The Importance of Sustainability in Various Business Driven Sectors

Christian Morales, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Business Finance

I was able to identify my research project by reflecting on my short-term business experience. Prior to writing my project, I completed two internship opportunities. Both previous summers I spent two months each working as an intern. My first internship being with Vornado Realty Trust, a REIT primarily located in as well as arguably dominating the real-estate market in New York City. I worked in their back office out of Paramus, NJ but had taken several trips to visit the properties in the city. It was here where I first acquired the “genesis” of what would become my Capstone. Vornado focuses heavily on managing their properties with a foundation built on sustainable principles. It was seen across their entire portfolio which fit well with their modern design. I learned there just how important sustainability was not just to their company, but to the world. What I was essentially witnessing was the beginnings of the future. After my internship, I noticed how other companies were also either beginning or continuing the adoption of sustainable practices. The more I recognized sustainability, the harder it was to separate the idea of success from sustainability.

At my second internship with Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., I was able to see the numbers behind Sustainability. Working in Operations allowed me to see how the companies that were attracting the most investors were the faces of their respective industries. But why? How is it that a brand can have such a large general consensus that agrees on it being the best in its field? What makes society so accepting of a company?

It didn’t take longer than a google search for any company that can be thought of before I came across one simple answer. The innovation of efficiency. Essentially the textbook effect of Sustainability. A practice which focuses on the long-term standing of the company that integrates it. It does not only lift up the company, but the society around it as well. The footprint of sustainability works as the by-product of a firm conducting business with a consumer. Pushing a company to its best with advanced technology, cleaner energy and systems. It was seen in the financial statements of companies. Their 10-Q’s and 10-K’s were irrefutable proof of this. The companies within those same industries that perform poorly can be explained by their lack or even zero incorporation of sustainable practices.

That understanding made it easy for me to pursue the research. Initially, when I was tasked with the capstone, I essentially had to find a problem within the Business World, and I was stumped. It was only when I reflected on my experience as an intern and even a consumer where the idea became real to me.

If I were to expand on my research, I would pick a company and see what sustainable advancements the company could make to enhance their performance. Often, companies shy away from Sustainability because of its substantial price task that is demanded upfront. The companies that do are only focused on the small picture. It is better to take a hit now to benefit greatly in the future as opposed to being stubborn to evolution now and to not even exist much less be remembered in the future. Sustainability can be applied to all areas of business. Waste Management. Product Distribution. Supply Chains. Energy Efficiency. Wherever innovation can take place within a business, will lie an opportunity for the adoption of Sustainable practices. It isn’t about being green. Nor is it about making money. It is about doing what’s morally just and right. Not just for the modern day, but also for the future.

The Offense

Deanna Mujaj, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in English Writing and minor in Philosophy

Studying English with a concentration on writing, I naturally decided to write a short story for my capstone. The hard part of beginning any creative task is finding the right inspiration. My parents are from Dnipro, Ukraine, and immigrated to the U.S. just a few years before I was born. With most of my extended family still living in Ukraine, the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia has been a constant topic of discussion (and sorrow) among my family. It is difficult to imagine that had my parents not decided to come to America, I would be living in Ukraine during this horrible time. This topic was the inspiration for my short story, which follows a young man and his family in Ukraine at the start of the war, their fear, their reactions to the threat of death, and the sense of duty which compels every citizen who loves their country.

I expected the capstone to be a challenge; I had never written anything so long before. I anticipated the final work to be about 18 pages, but it ended up being 22 (and could have easily been much longer if the semester was not so short!). Once the topic had been established, the writing process was quite easy, and ideas flowed freely onto the page. My mentor, Simon Reader, was a tremendous help with the brainstorming of the plot, the character arcs, and making sure the story was compelling. We held regular meetings in which he provided notes for my writing, acting as both an editor and a guide. Looking back, the work was much easier and much more fulfilling than I anticipated. Writing about a topic that interests me, and taking inspiration from my own family truly helped me express the emotions that had been building up within me.

Part of my research was reading short stories and books that revolve around the war in Ukraine, including You Don't Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine by Yeva Skalietska, and Jonathon Safran Foer's comedic, but heartbreaking novel, Everything is Illuminated. As further research, I try to keep up with the news concerning the war, and I occasionally read short stories and flash non-fiction concerning the topic. Overall, this experience has inspired me to write more and not shy away from taking inspiration from my family and my day-to-day life. 

Coach-Athlete Relationships: Impacts, Motivation, Coach Mental Health

Ryan Healey, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Psychology

As someone who enjoys keeping up with sports, I chose to research this topic because I have seen so many careers ruined due to poor relationships between the athlete and coach. In addition to their careers falling apart, players and coaches’ mental health can be negatively impacted from these relationships.

My expectations for the capstone was for it to be difficult because research for this subject is limited, as it is something that has really only become popular after the 2010’s. Mental health was an overlooked factor in sports before that time, and if you had a problem with a coach and/or were underperforming you were dropped, no questions asked. However, it was surprising to find that there was new research from the coach’s perspective on said relationships with athletes and how they too are affected. I was originally going into this project only focusing on athletes, but after seeing this additional research, I changed course a bit.

After completing my capstone, I am satisfied with what I found because it gives me hope. In recent years there has been evidence of support for coaches and athletes going through issues like this and they are no longer completely on their own. I do believe though that more can be done in the future to further accommodate people in situations with mental health. An example could be sports organizations as a whole taking accountability for the athletes and coaches that represent them. They could do this by making required training regimens for all members who are involved in the organization about the concern for safety not just physically, but mentally.

The Gut Microbiome's Influence on Cancer Progression and Treatment Outcomes Through the Gut-Brain Axis

Menatalla Aboukhalia, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Biology

My research explored how the tiny organisms living in our digestive systems called the gut microbiome affect the development and treatment of cancer through a communication system known as the gut-brain axis. This axis is the way our gut and brain send messages to each other using nerves, hormones, and immune signals.

Scientists have recently discovered that the health and balance of these gut microbes may not only affect our digestion and mental health but also influence cancer growth, response to therapy, and even survival rates. I focused on several types of cancer, including gastrointestinal, brain, breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. I analyzed over 100 studies to understand how disruptions in the gut microbiome (known as dysbiosis) are linked to tumor development. For example, harmful bacteria can produce toxins that promote inflammation and tumor growth, while helpful bacteria may boost the body’s immune response or improve the effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. One of the most exciting findings was that personalized treatment tailored to a patient’s specific microbiome could lead to better results in fighting cancer. In other words, understanding a patient’s gut microbiota might help doctors choose the most effective treatments. Some studies even showed that modifying the gut microbiome with probiotics, diet, or fecal transplants could improve treatment success.

I’ve always been fascinated by the connections between the body’s systems especially how something as "small" as bacteria could influence something as serious as cancer. I was drawn to this topic because it bridges biology, medicine, and even mental health. The more I read about the gut-brain axis and the microbiome, the more I realized how central this topic is to understanding modern disease. I also have a personal motivation: several family members have battled cancer, and I wanted to contribute to an area that might help improve care and outcomes in the future.

At first, I thought the capstone would mostly involve summarizing articles and writing a long paper. I underestimated the amount of critical thinking it required—especially when comparing studies with different methods or drawing conclusions from conflicting results. It wasn’t just about collecting information; it was about understanding patterns, questioning assumptions, and synthesizing new insights. That part was more difficult than I expected but also more rewarding.

The most challenging part was narrowing down the scope. The gut microbiome is connected to almost every part of health, and cancer is already such a complex disease. It was easy to get overwhelmed by the volume of research. Creating a structured methodology and sticking to my inclusion/exclusion criteria helped me stay focused. One of the easier (and more enjoyable) parts was presenting the material visually, designing charts and thematic summaries. I found that these visuals helped clarify patterns and communicate my findings more effectively. I was surprised by how fast this field is evolving. Some studies I found were already outdated after just a few years, replaced by newer, more advanced research using artificial intelligence to predict patient responses based on their microbiomes.

In the future, I’d like to explore how diet and lifestyle changes can be used alongside medical treatments to optimize the gut microbiome for cancer patients. I’m also curious about how the microbiome affects pediatric cancer and survivorship. Another promising area is the integration of machine learning to predict treatment outcomes based on a person’s microbiome profile. These tools could one day help doctors create highly personalized cancer therapies.

This research taught me how to critically evaluate scientific evidence and stay organized when working with a large number of sources. More importantly, it showed me that science is never static it’s a living conversation with new voices and discoveries all the time. I now feel more confident in my ability to take on complex problems and contribute to ongoing scientific questions. I’m leaving this experience with a deeper understanding of how biology, medicine, and technology come together and with a renewed motivation to pursue graduate studies in the health sciences.

Detecting Anomalies in Network Traffic Data

Isabel Loci, Verrazzano Class of 2026, completed major in Computer Science and minor in Mathematics

Somewhere in the last year, I fell down a rabbit hole of learning more about the most popular cyber-attacks in history. These attacks dated back decades ago, when the online world was still fairly new and became more complex as it developed. I have always been concerned about the safety and privacy of any information I use online, so it got me thinking: how do people mitigate attacks at such a high scale? At the time, I was participating in a one-year long data science boot camp, and we were focusing on building AI-models using machine learning. The base idea of machine learning is a system that is able to learn from previously collected data, detect patterns, and then make decisions on its own without any explicit programming beforehand. This method allows systems to handle unknown data well, as they can make decisions independently after training. Neat, right?

Theoretically, I thought that it should be possible to create a machine learning-based AI model that is able to distinguish normal network traffic from malicious network traffic. So, me and a few friends decided to bring this idea to life. Our project was built in Python and then deployed through HuggingFace. The final accuracy percentage of the model was 92.94%. Good, but could've been way better.

When I was brainstorming ideas with my mentor, Dr. Huo, I mentioned my project. I talked about how the methodology we chose to implement had a lot room for improvement, and that I would've liked to go back and start all over again if I knew what approach I wanted to try next. Then she suggested this simple, but very brilliant idea to me: What if my capstone was about a deep research on the topic of anomaly intrusion detection?

It all clicked then. I had previously read one or two works of people that attempted the same project, but not much more beyond that. What I didn't realize was just how many ways data scientists had solved this problem with in the past, not with just traditional machine learning methods but also deep learning ones. My work revolved around studying as many research papers as I could, summarizing my findings, and presenting them in the form of a survey paper.

What I found hardest (and a little funny) was how when I came across a concept I hadn't heard of before, four more fundamental concepts were attached to it that I could absolutely not exclude from the survey paper. I spent hours upon hours studying these concepts, breaking down complex formulas and comparing results of different methodologies simply to understand the hidden connections between them. There is a general step-by-step process that data scientists follow when building a ML model, and it is the following: sourcing the data to be used for model training, data preprocessing, selecting the appropriate algorithm, model training, and finally model evaluation. Data preprocessing is important because a dataset could have issues such as missing values, duplicate columns, bad column names and inconsistent feature names, all of which can interfere with the accuracy of the model. Then the dataset could have too many samples of one attack and not enough of another attack, needing to be balanced. Like we mentioned before, ML algorithms are split into two categories, and each category is split into several unique algorithms. After the model is trained, it then needs to be evaluated using industry standard performance metrics that give an estimation on how the model is doing. If the methods are implemented correctly, the metrics will reflect the true performance of the model. Just be careful, a score that is too good to be true is often misleading! We strive to be as close-- but not too close-- to the 100% accuracy score.

This has been the most extensive research I have gotten to work on throughout my undergraduate years, and it has sparked a love in me to do more. Already I wish to delve into more papers written for different fields. I want to study Literature, Psychology, Physics, the Arts, and so much more. It has changed the way I interact with the world around me and how I decide to embrace and utilize new information.

Working on a thesis might have not been my first idea for completing my capstone, but I am so glad it's what I chose in the end.