12/14/2005		Honors student presents research for two honors theses
9/21/2005		Exclusive session with Charles Murray for Honors students

A double mathematics education and physics major at Elizabethtown College, Michelle Doll has had a very busy academic schedule throughout her college career. This semester, however, has been particularly challenging for the York resident, as she’s been working on research for honors theses in both majors.

Doll has had to complete – for each discipline – independent research that culminated into a thesis and oral presentation to faculty and students. Her mathematics thesis focused on knot theory, a field that looks at anything that can be considered a cyclic permutation, like “just drawing a set of points and connecting them back to the beginning,” she said.

Doll conducted her research on the human knot game, a popular get-to-know-you icebreaker. “The human knot game is mathematical, but you don’t need a math background to understand it,” she said. “In the game, you reach into a circle of people and connect arms. You then have to untangle yourself to try to form a circle, but it isn’t always possible because of the many types of knots that can be formed.”

Doll used the computer program Solid Edge, a three-dimensional cad drafting program, to create a person. She then studied the possible movements of the human body to illustrate the number of possible combinations of people – and subsequent knots – for the game. “Using the model I created, you could show every single possible combination of people in the knot game. You could also study how many people are needed to create each knot.”

Doll’s research for her physics thesis also involved the use of Solid Edge. Working in the College’s biomechanics lab, she has created a model that may help validate carpal tunnel insurance claims. “People have claimed to get carpal tunnel from the sudden force applied to the wrist in a car accident,” she said. “There isn’t a reliable way to validate those claims at this time. I made a model in Solid Edge to find the force applied to the wrist.”

Doll is currently working with physics and engineering department chair Kurt DeGoede to gather data to validate the model. “If it works, we would have a way to estimate the force applied to the wrist given certain parameters from the accident,” she said. “The model would generate an approximate magnitude for the force that is applied to the wrist. There is no set measurement for the force to cause carpal tunnel, but it will be a much more reliable method to consider current insurance claims.”

Doll hopes to complete her physics research before summer. As usual, she has a busy spring schedule ahead of her that includes student teaching at her alma mater, Dallastown Area High School.