Brittany Gonzalez

I conducted an independent research project. I worked to develop a new project investigating the inequalities to autism diagnosis and services in the Latino community. I compiled and analyzed data to identify the distribution of special educational services based on race, social class, and type of disability, including autism spectrum disorder. Tasks involved with this project included writing an annotated bibliography of research supporting the disparity to autism services based on race, ethnicity, and social class, gathering data from the Department of Education to develop a table and graph of special education service utilization in metro Atlanta based on race, class, and type of disorder, and developing an interview questionnaire and translating documents into Spanish to help a local parent advocacy network offer autism resources in Spanish. This experience also helped me learn about the process of writing and applying to the Georgia Tech Institutional Review Board for the project.

Cells behave differently responding to the stiffness of their extracellular matrix (ECM) and how strongly they are tethered to ECM. Past research has proven that Janus hydrogels can be used to test this concept. The Objective was to improve the fabrication process of Janus Hydrogel and characterize its properties. Conference Abstract - Boston, Massachusetts Gonzalez, B., Moran, A., Lee, D. & Ryu, S. (2015) Janus Gel Fabrication Using Liquid Drop Coalescence and Limited Mixing in the Hele-Shaw Geometry. In the 68th Annual Meeting of Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society, Boston, MA, USA.

The goal of this study is to characterize the bending and fatigue properties of chemically treated pericardium tissue used in the fabrication of surgical (SAV) and transcatheter (TAV) bioprosthetic heart valves. Currently, the bending and fatigue properties of pericardial tissues are not well characterized. Characterizing the bending and fatigue properties of leaflet tissues will facilitate the design of improved bioprosthetic valves with enhanced function and durability.