SSP Forum: 2026 Senior Honors Students
The
Symbolic Systems Forum
(community sessions of SYMSYS 280 - Symbolic Systems Research Seminar)
presents
Annual Presentation of Honors Theses
Senior Honors Students, Class of '26
Symbolic Systems Program
Monday, June 1, 2026
12:30-2:13pm PT [NB: Later than usual ending time]
Computing and Data Science Building, Room E160 (moving to E145 at 2pm)
In-person event, not recorded
Note: Lunch is provided, if pre-ordered, only for members of SYMSYS 280 and guest speakers, but others are welcome to bring a lunch and eat during the presentation.
SCHEDULE:
12:30 Amrita Malhotra, "Cultural and Musical Factors Influencing Emotional Perception of Hindustani Classical Music" (Takako Fujioka, Music; Secondary Reader: Partha Pratim Shil, History)
Music is a powerful medium for communicating emotions, yet how much of that communication depends on cultural familiarity remains an open question. Hindustani Classical Music (HCM) offers a unique opportunity to study cross-cultural emotional perception; its defined relationships between ragas (tonal frameworks) and rasas (emotional frameworks), as well as reliance on the musical feature of ornamentation, starkly distinguish it from Western tonal music. This research uses a survey to measure emotional ratings of short excerpts from three Hindustani ragas to compare perception between enculturated and nonenculturated listeners and between ornamented and unornamented performances. Results show that enculturated and nonenculturated listeners largely extract similar emotional profiles from each raga. Across both groups, ornamentation enhances the perception of sadness and longing but weakens the perception of happiness, indicating a nuanced role which is mostly recognizable cross-culturally. However, ornamentation more strongly exacerbates perception of tension and weakens perception of calmness among nonenculturated listeners only. While both groups report using similar musical cues to judge emotion, free-responses from enculturated listeners on the topic of rasa suggest a deeper, more complex conception of emotion in HCM as compared to Western music.
12:38 Max Luis Rodriguez, "FiMo-Klavier: A Multi-Stage Machine Learning System for Fine-Motor Feedback in Self-Regulated Piano Practice" (Primary Advisor: Chris Chafe, Music; Second Reader: Marie-Louise Catsalis, Music)
Novice pianists often practice for many hours outside of one-on-one expert instruction, where weak technical habits can develop without correction. This thesis proposes a multi-stage machine learning pipeline for supporting self-regulated piano practice through actionable, technique-focused feedback from standard bird’s-eye-view video. The system models pianist hand motion using a hybrid BiLSTM–Transformer anomaly detector, localizes interpretable technical evidence with hidden Markov models, and converts selected evidence into concise corrective or affirming feedback using a gated large language model. Altogether, this pipeline is designed to expand access to fine-motor piano feedback for students who may not have consistent access to expert instruction.
12:46 Beatriz Stix-Brunell, "The Anatomy of Movement in Rodin’s ‘Gates of Hell’" (Primary Advisor: James Chang, Surgery; Secondary Reader: Miguel Angel Novelo Cruz, Art & Art History)
“Rodin’s sculptures do not merely depict the human body; they reveal its inner movements, its pulses, its very breath. They are anatomy imbued with life”. -Rainer Maria Rilke
By studying the physiology of Auguste Rodin’s monumental bronze Gates of Hell, this project aims to explore the ways in which anatomy interrelates the disciplines of ballet, medicine, and art. To situate my work within the dialogue of art, anatomy, virtual reality, and dance (a field in which I have over twenty years-worth of experience), I have researched how the human body has shaped and inspired these different fields. My project “The Anatomy of Movement in Rodin’s Gates of Hell” explores the intersections of these disciplines with the goal of a) curating an interactive, international museum exhibition, and b) using virtual reality to create an engaging teaching tool for medical students, trainees, and residents that will reinforce the understanding of joint motion, muscle function, and innervation of the limbs. I look forward to presenting my work in the SSP Forum.
12:54 Sophie Gabreldar, "But Where Are You Really From?” The Cost of Movement: A Longitudinal Analysis of Migrant Life Satisfaction and Health Outcomes in Germany" (Primary Advisor: Nilam Ram, Communication and Psychology; Second Reader: Harriett Jernigan, Program in Writing and Rhetoric) A growing body of research has documented the “healthy immigrant effect” (HIE), whereby immigrants initially exhibit better health outcomes than native-born populations but experience more rapid health decline over time. However, much of this research relies on cross-sectional data and focuses primarily on first-generation migrants, leaving important questions about how health trajectories evolve across generations. Using linear growth models applied to longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this study examined changes in life satisfaction, health satisfaction, and self-reported health limitations among 99,433 participants over a 37-year period, including individuals with no migration background (n = 64,954), direct migration background (n = 29,016), and indirect migration background (n = 5,463). Life satisfaction and health satisfaction declined significantly over time across the sample (p < .001), while physical and emotional health limitations increased (p < .001). Individuals with migration backgrounds reported higher baseline life satisfaction and health satisfaction, but experienced steeper declines over time compared to non-migrants. Patterns of health limitations differed by migration background, with direct migrants showing faster deterioration in physical health, while indirect migrants exhibited more moderate and, in some cases, slower decline. Emotional health trajectories also varied, as direct migrants reported worse baseline emotional health but slower decline over time, whereas indirect migrants showed patterns more similar to non-migrants. Overall, these findings suggest that disparities in migrant health emerge over time and may reflect the cumulative impact of post-migration social, structural, and environmental experiences on long-term health outcomes.
1:02 Manasi Garg, "Reclaiming Agency in the Attention Economy: Analyzing Smartphone Patterns of Digital Distraction and Meaningful Use" (Primary Advisor: Nilam Ram, Communication and Psychology; Second Reader: Byron Reeves, Communication)
In the modern world, screens demand our attention constantly, whether for work, information, or entertainment. Endless streams of media are available at all hours of the day. Online and offline, people share anecdotes that their phone use has reduced their attention span and ability to focus. What is it about smartphones that is causing so many to feel this way? While researchers are studying the relationship between smartphone and media use and attention, existing studies are limited by reliance on cross-sectional surveys, self-reports, and experimental designs that fail to capture naturalistic, moment-to-moment behavior or the qualitative nature of digital content. In this paper, I address these gaps using a mixed methods approach using Screenome data from the Human Screenome Project (HSP; Reeves et al., 2020) to study smartphone use and attention, with a specific focus on how smartphone use is related to ADHD symptoms. I employ Bayesian multilevel modeling to examine longitudinal associations between individuals’ phone interaction dynamics and attention measures (n=217; mean age=44, 50% female, mean daily screentime=4.84 hours), and qualitative analysis of high-frequency smartphone screenshots to examine fine-grained patterns of media consumption (n > 6 million). Results show that while between-person differences in phone interaction patterns, including higher burstiness (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [0.01, 0.41]), screentime (95% Bayesian Credible Interval [0.37, 4.19]), and app-switching (95% CI [0.93, 1.02]), are associated with higher overall levels of ADHD symptoms, within-person changes in phone interaction patterns may not be related to within-person changes in ADHD symptoms. However, qualitative analysis of screenshot sequences for three participants provides informative narrative descriptions of the complex ways that digital behavior and screen content influence or reflect patterns of attentional flow on the scale of seconds, minutes, and hours.
1:10 Kristine P. Pashin, "The Biology of Becoming: Neural Stem Cell Technologies and the Limits of Categorical Governance" (Primary Advisor: Henry T. Greely, Law School; Sarah Heilshorn, Materials Science and Engineering)
This thesis examines how emerging neural stem cell technologies challenge existing legal, ethical, and regulatory frameworks. Combining empirical analysis of the U.S. direct-to-consumer stem cell marketplace, original experimental work on neural organoid systems in engineered hydrogels, and interdisciplinary analysis spanning bioethics, law, and science and technology studies, the project argues that current governance models fail because they rely on fixed biological categories. Technologies such as neural organoids, embryo models, and human-animal neural chimeras instead develop along dynamic biological continua that resist static classification. In response, the thesis proposes a "developmental governance" framework that evaluates biological systems according to emerging capacities and organizational complexity rather than categorical status alone. Across thirteen chapters, the work integrates computational analysis, laboratory research, legal scholarship, and philosophical inquiry to address the governance challenges posed by rapidly advancing neural stem cell technologies.
1:18 Maimuna Muntaha, "Measuring Place Attachment in Virtual Reality: A Literature Review and Empirical Study" (Primary Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson, Communication; Second Reader: Monique Tania Santoso, Communication)
When climate change events occur, people’s perceived distance to the event affects their engagement with the event, yet little is known about how immersive media can bridge that gap. This study does a thorough analysis of prior literature and conducts a small-scale empirical investigation into whether virtual reality (VR) paired with a congruent climate news story, can increase place attachment and motivate eco-responsibility. In a 2×2 experiment I conducted at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, 52 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: VR exposure (flyover vs. explore) and audio-VR congruency (hearing a news story about the same vs. a different distant place). Following the VR experience, participants completed surveys measuring place attachment, spatial presence, climate emotions, climate risk perceptions, and eco-responsibility. One week after the in-person study, participants were sent an additional survey assessing the durability of certain dependent variables. Results from this empirical and literature review investigation indicate the explore and matching news story condition produced the strongest effects across most dependent variables, such as place attachment, negative climate emotions, willingness to support climate-related legislation. This was also the only condition to show no decline in any measured variable one week later. Therefore, the empirical and literature review suggest that VR, when designed to align sensory experience with narrative content, can reduce the psychological distance people feel from distant climate events. This reduced distance in our study, and as proven in prior literature, can translate into durable behavioral intentions. This research has implications for journalists and policymakers who want to increase public engagement with global environmental crises.
1:26 Violet Crow, "Understanding Spatial Coherence" (Primary Advisor: Jeremy Bailenson, Communication; Second Reader: Monique Tania Santoso, Communication)
Imagine joining a weekly remote meeting of global team members. Rather than seeing a flat, two-dimensional grid of webcams on a laptop screen, however, you are joining using a mixed reality (MR) headset. Photorealistic, three-dimensional avatars of your coworkers sit across your physical coffee table. Speech originates from their physical location in the room, and when someone gestures to you, everyone recognizes to whom they are referring. You can even share mutual eye contact when someone makes a bad joke. Despite joining from across the globe, each person in the meeting feels as if the whole team is together in their own space. While this spatial interface creates a profound sense of "being there," it also introduces new complexities. How are the social norms surrounding eye contact, turn taking, and nonverbal communication impacted by avatars that look convincingly human and occupy your physical space, but are not actually there? This is an overview of the experimental design and my findings.
1:34 Tracy Wei, "Evaluating and Reimagining AI-Driven Image Accessibility on the Web" (Primary Advisor: Michael Bernstein, Computer Science; Second Reader: Tiziano Piccardi, Computer Science Department, Johns Hopkins University)
Images carry information that millions of blind and low-vision (BLV) people cannot reach. Most web images lack alt text, and the descriptions that do exist compress a structured visual scene into one linear sentence. This thesis examines both the quality of accessible image information and the way it is encountered, exploring how AI-driven approaches can advance image accessibility from the concentrated context of Wikipedia to the wider scope of the general web.. First, I evaluate LLM-generated alt-text for Wikipedia across expert editors, BLV users, and crowd workers. Prompts combining Wikipedia's guidelines and article context produced the best suggestions. However, editors identified recurring flaws in these alt-text drafts, and BLV participants emphasized the value of rich, relevant descriptions that complement rather than duplicate article content, underscoring the need for human oversight in a machine-in-the-loop approach. Second, I reframe images as navigable information spaces and introduce the Image Rotor, a screen reader-compatible interface that extends the rotor paradigm from page structure to image content, decomposing an image into semantic lenses. A formative study with four BLV screen-reader users found the interface easy to learn and valuable in providing a mental map before deeper exploration, while revealing a ceiling in depth of exploration. Together, these studies show that better descriptions and better navigation are complementary facets of image accessibility, each with their own requirements.
1:42 Catherine Titzer, "Digital Analysis of Ethnicity and Labor on Hawai‘i’s Plantations" (Primary Advisor: Stephen Sano, Music; Secondary Reader: Alice Staveley, English)
Although Hawaiʻi is known as a tropical paradise, few understand the sugar plantations that fundamentally altered Hawaiʻi’s landscape, leading to the immigration of hundreds of thousands of workers from around the world. Impacting inequalities and culture, the plantations are a cornerstone of issues of both economic disparity and cultural expression in Hawaiʻi. As the first digital humanities project on Hawaiʻi’s plantation life, this thesis seeks to re-examine this history through an interdisciplinary lens. Academics have argued that the business elites who operated sugar plantations placed their employees in racially segregated housing and labor roles as a means of controlling them. By engaging with three analytic approaches, quantitative modeling, spatial analysis, and qualitative coding, the project explores multidisciplinary methods for analyzing 5,742 Alexander & Baldwin plantation employee record cards and how they contribute to these understandings of race and ethnicity on the plantations. The results from this thesis complicate traditional academic narratives: the HC&S dataset suggests that ethnicity may not act as a strict predictor for job assignment or residential area, but initial patterns in qualitative coding show that it may influence how workers are managed and disciplined. The paper emphasizes both the importance of a comprehensive historical and sociological understanding of the populations represented and the digital humanities work that has developed from the raw data.
1:50 Zoe Quake, "Metabolomic Changes Following Oral Immunotherapy in Children with Multiple Food Allergies" (Primary Advisor: Scott D Boyd, Pathology; Russ B. Altman, Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, and Biomedical Data Science)
Oral immunotherapy (OIT) can be used to desensitize individuals to food allergies (FA); however, the biological mechanisms of OIT are still under investigation. This exploratory analysis was conducted to determine how metabolomic and proteomic profiles of children with multiple food allergies change over the course of OIT with respect to omalizumab. Plasma was collected at baseline and post-OIT from 23 participants with multiple FA between the ages of 4-15, enrolled in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled OIT trial with omalizumab (NCT02643862, NIAID U19AI104209). Untargeted metabolomic analyses were performed using mass spectrometry, with MS-DIAL 4.60 for peak picking, annotation, and alignment. Zonulin family peptides (ZFP), bacterial DNA, and Olink markers from three different panels (immune response, inflammation, metabolism) were measured in the same plasma samples. Mixed effect models were used to determine the association between OIT time point and each metabolite/marker while treating participant as a random effect and using FDR adjustment. From the 628 metabolites that were detected and quantified, 8 were significant after FDR adjustment, including five xenobiotic metabolites commonly found in household products and three endogenous metabolites. These metabolites showed associations with immune markers including IFN-gamma, IL-18, and IL-22RA1. The significant reduction of xenobiotic metabolites following OIT suggests that participants' bodies may have differed in their exposure to, uptake of, or clearance of xenobiotic metabolites prior to treatment. Decreasing xenobiotic metabolites in plasma during OIT could indicate repair of epithelial barrier function and support of the Epithelial Barrier Hypothesis. Future studies should test reproducibility in larger cohorts, build upon the OLINK analysis, and assess other epithelial barrier function measures during OIT.
--BREAK TO SWITCH ROOMS - MOVE TO ROOM E145--
2:05 Jayna Huang, "Between Church and State: A Computational Analysis of Biblical Scripture in U.S. Presidential Rhetoric" (Primary Advisor: Thomas Icard, Philosophy; Second Reader: Alena Smith, Political Science)
This paper examines the influence of Christianity in the U.S. political sphere by using computational methods to identify and analyze biblical verses quoted in presidential speech. While prior research has explored the role of religious language in political discourse, most studies rely on qualitative methods or small hand-coded datasets. As a result, there has been limited work on the longitudinal use of specific Bible verses in American political communication. This study addresses this gap through the following contributions: (1) a computational pipeline for detecting biblical verse quotations in presidential speeches, (2) a comprehensive dataset of such quotations spanning from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Joe Biden, and (3) a comparative analysis of how these quotations vary over time, across political parties, and across different thematic and rhetorical contexts. The results show that biblical quotations in presidential speech are not evenly distributed across presidents, parties, time periods, or contexts; biblical quotation is shaped by historical circumstance and rhetorical setting rather than by party affiliation alone. By extracting Bible verses across decades of presidential rhetoric, this thesis offers a novel computational perspective on---and new insight into---how the Bible is invoked at the highest levels of American politics.