top artists, songs, and genres were collected provided by the annual Spotify Wrapped reports. Although data responses have been collected and presented, the final dataset is currently under review and no conclusions have been finalized.
VIDEO
Marcus Lauritz Katilauskas Romundset, Sigonella High School, Sicily
Mentor: Marsha McCauley, Sigonella High School
Simulation Theory: Far-fetched or Reality?
Simulation theory (claiming that the universe is some augmented reality) is a scientific hypothesis that has gained an increasing amount of traction during recent years. Although this theory has received much media attention, little research has explored its limits and feasibility, which is why I chose this as my topic. “How much information does our observable cosmos, solar system, Earth, and human brain contain?” “How large is the minimum area required to store the four masses?” “How far away are humans from storing all the information contained by these four objects?” These were the research questions the paper attempted to answer. Utilizing the holographic principle, the minimum spheres that could contain the information related to the respective masses was found, with the information of the human brain barely larger than a neutron, while the universe required a sphere with a radius the same size as the Sloan Great Wall of Galaxies. Using a prediction function, the paper also found the estimated time it would take humanity to store these masses, with the brain predicted to be stored in 165 years and the entire Observable Universe in 881 years. The paper relied extensively on concepts in the fields of thermodynamics (entropy, black hole thermodynamics, critical density, density parameters etc…), theoretical physics (information density, black hole entropy, hawking radiation, flat space geometry, Informational Bekenstein Bound, Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metric etc..), computer science (bits and bytes), calculus (primarily integration techniques), and statistics (linearization of data). The results of the paper may serve as proof of the feasibility of simulation theory, and will hopefully be expanded upon in order to attempt to map what the future may behold for the human race.
VIDEO
Anna Galeano, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Chasing Breadcrumbs: How Sharing Seemingly Irrelevant Information May Prove to be a Vulnerability
Operations Security (OPSEC) is a crucial procedure in the military to protect sensitive information. Compromise of this information is detrimental to the military and its families. Indicators provide clues as to what the critical information(CI) is and oftentimes indicators are present on open source platforms. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the vulnerability of current active duty service members on the social media platforms LinkedIn and Facebook. Both prompt the user to provide and publish their own personal information which may serve as indicators for an adversary. Through the means of a web scraper this data will be extracted and evaluated by a scoring system based on the OPSEC procedure.
VIDEO
Isaac Martin, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Religious Bias in State Abortion Law
One of the most controversial topics that the US and the rest of the world has been dealing with in politics is Abortion, however, the conversation has gotten stale and needs new information for the conversation to have a chance of getting out of the deadlock it is currently in. The goal of the following study is to quantify state abortion law to analyze if it is influenced by religion. This study will be conducted on a number of states having two even groups, one will be the most religious states and the other will be the least religious states. Each state will be analyzed by searching for key terms and concepts that will indicate whether or not a policy is biased, state legislation is obtained from each state’s government websites. The results of the states will be analyzed individually as well as being compared to the other states to determine if religious bias is present and how much the level of bias varies by state.
VIDEO
Samuel Manglapus, SHAPE High School, Belgium
Mentor: Jason Neago, SHAPE High School
Analysis of a Permanent Eddy Current Brake Incorporating a Halbach Array
Eddy current braking (ECB) technology has many advantages over conventional friction brakes, including less wear, faster activation time, and intrinsic properties similar to anti-lock braking mechanisms. To improve ECB performance, the possible torque output should be increased to decrease braking time and enable heavier loads. To accomplish this goal, the magnetic field of the ECB should be altered. A design for an ECB incorporating a Halbach array with 3 pole pairs was proposed with 24 discrete magnets, and compared to a design using alternating magnetization directions on the same 24 magnets. Their output torques were measured across the speed range from 250-1500 RPM using Finite Element Analysis. The ECB using the Halbach array was found to produce greater torques than the alternating design at 750 RPM and below, and the alternating array produced higher torques for angular speeds 1000 RPM and above.
VIDEO
Anna Vernetti, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Tactile Signals and Their Role in Interpersonal Communication in Ballroom Dancing
The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which interpersonal communication in ballroom is affected by tactile signals. The study explores how a couple’s ability to communicate non-verbally is displayed through physical connection during dance lessons. The lessons include teaching Cha Cha, Swing, and Waltz in order to demonstrate different levels of connection during a dance, Cha Cha being the least connected, and Waltz being the most connected. Swing, the middle ground, demonstrates a near-equal level of connectedness and disconnectedness between the two extremes of Cha Cha and Waltz. Lessons emphasized the importance of posture and form (social, non-competitive form), in order to emphasize the importance of connection. The results suggest that physical connection in ballroom dancing does have an impact on interpersonal communication.
VIDEO
William Andrew Jonathan Lee, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Utilizing a Commercial Drone to Locate Victims Trapped Under an Avalanche
This paper attempts to analyze the problem of locating survivors stuck under an avalanche. The researcher was heavily interested in discovering a problem in which engineering, and robotics contributed to an extended solution portion of the project. The researcher discovered that an estimated 180 Americans each year are stuck under an avalanche, are never found, and then die. The final tests are conducted utilizing a Tello Commercial drone, in block coding. The primary tests were conducted in one of two locations; either the researcher’s school gym, or the local football field. The setting of the flight tests varied, and were dependent on local weather conditions. However, during the initial testing, the researcher conducted computer simulations. The researcher initiated a random assortment of potential flight patterns that could have optimized the time and utilized the maximum area search in order to locate avalanche survivors. The driving inspiration of this project and testing regime was obtained from the basic computer game Snake, then proceeded to take a step further by utilizing flight patterns drawn up early in the project. Then in collaboration with a programmer, the test found success in detailing which flight pattern and drone would be the most advantageous. Each flight pattern was programmed in Python-based programming language, and tested ten thousand times. Mapping took place to identify the probability of success in finding survivors. This project was conducted in the hopes that it would potentially save not only American lives, but lives across the globe that would otherwise be killed by avalanches. The researcher hopes that utilizing this commercial drone flight pattern, will help save lives, and possibly be applicable in other areas concerning drone applications.
VIDEO
Olivia Morrow, Spangdahlem High School, Germany
Mentor: Matthew Cirillo, Spangdahlem High School
“Volunteering Abroad: For You or For Me?” An Evaluation of Voluntourism Companies Performance Through Examining The Relationship Between Recipient-Centered Objectives and Expenses
The voluntourism market is a highly profitable niche within the tourism industry, and that follows a close critique to the practice of volunteering abroad. The researcher aims to analyze the nature of voluntourism companies in the way they spend their money and what their objectives are, in order to evaluate volunteer abroad sites and create transparency for volunteers. The researcher took on a recipient-centered approach throughout the research, to find out if the companies researched were giving more or less money than they were indicating they were in their objective statements by grading the companies examined. The researcher obtained financial reports from seven volunteer abroad companies and put those finances into percentages, based on if the expenses went to the volunteer, recipient, or neutral (too vague to tell). Then, they coded the objective statements of those volunteer abroad websites, coding them through a coding system of 84 words, into the same categories volunteer-centered, recipient-centered, and neutral. From that, the researcher took the percentages of language and expenses and put them into a scatter plot, finding a linear regression, then residuals of each individual data point. They found that most of the companies fell below a C grade, or the average grade of all the companies relative to each other, on the grading scale for recipient-centeredness objectives and expenses. Meaning a majority of the companies were talking more about the recipient’s cause than they were actually giving money to the recipient cause. This brought evidence for the idea that voluntourism operations are becoming less recipient-centered, despite it being one of the most popular motives to “help a community abroad.” The researcher hoped to bridge the gap between recipients and the voluntourism company operators, in making the voluntourism experience an enabling endeavor for everyone involved. The researcher concluded that must start with putting the focus, materials, and money towards the community receiving the help though.
VIDEO
Hala Anderson, Stuttgart High School, Germany
Mentor: Daniel Coapstick, Stuttgart High School
Mobile and Multicultural Aspects of Adolescent Identity Development
As mobility and multicultural exposure become increasingly prevalent in the globalized world, it becomes more important to understand their effect on how people view themselves and their place in the world. Mobility and multicultural exposure have a significant impact on adolescent identity development. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these two factors influence the way adolescents approach identity development and to connect these approaches (identity processing styles) to specific aspects of mobile/non-mobile and multicultural/non-multicultural backgrounds. First, the connection between mobility, multicultural exposure, and identity processing styles is analyzed using the responses of participants-- of varying mobile and multicultural backgrounds-- to a demographics survey and the Identity Style Inventory 5 form. Then, interviews are conducted in order to obtain a more detailed picture of participants' background. Mobility and multicultural exposure were found to have little significant correlation to identity style, however mobility showed a relation. There was a strong variation in identity style scores from participants with mobile and multicultural backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of this group and more turbulent identity formation process. This shows a need for further research on identity formation in highly mobile and multicultural adolescents, and suggests a different identity construct may be more useful for this demographic.
VIDEO