This summer, the School of Engineering established the Undergraduate Summer Research Residency program, which provided fully funded research opportunities for 27 students under the mentorship of faculty members.
The goal of the program is to build an undergraduate research ecosystem and promote research skills and interests early in their studies.
Mechanical engineering students Manjot Singh ’23, Andrew Conti ’23, and Sergey Shemetun ’23 pursued research under the guidance of Dean Andres Leonardo Carrano, PhD, on a project entitled “Investigation of Optimal Growth Conditions for Root Vegetables in Microgravity Environments.” The NASA-funded project seeks to advance deep-space manned-missions by developing a 3D printing module to reliably grow root vegetables in outer space, a difficult-to-grow but important crop to fully sustain nutritional needs of a crew. When growing vegetables in space, crews face challenges including maintaining water and nutrient delivery, lighting conditions, and support structure for the root zone growth in a microgravity environment.
The team developed two experimental setups — one to test the lighting parameters and the second for irrigation frequency and soil parameters.
“During this project, I not only gained significant research experience, but also grew as a team member and a critical thinker who is able to apply complex engineering techniques to real-life scenarios,” said Singh.
As a summer research assistant, biomedical engineering student Brigid Protzmann ’23 continued her research under the mentorship of John Drazan, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. The project involved Achilles tendon injuries and coding machine learning algorithms to classify recreational activities using data from wearable sensors. The objective of this project is to develop a machine learning approach using insole sensors to classify gait parameters at different speeds and inclines while engaged in an activity. “In the future, we’re hoping to predict which reactional activities might lead to an Achilles tendon injury,” explained Protzmann.
Other research projects being conducted on campus this summer ranged from analyzing cyber-threats using data collected from honeypots, to measuring trust and performance in human artificial intelligence interaction, to printing scaffolds with cells using a BioX 3D printer.
At the conclusion of the program, each student received their completion certificate and presented their posters at a summer symposium.
“The level of excitement was impressive. All attendees responded to an exit survey and asked to be involved in the program again in the future,” said Associate Dean Elif Kongar, PhD. “I was personally very impressed by their engagement, professionalism, work ethic, and great attitude toward research throughout the program.”
