Proposal: Many biological systems, such as your body, produce periodical signals (like a sine curve), which are generated autonomously through a set of coupled chemical reactions. Those biochemical oscillators are a fundamental part of how an organism functions, and their robustness to environmental changes is critical to the well being of the organism. As the environment changes, these oscillators may become irregular and eventually collapse. In this project, I will choose a typical biochemical oscillator—Circadian Rhythms (24-hour sleeping periods). This system is described using a set of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with environmental disturbances added as a random term. The equations will be solved numerically and displayed using JAVA. With this display, I will figure out the critical point where the system will collapse.

Team Members:

Michael Wang

Sponsoring Teacher: Jim Mims

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