More than 200 undergraduates gathered in Sayles Hall on August 2 and 3 to present the results of their research at the annual Summer Research Symposium sponsored by the Office of the Dean of the College. More than 30 of the posters 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 Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRAs).
"Research not only helps students better understand the specific topic of their projects, but it also reinforces the power of inquiry," said Rashid Zia, Brown's Dean of the College and an Engineering and Physics Associate Professor. "Students can appreciate the dynamic nature of knowledge, and see how their own effort can advance understanding."
Aaron Brown '19, a mechanical engineering concentrator said, "This summer gave me great hands-on experience in experimental research. I was using this opportunity as a trial run to see if I would enjoy research in graduate school, and because of this UTRA, my plans for graduate school have solidified."
Biomedical engineering student Sumaiya Sayeed '20 said, "The creativity and problem-solving was what made me so excited about the research process."
Engineering student presentations included:
Itzel Aponte '19 (biomedical engineering) and Bruno Felalaga '20 (electrical engineering) presented a poster entitled, "Test and Optimization of High-Throughput OCT Assessment of Cellular Viability Using Liver Tumor Spheroids." Assistant Professor Jonghwan Lee mentored Aponte and Felalaga, who were supported with an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Bruno Felalaga '20 and Itzel Aponte '19
Jessica Bellows '18 (biomedical engineering) presented her poster "Designing and Characterizing Anisotrophy in Fibrous Scaffold Materials for Engineered Myocardium." Bellows was supported by faculty mentor Kareen Coulombe and an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Jonathan Lee '21 (biomedical engineering) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award. He joined with Andrew Brodsky '19 (mechanical engineering), Ph.D. candidate Francis Cui (biomedical engineering) and Jacob Feder '18 (computer engineering) to present research on "Microchip Integrated PCR." The group was mentored by Professor Anubhav Tripathi.
Jonathan Lee '21 and Jacob Feder '18
Aaron Brown '19 (mechanical engineering), Reed Brown '19 (mechanical engineering), and Shaunak Shende '19 (mechanical engineering) received an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and worked with Assistant Professor Shreyas Mandre to present the group posters "Computational and Experimental Fluid Dynamics for Designing Arrays of Hydrokinetic Turbines."
Beatriz de Arruda '19 (biomedical engineering) worked with Assistant Professor David Borton to present the poster, "Development of a Wireless Implantable Electromyography System for Recording Muscle Activity in Freely-Moving Animals." The project was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Beatriz de Arruda '19
Anthony Capobianco '21 (engineering physics) and Andrew Duncombe '21 (computer engineering) were supported by a Space Grant/NASA. Adjunct Associate Professor Rick Fleeter advised on the poster, "Brown Space Engineering: Space for the Masses."
Eric DuBois '20 (biomedical engineering) worked with Assistant Professor Ian Wong on his poster "Magnetic Nanocomposite Hydrogels with Responsive, Self-Healing Properties." DuBois was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Jasmine Gabor '21 (biomedical engineering) worked with Assistant Professor Kareen Coulombe to present her poster "Effects of BPA on Female Cardiomyocyte Function." Gabor was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
PhD Candidates Alicia Minor, Cassidy Rupert, and Jasmine Gabor '21
Working with faculty mentor Jonghwan Lee, Gaia-Marie Gerbaka '21 (biomedical engineering and neuroscience) presented a poster entitled, "Gold Nanorod-Enhanced Near-Infrared Neural Stimulation for Photonic Retinal Prosthesis." The research was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Nishan Khanal '20 (mechanical engineering) worked with Professor Harvey Silverman and presented the poster, "Objective Assessment of Newborn Infant Issues by Analyzing the Infant's Cry." The research was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Nishan Khanal '20 and Professor Harvey Silverman
Zachary Neronha '19 (biomedical engineering) was awarded a DiMase Summer Research Fellowship, and presented his research on "Motility-Limited Aggregation of Mammary Epithelial Cells into Fractal-Like Clusters." Neronha was supported by Assistant Professor Ian Wong.
Teijiro Nishimura '19 (materials engineering) worked with Professor Brian Sheldon, and presented the poster "Impedance Measurements in LiMn204 Spinel Cathodes for Li Ion Batteries". The research was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Alicia Rocha '20 (biomedical engineering) presented a poster entitled "Increasing Mesenchymal Stem Cell Viability on Gellan Hydrogels with Click Chemistry." She was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and Assistant Professor Anita Shukla.
Shukla also mentored Hannah Safford '19 (biomedical engineering) in her project "Characterizing Chromogenic Beta-Lactamase Substrates for Diagnostic Hydrogels." Safford was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Sumaiya Sayeed '20 (biomedical engineering) conducted research with Professor Anubhav Tripathi. Her poster, "Enrichment of JEG-3 Cells by Intrinsic Surface Adhesion Properties," was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Soobin Wang '19 (biomedical engineering) was mentored by Assistant Professor Anita Shukla to present the poster, "Assembly of Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films for Controlled Delivery of SHP099." Wang was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Postdoc Alessia Battigelli, PhD Candidate Dahlia Alkekhia, Assistant Professor Anita Shukla, and Soobin Wang '19
Engineering faculty advised students from other departments with the following presentations:
Allen Green '21 (biochemistry) was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and Professor Robert Hurt. He presented the poster, "Biological and Environmental Interaction of Manganese Dioxide."
Jeffrey Hsu '19 (biochemistry and molecular biology) was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present the poster, "Characterizing Putative Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition Phenotype of Ovarian Cancer Spheroids in Three-Dimensional Hydrogel Scaffolds." He was mentored by Assistant Professor Michelle Dawson.
Amy Huang '20 (computer science) presented a poster entitled, "Power Modeling of Processing-in-Memory Systems for Concurrent Computing." She was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) and mentored by Professor Iris Bahar.
Kali Rigby '19 (chemistry) was awarded an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to present her research, "Removing Viruses from Drinking Water Using Magnetic Particles." She was supported by Professor Vicki Colvin.
Hannah Szapary '19 (classics and applied math-biology) presented the poster, "Investigating the Use of a Nanopore Mass Spectrometer for Proteomic Analysis of Post-Translational Modifications." She was supported by Associate Professor Derek Stein and an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Olivia Woodford-Berry '19 (biochemistry and molecular biology) was mentored by Assistant Professor Eric Darling to present the poster "Antibody Internalization in Mammalian Cells." Woodford-Berry was supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA).
Olivia Woodford-Berry '19
Joy Zheng '21 (physics and computer science) was mentored by Assistant Professor Jay Tang and supported by an Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). She presented the poster, "Electric Field Drives Rolling Motion of Tethered Bacteria."
Engineering professors Iris Bahar, Michelle Dawson, Gregory Jay, Nitin Padture, Eric Suuberg, and Rashid Zia also mentored undergraduates from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Rhode Island College, Rowan University, Tougaloo College, and the University of California – Los Angeles on their research posters.
More than half of the students participating in the Summer Research Symposium received support for their research through Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA). Generous support was also provided through several other programs including: American Physiological Society Fellowship, BP-Endure, Bridgewater State University Internship in conjunction with Brown University, Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, Computer Research Association – Distributed Research Experience for undergraduates, DiMase Summer Research Fellowship, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR-NSF), Hassenfeld Child Health Summer Scholars, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES), Institute for Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (IMNI), Leadership Alliance-Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP), Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Program in Liberal Medical Education Summer Research Assistantship, RI-INBRE, Royce Fellowship, School of Engineering Summer Research, Skidmore Summer Experience Fund, Space Grant/NASA, Summer Research Assistantship in Biomedical Sciences, and Weiss-Sipprelle Summer Undergraduate Fellows.