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student presenting to other students and faculty

Community Engagement

Presenters intend to present a project that included engaging with a community partner. The presentation will include information about the work that was completed and a reflection of the experience. This project may have been a part of a course assignment, RSO activity, honors thesis/independent study, etc.

 

3337 | Zachary Schwab

zjschwab@svsu.edu 
Faculty Mentor's Name: Dr. Evelyn D. Ravuri
Department: Geography
College: Arts and Behavioral Sciences
Supporting Program (e.g., Honors Program, UGRP, etc): UGRP
 
Measuring Changes in the Population and Built Environment of Saginaw County Before, During, and After the Great Recession of 2008

Gentrification is a phenomenon wherein a poor neighborhood or urban area is transformed into a wealthier area, normally by wealthier people moving into that area. Gentrification sometimes also results in the previous inhabitants being displaced by the new, wealthier people moving in. Saginaw, Michigan, has been experiencing some form of gentrification for decades. This project aims to understand the level of gentrification that Saginaw has undergone in the years of 2008 and 2019, as well as understand where Saginaw falls on the “spectrum” of gentrification.

To understand where Saginaw is in terms of gentrification, we designated several different classes of characteristics that were common to gentrified areas. We then used Google Street Imagery to go block-by-block through Saginaw, giving each street face a “Gentrification Score” based on the characteristics that we defined beforehand. Two different gentrification scores were given to each block, one for imagery from 2008-2012 (earliest available), and one for imagery from 2017-2019 (latest available). After giving each block a gentrification score for both the earliest and latest years available, we determined five different ranges of gentrification scores and used ArcGIS to map out the results. An analysis of the results shows that blocks within Saginaw that had been going through gentrification in the earlier years were normally still going through gentrification in 2017-2019, with a few outlier blocks that had only become more disinvested as time went on.

These results suggest that as a whole, Saginaw is still experiencing a high amount of gentrification, with some areas experiencing it more than others. As time goes on, Saginaw will more than likely continue to experience gentrification in most areas. Some amount of bias in each block score is unavoidable, however, Saginaw is clearly experiencing different levels of gentrification depending on where it is that one is looking.

Measuring Changes in the Population and Built Environment of Saginaw County

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3397 | Abbie Bauer, Devin Neumann

arbauer1@svsu.edu
Faculty Mentor's Name: Dr. Jennifer Chaytor
Department: Chemistry
College: Science, Engineering, & Technology
Supporting Program (e.g., Honors Program, UGRP, etc): UGRP
 
3397 C-Glycosides Synthesis for Potential Type II Diabetes Treatments (1,095KB)
 
C-Glycosides Synthesis for Potential Type II Diabetes Treatments
 
Type II diabetes mellitus is a significant health problem that affects nearly 425 million people globally and is characterized by hyperglycemia, which can lead to many other serious diseases. While lifestyle changes can make diabetes more manageable, most people also require drug therapy to regulate their blood glucose levels. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been used to reduce blood glucose levels in other prescription drugs. Both compounds contain O-glycosides or C-glycosides, but while O-glycosides are frequently metabolically unstable, C-glycosides are less prone to degradation and have the potential to be effective and selective SGLT2 inhibitors. This research project focuses on the synthesis of C-glycosides, rather than O-glycosides, as potential compounds for the treatment of type II diabetes that could function as both alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors. A single synthetic pathway is currently being explored to prepare a library of C-glycoside derivatives. A prepared C-glycoside is connected to an aryl group with varying functional groups attached in a three-step synthesis. The products of these reactions are purified using extraction techniques and column chromatography. Analysis of spectra obtained through Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy is used to ensure that the intended product is present. Once synthesized, the library of derivatives will be tested for alpha-glucosidase and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibition ability. This presentation will discuss the synthesis of the target C-glycosides.