Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Thin Film Conductor Tensile Properties; Informational Apathy: The Impact of the Information Age

The STS Research Paper peers into how social media and information society propagates misinformation, willful disinformation and uninformation. Particularly how high volumes of information resulting from a low-barrier-of-entry to creating posts and articles on social media networks can result in informational apathy; a state in which an individual has been exposed to such a high volume of untrustworthy information that they cease to care about veracity or validity, and choose to develop their worldview based on feeling as opposed to evidence. This is analyzed through the lens of paradigm shift, comparing and contrasting the development of news channels to the development of the internet, and how corporatization and advertisement-driven profits have resulted in a degradation of information quality.

The Capstone Project is a series of low-level atomistic simulation of thin-film conductors, determining their mechanical properties in an aqueous environment, and the causes of deviation of mechanical properties from expected bulk-material properties in thin films due to size effects. Thin film conductors are an essential component of flexible electronics, and an understanding of their mechanical properties are essential to building flexible electronics that can be reliably used after the many loading cycles that, for example, a bracelet or smart shirt would go through being put on and taken off.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Engineering Science
Technical Advisor: Baoxing Xu
STS Advisor: Bryn Seabrook
Technical Team Members: Dylan Culfogienis