Mark Gonyea
Smyrna High School
Computer Science (programming)

Tom Yankeelov - VUIIS

I spent my summer working with fluorescent imaging on the CRI Maestro, a new imaging device in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging lab. This device is used for non invasive imaging of small animals to detect apoptosis in tumors. Because the machine is so new to the lab, I worked on creating calibration curves for different fluorescent dyes which will be used in later research to collect data. 

I also created calibration curves for the machine at different depths.  I imaged fluorescent dye phantoms submerged in tissue phantoms to determine limits of detection for dyes at given depths.

I plan on using this research in my classroom to bring real world problems to my programming classes.  My students will realize the code we write in the classroom is relevant to the scientific community and that they can apply their knowledge of programming to any field.  We will most definitely use the scientific process to solve this and other programming problems we ecounter.