Summer Researchers Delve Into Projects That Inspire Them
New York, N.Y.
Cook-Selman investigated the experience of pediatric cancer patients by analyzing their written narratives. She hopes to produce a best-practice guide for supporting patients emotionally both during and after treatment.
What inspired you to research pediatric cancer experiences?
When I was in high school, I had thyroid cancer. Compared to many patients, I was totally fine. I didn’t have to do chemo. But it still completely changed the way that I view health and how I live my life. As my friends were going to their first parties, I needed to stay home and take care of myself. I feel for the children who went through that much younger than I did and in much more severe circumstances. I wondered, how does your ability to move through these periods as a kid change when there’s so much uncertainty about your survival? How does that affect you?
What have you learned about these kids’ experiences?
One theme that came up most was this idea of how unfair everything felt or comparing their situations to their friends. These patients have normal milestones and normal parts of childhood cut off from them, so they have to deal with that disappointment. From what I read and from what I know, these patients are aware of their mortality at a much younger age, which is a different way of living life. Another theme was that once cancer is part of your life, it’s always part of your life, even if you come through it medically. It changes your point of view, for better or for worse.
Why is your project meaningful?
Pediatric patients have a lot less autonomy and control over what’s happening to them. A lot of people don’t like to engage with medical jargon, but children especially don’t understand what’s going on. From the literature out there, there’s more focus on how parents cope and how parents help their children. There’s not enough research about the experiences of the pediatric cancer patients themselves and their own experiences.
London, England
A double major in art and mathematics, Petrova pursued an interdisciplinary exploration of the construction of knowledge systems for both humans and artificial intelligence. Through experimenting with image-to-text programs, she sought to understand the structures and biases underlying AI structures.
What is your research question?
I wondered how we organize the image data sets that AI uses. How can we overlay structural verbal language into something that’s very visual? At the moment, the organization of image data sets we rely on is based on hierarchical structures of language, which I do think is part of how we humans use words to describe what’s around us, but I don’t think it’s 100 percent accurate. So, I’m interested in the relationship between language and image and how that appears in AI versus people.
What was the inspiration behind your research?
The language we use to talk about AI is very similar to how we talk about humans. We also compare ourselves to computers a lot. We really value logic and reasoning, and because AI is trained on data and seems to know everything, it spirals to where the machine is almost the ideal. I was very interested in the parallels between how the human brain is organized and how AI is organized.
Why is your research meaningful?
I think it’s very important to understand AI structures and machine intelligence because while it may represent human nature, it doesn’t understand what human nature is. I feel that because social scientists weren’t involved in its creation, it’s even more important for them to be involved now as AI becomes part of the everyday.
Flushing, Mich.
Through her research on the water quality of the Flint River in Michigan, Campbell combined her interests in justice and science, coming to understand how the environmental issues plaguing the waterway impact the Flint community.
Why is your project meaningful?
[My project] highlights an area of environmental justice that is often overlooked – access to safe recreational activities. Discussions about Flint usually center on drinking water, and few people talk about the river as a community space for fishing or paddling. My goal by focusing on water quality issues in terms of recreational justice was to connect scientific data to quality of life, public health, and overall feelings of distrust of governmental institutions.
How has this project influenced your academic and career goals?
[It] reinforced my strong interest in pursuing a career in environmental law or policy. It showed me the importance of merging science, law, and advocacy to address environmental inequities and gave me confidence that my research can contribute to meaningful change.
What was the inspiration behind your work?
My research was inspired by my personal connection to Flint as well as the community partnership I built with the Flint River Watershed Coalition (FRWC) last summer. I wanted to bring my academic interests in environmental policy to the lived reality of how pollution affects residents in my community every day, particularly their ability to safely enjoy and connect with the Flint River. Partnering with FRWC gave me the opportunity to ground my research in community-based science and make valuable recommendations.
Student Research
Research & Discovery
Hamilton students collaborate with professors on original research. Often their work results in articles published in peer-reviewed journals or in presentations at national conferences.
Summer Researchers Delve Into Projects That Inspire Them
Through Emerson Foundation Grants and Levitt Summer Research Fellowships, Hamilton students forge their own research paths, from studying environmental justice and exploring the intersections of art and mathematics in AI, to promoting better understanding of pediatric cancer patients鈥� experiences. Here are what three summer grantees said about the inspiration and significance of their projects.
Students Work With Hage 鈥�02 to Examine Impact of Griffiss Institute on Local Economy
This summer, Levitt Center student researchers Luke Hanson 鈥�26, Delaney Patterson 鈥�26, Samuel Low 鈥�28, and Ton Somnug 鈥�27 joined forces with Griffiss Institute CEO and Hamilton alumna Heather Hage 鈥�02 to investigate the holistic impact of federal spending on the local economy.
