2017 will see the first cohort of BASIS Independent Silicon 
Valley Seniors undertaking BASIS.ed Senior Projects. This project is the crowning component of the BASIS.ed curriculum and diploma. Students are afforded the freedom to research and study a topic of their choosing and are provided with the professional and intellectual guidance necessary for success.
Please see below the catalogue of Senior Projects selected by our remarkable senior classmen. Please note that all of these projects have an On Site Faculty Advisor but are seeking guidance and advice from Offsite Advisors. If you are interested in mentoring and supporting any of these remarkable projects, please contact Mr. Walker, Head of School.
2017 Senior Projects
‘21st Century Classrooms: Designing a Learning Management System’
Manpreet Sokhi
Manpreet will be researching LMS’s used in school, and university settings, His aim is to identify the most user friendly and resourceful components. He then aims design a unique LMS aimed at supporting the High School students.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Kevyn Adams
‘Quantification and Analysis of the Orientation Angle of a Galaxy's Disk on the Galaxy's Measured Dark Matter Content’
Sharvani Jha
Sharvani aims to take the latest research into dark matter and look into to the effect that the observed angle of a galaxy has for rotational velocity in helping to measure dark matter.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Alex Hrin
‘Decoded - Using Mazes to Unravel the Mystery of Functional Programming’
Shray Pungaliya
Shray will be utilizing a functional programming approach to optimize the solving of mazes. He aims to test his coding against the combined maze-solving abilities of our BISV 5th Grade Class.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Dean Lizardo
‘Hand Speak – American Sign Language and English Acquisition’
Krithi Reddy
Krithi is a dedicated volunteer with a history of working with deaf children and those with cochlear implants. Her aim is to analyze the impact of ASL learning on the English language development and comprehension of hearing-impaired children.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Steve Vermouth
‘Beauty in the Eye of Health’
Katrina Le
Katrina will be collating extensive survey data around the subject of self-perceived beauty. She will then be analyzing the extent to which individual perceptions of beauty match societal expectations and, crucially, human health.
On Site Advisor: Ms. Amanda McCollum
‘Inner City Solutions: Bike Sharing in Bengaluru’
Karthik Pullela
Karthik aims to examine the relative merits of bike-sharing programs around the world. His particular focus is on those programs that effectively utilize smart phone technology. He then hopes to apply these solutions to the city of Bengaluru and design a bike sharing proposal aimed at helping people to engage with the city.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Tom Bojko
‘Analyzing the Effect of Increased Access to Physical Therapy’
Sara Subbana
Sara will be testing the hypothesis that increased access to app-driven physical therapy services will result in greater uptake of PT programs and swifter recovery times for patients. She will be working with professional PT practitioners in order to monitor patient uptake and success.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Sean Brown
‘The Power of Rhetoric: Analyzing President Elect Donald Trump's Victory’
Gina Kim
Gina will be analyzing the rhetorical devices used by Donald Trump in speeches, interviews, and online media throughout the 2016 Presidential campaign and election. She hopes to place the linguistic trends of this candidate’s approach within the wider context of modern political discourse and electioneering.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Christian Brady
‘The Formation of Star Clusters in Collisions of Galaxies’
Rena Zhong
Rena will be utilizing data from the Hubble Space Telescope in order to analyze the true age and chemical composition of star clusters contained within the M87 and Antennae Galaxies. She will be working with large quantities of data and placing her research in the context of the latest scientific study.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Alex Hrin
‘Does Body Language Speak for Itself? Nonverbal Communication and Town Hall Presidential Debates (1992-2016)’
Zahra Masood
Zahra will be taking a novel approach to the analysis of Town Hall Presidential debates by ignoring the spoken dialogue and focusing instead on the body language and physical movement of the candidates. Her aim is to look for trends and patterns in nonverbal debate techniques since the inception of the town hall format in 1992.
On Site Advisor: Mr. Hal Hansen
‘An Investigation into the Construction of a Cellular Operated Automated External Defibrillator’
Ashwin West
Ashwin will be looking to demonstrate proof of concept for a defibrillator system operated by a smart phone. Inspired by his medical internship in Belize, Ashwin hopes to create a small scale model and prototype over the next four months.
On Site Advisor: Dr. Amin Ghafooripour
‘The Asian Immigrant Experience: Patterns in Acquisition of English as a Second Language’
Claire Pei
Claire will be analyzing the patterns and components of different Asian Languages, and investigating how speaking those languages fluently impacts immigrants' learning of English as a Second language. She will be utilizing a combination of survey data and researching the latest academic work in this field.
On Site Advisor: Ms. Mona Abdelaziz
‘The Art and Science of Alzheimer's: Can Art Therapy Decrease Functional Cognitive Impairment of Patients with Dementia’
Amy Zhong
Amy will be drawing on her ongoing volunteer work in the field of Alzheimer’s patient support and researching the impact of art therapy on individual cognitive performance. She will be designing art therapy classes and assessing patient cognitive ability using established cognitive assessments that she has researched.
On Site Advisor: Dr. Anu Murthy