RE Log - Spring 2020

We knew what the metals’ emission spectra looked like, but the problem was our data showed a lot of ‘noise.’ It was extremely labor-intensive to separate the signals of metals we were looking for from all of the background information. So we went to RE science teacher Luis Felipe. The timing was fortuitous in that he was developing the curriculm for a new data science class at RE. Luis looked at our data and advised us. He said that, instead of looking by hand at the pattern of emissions, we should train an algorithm to detect the contamination so we wouldn’t have to do it ourselves. Joseph Gross ’20, Ben Thorpe ’20 and Felipe Sarmiento ’20 jumped in to help. They worked with Dr. Felipe in the computer language Python. Joseph identified the best machine-learning algorithm to help “clean” the background information. His technique allows you to see only what you are looking for: the peaks produced by heavy metals. It had never been done before. Every single one of the techniques the students developed – figuring out how to prepare the samples, producing a container for the samples and determining how to quickly isolate the data of interest – were new discoveries. Our students did not do something that had been done before; they broke new ground. They will be cited for life for their work. That’s why the judges were so blown away in California. (Gross, Vallone and Buttrick earned two of five student awards presented at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies SciX 2019 conference in Palm Springs, Calif., on Oct. 13, and Orme, the Augustana student who worked on the gelation, also was recognized for her poster. No other high school students even won entry into the poster session, which featured 42 posters from college and graduate students from around the world. Gross also won first prize two months later for the same poster at the University of Miami’s Big Data Conference and VizUM Symposium, where he topped two University of Miami students.) Every day we were doing top-notch science. It was so powerful. I don’t need anything else to keep me going but that energy. The students who participated are working on a number of other science abstracts that will eventually be submitted for peer review. And there is much more we can do with this laser. We can use it in the summers and through clubs, incorporate it into the classroom. This can be done by everyone. It doesn’t need to be the top students in the class. Every student in the class could bring in a grain of sand and make a difference. Dr. Claudia Ochatt STEM faculty member How did RE get access to a laser? Dr. Ted Caplow P’25 and Nathalie Manzano, joint developers of the Miami Science Barge and Inventors-in-Residence program at Frost Science, offered to loan a portable laser to RE and support research at the school. “Nathalie and I developed this program for Frost Science, where it ran for a year,” Caplow said. “We moved it to Ransom Everglades after seeing that students as young as 15 or 16 were doing remarkable and important toxicological research with the laser. Our goal is to build a bridge between working scientists and Ransom Everglades students. When the laser arrived at RE last summer, students, scientists and faculty immediately put creative ideas into action with projects ranging from engineering to forensics to environmental science. We are very proud of the entire team and hope it will grow this year!” Dr. Ted Caplow Nathalie Manzano 18 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2020