Research News

With 26 locations needing a different number of food pallets each day — and 10 trucks each with their own capacity limits — designing an efficient route had been an arduous task for the Food Bank of Central New York (FBCNY). That’s where Hughes “Hugh” Williams ’26 came in. This summer he created an algorithm that can determine each day’s optimal route within seconds.

Parks, playgrounds, community centers, libraries, and cafés are the backdrop for many cherished memories, from chatting over coffee to playing tag. These places occupy a third sphere outside of the home and the workplace, a space emphasizing friendship and connection. Victoria “Vicky” Holland Oliveira ’26, Nicholas Kreidler ’28, and Chloe Root ’28 embarked on an investigation of these “third spaces” through a Levitt research grant this summer, seeking to understand the status and history of recreation and community in Utica, our neighboring city.

Supported by Hamilton’s International Summer Research Fellowship, five students found new perspectives on their studies, the global community, and their identities.

While Charli XCX may have started the movement, Brat Summer found an unlikely new figurehead in presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Carter Higgins ’26 returns to the scene of Harris’ Brat era to perform a digital and linguistic autopsy, revealing the unstable nature of modern political marketing in the Internet Age.

The creatures great and small of the campus glens find themselves with company this summer through the presence of Professor Pete Guiden’s motley crew of researchers.

Two Hamilton chemistry students spent part of their summer unraveling a decades-old campus mystery – the true identity of the beloved peonies in Grant Garden. Saunders left behind scant documentation of what species he used to create his world-renowned hybrids. So, John “JP” Hoak ’27, Mark Khairallah ’27, and Biology Professor Wei-Jen Chang are sleuthing for clues not in records, but in DNA.

Large language models (LLMs) have been at the forefront of the zeitgeist ever since publicly available AI programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst onto the scene. Three Hamilton College computer science majors are spending their summer researching this cutting-edge technology alongside Professor Thomas Helmuth ’09.

They arrived with curiosity, drive, and a sense of possibility — and now Hamilton’s Class of 2025 is stepping boldly into what’s next, with graduation canes in hand and valuable lessons learned. What shaped them during their four years on College Hill? Which moments, mentors, and courses stand out?

Connecting distant destinations with local lands, senior fellow Clare Robinson spent her final year at Hamilton delving into community reactions to climate change and environmental policy.

Recent graduate Deanna Durben ’25 engaged in research across the domains of sociology and psychology during her time at Hamilton. In 2024, her efforts culminated with a publication in Sage journals titled “Understanding autistic camouflaging: The use of online community discussions and stigmatized identity research.”