Taxing the Country (and my Brain)

Kristen Gilbride, Verrazano Class of 2018, Completed
Major in Accounting

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Going into my senior year as a Verrazano student, choosing a topic for my capstone was in the very front of my mind. As an accounting major, I knew I wanted to study something in my field, not only so I could put it on my resumé, but to also get a better understanding of different issues impacting the accounting profession. This being said, I had no idea what I wanted to research. Around this time, President Trump was freshly inaugurated and talks of a new tax plan were being discussed on Capitol Hill. Because of all of the controversy surrounding this new administration, there were many conflicting reports of who the proposed plan  would benefit, who it would hurt, and whether or not this plan would put the country into a greater deficit. Ultimately, I decided to pursue this topic because I wanted to see what the actual impacts would be, without letting politics and personal beliefs get in the way of a true analysis of the new plan. 

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs act became law on December 22nd, 2017, I began compiling my research. Because nothing had been implemented yet, everything was speculation. It was hard for me to formulate a paper because some of my sources were contradicting each other. I was getting frustrated and I was beginning to question my topic choice. But, with the support of my family, I persevered and kept researching, and finally found the answers I needed.

One of the biggest hurdles I faced when creating this paper was actually writing the paper itself. As an accounting student, all of my time was spent analyzing numbers and working with spreadsheets and financial statements, not writing research papers. While I have had to write some research papers in the past, none even compared to the length and magnitude of this paper. I began to get nervous that I wouldn’t have enough research or sources to fill twelve pages, and because a lot of what this paper entailed was commenting on speculation, I didn’t feel like the paper would be any good. But once I calmed myself down (and read a post on the internet about how to structure a major research paper), I began writing and surprised myself with how easily my thoughts and research translated and flowed onto the paper. Before I knew it, I had almost 20 pages of content that I was actually proud of. 

Writing this paper was exhausting, irritating, and EXPENSIVE (I drank enough iced coffee to power a small city). But, it was also interesting and incredibly rewarding. I had written something that was my own, that I could put my name on and be proud of and show off to others. It was also really cool to be able to discuss my project with professionals in my field. They were impressed by how knowledgeable I was on such a confusing and large topic that some of them didn’t really have much information about. Overall, I was incredibly happy that I was able to write something that would help anyone, accountant or not, understand what would be happening with their money in the near future.

President Trump Signing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

                                                                                                                                                                         

Working Memory, and Why You Shouldn't Cram!

Danielle Aylmer, Verrazano Class of 2019, Completed Major in Psychology BS

     While working on this research, I learned about memory. I’ve learned about memory in previous classes, but never in the way my research presented. I also learned about different theories on how working memory operates. 
     Our capacity limits (how much we can remember at one time) tend to be about three or four items. The fundamental debate is whether capacity limits are discrete or continuous. Discrete limits are either all or nothing, you remember a lot of things about certain items and none about other items. There are also different theories of how we store representations, continuously or categorically. If representations are stored continuously, when you saw the color red you would remember the specific hue of the color, not just that it was generically red. If they are stored categorically, you would just remember you saw red, not what shade of red. 
     I found my research to be extremely interesting. I ran experiments that PSY 100 students participated in. During these experiments, I was able to briefly present my research and theories and walk students through the experiment. While doing practice trials it was interesting to see the students response. We flashed an object on a screen for only milliseconds, and if you blinked you missed it. The students would tell me, "how can I recall that? I barely saw it." Yet they would still perform well. 
     It’s quite amazing that you can sometimes recall something rather accurately without even realizing you got a good look. If you are interested in doing research on working memory I recommend looking in to working with Professor Ricker. He was a great mentor and was extremely helpful while I was writing my thesis/capstone. 
     I feel this research could be important for students when studying, or professors trying to effectively present material to a class. In a classroom setting, if a teacher is presenting new mathematical concepts, they should only present three or four discrete elements for use at one time, even if the equations are simple. The observation of continuous capacity limits in this study showed that the precision of memories decreases as the number of items remembered increases. College students struggle with retaining information and finding the best way to study. They try to cram the night before an exam and my research helped me see why this does not work. The best way would be to try and digest a little bit of information each day. By doing this, you increase your chances of remembering the information. The observation of continuous capacity limits in this study show that the precision of memories decreases as the number of items remembered increases. It is also important to understand working memory because it is needed to problem solve, make decisions, and reason on a daily basis.

Researching the History of the Gulags

Djamila Holmurodova (Julie Erkins), Verrazano Class of 2019, Completed Majors in Geography and History, with a Minor in East Asian Studies

  Being from Uzbekistan, I was always intrigued by Russian history as my country was once under the influence of the Soviet Union. I have always heard rumors about the Gulags while growing up and how it was a place for hardened criminals who had deserved the punishment they received because they were a threat to the societies within the Soviet Union.  Never did I think that the opposite was true, that in fact, most of those imprisoned were innocent and were sent to the Gulags because they were perceived by the Stalin regime as a threat. When I began to learn more about the people who suffered through the harsh conditions in the Gulags, I was appalled but also empowered, to read so many memoirs from women prisoners that displayed such great strength and perseverance in the face of unspeakable horror. 

Under the guidance of Professor Peter Kabachnik, I learned that his father was a Gulag survivor and I discovered the harsh conditions in which he and many others that were sent to these forced labor camps had to endure. This compelled me to research this period in Soviet Russian history. Reading some of these stories from the many memoirs of gulag survivors was heart breaking. To hear of the despair and agony suffered by people who were mostly innocent, impacted me greatly. But I also found stories of great strength and endurance, especially from the women who were imprisoned. Some took on motherly roles, doing whatever they could to look out for each other. I found this to be quite inspirational. At times, when I was not focused, Professor Kabachnik would encourage me to work harder and pushed me to my greatest potential, which I am very thankful for. 

Towards the end of my research, my Geography class took a field trip to Manhattan in which we visited several memorials including the 9/11 memorial and the Irish Hunger Memorial. At the Irish Hunger Memorial, I was reminded of the suffering that the Irish had endured during the Great Potato Famine and the quotes that were inscribed along the walls, illustrated the suffering of many other cultures throughout history. One quote, from a prominent gulag historian and survivor – Alexander Solzhenitsyn, that Professor Kabachnik had pointed out to me, was surprising. The quote was about hunger and further reminded me why my research and the opportunity to share what I have learned is so vastly important, that others can learn and understand the tragedies of the past so that we do not repeat them. 

Big Data and Data Mining

Miriam Shmueli, Verrazano Class of 2019, Completed Major in Business Management

In the Fall of 2018, I took the opportunity to pursue a research project under the supervision of Professor Chandan Acharya. The explosion of technology and the frequent use of the terminology “big data” in my business courses throughout my academic career led me to complete my first research project: A Literature Review on Big Data and Data Mining.

In starting this literature review, big data was an abstract term to me and I was motivated to explore its impact in the field of business. I answer the following questions in this literature review: Why is the use of big data becoming a necessity in business models? Why are big data and its analysis essential to get insights into organizations and its various stakeholders?

This project has enriched my academic career by giving me a sense of the effort that is put into the research that governs our knowledge. In conducting my own research, I have been given a new appreciation for the published work that I read and the functionality of libraries. The use of technology is a common thread that ties my paper together. As this trend of new technology has entered the academic field and allowed students to conduct their research online, the library has become less of a student workspace. In doing this project, I spent many hours in the library looking through books and working with librarians, and grew my appreciation for the library as well. 
I have learned extensively the meaning, strategies, challenges, and affordances of big data, specifically within the field of business. I have distinguished between big data, data mining, and analytics. By examining success and failure stories of the use of big data, I have learned of the importance of creating good strategies to meet specific goals and of remaining transparent with your consumers regarding their privacy. With the introduction of “FAANG” companies came the consistent rise in technology that has transformed the small data we were collecting but utilizing incorrectly, into big data that can be processed and analyzed in minutes to inform decision makers of good business practices. 

If I could develop this further, I would follow up this literature review by conducting empirical research, collecting data on the relationships between companies that use big data and their performance. By collecting primary data like this, it will give further and quantitative support to the argument that big data is becoming a necessity in business.