Research

Below you'll find my publications as well as posters that I designed during my undergraduate studies about my research.

Publications

Mawson, C., Riley, D., Malino, H., Jamison, C. (In Press). Exploring the Engineering Classroom Experiences of Students with Non-Apparent Disabilities. ASEE 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition.

Stackhouse, C., Pierson, K., Labrecque, C., Mawson, C., Berg, J., Fuglestad, B., Nucci, N. (2024). Characterization of 10MAG/LDAO Reverse Micelles: Understanding Versatility for Protein Encapsulation. Biophysical Chemistry, Volume 311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpc.2024.107269

Jackson, A., Mawson, C., & Bodnar, C. A. (2022). Faculty Motivation for Pursuit of Entrepreneurial Mindset Professional Development. Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 5(3), 320-346. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515127420988516

Mawson, C., Bodnar, C.A., Streiner, S. (2021). Investigating Potential Gender Differences in First-Year Engineering Students’ Academic Motivation and Homework Submission Behavior. ASEE 2021 Annual Conference and Exhibition, July 26-29, 2021. Virtual. https://peer.asee.org/37397

Mawson, C., Bodnar, C.A., Streiner, S. (2020). Examining the Connection Between Student Mastery Learning Experiences and Academic Motivation. ASEE 2020 Annual Conference and Exhibition, June 20-24, 2020. Montreal, Qc, Canada. https://peer.asee.org/34615

How can we use light to determine the shape of protein-encapsulating nanoparticles?

In the presence of water, dissolved surfactants will spontaneously align with each other to form a barrier surface between water and a non-polar solvent like hexane similar to a bubble blown from a wand. Throughout my undergraduate degree, I used dynamic light scattering and fluorescence spectroscopy to study a promising set of surfactants that produced interesting results when the size and shape was investigated and the mixture proved inconsistent with standard reverse micelle characteristics. This phenomenon can be used to create nanoscale laboratories for studying novel physical phenomenon and producing nanomaterials. The resulting paper was submitted for publication in December 2023.

Is there an easier way to create a map of opaline silicates on the Martian surface?

Opaline silicates are differentiated by the way water is integrated within the crystal. The characteristics of the opaline silicate distribution on Mars contains valuable information for understanding the history of water on Mars and subsequently its climate history. Studies were completed previously showing that it is possible to detect these silicates using satellite images when they are captured with the targeting mode of CRISM, a source of data which requires a significant amount of time and resources to analyze. This project was an effort to show that it is possible to detect this type of mineral with the more widely accessible mapping mode which also provides valuable information about mineral distribution in modern day.

Is the light coming from this radio-loud galaxy changing in intensity over time?

Galaxies with a supermassive black hole in the center sometimes emit high intensity jets of radio waves from the center. The activity from these galaxies has been shown to behave abnormally when viewed in the visible wavelengths. Though variability is seen in galaxies, this phenomenon is also observed when there is no evidence for processes occurring within the galaxy to account for the radio jets. Here, we selected a radio active galaxy that was easily visible given the nearby light pollution and had one published data set in existence. Observations were completed over the course of several months in order to validate previous measurements and provide initial observation of this galaxy to establish the possibility of variability at a later date.

Can we use convex cone analysis to create an algorithm laying the foundation for a cloudless map of the surface of Mars?

When collecting data on another planet, the options are to collect data at ground level or with a satellite. This creates massive difficulties in analysis of the Martian surface which is often obscured by clouds. In this research I used the IDL programming language to explore an alternative method of analysis that finds the result based only on the image data and a geometric space created from known spectral data of minerals existing on Mars. This method showed promising results for establishing a view of the Martian surface starting with known minerals as compared to extracting mineral information directly from the images.

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