Past Celebrations – Page 42 – OSCAR Celebration of Student Scholarship and Impact

College of Visual and Performing Arts Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Photography & Text: Adolescent Mentorship in Detention Facilities and Alternative Learning Spaces

Author(s): Sisc Johnson

Mentor(s): Sue Wrbican, School of Art

Abstract

For my research project, I created a mentorship program to teach photography and text in alternative learning spaces to court-involved youth. Desired outcomes include fostering and promoting positive self-esteem by developing new skill sets acquired from learning the technical and creative skills of photography. This process also results in promoting positive and respectful communication skills as students learn how to write about and critique their work and the work of others. This summer I spent three days each week working with 3-5 residents in a community-based, a non-secure residential treatment program for male court-involved youth, ages 14-17 that is located in Virginia

Video Transcript

A Leader’s Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes for Cultivating Intercultural Competence

Author(s): Aliscia Warren

Mentor(s): Afra Ahmed, Psychology

Abstract

The ability to navigate and construct social structures, such as, work, community, and society, can be fulfilled by a leader. Leaders improve functionality and address individual’s values and concerns (Dugan, 2016). The aim of this research is to determine if Ethical Leadership influence corporate social responsibility when developing intercultural competence in the workplace. The leader should consider other people‚Äôs values and experiences more often as they facilitate enriching interpersonal conversation (Collard, 2007), which can be described as Ethical Leadership. Ethical Leadership involves uplifting and supporting diverse workers, I believe it is important to learn about the effective ways to communicate; a result of interpersonal communicative efforts to build rapport and develop trusting relationships (Presbitero & Teng-Challeja, 2019). How does ethical leadership interact with the development of intercultural communication? In what ways is Ethical Leadership associated with Corporate Social Responsibility when developing Intercultural Communication in the workplace?

Video Transcript

In many situations, a single person is not acting alone. They are a factor among other moving parts in a complex multi level environment all throughout the world. Often a leader is explicitly or implicitly selected to aid in a group’s achievement and security. The ability to navigate and construct social structure such as work, community and society, can be fulfilled by a leader. My name is Aliscia Warren and this summer I researched a leaders knowledge, skills and attitudes to cultivate intercultural competence in the workplace. We are immersed in a working community with a wide variety of social identities backgrounds, and to interdependent on one another to collectively achieve organizational goals. Ethical Leadership involves uplifting and supporting diverse workers. It is important to learn about the active voice to communicate so that it results in intercultural interpersonal communication efforts that builds great report and develop trusting relationships. This project is also significant because researchers estimated that people spend 1/3 of their life at work. So it’s important this is in a welcoming environment. How does Ethical Leadership interact with the development of intercultural competence and in what ways is Ethical Leadership associated with corporate social responsibilities when developing intercultural competence in a workplace, I decided to to conduct a literature review to examine these three constructs. And when thinking of factors for ethical leadership, there is a lot that may come to mind. The primary behaviors of an ethical leadership style includes conducting interpersonal relationships, evaluating personal actions, communicating effectively and conducting ethical decisions, in contrast to ethical leadership, displaying behaviors of avoidance not initiating relationships, providing no guidance and a lack of support is considered passive leadership. intercultural competence can also be described as the ability to change perspectives, beliefs, behaviors and knowledge to include various cultures similarities and differences. A leadership a leader should know how to adapt to multiple cultures in a world is constantly changing and constantly going and changing. It’s a cultural competence is continuous, and it should continue to develop as the relationship itself develops. Corporate Social Responsibility is the key to influencing employee behaviors. A leaders perception of Corporate Social Responsibility can influence the subordinates trust, increase organizational citizenship behavior, and enhance and identify employees contributions to the organization. A study in China found that ethical leadership has a positive association with corporate social responsibility and the personal social responsibility. Leaders not only serve as a role model in a workplace but have great influence on the organization’s perceived Social Responsibility and Ethics. Examining corporate social responsibility at an organization reinforces the importance of ethical conduct by stating it is it is the responsibility of the organization and all of the individuals. For my research, I will be conducting a research proposal and then to collect data on this topic, it would be through conceptual questionnaires. For example, I would use the intercultural development inventory also known as the IDI to measure the construct of intercultural competence and conclusion. I believe that ethical leadership, corporate social responsibility and intercultural competence is very important when conducting a workplace environment. Leaders hold a significant role in the workplace, as they are the key authority personnel for information interpretation and organization reinforces workplace behavior. This is demonstrated when subordinates look to the leader for appropriate workplace practices to identify organizational goals and values. Thank you all for taking the time to watch my video and please leave any questions that you may have

College of Science Summer Team Impact Project

Measuring the Changes in Sentiment and Emotion Towards COVID-19 Over Time in Tweets Posted from Within United States Counties

Author(s): Zachary Richardson

Mentor(s): Hamdi Kavak, Computational and Data Sciences; Taylor Anderson, Geography and Geoinformation Science; Andreas Zufle, Geography and Geoinformation Science; Amira Roess, Global and Community Health; Samiul Islam, Fahad Aloraini, Graduate Assistants

Abstract

All mentors and contributors: Zachary Richardson, James Stassinos, Taylor Anderson, Amira Roess, Hamdi Kavak, Andreas Züfle The COVID-19 pandemic was a difficult time for the world and many people took to Twitter to discuss their thoughts and feelings towards COVID-19. Understanding the sentiment and emotions felt by a population can give insight on how the general public’s opinions are changing as the pandemic progresses. We can see trends in sentiment and discover if online behavior is an indicator of offline behavior in response to COVID-19. To begin our research, we used a dataset created by the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) that contains millions of tweets with enriched geolocation information attributed to each tweet. We first had to extract tweets posted within Fairfax County, then perform our own sentiment and emotion analysis. To calculate sentiment, we used the python library TextBlob to read the text within tweets and give it a score within the range -1 to 1 based on how negative or positive the attitude of text was. To measure emotion, we used the python library Text2Emotion to give tweets a percentage score based on the five emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprise, and fear. We aggregated the sentiment scores and emotion percentages by day from February 1st, 2020, to May 1st , 2020. We found that on average fear was the top emotion felt by Twitter users within Fairfax County, and the sentiment was fairly neutral. It is difficult to see any trends within Fairfax County alone, our future work will extend to every county within the United States.

Video Transcript

00:04 hi my name is zachary richardson 00:06 and my name is james stasinos over the 00:08 summer james and i have been working on 00:10 our project 00:10 measuring changes in sentiment and 00:12 emotion towards coven 19 00:14 over time in tweets posted within united 00:16 states counties 00:20 the coven 19 pandemic was an 00:21 unprecedented time for the world and 00:23 caused many to develop strong feelings 00:25 towards the situation 00:26 many in the united states took to 00:28 twitter to discuss and share their 00:29 thoughts and emotions towards copenhagen 00:32 in our project we aimed to measure these 00:34 emotions and overall sentiment of kobe 00:36 19 00:36 through these tweets shared by users 00:38 within the united states 00:39 as the pandemic progressed to begin this 00:42 research we obtained a data set put 00:44 together by the qatar 00:45 computing research institute the data 00:48 set contained hundreds of millions of 00:50 dehydrated tweet ids 00:51 with enriched geolocation information 00:54 they had all been 00:56 the enriched geolocation information had 00:58 been obtained 00:59 using advanced machine learning 01:01 techniques to make predictions about 01:03 user location 01:05 based on information within the profile 01:09 [Music] 01:10 all the tweets were found by searching 01:12 for tweets mentioning coven 19 or covet 01:15 19 related keywords for example social 01:18 distancing or quarantine 01:23 we use the developer account to access 01:25 the twitter api 01:26 to hydrate the tweets obtained through 01:28 the qatar dataset 01:30 using the enriched geolocation 01:32 information we identified all the tweets 01:34 from the users located within fairfax 01:36 county 01:37 and we calculated the sentiment and the 01:39 emotion of those tweets 01:44 to measure the overall sentiment of the 01:46 tweets we use the python library called 01:48 textblob a natural language processor 01:51 that evaluates text data to determine 01:52 the tweet’s attitude 01:54 we use this library when reading the 01:56 text within the tweets and each tweet is 01:58 given a score within the range 01:59 negative one to one based on how 02:02 negative positive 02:03 or neutral the text was we aggregated 02:05 the average sentiment of every tweet 02:07 collected within fairfax county by day 02:09 within the time period of february 1st 02:11 2020 02:12 to may 1st 2020 and we discovered the 02:15 overall sentiment was fairly neutral at 02:17 the beginning of the pandemic 02:21 to measure a motion of the tweets we use 02:23 the python library called text 02:24 to emotion another natural language 02:27 processor that allows us to extract 02:29 five emotions from the text data those 02:31 emotions are happiness 02:32 anger sadness surprise and fear 02:35 each emotion is assigned a percentage 02:37 based on how much 02:38 that text corresponds to each of the 02:40 five emotions 02:42 we aggregated the average emotion score 02:44 received from each tweet collected 02:46 within fairfax county by day within the 02:48 time period of february 1st 02:50 2020 to may 1st 2020 and we discovered 02:52 the top emotion built by twitter users 02:54 in the early stages of the pandemic was 02:56 fear 02:57 followed closely by sadness and surprise 03:02 we are currently working on creating a 03:04 data set of sentiment and emotion for 03:06 all the covet 19 related tweets where 03:08 the user is located within the united 03:10 states 03:12 in addition the qatar computing research 03:14 institute team 03:15 will be publishing an updated covet 19 03:17 data set including more keywords 03:20 over a longer period of time during the 03:22 pandemic 03:24 which will include additional tweets 03:26 collected 03:28 we look forward to processing all that 03:30 additional data for sentiment and 03:31 emotion 03:32 to compare the different locations 03:34 sentiment and emotion 03:35 to learn about their different reactions 03:37 to the pandemic 03:38 as it forget as it progressed 03:44 thank you very much for viewing our 03:45 project uh we’d like to take this time 03:47 to acknowledge george mason university 03:49 office of provist 03:50 and the summer team impact project for 03:53 allowing us to conduct our research 03:54 uh we’re excited to see more results in 03:57 the future 03:58 thanks thank you

For more on this topic see:

Examining Different Disease Transmission Approaches in Data-Driven Agent-Based Models

Analyzing Changes in US Mobility Trends During 2020a

Spatio Temporal Prediction of Human Mobility

College of Engineering and Computing Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Manufacturing Methods of PLA/HA Composite for 3D Printing Bone Scaffolds

Author(s): Zachary Turner

Mentor(s): Shayhayegh Bagheri, Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

For my research I worked with Alex Assadi to develop four manufacturing methods of a Poly lactic Acid (PLA) Hydroxide apatite (HA) composite. We utilized lab equipment to produce filament from each of the four methods and tested sample for their mechanical properties. The knowledge gathered here will serve useful in the biomedical field where this composite can be used for bone implants as the polymer is biocompatible and HA adds the ability for the composite to be bio-regenerative.

Video Transcript

Hello, my name is Zach Turner. I am a mechanical engineering student at George Mason University. My project, working along with Alex Assadi, Dr. Bagheri (Bageri), and Dr. Beheshti is to develop a manufacturing method for a composite polymer for use in 3D printing of bone scaffolds and over bone related replacements. Our composite is made of Poly lactic Acid PLA and Hydroxyapatite. PLA is a biocompatible polymer and hydroxide appetite is a mineral that will increase the composites bioresorbability. This composite will allow for bone scaffolds and implants to help both with recovery and regeneration. We have experimented with four manufacturing methods for synthesizing the composite filament. The first method involved dissolving PLA in methylene chloride and adding hydroxyapatite into the solution. The second method was similar, but we used a speed mixer to agitate the solution instead of a magnetic stirrer. The remaining two methods were the same as the first but not methylene chloride was added. Having created a composite, we pressed and extruded it into a filament for 3D printing. The ability to 3D prints the composite will allow for great range of applications. We now working towards 3D printing the samples to test for the composite’s elastic modulus. Thank you

College of Science OSCAR Top Presenter Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Analyzing the Microbiome of Avian Schistosomiasis Vector Gyraulus Parvus

Author(s): Louise Singer

Mentor(s): Brett Froelich, Biology

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by flatworms called schistosomes. Two of the most prevalent species of schistosomes are transmitted by a specific family of freshwater snails. An animal’s microbiome, which consists of all the microbes on and inside it, influences and is influenced by the animal’s immune system. Schistosome infections have been shown to change the microbiome compositions of schistosomiasis vector snails. Additionally, differences in snails’ immune systems have been shown to prevent schistosome infections. Given these observed relationships, the microbiomes of vector snails are an important topic of investigation. While schistosomiasis is not found in the United States, certain local snails belonging to the same family transmit the parasites for avian schistosomiasis. This study aimed to explore the microbiome of a local avian schistosomiasis vector, Gyraulus parvus. The microbiomes of two related snail species, Menetus dilatatus and Physa acuta, were also compared with that of Gyraulus parvus. Snail collection locations were scouted by surveying snail species present at 17 sites. Of these sites, 2 locations, Lake Fairfax and Wood Glen Lake, had all 3 species present. Three points along each lake were then chosen for sampling. Snails were collected by repeatedly washing decaying vegetation in water and straining the resulting liquid through a mesh sieve. Once the snails were collected, they were placed in tubes of water and exposed to 6 hour intervals of artificial light to encourage parasite emergence. To identify infections, the water samples were centrifuged, and the resulting sediments were examined under a microscope. Snail tissue was then extracted and homogenized in a blender. DNA was extracted from each sample and sent out for 16S targeted sequencing. Once the sequencing is complete, the composition of the snails’ microbiomes will then be analyzed based on species and location.

Video Transcript

Hello, my name is Lulu Singer! Currently, I am a senior at George Mason University, where I am majoring in biology. ● For my URSP summer project, I studied the microbiomes of Gyraulus parvus and two other local snails. ● An animal’s microbiome is made up of all the microbes that live on and inside its body. ● These native microbes have a huge impact on their host. For example, your microbiome influences your food preferences, mental health, and immune system. ● We can’t exactly see these microbes, so instead, we look at the bacterial DNA in an organism and identify the different taxa we find. ● I was interested in Gyraulus parvus because of its veterinary and clinical significance. These snails transmit several parasitic blood flukes, known as schistosomes, that cause avian schistosomiasis in birds and cercarial dermatitis, or swimmer’s itch, in humans. ● Additionally, they are related to vectors of human schistosomiasis, which I hope to study in the future. ● The first step in this project was to scout for locations with all three snails. ● Then, I collected the snails and tested water from each location. ● Back at the lab, I sorted the snails by species, and retained the Gyraulus parvus, Menetus dilatatus, and Physa acuta snails. Menetus dilatatus is in the same family as G. parvus, and Physa acuta is in a sister taxon. ● I then placed the snails in an illuminated cabinet to see if any of them were infected. ● Light exposure encourages the parasites to emerge into the water, which I could then examine with a microscope. ● Once I had checked the samples for any infections, I cleaned the snails and homogenized their tissue. ● I then extracted DNA from the homogenized tissue samples, and sent it out for 16S targeted sequencing services. ● The sequencing service identifies the different bacteria found in the samples, which we can then analyze. ● With this data, we can identify the most stable part of the microbiome, known as the core microbiome, for each species. These are the bacteria that were found in all samples, and accounted for a significant percentage of sequences. ● We can also compare the microbiomes of different species, and see how similar or different they are from each other. ● As I mentioned before, I was interested in Gyraulus parvus as a local snail of veterinary interest. However, I was also drawn to them because many species of schistosomes that cause schistosomiasis in humans are transmitted by snails in the same family. ● Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by schistosomes in the genus schistosoma, and transmitted by freshwater snails. ● This disease affects roughly 240 million people every year, but receives little attention because it affects vulnerable, low income populations. ● Currently, schistosomiasis prevention involves mass drug administration or controlling the snail vector populations. ● However, current snail control involves spraying toxic molluscicides that kill other aquatic life, and make the water temporarily undrinkable. ● Some snail vectors of schistosomiasis have shown resistance to schistosome infection. This resistance has been linked to variations in the snails’ immune systems. ● We know that a snail’s microbiome is linked to its immune health, and when snails are infected, their microbiome’s change drastically. ● Microbiomics may be the key to developing an environmentally friendly and cost effective way to interrupt transmission. ● This project was especially important to me because it is relevant to research I wish to pursue in the future. Primarily, I hope to study the interactions between the snail vector microbiome, its immune system, and the schistosome parasites. ● Furthering our understanding of these snails’ microbiomes could be the first step in a new approach to disease prevention and control.

College of Visual and Performing Arts Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

A Concise Guide to Underrepresented Clarinet Literature: Chamber Edition

Author(s): Teresa Jenkins

Mentor(s): Dr. Kathleen Mulcahy, Reva and Sid Dewberry School of Music, Applied Professor, Director of Woodwinds

Abstract

The origin for this project comes from perceived necessity. While arts institutions are putting forth more diverse and inclusive programming lists, they are usually not as organized and readily available as artists would like. This project focused on the college chamber musician/clarinetist; a pre – professional level player who is looking to diversify and contribute to the ongoing transformation of inclusive music. Chamber music is defined as a small ensemble that consists of 2-6 players, with only one player on every part. The main goal of this project was to find music written by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and Women composers to be added to the George Mason University Wind Chamber Library. Another goal of this project was to show that the main reason why these pieces are not being played is often due to lack of accessibility and the challenge level of the piece. In order to mitigate the obstacles of creating an unbiased project and to provide quantifiable data, the researcher created a rubric tailored specifically for this project. This rubric was able to curate pieces based on the following criteria: accessibility, rhythmic complexity, extended technique requirements and cost. Keep in mind, all of the categories listed are tailored to the undergraduate musician. By utilizing this rubric and listening to over 30 pieces of music within the research, the researcher was able to find 13 pieces of music with composers who have the backgrounds included in the study. The next step is to purchase the pieces of music and donate them to the library for future use. Through this project, future generations of woodwind musicians will be able to have a more diverse educational experience from both the pieces and the musicians who created them.

Video Transcript

SLIDE #1 00:00:02.790 –> 00:00:12.120 Teresa C Jenkins: Hello, my name is Teresa Jenkins, I am currently a junior (going to be a senior) studying clarinet performance and a minor in arts management here at George Mason University. 00:00:12.630 –> 00:00:23.520 Teresa C Jenkins: Today, I will be presenting my project and my project is called a concise guide to underrepresented clarinet literature: Chamber music addition. 00:00:25.890 –> 00:00:45.540 Teresa C Jenkins: As I already stated, my project is completed by me Teresa Jenkins that’s me, and it is supported by my mentor Dr Kathy Mulcahy who is director of woodwinds and Professor of clarinet here at George mason university, so a little bit about my project. 00:00:47.400 –> 00:00:59.310 Teresa C Jenkins: Because I know that’s a long title and it has a lot of information in it but the origin for this project comes from perceived necessity, So what do I mean by that. 00:01:00.750 –> 00:01:08.550 Teresa C Jenkins: arts institutions, including our own here at George mason university are starting to put forth more diverse and inclusive programming lists. 00:01:09.180 –> 00:01:17.490 Teresa C Jenkins: And it’s usually not as organized and readily available as artists would like so programming list, for example, when you go to see a music concert there’s a list of works if pieces that the orchestra or whoever’s performing will be playing, so these lists are usually by composers, who maybe have been gone for a long time, for example, like Mozart Tchaikovsky Bach and a lot of them don’t have new composers, for example, Valerie Coleman Teresa Martin people like that, so this project is attempting to tackle this issue or contribute to the research towards this new challenge of new programming diverse programming and inclusive programming. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #2 00:01:59.640 –> 00:02:03.900 Teresa C Jenkins: In this project, I will be here: some mission and goals. 00:02:05.040 –> 00:02:12.180 Teresa C Jenkins: So the first one is defined pieces for woodwind Chamber musicians written by black, indigenous people of color. 00:02:13.200 –> 00:02:16.560 Teresa C Jenkins: LGBTQ and women, composers. 00:02:19.260 –> 00:02:28.050 Teresa C Jenkins: Then I am planning on purchasing these pieces and utilizing them in the George mason university when Chamber ensemble library. 00:02:32.160 –> 00:02:42.210 Teresa C Jenkins: My other goal is to find pieces, and this is really the main goal of this project is to find pieces that are playable for the undergraduate musician as well as digestible for an audience. 00:02:45.900 –> 00:02:56.970 Teresa C Jenkins: I would like to by finding these pieces create a concise guide and show how they are beneficial and usable for the undergraduate you and by usable I mean educational. 00:02:58.440 –> 00:03:03.540 Teresa C Jenkins: And then my plan is to donate these pieces to the George mason university woodwind Chamber library. 00:03:04.980 –> 00:03:16.560 Teresa C Jenkins: I also really need to educate myself and I enjoy learning about new composers with diverse backgrounds and identities and that was sort of half of the impetus for this project. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #3 00:03:18.690 –> 00:03:20.250 Teresa C Jenkins: So the inspiration. 00:03:21.300 –> 00:03:22.590 Teresa C Jenkins: So many new, 21st century works are too hard for the undergraduate musician. Who is the undergraduate musician? usually they’re straight out of high school so they’re 18 to 21 years old, or they could be older musicians, who came back to do a degree. 00:03:39.720 –> 00:03:43.110 Teresa C Jenkins: And they just tend to be too difficult and why is this? 00:03:44.670 –> 00:03:55.350 Teresa C Jenkins: The music that Mozart Bach Tchaikovsky was writing yes it’s very difficult, but in their time it had a different purpose, a different use. 00:03:55.740 –> 00:04:09.000 Teresa C Jenkins: Today musicians are learning these pieces at a younger age, because we have teaching techniques for them, but 21st century pieces tend to push the boundaries of technical requirements, as well as rhythmic requirements. 00:04:09.300 –> 00:04:19.260 Teresa C Jenkins: Making them extremely difficult for people like me or for pre professional musicians to learn, so how does my project go about mitigating these challenges? 00:04:19.830 –> 00:04:30.690 Teresa C Jenkins: I am searching through lists and lists list of composers and their pieces and listening to them and scoring them and I will be creating a new list of usable pieces for undergrads learn from so by listening through these pieces, one by one and scoring them on an original rubric which I’ll go over a little bit later. 00:04:42.210 –> 00:04:56.670 Teresa C Jenkins: I was able to create grounds for why piece was not appropriate for this age level so lack of accessibility from the musician themselves is another inspiring fact many times we’re overwhelmed. 00:04:57.450 –> 00:05:04.020 Teresa C Jenkins: You know, we we do it’s true we do spend a lot of times in the practice room and our teacher says, you know what piece, you want to play next. 00:05:04.470 –> 00:05:09.480 Teresa C Jenkins: And there are thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands pieces of music out there. And it’s hard to find just one especially one when you have specific guidelines so i’m hoping to help kind of guide undergrads especially who play clarinet like me to find pieces that are educational fund and new. 00:05:25.200 –> 00:05:35.970 Teresa C Jenkins: So finding accessible diverse and playable works is a great way to create awareness and bring new composers with diverse boundaries and backgrounds into all of our musical lives. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #4 00:05:37.650 –> 00:05:48.360 Teresa C Jenkins: So let’s start from the very foundation here, some of you may have never even heard of a chamber group, so what is the Chamber group, and how does this project actively interact with them. 00:05:48.960 –> 00:05:58.020 Teresa C Jenkins: So a chamber group is a small, a smaller group you if we think big and then we bring it into little picture, a big picture, would be an orchestra. 00:05:58.380 –> 00:06:13.890 Teresa C Jenkins: Probably around you know 90 maybe 70-80 musicians on stage Okay, now we shrink that to a symphony orchestra they’re a little bit smaller they just have smaller numbers same amount of would win section a little bit smaller on the strings. 00:06:15.330 –> 00:06:23.100 Teresa C Jenkins: Then you strike that to Chamber orchestra, they are even smaller maybe they only have one of each string instrument. 00:06:23.490 –> 00:06:54.780 Teresa C Jenkins: And maybe one or two of each woodwind or brass instrument, now we get to a chamber group a chamber group is made up of two to six musicians and a woman Chamber group can be made up of any combination of instruments, but here are the most common it’s we have a clarinet a flute an oboe, A bassoon and a French Horn, so any of these instruments can be combinations so it do it can be played by a clarinet and a flute. 00:06:55.710 –> 00:07:07.200 Teresa C Jenkins: would win trio could be clarinet flute now oboe. I know French Horn is a little bit of a kind of wild card, but in would been Chamber groups, we do need something that can create. 00:07:08.730 –> 00:07:14.310 Teresa C Jenkins: cohesiveness and that base so that’s why French Horn, is there, but many times they are using women Chamber groups. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #5 00:07:15.330 –> 00:07:21.330 Teresa C Jenkins: So let’s get into the research portion of this, the creative process and research design. 00:07:22.710 –> 00:07:28.500 Teresa C Jenkins: Deep listening so throughout my projects, I started in June and I went all the way until mid July. 00:07:29.280 –> 00:07:54.750 Teresa C Jenkins: I, and I practiced this process, I would say throughout my undergraduate career is deep listening so deep listening occurs when you take you know, maybe the. Like the overcoming factor of you know, just like playing the actual instrument and you’re just listening to the piece there’s maybe no music in front of you sometimes there can be I have had music in front of me. 00:07:55.500 –> 00:08:10.800 Teresa C Jenkins: And you’re listening for maybe things like hey I like the way the composer wrote that or that’s a cool dynamic element you’re listening for all of these little subtle details that make up the whole the whole piece. 00:08:12.450 –> 00:08:26.460 Teresa C Jenkins: So compatibility and accessibility, our focal points of this project and the criteria that makes up these two pillars are as follows diversity of composers that’s going back to bypass LGBTQIA+ and women, composers. 00:08:26.910 –> 00:08:31.920 Teresa C Jenkins: Quality of music um that will be explained a little bit later in my rubric. 00:08:32.310 –> 00:08:46.770 Teresa C Jenkins: Accessibility from the undergraduate musician can they email this person can they email this composer and say hi i’m an undergrad from here, and I would like to play your piece in a concert, can they buy it from a publisher almost like a book. 00:08:47.880 –> 00:08:54.750 Teresa C Jenkins: and practicality, is it educational will audience enjoy it I know a lot of times we make it seem like musicians are the only ones that enjoy the music but. We do, in some ways, live for the audience so we’re looking to find pieces that are exciting that can connect and things that and ways that we can share with the audience. 00:09:08.340 –> 00:09:21.300 Teresa C Jenkins: So my research my resources for this project or a laptop I had about two notebooks for notes a printer for my rubric headphones I had pretty good headphones I had things that you know I could. 00:09:21.930 –> 00:09:33.330 Teresa C Jenkins: tailor how I wanted to listen, a predictor and rubric Oh, I said preacher twice it’s easy, but these were, this is a pretty simple project in that I could. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #6 00:09:34.110 –> 00:09:45.240 Teresa C Jenkins: You know, really make the most of what I had already so some observations from the project well when we talk about research design with this project. 00:09:45.780 –> 00:09:55.500 Teresa C Jenkins: I had the dilemma of trying to find databases trying to find composers lists and all these other things. 00:09:56.400 –> 00:10:09.570 Teresa C Jenkins: I mean if I probably everyone has done some sort of research before it’s not very effective to just Google, composers with bipolar origins. 00:10:10.110 –> 00:10:31.350 Teresa C Jenkins: Because this is the main observation that I made my entire project people don’t just have one background they have numerous backgrounds so it’s really hard, To find somebody with just a bypass background, because they put themselves out as having all these other backgrounds, because we’re multi dimensional humans so. 00:10:32.010 –> 00:10:45.990 Teresa C Jenkins: What I did, though, was I looked for databases, because what databases do they’re like a sieve they’ll just find the information that we want they’ll tell us about it it’s a quick, effective way to find pieces. 00:10:46.500 –> 00:10:59.460 Teresa C Jenkins: So, the main one that I found was international composers database and it’s created by suny fredonia is in New York and I’m also from New York, so this this was close to my heart, but. 00:11:00.180 –> 00:11:06.660 Teresa C Jenkins: The International, the Internet, excuse me Institute for composer diversity that’s what they recalled. 00:11:07.020 –> 00:11:22.500 Teresa C Jenkins: It is a search engine where you put in, you can like toggle with all of the different aspects of a composer so you could put maybe you were looking for composers, who were still alive so younger people, older people who were still alive. 00:11:23.460 –> 00:11:34.950 Teresa C Jenkins: Maybe you’re looking for like I was you’re looking for a certain background and you’re looking for a certain group of musicians to play this piece, you could put all of those into the search engine. 00:11:35.490 –> 00:11:46.380 Teresa C Jenkins: And you would be able to maybe come out with a result, I would say one thing that I ran into at this was it took me a little while to figure out how to use it, you cannot put, unfortunately. 00:11:46.740 –> 00:11:54.780 Teresa C Jenkins: Everything you’re looking into into this database, because it will look for a person that has all of those characteristics. 00:11:55.740 –> 00:12:03.330 Teresa C Jenkins: likely probably 99% of the time that person doesn’t exist or they don’t write music or they don’t have something else. 00:12:03.720 –> 00:12:13.950 Teresa C Jenkins: That you’re looking for, so what I did was I went by one by one, I went by you know, maybe I was looking for non binary composers and I clicked non binary. 00:12:14.400 –> 00:12:36.060 Teresa C Jenkins: But I want them for woodwind Chamber groups duets, small things like that and I got a lot of results and you’ll see some of these results that I got towards the end of this presentation next place, I found things was in university of Toronto library they had a list that was readily available, I was able to go through. 00:12:36.300 –> 00:12:39.480 Teresa C Jenkins: and read, and it was kind of like what I did what i’m doing for my project. 00:12:39.840 –> 00:12:48.360 Teresa C Jenkins: YouTube is a wonderful resource, you can get a lot out of YouTube and you can get absolutely nothing it’s like any other database that you find. 00:12:48.720 –> 00:12:59.280 Teresa C Jenkins: But YouTube is a great resource for finding recordings and listening to them because that’s, the most important part of the piece it’s really hard it takes a person. 00:12:59.730 –> 00:13:07.440 Teresa C Jenkins: Maybe with more education than I have to sit down and just look at a piece of music and know exactly how it sounds like those people are hard to come by. 00:13:07.920 –> 00:13:13.650 Teresa C Jenkins: Their names usually like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or people like that so. 00:13:14.550 –> 00:13:23.400 Teresa C Jenkins: that’s what I did, and I ended up finding these other databases, like the African composer database, people from the continent of Africa who write music. 00:13:23.970 –> 00:13:34.860 Teresa C Jenkins: So something that I found, and this is just an observation that if we were to dive a little bit deeper into this project is that many composers of African descent, I was lucky to find two. 00:13:35.880 –> 00:13:46.140 Teresa C Jenkins: Who suited what I was looking for they write music for the Church, rather than for general music usage so rather than what I was looking for maybe an educational use. 00:13:46.440 –> 00:13:58.050 Teresa C Jenkins: They tend to write music for their church institutions religious institutions and other things that maybe we aren’t looking for when it comes to this project, without which has like A specific lens. 00:13:58.590 –> 00:14:12.810 Teresa C Jenkins: Another observation that I found was there’s a ton of new music out there, probably more than we could ever think about and it’s everywhere, but not every piece suits our needs as an undergraduate player. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #7 00:14:13.740 –> 00:14:20.340 Teresa C Jenkins: So, moving on the puzzle this project became a little bit of a puzzle in some aspects. 00:14:21.660 –> 00:14:33.660 Teresa C Jenkins: And they included databases, as I described my rubric tendencies I created a rubric that was scaled on one to four. 00:14:34.200 –> 00:14:46.680 Teresa C Jenkins: And had all of these different like probably like five different categories, but sometimes no rubric is absolutely perfect that is impossible to create one like that so. 00:14:47.100 –> 00:15:02.790 Teresa C Jenkins: A lot of times things could score high on my rubric but maybe I didn’t want the piece, you know, maybe it was boring, maybe me boring for my taste, but maybe it didn’t have exactly what I was looking for. 00:15:04.020 –> 00:15:18.150 Teresa C Jenkins: Maybe the piece scored really low in one aspect but really high and all the other aspects. The rubric created a balance, rather than a answer to my questions. 00:15:19.980 –> 00:15:26.550 Teresa C Jenkins: difficulty of pieces, a lot of times there was a little bit of a letdown to be listening to a piece for about you know 10 minutes and say. 00:15:26.880 –> 00:15:37.050 Teresa C Jenkins: wow this pieces on this piece can be a big contender for this project, and I start looking into you know the composer I look into their credentials, I mean. 00:15:37.440 –> 00:15:56.100 Teresa C Jenkins: Many of these people have tons of musical credentials and they’re interesting people and then i’m still listening to the piece at this time and it just takes off it’s not going to be educational at that point, based on rhythm based on tempo based on facility things like that. 00:15:57.720 –> 00:16:14.040 Teresa C Jenkins: So, like I have previously stated, this was solved by the discovery of this composer diversity database, I was so pleased to find this database and I feel like I could do a whole other research project just based on this database. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #8 00:16:15.870 –> 00:16:29.460 Teresa C Jenkins: So scoring and rubric and by scoring I don’t mean like a plus and things like that, but kind of in that way, so let’s take a look at my rubric. 00:16:31.980 –> 00:16:33.870 Teresa C Jenkins: let’s see if I can. 00:16:36.720 –> 00:16:39.030 Teresa C Jenkins: share this rubric. 00:16:40.470 –> 00:16:41.430 Teresa C Jenkins: with you. 00:16:42.810 –> 00:16:46.320 Teresa C Jenkins: Okay, here is my rubric. **SHOWING THE RUBRIC** 00:16:48.450 –> 00:17:08.490 Teresa C Jenkins: And here’s what it was based on, so my categories low playability too high playability well, what does that mean, so you need to quantify that a little bit more so accessibility for the College student is there the right amount of you know. 00:17:10.950 –> 00:17:21.060 Teresa C Jenkins: Number of musicians are there, the right amount of them, or is it too much does it have 20 or more instrumental requirements that’s really hard for an undergrad I mean. 00:17:21.480 –> 00:17:30.360 Teresa C Jenkins: we’re a small music school here at George mason university we’re small we’re mighty, we have a lot of talented players, but to get 20 people by yourself in a room. 00:17:30.720 –> 00:17:36.720 Teresa C Jenkins: takes a lot so maybe that piece has a low playability mark, because it doesn’t do that. 00:17:37.710 –> 00:17:44.940 Teresa C Jenkins: And it kind of goes through from one extreme to the next, so this would be maybe not a good idea, but this one over here. 00:17:45.450 –> 00:17:53.850 Teresa C Jenkins: The piece contains a high playability mark, because it has common instrumentation maybe it’s just for clarinet and flute and so that’s what. 00:17:54.600 –> 00:18:06.840 Teresa C Jenkins: makes it high there’s there’s so many pieces written out there for clarinet and flute and I could just say to a close friend of mine who plays flute you want to play this piece with me and nine out of 10 times you would be able to do that. 00:18:08.310 –> 00:18:19.590 Teresa C Jenkins: So going down we go through rhythmic complexity extended technique requirements facility requirements and costs and then I left a little bit of room for notes. 00:18:22.110 –> 00:18:31.590 Teresa C Jenkins: So if we go back and these are all before i’m going to quickly um rhythmic complexity is you know when you think of. 00:18:34.440 –> 00:18:47.100 Teresa C Jenkins: We think of drums how a piece, you know works with within that and there’s a certain tempo and you have to stick with that and that affects like how fast or slow you play things extended techniques are techniques that are beyond. 00:18:48.090 –> 00:18:54.420 Teresa C Jenkins: You know your instrument so rhapsody in blue has this famous glissando that’s an extended technique. 00:18:55.260 –> 00:19:01.980 Teresa C Jenkins: whistling can be an extended technique I can’t whistle snapping isn’t clapping our extended techniques. 00:19:02.820 –> 00:19:16.620 Teresa C Jenkins: Facility requirements, so how technical is the piece is it like super technical where everything’s fast and there’s maybe not good combinations or is it pretty doable in that things just like move into each other. **BACK TO THE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION** 00:19:18.000 –> 00:19:20.940 Teresa C Jenkins: Going back to my presentation. 00:19:24.660 –> 00:19:33.480 Teresa C Jenkins: So I used this rubric to keep track of information and data and by utilizing a rubric I hope to. 00:19:34.020 –> 00:19:48.210 Teresa C Jenkins: I hoped to overcome some research obstacles, I wanted to create a level playing field to score each of the pieces. I want to keep my own biases maybe even like I said, even if I didn’t like a piece, but it scored really well and it had everything I was looking for. 00:19:48.810 –> 00:19:56.760 Teresa C Jenkins: Why not maybe somebody else will find enjoyment out of it, so this rubric helped me separate my own opinions from the research. 00:19:57.240 –> 00:20:10.230 Teresa C Jenkins: And i’m looking to be able to explain what makes a piece too difficult and too easy, so this would help balance out the extremes and I also wanted to create data and numbers for the research project because it is research at the end of the day. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #9 00:20:11.910 –> 00:20:15.630 Teresa C Jenkins: So here’s the data for the identities and backgrounds of pieces that were purchased. 00:20:16.530 –> 00:20:31.230 Teresa C Jenkins: here’s a little graph keep in mind, none of these people are singular so their backgrounds could also be I did end up like I said finding some African composers, maybe they were they were they identified as women. 00:20:32.490 –> 00:20:43.740 Teresa C Jenkins: But they were also part of the LGBTQ Community or they were part of the bypass community, they were also black things like that it’s really hard, I would say to show. 00:20:44.490 –> 00:20:54.270 Teresa C Jenkins: A graph like this, I would say it’s a flawed representation, but it’s a good representation, just to see the very like skeleton of what I found. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #10 00:20:55.530 –> 00:21:05.580 Teresa C Jenkins: So here was an example of some of the pieces that I found i’ll show you really quick a rubric actually no um yeah. 00:21:09.750 –> 00:21:10.260 it’ll work. 00:21:12.660 –> 00:21:28.860 Teresa C Jenkins: I don’t think it’s gonna work unfortunately sorry about that and then here is a I will include this in my abstract so that you may be able to look at it, here is my here’s like a sample that we could listen to, we could take a quick listen into. 00:21:30.270 –> 00:21:35.370 Teresa C Jenkins: This is Sarah boxing three and she works at I believe a university in Washington. 00:21:36.990 –> 00:21:38.370 Teresa C Jenkins: And when we’ll. 00:21:39.600 –> 00:21:41.160 Teresa C Jenkins: play a little bit of this for you. **PLAYED A RECORDING** 00:22:03.660 –> 00:22:05.100 Teresa C Jenkins: there’s a little bit of that. **SHOWED A SAMPLE COMPLETER RUBRIC** 00:22:06.720 –> 00:22:17.760 Teresa C Jenkins: I will share my screen on my sample rubric I was actually able to open it, this is for another piece, that is included in that slide called and it’s by yoshi weinberg who. 00:22:18.810 –> 00:22:26.220 Teresa C Jenkins: is a part of the LGBT Q plus Community they wrote a piece called two pieces for flute clarinet and piano. 00:22:27.210 –> 00:22:40.530 Teresa C Jenkins: So it contains a high playability mark because flute clarinet and piano are all instruments that a majority of music schools have they have students that play that piece the rhythmic complexity is not too much to be asked. 00:22:41.760 –> 00:22:50.820 Teresa C Jenkins: I wrote some notes at the bottom here talking about how it was perfect for a freshman music musician Maybe someone who is in that 1819. 00:22:51.180 –> 00:23:02.610 Teresa C Jenkins: age category and they’re really learning how to be a professional musician it’s docile it’s relaxed it’s something that doesn’t take too too much effort but it’s still beautiful and it’s good. 00:23:03.060 –> 00:23:13.200 Teresa C Jenkins: A good learning experience and then for costs a lot of times I can find cost, I would have to email, the person themselves, so I will email Yoshi myself in a couple days. **END OF SAMPLE RUBRIC SHOWING** 00:23:14.820 –> 00:23:16.410 Teresa C Jenkins: And then wrapping this up. 00:23:19.020 –> 00:23:30.060 Teresa C Jenkins: So throughout the project I listened to over 30 pieces of music at this point, I really can’t tell you an exact amount, because some I chose just not to score at all. 00:23:30.570 –> 00:23:42.120 Teresa C Jenkins: But I scored around 25 pieces for my rubric I found around 13 pieces to buy and now it’s very exciting, because my goal was around 10 to 15 so I hit right in the middle of the mark. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #11 00:23:43.560 –> 00:23:51.750 Teresa C Jenkins: So tying up some loose ends and talks a little bit more about some observations you probably wondering what happened to my concise guide that I talked about at the beginning. 00:23:52.350 –> 00:24:07.110 Teresa C Jenkins: That is in the works as of right now I will once I get my hands on all of those pieces, I will be creating my concise guide that shows where all these people are from their backgrounds their identities and what makes these pieces good pieces. 00:24:09.000 –> 00:24:15.810 Teresa C Jenkins: So how am I purchasing the pieces? I’m purchasing them through emails websites and publishers um. 00:24:16.470 –> 00:24:28.020 Teresa C Jenkins: that’s probably the easiest way, a lot of these people aren’t published so they sell their music through their websites, they give their music out for free, sometimes, and you have to pay for the rights, maybe when you go to use it. 00:24:29.280 –> 00:24:35.520 Teresa C Jenkins: Wherever these pieces be going there’ll be going to the George mason university wind literature library and. 00:24:36.570 –> 00:24:46.740 Teresa C Jenkins: categorizing people, as I said before, this is an observation is difficult because people are multi dimensional they have a lot of different backgrounds. 00:24:48.210 –> 00:24:55.080 Teresa C Jenkins: And was my rubric fair did that end up working out did it help decide if I wanted to buy pieces yeah. 00:24:55.590 –> 00:25:04.230 Teresa C Jenkins: I would say it was definitely a successful rubric in that it helped me to distinguish whether or not a piece was. 00:25:04.710 –> 00:25:14.100 Teresa C Jenkins: worth buying not numerically I would say, but based on I could write down my thoughts, you know I like I said 30 minutes of music could mean I listened to you know, like. 00:25:14.760 –> 00:25:20.430 Teresa C Jenkins: 10 hours of music in us and depending on or maybe not 10 hours, but maybe six hours of music. 00:25:20.820 –> 00:25:34.110 Teresa C Jenkins: In a short amount of time and I didn’t sit down and listen to that all that once that was over a large period of time about two months, or maybe a month and a half, so I needed a way to keep track of everything and that really helped me. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ SLIDE #12 00:25:36.030 –> 00:25:43.380 Teresa C Jenkins: So lastly i’d like to give some thank yous to people i’d like to thank Dr Karen T Lee. 00:25:44.010 –> 00:25:50.520 Teresa C Jenkins: For all her patience and kindness and expertise and support she really led us throughout a really great summer of Oscar. 00:25:50.820 –> 00:25:57.990 Teresa C Jenkins: Things and she also had a lot of expertise, thank you to my mentor Dr Kathy will K, for all her support and for suggesting that I apply for this grant. 00:25:58.410 –> 00:26:04.890 Teresa C Jenkins: And thank you to all of you who viewed this video I truly hope you enjoyed learning about underrepresented, composers and listening to the music. 00:26:05.310 –> 00:26:15.780 Teresa C Jenkins: If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know I know there’ll be a comment section underneath this presentation and stay safe for everyone, and I hope to meet you in person, one day. 00:26:16.830 –> 00:26:17.700 Teresa C Jenkins: Thank you! **END OF VIDEO**

Schar School of Policy and Government

AI Supremacy (2016-2021): A Comparative Study of the State of Ethical National AI Strategies and Human Capital Challenges and Opportunities

Author(s): Pearl Matibe

Mentor(s): Dr. Aditya Johri, Volgenau School of Engineering, Information Sciences & Technology

Abstract

From the virtual voice assistant, SIRI, to voice-based AI-powered digital assistant, Alexa, to search algorithms by Google, to lethal autonomous weapons automated to eliminate life; to kill, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already widely used in the daily lives of humans. The goal of this independent research is to examine the state of developing and implementing ethical, national artificial intelligence (AI) strategies of 7 regions of the world and 22 countries over a five-year period, 2016-2021. Many research publications and reports have written about ethics in AI in several sectors; education, defense, health, manufacturing, and many more. In contrast, this research focuses on examining the national strategies-human capital nexus in ethical AI agendas and whether the national blueprints provide, expand, or omit strategies and resources aimed at education for AI stakeholders. This research aims to contribute to academic scholarship and the body of knowledge on ethics in AI and merit the research community even as culture, morals, and values differ from region to region and from country to country. How elements of diversity factor into ethical AI strategies are studied. On the AI nexus with training, the research found that how to make best use of and grow human capital ought to be a priority objective of all countries. Yet, many countries had not reached 60% human capital by 2017 according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), and at least 1 country is isolated due to sanctions. The paper seeks to provide an easy-to-understand broad overview about ethics in national AI strategies and education agendas. From principle to implementation, as governments around the world plan and develop national AI strategies, their national efforts ought to—in every instance—be to lessen harm, not increase it.

Video Transcript

Pearl Matibe: This summer, I conducted research on:  Artificial Intelligence Supremacy covering the period 2016-2021: It is a Comparative Study of the State of Ethical National AI Strategies and Human Capital Challenges and Opportunities  My name is Pearl Matibe, I’m a Research Assistant at the Engineering Education and Cyberlearning Lab, George Mason University. To lay out the background for this presentation, here is a preview of what topics I will be covering. Under Background & Context in the paper, I covered why there is a need for a government to implement an AI strategy and why that is closely linked with achieving 60% human capacity. The paper has 5 Sections: Executive Summary Literature Review The methodology Then I talk about what I discovered I go into the conclusion And end with recommendations Why AI supremacy is important to examine? 3 things are important to consider, and these are the principles as a government is heading into: • National AI Strategy planning • Ethics in AI • And issues revolving around human capacity and why it’s important for a government to be educating all of its stakeholders. And why this matters? • It is essential so that a government and the entire country can help humanity flourish. I covered 7 regions & 22 countries In the literature review, I looked at whether or not an individual, or an entity, or a government looks at ethical plans. The decisions that they make. Some considerations were, for example: Does it conflict with fundamental ethical values like is it legal, trustworthy, fair, or does it abide by the local, cultural norms of caring for a human being? Is the pre-planning of a national AI strategy and the process they use, is it inclusive? Does it not leave any groups out? And at the experts table, was there gender parity? The 4 aspects of my literature review are: a) Does the country have an AI plan? b) Does it prioritize human capacity building for all AI stakeholders? c) Does it provide a national budget resources for educating its AI stakeholders? And is the process, from principle to implementation, ethical throughout? The regions I covered were Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America, The Pacific, and Western Europe. The study included a review of international and non-government organizations, and they did significant global work in AI. In particular: • UNESCO • OECD, and • ACPHR (which is a body in the African Union) Method • The methods which I used, point to, for example, how useful and whether that mechanism was useful and also • Left room for further methodology, in the future that can be conducted, examples would be like surveys and interviews. In this research, I used 4 Methods: 1. Primary Research 2. Secondary Research 3. I used the CRAAP Model 4. And rankings from SRJ and World Economic Forum Within the discussion There is a section in which I talk about the implications of cultural norms, morals, ethics, education as government created their AI national strategies as well as where they now collaborate. Before I conclude, here is some data and memorable quotes, I found. • SRJ Rankings for 2021 and the WEF’s Global Human Capital Index for 2017. • And that concludes my AI Supremacy research comparative study. • The findings were that a country’s human capacity, is its most important resource for these 22 countries.