{"id":19641,"date":"2026-09-28T14:34:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=19641"},"modified":"2026-09-28T14:35:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:35:00","slug":"abbey-gervasini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/fellows\/abbey-gervasini\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbey Gervasini"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Major:<\/strong> Physics<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Project:<\/strong> A New Paradigm in the Classification of Gamma-Ray Bursts<br><br>Gamma-ray bursts can come from either a collapsing star or a colliding pair of neutron stars, but the standard method for telling them apart, based on how long the burst lasts, isn&#8217;t always reliable. Misclassifying one can mean missing a companion gravitational-wave signal. I created an algorithm that implements and validates the method described in Bhat (2013) for measuring a burst&#8217;s minimum variability timescale, a statistical fingerprint of the size of the object powering it, directly from raw Fermi telescope data. Tested against an independently published catalog across 100 real bursts, it produces a statistically significant match, establishing it as a validated tool for future work distinguishing these two types of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Faculty Mentor:<\/strong><br>Rob Coyne, Assistant Professor of Physics<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;This project taught me that validating a method is often harder, and more valuable, than implementing it. A closer look at my early program revealed a circular dependency that would have made the tool useless on any new burst, and finding it taught me to keep testing until I understood why something worked, not just that it did. I also gained real, hands-on experience with the full research process: implementing a published method, debugging it against real data, and defending my results with actual statistics. I plan to continue to work with Dr. Coyne this school year, extending the algorithm to work with a wider range of cases, and applying it directly to the collapsar\/merger classification question as future observing runs begin. This experience confirmed my love for research. The frustration of debugging makes the moment it finally clicks feel genuinely exhilarating.&#8221; <\/em>&#8211; Abbey Gervasini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Physics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5153,"featured_media":19644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[158,362],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fellows","category-student-profile"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19645,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19641\/revisions\/19645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}