The ABCD's of Texas Education: Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Reducing the Dropout Rate

This Capstone team examined the economic consequences of the high number of high school dropouts in Texas. Their report discusses alternative strategies for measuring the dropout rate, and provides estimates of the dropout rate for different geographic regions and student populations. The team also estimated of the economic benefits and costs associated with reducing the high dropout rate in Texas. Finally, the team reviewed available research regarding dropout prevention programs in order to identify best practices that could be implemented in Texas. One goal of the study was to inform and encourage a broader discussion by the Texas Legislature of the state's high school dropout rate and the societal and economic impact of failing to address the problem

Leveraging a smartphone to perform time-gated luminescence measurements.

Empowered by advanced on-board sensors, high-performance optics packages and ever-increasing computational power, smartphones have democratized data generation, collection, and analysis. Building on this capacity, many platforms have been developed to enable its use as an optical sensing platform for colorimetric and fluorescence measurements. In this paper, we report the ability to enable a smartphone to perform laboratory quality time-resolved analysis of luminescent samples via the exploitation of the rolling shutter mechanism of the native CMOS imager. We achieve this by leveraging the smartphone's standard image capture applications, commercially available image analysis software, and housing the device within a UV-LED containing case. These low-cost modifications enable us to demonstrate the smartphone's analytical potential by performing tasks ranging from authentication and encryption to the interrogation of packaging, compounds, and physical phenomena. This approach underscores the power of repurposing existing technologies to extend the reach and inclusivity of scientific exploration, opening new avenues for data collection and analysis