What are your research interests?

[CardioMasters]

Hey guys,

I saw a thread like this last year and haven't seen a recent one (maybe I'm wrong) so I thought I'd start one up. It's always stressful waiting for admits/rejections and people going through the spring 2017 cycle, like me, are probably waiting for answers about now. What are your research interests? I think this community is so great for academic conversation so I can't wait to hear what you're all pursuing research in.

I'm going to be focussing on cardiomyocytes which are heart stem cells and will be using them as a platform to analyze their development from control patients and patients with cardiomyopathy, which is the weakening of the heart. It's really cool cause they will be grown on a microchip hydrogel and if this works, various drugs could be tested and administered to patients in a relatively short time span as it's individualized patient care. I've signed the confirmation forms for both the supervisor and funding and have gotten a departmental recommendation for admission. Just waiting for the faculty email (cannot come soon enough)!

Hope to hear what you guys are researching or will hopefully be researching come next year!

[socrate4se]

Congrats on how well things seem to be going!

My research interests are completely different from yours. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the intersection of visual cognition, perception, and factors that promote learning and plasticity. I am interested in cognitive and perceptual training, and especially the intrinsic (expectations, motivation, biases) and extrinsic (too little information, distractors) factors the influence training outcomes. I investigate these topics mainly in virtual environments using behavioral, psychophysical, and head and eye tracking data.

So pumped to start my PhD. (fingers crossed.)

Edited December 3, 2016 by socrate4se

[eagb]

Developing computational & data science methods to analyze very large genomic datasets to extract information about regulatory networks and complex disease etiologies  

[kinseyd]

I'm interested in bacterial and viral pathogenesis, as well as host-cell interactions (immune suppression). I also think molecular therapy through gene editing is super interesting as well. I remember reading a super interesting paper last year regarding the insertion of CRISPR into human T-lymphocytes to target HIV capsids to prevent HIV replication so I'd be interested in learning more about that, as well. It's hard to narrow a specific topic down, which why I'm super excited to do lab rotations and figure out what I'm most interested in (if I get into a program ).

[PhD Caffeine Consumption]

Hello! Everyone's research interests are so interesting! 

My interests are invisible biases (mannerisms, communication style, volume; any subtle cultural variation) and their effect on teamwork. This is especially important because data shows that cultural differences pretty much only have a negative effect for long-term, high-stakes teams (astronauts, military, etc). I would like to eventually develop training to facilitate healthy occupational culture that functions well with diversity in an increasingly global workplace. 

Does anyone else feel like they could talk to a blank wall for hours about their interests?

[p-Erk]

Infectious disease, surgery, and LGBTQIA

[suryarajan]

My interests are about memories - how they are formed, recollected, consolidation of memories during sleep and how dreams are associated with this process. This area has a great deal of stuff unexplored which makes it super interesting.

[GeorgeC07]

My interests are multiphysics study on advanced reactor designs, especially the next generation reactors that are being developed in several countries. Also intrigued by innovative computational simulation methods used in engineering simulations. This research interest also led me back to coding and algorithms, which I had set aside for a few years. 

[clarwyn]

Wow, lots of really interesting stuff here! My interest is nonstandard dialects of the Irish Gaelic language, and how they diverged from Old Irish. I'm also pretty interested in Middle English (think Chaucer). Basically I'll be happy if I get to work on language change.

[av2010]

I'm focusing on interpersonal communication, mostly in the integrations of technology and romantic relationships.  I look at how couples use technology to communicate about sex and to better their sexual relationship, as well as question the resiliency of traditional communication theories in initial interactions of flirting, given changes in technology and a more openly sexual culture. 

[NoirFemme]

Right now...Transnational feminisms, diasporic protest literature, and the Cold War. 

[avflinsch]

cannibalistic data consumption - how self analysis of self generated data influences behavioral changes

 

[eadwacer]

Coincidentally, also cannibalism, but in a completely different way. I'm interested in categories of monstrousness in early medieval literature and how the shakiness of those categories leads to, basically, eroticized gay cannibalism, depending on how you interpret the humanity of various monster figures. I'm also interested in non-normative gender and sexuality in Old and Middle English literature more generally.

Edited January 15, 2017 by eadwacer

[Feanor]

Category Theory, one of the purest kinds of mathematics and often dubbed "general abstract nonsense".

[avflinsch]

21 hours ago, eadwacer said:

Coincidentally, also cannibalism, but in a completely different way. I'm interested in categories of monstrousness in early medieval literature and how the shakiness of those categories leads to, basically, eroticized gay cannibalism, depending on how you interpret the humanity of various monster figures. I'm also interested in non-normative gender and sexuality in Old and Middle English literature more generally.

 

That is way different. 'cannibalistic data consumption' is just a catch phrase I made up.

[MemphisMeli]

My research interests involve PTSD and non-traditional (aka pharmacological) treatments especially mindfulness and the use of psychiatric service dogs in mitigating the severity of symptoms. 

[CuppyCakerton]

16 hours ago, MemphisMeli said:

My research interests involve PTSD and non-traditional (aka pharmacological) treatments especially mindfulness and the use of psychiatric service dogs in mitigating the severity of symptoms. 

That's really awesome. My interests involve translational research targeting trauma and suicide in the Veteran population, particularly women Veterans (now that women will be entering combat roles), and that naturally involves a lot of PTSD research. I actually just recently participated in a webinar about using service dogs for Veterans to target PTSD/depression/suicidality. There isn't much evidence-based research regarding the practice, so I think it's amazing that you're going to be doing it  It seems so promising, I'm happy to see people interested in doing the research to back it up.