Nathan Tam和Kimberly Nicholas是宾州州立大学博克分校2024年夏季埃里克森发现基金的获得者.
WYOMISSING, Pa. — Two Penn State Berks students received the 2024 Erickson Discovery Grant. 即将升学的四年级学生Kimberly Nicholas和即将升学的三年级学生Nathan Tam是全校43名奖学金获得者中的两名.
The Rodney A. Erickson Discovery Grant program, named after Penn State’s 17th president, 为本科生提供参与研究的机会, scholarship and creative work with the help of a research mentor. The grant is funded by Penn State Undergraduate Education.
Nicholas, 在太平大学主修传播艺术与科学(CAS)和心理学双学位, Malaysia, decided to apply after talking with her aunt, Cheryl Nicolas, 赌博平台大全传播艺术与科学副教授，也是她的研究导师.
Her research, titled “Real Problems in Fake Worlds,专注于第一人称射击电子游戏中的毒性以及它如何在超现实空间中发挥作用. 她的研究灵感来自于她玩在线视频游戏的经历，以及观察和经历其他玩家的性别歧视.
Additionally, 自从Gamergate(一场针对电子游戏行业女性的在线骚扰活动)以来，这个话题就一直在讨论，但在这个交流领域的研究领域才慢慢出现.
Her process for conducting research has involved three guiding questions for interviewees: What is toxicity and how do people understand it; how do people experience and talk about toxicity, 电子游戏中产生毒性的条件是什么?
So far, 尼古拉斯注意到的最常见的主题是对任何玩家的贬损信息或言论，通过他们的化身或声音，以任何方式被认为是女性化的, for example. 尼古拉斯指出，电子游戏玩家面临男性化的压力是一种预期, regardless of their real-life gender identity.
“As Cheryl and I started transcribing and dissecting the interviews, we found that people started talking about toxicity in normalized ways. We thought that was interesting,” Nicholas said.
Down the road, Nicholas wants to publish her research. Prior to attending Penn State Berks, she said she believed that most research was quantitative and STEM-based. But, through the help of her aunt, her other professors and CAS classes, Nicholas said she learned there's value in qualitative research.
"It’s been an amazing experience doing research with my aunt. She, along with my other professors at Penn State Berks, namely Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Greenauer，在我的课堂上也非常出色地帮助我进行这项研究. 他们在帮助我发展这一研究轨迹方面发挥了非常重要的作用。.
谭是在和朋友谈过之后决定申请埃里克森发现基金的 one of last year’s recipients, Daniel Abramov.
A biochemistry major with minors in chemistry and math from Reading, Tam’s research, 题目为“芳香化合物脱羧机制的计算分析:近端取代基的影响”,这个问题源于他对计算化学的兴趣——计算化学是化学的一个分支，它使用计算机模拟来帮助解决复杂的化学问题——以及他与洛雷纳·特里布的工作, professor of chemistry and Tam’s supervisor for his research.
“我想更深入地研究物理有机化学领域，这可能与量子化学中的一些概念有关, organic chemistry and computational chemistry,” Tam said.
For his research, Tam is studying aromatic compounds and carboxylic acids, both of which are arrangements of molecules found in nature, 使用人工智能(AI)建模对这些分子的子集进行计算. 他计划通过超级计算机的帮助，将计算机科学和人工智能建模与分子建模结合起来, 一种高级计算机，通过将任务分解成多个部分来解决复杂的计算.
Tam分享说，这项研究可能会对将人工智能纳入计算化学产生影响.
“计算化学领域正在朝着一个将受到人工智能影响的方向发展,” he said. “I think, in any computational world, 人工智能将开始能够进行计算并做出非常准确的预测，而不需要人们坐在电脑前，因为这些超级计算机可以在几秒钟内模拟它们.”
他还指出，他的研究在如何通过研究分子的降解过程来深入了解环境问题方面具有实际意义.
Along with Tribe, Tam感谢赌博平台大全的教师让他在课堂内外成长.
“在赌博平台大全的环境中，受到教授们的关注，让我有机会探索课程材料之外的知识兴趣,” Tam said. “If you’re proactive and engaging, there are limitless resources for you.”
For more information about the Erickson Discovery Grant, visit the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring website.
