REU Projects
Chemical and Biomolecular Sciences:
- Metal-organic framework (MOF)-based heterogeneous photocatalysts (Dr. Pravas Deria)
- Developing New Fluoropolymers in Redox Flow Batteries for Storing Renewable Energy (Dr. Yong Gao)
- Computational catalysis for energy and environmental applications (Dr. Qingfeng Ge)
- Enhancing NMR and MRI with Hyperpolarization (Dr. Boyd Goodson)
- Chiral brush polymers for enantiomeric analysis (Dr. Matthew E. McCarroll)
- (Dr. Sean Moran)
- Lithography and patterning of molecules and nanoparticles using Nanotubes (Dr. Punit Kohli)
- Cyclopenta-fused-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (CP-PAH) Based Electron Acceptors (Dr. Kyle Plunkett)
- Computational studies of nanoparticles as fuel cell catalysts (Dr. Lichang Wang)
- Rapid Protein Mixture Fractionation on RF Plasma Polymer Modified Sample Stages with Analysis by MALDI Mass Spectrometry (Dr. Gary Kinsel)
- Microbial metabolism of methane formation and oxidation (Dr. Divya Prakash)
- Rational Design and Synthesis of Small Molecule based Materials for Solar Cell and Photodynamic Therapy applications (Dr. Lichang Wang and Dr. Kyle Plunkett)
- Developing Multiplexed Graphene Sensors through Laser Induction for ALS Disease (Dr. Mohtashim Shamsi)
Biological Sciences:
- Development of new techniques to access the bioavailability of organic contaminants (Dr. Michael Lydy)
- Engineered enzymes to enhance selective degradation of PET to original monomers (Dr. Lahiru N. Jayakody)
Physics:
- High performance computer simulations for understanding the thermoelectric properties of Si/Ge nanowire configurations ( Thushari Jayasekera)
- Synthesis and Characterization of Ferromagnetic Alloy Nanowires ( Saikat Talapatra)
- Bridging the Gap: In-Silico Guided Analytical Approaches for Enhancing the Cancer Detection (Poopalasingam Sivakumar)
- Development of New Molecular or 2D Materials Single Photon Sources( Bumsu Lee)
- Magneto-optical properties of highly spin-polarized thin films (Mazumdar, Dipanjan)
"The REU student will participate in the growth and characterization of magnetic thin-film heterostructures and spintronic memory devices. In this interdisciplinary project, the student will learn how materials research can address current industry and technology demands and how a material property translates into a working, room-temperature device. At the fundamental level, the student will understand how size, structure, and topology can influence the physical properties of electronic and magnetic materials. The student can experience several experimental methods ranging from thin-film growth to structural analysis to physical property and device measurements (magnetoresistance, Hall effects, magneto-optics). The student may also participate in theoretical projects dealing with electronic structure and topological properties of magnetic materials."
Engineering:
- Using supercomputers to better design nanoscale devices; TCAD modeling of a low-power (green) transistor; Why do LEDs degrade over time? (Dr. Shaikh S. Ahmed)
- Independently tuning viscoelasticity of polyacrylamide hydrogels for cellular mechanotransduction studies. (Dr. Farhan Chowdhury).
"Polyacrylamide hydrogels have been widely used in mechanosensing studies. The rheological investigations of crosslinked polyacrylamide hydrogels exhibited linear elastic properties. However, the cellular responses elicited on elastic substrates, which do not mimic the viscoelastic living tissues, are not physiologically relevant. We recently demonstrated the feasibility of creating viscoelastic polyacrylamide hydrogels by additive manufacturing techniques (Protick, F. et al., ACS Omega, 2022). At present, we are focused on tuning the dissipative component (G'') of the hydrogels independently and determining cellular mechanotransduction on these hydrogel substrates"
- Production of metallic nanoparticles and its application in water treatment field or renewable energy production (Dr. Jia Liu)
- Electrospinning of Ceramic Nanofibers (Dr. Kanchan Mondal)
- Fluid dynamics properties and performance of nanofluids (Dr. Emmanuel Nsofor)
- Center for Advanced Friction Studies (Dr. Peter Filip)
- Cellular Mechanism of Otoprotective Effects on Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (Dr. Chilman Bae)
- Performance Evaluation of 3D Printed Architectured Sandwich Panels for Lightweight Structure (Dr. Nilufar Sabrina)