In 2019, from June to August, 40 high school students attended the STEM to SHTEM (Science, Humanities, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) summer program hosted by Prof. Tsachy Weissman and the Stanford Compression Forum. During this summer program, the high schoolers pursued fun research projects in various domains under the supervision of 18 mentors, where the entire collection of the high schoolers’ reports can be found below.
-
Olfactory Communications In a Virtual Environment
Authors: Anushka Sheth, Bikrant Das Sharma, Harvey Jarin, Ian Zhang, Jonathon Sneh, Leena Elzeiny, Prayusha Parikh and Vyomika Gupta Abstract: Currently, VR systems immerse an individual visually and auditorily, but the lack of olfactory stimulation is part of the void that separates virtual reality from real life experiences. The prospect of adding scent as a…
-
Olfactometer Podcast
Authors: Alex Chin and Alan Yu
-
Nanopore DNA Sequencing
Authors: Georgina Cortez, Nicole Krukova, Thuan Le, and Suraj Thangellapally Abstract: Nanopore technology is a modern way of sequencing DNA, in other words, it determines the order of nucleotides in a DNA strand [9]. First, a DNA strand passes through a motor protein that serves as an inhibitor to improve the accuracy of the readings.…
-
Implicit Communication in Collaborative Object Transport
Authors: Munir Bshara and My Pohl Abstract: When two people carry an object together, they manage to change directions and avoid obstacles with minimal or even without verbal communication. Communication using nudges, forces and eye contact is often sufficient. In this paper, we study this nonverbal language with the aim to understand it better. This…
-
Human-Based Image Compression; Using a Deterministic Computer Algorithm to Reconstruct Pre-Segmented Images
Authors: Vivaan Mahtab, Ganesh Pimpale, Juan Aldama, and Paul Truong Abstract: In 2018, Prof. Tsachy Weissman’s lab conducted research on using human semantics to compress an image. A ‘describer’ would provide links to image assets representing elements of the original image [1]; for example, given a picture of the savanna, the describer would provide images…
-
Building a Human-Centric Lossy Compressor for Facial Images
Authors: Hannah Chau, Tyler Pauly, Darin Phan, Roshan Prabhakar, Lian Quach, and Christina Vo Abstract: Many lossy image compressors have been created, yet they are not programmed knowing which parts of an image are most important to humans. In order to build a lossy compressor that would take human perception into consideration, components of facial…
-
Comparing the compressibility of different genomes and the correlation between genome length and compression ratio
Authors: Tyler Lafayette, Heather Lee, Naomi Boneh, and Joel Rivera Abstract: The compression ratios of various species’ genomes reflect the repetitiveness of these genomes and can lead to a deeper understanding of the repetitiveness of each genome. In addition, we can make connections between gene repetition and compaction and the intended use of the DNA…
-
Probabilistic Models of Human Decision-Making With Time Pressure and Partial Information Using Game Interfaces, Reward Functions, and Markov Decision Processes
Authors: Karan Bhasin and Aditi Talati Abstract: While there is a breadth of research about the human-decision making process in game theoretical situations, much of that research focuses on the situations in which time pres-sure or lack of information does not limit the ability of humans to process the information which they are given. The…
-
The Average Sensitivity of Boolean Functions on Hypercubes
Authors: Lauren Kim, Fernando Lopez, Byron Xu, and Matthew Chun Abstract: Consider the function , that is, a function that maps each of the vertices of the -dimensional hypercube to or . Suppose exactly of the vertices maps to , while the other of the vertices maps to . There would therefore be…
-
Determining sufficient audio file compression and reconstruction standards for different music genres
Authors Olivia Kukar, Ariyan Kalami, Brian Nguyen, Rishi Chandra Abstract Audio file compression standards are relatively consistent across different platforms, regardless of what a given audio file actually contains. We are analyzing differences in sound between audio files of different levels of compression and comparing the noticeability of these differences across different types of audio,…
-
Artificial Olfaction Measurement using VOC, Gas, and Temperature Sensors
Authors Alexandra Chin and Alan Yu Abstract The sense of smell is vital for humans and animals to execute everyday functions. We are in the process of building an electronic nose, referred to as an “e-nose,” that has the ability to perform artificial olfaction. By following the electronics layout from the article A Compact and…