My Honors Thesis/ Creative Project was an collection of art pieces that were based on a research done at West Campus in Dr. Weidner's forensic entomology laboratory. In this research, two swine carcasses were place outdoors for 21 days during the four seasons. The goal was to collect insects that approached and colonized the carcasses. The collected data can be used to determine the TOC (time of colonization) of some insects; thus, it can help to calculate the PMI (postmortem interval). Different collection were used like larvae rearing, pitfalls, netting, and hand collection. The larvae were reared into adulthood and then identified into a species. The rest of the insects were identified into orders. To present this information, the data collected from the two carcasses was combined to make the presentation easier to understand. I created four circular canvases to present the collection of flies in each check. It shows both flies were reared and which were seen or collected. The other series of work that I sculpted were 120 ceramics flowers to represent the insects orders that were observed in each season and check. During my thesis defense, I presented the research project, and how my project can help people understand this research.

The need for new tuberculocidal drugs is crucial with drug resistance on the rise as the tuberculosis epidemic rages on. One new potential drug target is the PrrAB two component system (TCS) since it does not exist in humans and is essential to viability in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This project examines Mycobacterium smegmatis, and this nonpathogenic and fast-growing organism possesses two full length PrrAB orthologs, in addition to an orphaned PrrB sensor histidine kinase. While it was determined that PrrAB1 and PrrAB2 are nonessential, the lone PrrB3 is not yet characterized for essentiality. To confirm individual dispensability of PrrAB1 and PrrAB2 and investigate the essentiality of PrrB3 and the full M. smegmatis PrrAB multiplex, we utilized CRISPRi dCas9 to repress the expression (knockdown) of prrAB1 (MSMEG_5662-5663), prrAB2 (MSMEG_0244-0246), and the lone prrB3 (MSMEG_2793) in M. smegmatis independently and simultaneously. Repression of prrAB1 resulted in the greatest growth defect, with a lag of 17 cellular division cycles compared to the control, a strain generated with an empty vector. However, the knockdown of prrAB1 was not lethal to M. smegmatis. The inhibition of all three prrAB orthologs simultaneously, also known as a multiplex knockdown, lagged the control by 13 cellular division cycles. At the 48-hour point, both the single ortholog repression of prrAB1 as well as the whole prrAB system knockdown had a growth defect of 13 replication cycles behind the control. However, the multiplex knockdown stabilized growth at 48 hours, revealing a possible compensatory mechanism in M. smegmatis. Conclusively, we show that the PrrAB TCS is globally inessential for viability in M. smegmatis.

This project aims to propose a novel approach for visualizing 4D geometry through the utilization of augmented reality (AR). While previous work has explored virtual reality (VR) as a means to bring 4D objects into a 3D environment, as well as 2D projections to display 4D geometry on screens, this project seeks to extend the possibilities by leveraging the immersive nature of AR technology. By overlaying virtual 4D objects onto the real world, users can experience a more tangible representation and gain a deeper understanding of the complex structures present in higher dimensions.