More than 400 undergraduates gathered in Sayles Hall on August 5 and 6 to present the results of their research at the annual Summer Research Symposium, sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College.
Forty-seven presentations were from undergraduate researchers from the School of Engineering, or were conducted under the guidance of engineering faculty members. Many of the projects were supported by Brown's Karen T. Romer SPRINT|Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA) or Advanced Undergraduate Research (AUR) Fellowships.
“Creating opportunities for meaningful and collaborative research is a key feature of Brown’s undergraduate education,” said Ethan Pollack, Brown’s Dean of the College, in his opening remarks for the two-day symposium. “We believe that research can and should shape our students’ academic and professional journeys. When we ask our students to be architects of their own education, we also have in mind the learning that takes place beyond the doors of the classroom that does not appear on a transcript.”
Junior Mira Needlman said, “My experience working in the Pennell Lab this summer was incredibly rewarding because it challenged me to think critically and creatively. I enjoyed the process of optimizing aspects of the experimental system to maximize PFAS and microplastic removal. This summer solidified my passion for applying engineering to solve environmental challenges and developing solutions that create meaningful impacts.”
Junior Constantine Krenteras added, “Working in Professor (Jonghwan) Lee’s lab this summer has been incredibly rewarding. I have strengthened my skills in biomedical image processing and machine learning. Defining my own research direction, designing and troubleshooting experiments, and iteratively refining my approach alongside my mentor and peers have helped me become a more thoughtful and independent researcher.”
“This summer, I strengthened the CAD and engineering design skills I first developed in ENGN 30 by designing and 3D-printing a magnetic tube rack for a liquid-handling robot,” said Kevin Truong. “The experience taught me that becoming a better researcher and engineer truly takes a village.”
Following are projects presented by students in the School of Engineering:
Rand Abubakir ’28 (electrical engineering) and Daniela Suarez ’29 (biomedical engineering) presented the project “Hydration Cup: An Intelligent Hydration-Tracking Cup Holder Targeting Elderly Patients in Retirement Homes.” The work was advised by Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint and Assistant Professor of Computer Science Diana Freed, and was supported by an UTRA.
Alicia Chen ’28 (chemical engineering) was advised by 250th Anniversary Professor Kurt Pennell on the project “Phase Partitioning of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Air-Water Systems.” Chen was supported by an UTRA.
Associate Professor Ian Y. Wong advised Karen Chien ’27 (biomedical engineering) on the research “Modeling Tumor-Stromal Interactions in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.” Chien was supported by an UTRA.
“Subcycle Polarization Dynamics in the Terahertz Band,” was the poster presented by Jacob DiCrescenzo ’28 (electrical engineering). DiCrescenzo was advised by Daniel Mittleman and supported by an AUR Fellowship.
Anis Elgomati ’29 (electrical engineering) and Nicolas Leon ’29 (mechanical engineering, computer science) were supported by an UTRA to present the project, “Living the Good Life in Space: A Lunar Recreation Habitat.” They were advised by Adjunct Associate Professor Rick Fleeter.
Professor Jay Tang advised Maram Eltibi ’29 (biomedical engineering) on her project, “Exploring Dendritic Colony Spread of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Towards a Mechanism Based on Bacterial Growth and Fluid Dynamics.” Eltibi was supported by an UTRA.
Luke Frank ’27 (biomedical engineering) was advised by Elaine I. Savage Professor Anita Shukla and supported by an UTRA. Frank presented the research, “Design and Validation of a Low-Cost CO2 Co-culture Chamber for Bacterial-Mammalian Cell Studies.”
Piete Gatesi ’27(engineering physics) presented “Introducing Surface Layer Compressive Stress in LLZO via Co-Sintering to Enhance Electrochemical Performance of Li/Li Cells.” She was advised by Professor Brian Sheldon and supported by an UTRA.
Associate Professor Jonghwan Lee advised James Gottfried ’28 (computer engineering) on the project “Cross-Dataset Evaluation of Retinal OCTA Vessel Segmentation for Alzheimer’s Biomarkers.” Gottfried was supported by an AUR Fellowship.
“Optimization of Tissue Dissociation for Enhanced Single-Cell Recovery from Beef Liver” was the poster presented by Marie Kasongo ’28 (biomedical engineering). Kasongo’s summer research was supported by an UTRA, and she was advised by C.V. Starr Professor Anubhav Tripathi.
Malik Kouyate ’29 (electrical engineering) was supported by the Presidential Scholars Program and advised by Associate Professor Nora Ayanian, to investigate “How Do Navigation Robots Sense and Function?”
Constantine Krenteras ’28 (electrical engineering) was advised and supported by the lab of Associate Professor Jonghwan Lee. “Architecture and Topology-Constrained Loss for Biomarker-Aware OCTA Vessel Segmentation: A Comparative Analysis” was the title of the research.
Dylan Lai ’27 (biomedical engineering) was advised by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Megan Kizer on the poster “Transcriptomic Glycomic, and Spheroid-Based Characterizations of 2D and 3D Cultures of Three Commercially Available Endometrial Cancer Cell Lines.” The work was supported by an AUR Fellowship.
“Exploring Two Photon Polymerization with AI,” was the project presented by Kai Lowrance ’29 (materials engineering). Lowrance was advised by Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint and supported by an UTRA.
Jayanth Mani ’28 (computer engineering) and William Stone ’27 (computer engineering) presented the research “ShatterNet: Progress-Dependent Parameter Sharing for Continuous Control.” They were advised by Assistant Professor Leo Kozachkov and supported by an UTRA.
Peyton Marcotte ’27 (mechanical engineering) was supported by a NASA Rhode Island Space Grant to present “Precision Motion and Resistance Cube (PMARC).” Marcotte’s adviser was Adjunct Associate Professor Rick Fleeter.
Giancarlo Mendoza ’27 (electrical engineering, music) presented the research, “Exploring Two-Photon Polymerization with AI.” Mendoza was advised by Thomas J. Watson Sr. Professor of Science Kimani Toussaint and supported by an UTRA.
Mira Needlman ’28 (mechanical engineering) was advised by 250th anniversary Professor Kurt Pennell and Assistant Professor of Research Uriel Garza Rubalcava for the project “Removal of Microplastics and PFAS from Water Using Foam Fractionation Systems.” The work was supported by an UTRA.
Asa Rosenmeier ’27 (electrical engineering) presented the research, “Anomalous Capacitance in All-Silicon Memristor.” Rosenmeier was advised by Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. ’32 University Professor Jimmy Xu, and supported by an AUR Fellowship.
Charlie Schuman ’28 (electrical engineering) and Jayla Hsiung ’28 (electrical engineering) were supported by the School of Engineering and advised by Associate Professor Jacob Rosenstein and Applied Mathematics’ Postdoctoral Researcher Juliana Londoño Álvarez on the project “Low-Power Analog Electronic Neural Networks with Sustained Oscillations.”
Kevin Truong ’29 (biomedical engineering) presented the research “Development, Optimization & Open-Source Automation of Extracellular Vesicle Immunoprecipitation Workflow using Opentrons OT-2 Liquid Handling Robot.” Truong was advised by C.V. Starr Professor Anubhav Tripathi and supported by the Presidential Scholars Program.
Lucas Kover Wolf ’28 (mathematics, computer science) and Liam Rivers ’29 (mechanical engineering) presented work on “Twitch Plays Spot: Virtual Reality Teleoperation for Human-Robot Teams.” The group was advised by Professor Stefanie Tellex and supported by an UTRA.
PJ Wrubel ’28 (environmental engineering) was advised by 250th Anniversary Professor Kurt Pennell on the project “Studying Natural Organic Matter Competitive Interactions with PFAS Sorption by CCP-A Activated Carbon.” Wrubel’s work was supported by an AUR Fellowship.
Cavin Xue ’28 (biomedical engineering) presented research on “Optimized Hypoxia Preconditioning to Improve Survival and Function of Delivered Human iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes.” Xue was advised by Associate Professor Kareen Coulombe, and supported by an UTRA.
Lisa Yan ’28 (biomedical engineering) presented the research “Sustained Angiogenic Protein Delivery from a Biomaterial Film Modulates Cardiomyocyte Remodeling in hiPSC-derived Engineered Human Myocardium.” Yan’s adviser was Professor Kareen Coulombe and the work was supported by an UTRA.
Twenty presentations were advised by School of Engineering faculty members for students concentrating in areas other than engineering, including Associate Professor David Borton, Associate Professor Eric Darling, Royce Family Associate Professor of Teaching Daniel Harris, L. Herbert Ballou University Professor Leigh Hochberg, Associate Professor Diane Hoffman-Kim, Associate Professor Jonghwan Lee, Assistant Professor Ben McDonald, Professor Edith Mathiowicz, Professor Daniel Mittleman, Manning Assistant Professor Theresa Raimondo, Professor Brian Sheldon, Professor of Research John Simeral, Professor Jay Tang, C.V. Starr Professor Anubhav Tripathi, Senior Research Associate Daniel Watkins, and Thomas J. and Alice M. Tisch Assistant Professor Monica Martinez Wilhelmus.
Associate Professor Nora Ayanian mentored students who visited Brown from the Savannah College of Art and Design and the University of Washington. These collaborations were through the University's Leadership Alliance through its Summer Research – Early Identification Program, and an NSF REU- AI for Computational Creativity program hosted by Brown Computer Science. The results of these summer research projects were presented at the symposium as well.
For more photos of Engineering undergraduate presenters and their advisers, see our Flickr album.