Projects
2021-2022
Business/Marketing
- The Effects of COVID on Restaurant Prices
- Analyzing Legal Methods to Fight Chinese Patent Infringement in the US
- Creating a Digital Boat Buying Aide
- The Most Efficient Way Social Media Can Promote Lifestyle Brands
The Effects of COVID on Restaurant Prices
By Maxim Bernik
How has Covid-19 affected the prices of meals differently in restaurants in different cities of the Central Region of Orange county? With coronavirus affecting so many restaurant businesses with some closing for good or struggling to keep open it has created a huge roadblock for restaurants. With so many people losing jobs, with transportation of goods being much more difficult it has affected restaurants to have to create a change to the way they run. They need to fluctuate their prices, to what the supply and demand of their meals are, to how they have such a small staff, or to the restrictions coronavirus has created for restaurants. There has been so many things changed in the restaurant business, so then how has the coronavirus affected the prices of meals.
Analyzing Legal Methods to Fight Chinese Patent Infringement in the US
by kate madigan
Especially due to modern ways of obtaining or selling products, it is extremely important for lawyers and businesses to fight Intellectual Property infringement. For my project, I will be researching and drawing conclusions about the best way lawyers can prevent Chinese IP infringement specifically, due to the immense amount of infringement that occurs from there already. The purpose of this project is to expand my knowledge of Intellectual Property law and obtain data that could help inform others as well.
Creating a Digital Boat Buying Aide
by logan teeple
For my project, I will be creating a digital program/platform for filtering and selling boats. My mentor works for Sun Country Marine Group which is a large motor yacht retailer. They sell boats ranging from thirteen feet to 65 foot yachts. I am looking to create a platform that can filter through this range depending on what a buyer is looking for. It will take into consideration many aspects such as speed, range, cost, and length. We will survey yacht owners to find out what was appealing to them when buying their boat and use this qualitative data to create the platform.
The Most Efficient Way Social Media Can Promote Lifestyle Brands
by hailey weng
My project is all about discovering how brands can maximize their sales through social media. I will follow user trends to understand what is deemed popular in the public's eye, and will discover different ways I can maximize the reach of a brands content. The purpose of my project is to gain a better understanding of what businesses can do to manipulate the media's algorithm in a way that benefits their company. I am partnering up with a local lifestyle brand, and will be running experiments on their behalf. Questions like what app is the most efficient when trying to sell product, and tactics a business can do to sell more product will be answered in my paper!
Fashion/Entertainment
- Streaming Services' Impact on the Film Industry
- Surf Culture Represented in Women's Fashion from 1980 to Present Day
- Free-to-Play vs. Paid Video Games
Streaming Services' Impact on the Film Industry
By jackson flemming
The film industry has produced content in relatively the same way for over 100 years, however, the rise of the digital age has introduced a new method of producing content for consumers. This year I will be researching how the rise of digital streaming services, such as Netflix, has impacted the way production companies release their content. As this new medium for content distribution has been dominating the film industry in recent years, it has placed the film industry at a crossroads. While most production companies produced movies through a theatrical release, streaming services have introduced a subscription based system that values convenience over experience. Many people are now wondering: What is next for the film industry? I hope to answer this question by comparing these business models to see which model will survive this turning point in the industry.
Surf Culture Represented in Women's Fashion from 1980 to Present Day
by emma purdy
How has surf culture influenced high fashion from 1980 to 2021? Surf culture is ever so present in 2021 fashion trends from runway looks to day-to-day wear. My goal is to gain an understanding of how trends work so that I can fully explain how surf culture has influenced fashion trends since the 80s.
Free-to-Play vs. Paid Video Games
by gavin zaengle
This project dives into the publishing of a video game, and specifically will answer whether a game creator should publish their game as free-to-play or as paid. Nowadays, video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty have millions of players online and playing every day. With this comes a lot of profit through in game transactions and the actual purchasing of a game. The biggest question is, which business model is overall the most profitable. This will aid new and aspiring game creators in taking their next and possibly most important step to constructing a successful game.
Law/Political Science
- Integration of the European Union
- Socialism and Its Perception in the United States
- What Forms and Subjects of News Create Polarization?
Integration of the European Union
By owen dyer
This research paper seeks to determine if further integration can help solve the European Union's current political and economic problems. Since its founding, the European Union has been partially integrated, or half-built. The inherent incompleteness of the EU has resulted in inefficiency and has exastrubated several calamities. This project will analyze the role of partial integration on causing or worsening three recent European issues: the eurozone crisis, Brexit, and the European migrant crisis. In addition, I hope to determine whether or not these problems can be solved by further European integration. Ultimately, my project should provide reasoning for or against European integration.
Socialism and Its Perception in the United States
by isabela reichel
In my research, I seek to understand the past, present, and future perceptions of Socialism in the United States. Naturally, this has affected and been affected by the respective state of global politics. In my opinion, Socialism has been vastly misunderstood as an ideology, mainly because of extremist-communist dictatorships during the 20th century. Even many academics refuse to have a civil conversation on the merits and drawbacks of leftism because of the stigma associated with far left-wing politics. My AER project mainly serves to answer how people think of Socialism and how this affects the implementation of leftist policies in United States politics.
What Forms and Subjects of News Create Polarization?
by abigail roedersheimer
America has seen increasing polarization over the last decade, and the divide between parties becomes wider, more consequences are created. Studies have already found that Thanksgiving times have been found to be shortened due to political divide, polarization during elections leads to quality being less and less of a consideration, and polarization can make viewers distrust media with varying political views. Figuring out how political divide is created in the media and how it affects elections could play a crucial role in uniting the country and bringing trust back to the media.
STEM
How Extreme Cold Affects Coral Reefs
by peter durand
By now, it is well known that climate change is causing ocean temperatures to rise. This has led to the bleaching and death of many coral reefs around the world. Coral reefs are one of the most diverse and ecologically important ecosystems on Earth and their conservation is vital to our oceans. But, climate change is also causing more extreme weather, which can cause colder temperatures around coral reefs. For my project, I plan to research what the effects of extreme cold are on coral reefs. My experiment will include setting up tanks where I can model this extreme weather and observe how multiple coral species react to the change in temperature. My goal is to collect data that accurately reflects the effects of colder temperatures on coral reefs around the world and data that can be easily interpreted by anyone trying to understand the importance of conservation of coral reefs.
Stereotypes of Animals and Their Proper Care
by alexandra wyman
During my 4 years at LBHS I have taken a veterinarian tech classes and have heard many stories through my instructors about animals being turned away for getting proper care because of their species/breed. I plan to gather data from the general public and various doctors in clinics about their perceptions on these pets that have been turned away, and overcome these stereotypes for these pets and make sure they can all get the help they deserve.
2019-2020
Presentation videos for each project from the 2020 Virtual Symposium have been posted. Click on each project title to open the video viewer.
Business/Marketing
- How Beach Resorts Compete with AirBnB
- Effect of Business Leadership Styles on Success
- Analysis of Youth-centered Fashion Marketing Strategies
- Democratising Fashion through a Curated App
- Comparing Entrepreneurship in US and China
How Beach Resorts Compete with AirBnB
By Gabrielle Denny
As Airbnb continues to affect the amount of customers that choose beach resorts and hotels, the unanswered question still remains: What are they doing different that is making them so successful to the point where customers choose Airbnb over beach resorts? This project lays out the reasons for the rise of the Airbnb platform, the opinions of real customers and their preferences, and the ways beach resorts and hotels can alter their environment and personalities to further attract customers. Through surveying, interviews, and research collecting, this project seeks to answer the major questions.
Effect of Business Leadership Styles on Success
By Trent Ralston
The management styles used by different business most directly affects the employees work ethic in good ways and bad ways. To begin, there are hundreds of different management styles that result in a happy or unhappy employee. This paper will discuss the ways that managers treat their employees and how it most directly results in profits.
Analysis of Youth-centered Fashion Marketing Strategies
By Izzy Saunders
During my work, I plan on looking into the youth brands of fashion companies and how they attract audiences. My mentor, Iva Pawling will be connecting me with those youth brands and I will be gathering data on how they successfully develop an audience. Mostly, this data will be based on surveys from a list of youth companies I will be hand selecting. Collecting data on those will let me determine the successes and failures in fashion companies among the youth. These results could eventually help youth fashion companies around the world with their branding towards their specific audiences, speaking in a language that youth understands, and while also gaining inspiration from these examples and processes.
Democratising Fashion through a Curated App
By Aun Dabbas
Fashion has been developing and trending massively over the years which makes sense since it is the clothing that keeps one appropriate and protected. The vast industry of fashion made me realize that its importance on every individual is what makes it crucial to improve it in certain ways. I want to democratize fashion and revolutionize the whole procedure of clothing purchases. My plan is to tackle and improve this field of fashion; by creating an online platform that provides a unique system which enables easier accessibility to purchase desired clothing presented on the platform. I want to make “having good style” an easy task by making fashion choices and outfits more accessible to the ones who believe fashion and style is only possible with high end brands.
Comparing Entrepreneurship in US and China
By Luke Teeple
This paper compares and contrasts how businesses grow and develop differently in the US and China. The primary lens will be from a purely economist-based perspective; however, when necessary cultural and political perspectives will be discussed to add background and/or when relevant. The focus of this paper will be on two companies and how these companies have grown and developed differently as a result of the economic systems present in the US and China. This paper will also discuss how these companies are reacting to the trade war.
Education
- Promoting Student-Teacher Relationships
- Effect of School Funding on Student Success
- Decreasing the Stress of College Planning
Promoting Student-Teacher Relationships
By grace peterson
Studying the factors that prohibit teacher-student relationships from forming will greatly help educators and students understand what causes these bonds and what good comes from them. It is evident that students excel when they have a professional relationship with a teacher, but there are so many different things that prohibit these relationships to form. Many students say that a teacher-student relationship changes the student’s life forever, so the things that are stopping this must be significant. Researching the running thread between academic success and a friendship with a teacher is something that provides limitless information.
Effect of School Funding on Student Success
By nathan solomon
While modern American society has suggested to simply throw money at low performing schools, the country’s education system continues to remain in shambles as the educational disparity gap remains. The research conducted attempts to understand if the government's practices of issuing school grants has any effects on student outcomes and performances. The research project shall be carried out with the following strategy: 3 California districts given varying amounts of government-granted funding will be compared. Factors such as socioeconomic status, majority ethnicity, average household income, etc shall be controlled.
Decreasing the Stress of College Planning
By Cole Normandin Parker
The goal is to study where students apply each year, take the data and show the ranking of each college and how many students apply each year from each school. Also, add in common data and different schools to show how there are many schools to apply to, other than for example the UCs and Ivy Leagues.
Health/Wellness
- Using Technology to dispel the Stigma around Concussions
- Explaining the High Depression Rate of Veterinarians
- Commercialization of Music and Teenage Mental Health
Using Technology to dispel the Stigma around Concussions
By Madi Garwal
In this research paper I will be finding the effects and advantages of having new concussion testing technology on high school athletes. I will be using new concussion diagnosing technology to see if there are advantages to having a non-biased and quicker way to diagnose concussions in high school athletes. I will be trying to find if using this new test that uses eye-tracking effectively diagnoses concussions and if it works better than the current concussion testing and diagnosis process at my high school.
Explaining the High Depression Rate of Veterinarians
By Clara Becker
Veterinarians are at an increased risk for depression, veterinary offices are similar to an emergency rooms with the constant up and down of incoming patients. This experiment aims to prove that because of the extreme highs and lows of veterinary practices it puts the doctors at a higher risk of depression compared to the average citizen. To prove this the Vets will record how the feel after every visit on a one to five scale and also state the type of visit it was. The data will then prove that vets are at increased risk of depression because of the constant change of the severity of the animals being treated.
Commercialization of Music and Teenage Mental Health
By ANTHONY RAMIREZ
This question is important to understanding the rising depression rate among teenagers in the U.S. due to an increase in marketing strategies masked by the usage of mainstream social media. Researching these industries and how they work will contrast the culture between teenagers now vs. those from the 90’s. So far, there has been an increase of grunge aesthetic in modern teens as well as a high epidemic of drug use and decline in mental health. My research will find the answers as to how powerful the tools of commercialization are on teenagers today, leading to an unanswered question as to how dangerous the industry really is on younger generations.
Law/Public Policy
- Prison Rehabilitation Efforts and Recidivism
- Comparing Municipal vs. Non-Prof Homelessness Solutions
Prison Rehabilitation Efforts and Recidivism
By Abigail Amish and Julia Henry
Different types of prisons use many types of rehabilitation efforts for their prisoners. For example, private prisons are known for putting prisoners to work for below-minimum wage, and high-security prisons are less likely to have any sort of distinct rehabilitation efforts. Educational efforts and healthy living conditions in prisons have been shown to lower recidivism rates in low-security prisons, but this data could also be attributed to the lesser crimes committed by those prisoners.
Comparing Municipal vs. Non-Prof Homelessness Solutions
By Angelica Jorio
The research focuses on government operated homeless shelters versus non-profit operated homeless shelter. The city of Laguna Beach has had the first and longest city-run homeless shelter in Orange County, as well as a homeless shelter operated by Friendship Shelter NGO. Other cities in Orange County have shied away from the city or county operated homeless shelters because of high costs of running them. In substitution, cities leave it up to Nonprofits to help alleviate the problem. In some scenarios, non addressing the problem at all, dumbing their homeless in neighbouring cities. My research centers around the two types of homeless shelters, and, as a control, how cities without any type of alternative sleeping location have addressed homelessness.
STEM
- Virtual Reality Technology in Warehouse Safety Training
- Studying the Breakdown of Microplastics
- Microplastics Cleanup Using Electrokinetics
- Comparison of Kelp Habitats in Laguna Beach
- Protecting Ocean Species from Marine Noise Pollution
- Effect of Ocean Temperature Rise on Sea Stars
Virtual Reality Technology in Warehouse Safety Training
By Alex Coulolias
This paper articulates the ways in which the new coming of age virtual reality headsets are helping laborers working in factories or distribution centers are using virtual reality to learn how to operate machines. Through the use of devices such as the Oculus Rift, companies are now able to create a safer and faster work environment for the employees. By having workers train on machine simulations, stimulated through the use of virtual reality, companies are able to train their employees, and keep the cost of doing it low.
Studying the Breakdown of Microplastics
By Luke Gold-Sine and Weston Judd
This paper will explore the increasing problem of plastic waste in our oceans. More specifically, the process of how plastics break down in the ocean. Our research will attempt to provide a solution to prevent plastics from breaking down into microplastics. Microplastics should be considered a primary concern as they are harmful to zooplankton -- organisms that are necessary for a healthy food chain. Our research will include a controlled experiment involving plastic bags in several water tanks with various PH, salinity, and UV levels.
Microplastics Cleanup Using Electrokinetics
By Kian Trengove
I will be experimenting with different kinds of electrokinetic phenomena to see the differences in reliability, fidelity, and feasibility to manipulate different microplastics using electrokinetics. For example, it is known that some microplastics will aggregate with other particles such as sand in the ocean, which can be at least moved using electrophoresis, but not on a large enough scale to be feasibly implementable. The results of this research should also provide insight into the ability of electrokinetics to destroy or detect microplastics.
Comparison of Kelp Habitats in Laguna Beach
By Henry Stewart
For my experiment, I plan on researching the California kelp forests. There are tide pools close to my house, so I have access to kelp that I can work with. I hope to implement an experiment where I record the density of kelp in different environmental factors such as depth, temperature, and sunlight and how it develops depending on where it is. I’ll watch how it grows, seeing where it flourishes and where it struggles to survive. I hope to learn what environment kelp thrives in in Laguna Beach.
Protecting Ocean Species from Marine Noise Pollution
In my research I want to learn about submarine propeller cavitation and use that knowledge to apply to altering the way industrial ship propellers make noise. Submarine propellers are known to have much lower cavitation and are made to move quietly. If this technology was applied to the current vessels producing the most noise in our oceans it would make a great impact on reducing noise pollution affecting marine mammals.
Effect of Ocean Temperature Rise on Sea Stars
By Jeremy hayes and finn van der baan
Due to climate change, the ocean’s temperatures have been rising at alarming rates, so we want to figure out how these changing temperatures will affect species living in our oceans. For our experiment, we plan on creating a closed system to manipulate ocean temperatures to test the rate at which Brittle sea stars legs regenerate. Our goal is to discover if the sea stars will regenerate limbs faster or slower and what their physical state is after completing the experiment. After discovering our findings, we plan on expanding our thinking into how this would affect brittle Sea Stars in their natural ecosystems and how their loss will affect the ecosystem around it.