Chemical Engineering Student Internships, Co-Ops And REUs
Above and beyond classes, independent study and involvement in research is encouraged for all interested students. This takes place often in the form of summer internships with industry and research centers, and REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) experiences in other universities. The following is a list of the amazing activities past and current Florida Tech chemical engineering students have worked on.
2022
Jeremy Land ('24) worked in the Guisbert Lab at Florida Tech, doing biological research. This research entailed conducting lifespan assays with several variants of genetically engineered Caenorhabditis elegans. The goal was to determine how expression of Heat Shock Factor (HSF) proteins affect life expectancy in C. elegans. As most molecular pathways are conserved in eukaryotes, including humans, these results could be used to better understand and mitigate the effects of aging.
Jamielyn Jarvis ('23) participated in the University of South Carolina’s CO2 REU program. She worked on carbon capture, more specifically analyzing the effect of H2O on the CO2 working capacity of pristine 13X zeolite and 13X that was modified using molecular layer deposition. She also worked in Dr. Kishore's Functional Biomaterials laboratory at Florida Tech and gained hands on experience in cell culture, cell-based assays, as well as microscopy techniques such as confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
Hunter Smith ('23) worked on an internship at Gerdau Steel Production plant in Virginia to help improve the melt shop production process. He mainly learned about new equipment installation and writing procedures on how to operate the machinery. One of the main equipment that Hunter worked on was an optical emission spectrometer with a robot arm to allow for automatic and rapid processing of steel samples.
2021
Daniel Buwalda ('22) worked as a R&D intern during the summer of 2021 at Helicon Chemical in Orlando FL, a start-up company that primarily develops fuel additives for rocket propulsion and also has other projects concerning energetic nanoparticles.
Dylan Huss ('21) worked remotely on an internship with Solar Transport Systems, United Kingdom in summer 2021. During this internship, she worked on the INDI Solar Powered Car Project and investigated on the state of solar cells and panels in the pursuit of a fully sustainable project. She participated in a 6-hour training course by Solar Energy International on Renewable Energy, modeled wiring layouts for the arrangement of solar cells with diodes, initiated communication with vendors, and searched literature and user forums for design knowledge and recommendations.
Dylan Huss ('21) interned in the In-Situ Resource Utilization group at NASA (Houston, TX) supporting the engineering development to mine the Moon for water ice. She conducted safety calculations with dry ice in closed spaces and used the NASA Lessons Learned database as a basis for Preliminary Design Review requirements. She also reviewed test data and made flow comparisons in 1-g versus 1/6-g using video analysis and PowerPoint features.
Angelina Noll ('21) worked on an internship at Collins Aerospace in Jacksonville Florida in summer 2021. In her role as general engineering intern, Annie worked on creating infusion panels with carbon composite materials. She also performed analysis of both chemical and physical properties of the panels. In addition, she worked on a batch reactor processor and helped write the user’s manual for it.
Wendy Zhou ('23) worked on an electrochemisty project in the laboratory of Dr. Pavithra Pathirathna in the Chemistry program at Florida Tech assisting in research focused on detecting toxic metals in human blood.
Jamielyn Jarvis ('23) worked in Dr. Takenaka's research lab at Florida Tech focusing on organic catalysis. Here, she learned about different characterization apparatus and techniques for synthesis and purification of catalysts.
2020
Ethan Kennedy ('20) interned at Engineered Polymer Products (EPP) during the Summer of 2019 and 2020. His work entailed assisting in process engineering of polyurethane and in the production of composites for undersea applications. He also worked on developing new cost-effective methods for the production of these materials.
Jessica Peterson ('20) worked on an internship at Northrop Grumman during the Summer of 2020. In her role as a product owner, she headed a group of 9 interns and oversaw a software tool for the entire software development life cycle. She also designed front-end user interface dashboard and pages for new software tool using HTML, analyzed Sprint methods in Agile for software tools team to increase productivity, and accelerated the on-boarding process of new hires and interns over the summer.
2019
Reed Coffey ('20) worked on an internship at L3 Harris in Palm Bay, Florida. His work entailed manufacturing printed circuit boards and assisting electrolytic and electroless copper and nickel plating baths. He also worked on building a self-replenishing acd-etcher system for copper etching.
Jack Carson ('20) worked at the Florida Tech Polymer Research lab at Florida Tech in Summer 2019. His main duties were to formulate, produce, and test prototype flame-retardant polyurethane foams for various clients.
Jessica Peterson ('20) worked at Titan America LLC where she batched, tested, and evaluated fresh and hardened properties and mechanisms of concrete. She also built the State of Florida Batching Accuracy Manual for Titan America plant supervisors.
Audrey Keenan ('21) worked on an internship at Southern Petroleum Laboratories at Houston, TX. She was responsible for performing analyses of hydrocarbon liquid and gas samples in a high volume laboratory. Analyses included crude assay, reid vapor pressure, total sulfur content, and gas chromatography.
2018
Jessica Peterson ('20) worked on an internship at Northrop Grumman Corporation in Summer 2018. During her internship, Jessica headed a group of 4 people in software network development analysis and also contributed to standup of two unclassified development systems by constructing multiple complete system interconnect diagrams and spreadsheets.
Hirad Ahmad ('19) worked on an internship at Chemical Engineering Works and Foundries Pvt Ltd in Pakistan. The company specializes in casting and machining products mainly for the automotive industry. Hirad learned a variety of different skills during his internship that include melting, casting and quality assurance as well as material processing techniques such as annealing, tempering and carburizing.
2017
Thais Sousa ('18) worked as a paper production intern at Copelme S.A., Cochabamba, Bolivia in Summer 2017. She worked in the manufacturing area where she performed sample analysis using alkalinity and hardness tests. She tested color combinations used for the production of recycled paper napkins. She also designed flow charts for the company's residual water treatment plant using SmartDraw.
Martha Perez Linares ('18) worked on an internship at Goldman Sachs in Summer 2017. She worked as a business analyst that gave her the opportunity to interact with colleagues with different backgrounds in the finance industry and helped develop her critical and analytical skills. She gained experience in automating and standardizing different processes to improve efficiency and reduce associated costs.
Marina Debiasi ('18) worked on an internship at Ford motor company in the electrified powertrain engineering (EPE) department of product development in the battery cell modeling and integration team. She worked on modeling the 2020 battery electric vehicle and earned a certification in high voltage training which allowed her to view battery testing.
Sierra Melton ('18) participated in a research project at Florda Tech focusing on developing a new method to monitor underground nuclear testing by detecting emission of radioactive gases. Specifically, she investigated the effects of atmospheric stability and wind speed on the concentration of emitted gases in the soil and plants. This research was sponsored by the US department of state's verification fund.
Javaz Rolle ('18) worked on an internship at a pharmaceutical plant in Freeport, Bahamas. His work at Pharmachem Grand Bahama Limited involved performing various calculations involving pumps, filter dryers, reactors and cooling towers. He also assisted engineers with equipment alterations around the plant.
2016
Jillian Collins ('18) worked as an engineering intern at Novinium in Summer 2016. She designed and conducted experiments to measure the permeability, viscosity and absorption rates of cable rejuvenation with silicon based fluids. At the end of her internship, she presented her findings to the Novinium engineering team.
Samantha Estabrooks ('18) worked as a materials engineering intern at Mainstream Engineering in Rockledge, FL in Summer and Fall 2016. Her project focused on gas storage using carbon nanotubes. She also worked independently on the development of a novel material to be used in heat spreaders.
2015
Kristen Safford ('18) worked in a internship at RSA Corporation in Danbury, CT in Summer 2014 and Summer 2015. During her internship, Kristen learned about different types of analysis such as titrations and IR spectrometry. She also gained knowledge on batch reactors.
Abdullah Kurdi ('16) worked on an internship at Aramco Research Center in Cambridge, MA in Summer 2015. He worked in the Downstream Department with the Advanced Materials team for developing an enhanced catalyst. His duties included characterizing the catalysts using thermal analysis, microscopy and spectroscopy. He compiled a report and presented his work to the Downstream Department at the completion of his internship.
Kristin Howe ('16) performed research at the University of South Carolina in Summer 2015. Her research focused on the process of catalytic tri-reforming to convert methane and carbon dioxide to syngas (hydrogen and carbon monooxide) for use in the production of diesel fuel. She synthesized nickel nanoparticle catalysts and tested them in reactors by flowing the tri-reforming gas mixture at high temperatures. She used x-ray diffraction to characterize the catalysts and gas chromatography to analyze the output stream from the reactor.
Hani Baatiyyah ('16) worked on an internship at Schlumberger in Saudi Arabia in Summer 2015. He worked as a mud engineer and his duties included testing and analyzing the various physical properties (e.g. density, viscosity) of mud. Hani also attended a safety course to handle chemicals such as H2S.
Hamed Al Hinai ('16) worked on an internship at Schlumberger in the Sultanate of Oman in Summer 2015. During this internship, Hamed worked with hydraulic seating tools and coil tubing system. He performed Reynolds number calculations and monitored temperature, pressure difference and velocity during the oil recovery process.
Craig Boger ('16) worked on an internship at Harris Corporation in Palm Bay, FL in Summer 2015. He worked as a Microelectronics intern and some of his duties included creating a data analysis software in Excel VBA to recognize valid data sets, researching on methods of materials surface preparation and cleaning for scaled down applications, and performing materials and contaminate analysis with optical and electron microscopy techniques. Craig also employed contaminate prevention methods for manufacture of MEMS and learned about printed circuit board fabrication.
Samantha Martinez ('16) participated in the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Fossil Energy) in Summer 2015. She worked on establishing a financial model to optimize the recovery of rare earth elements from new mines. As a part of the program, she also visited several power plants and production plants and presented her research at a technical forum in Pittsburgh.
Katherine Stewart ('16) worked on an internship at Harris Corporation in Summer 2015. She worked in grade 1000 and 10000 cleanrooms and her duties included studying, analyzing and proposing solutions to problems in research and development in Wafer Level Processing.
Emmanuel Akpan ('16) worked on an internship at SAPA Precision Tubing in Rockledge, FL in Summer 2015. He worked as a Statistical Process Control intern and his duties included data collection and generating statistical process control charts to develop and document reaction plan.
Ashley Vezina ('16) performed research at Dr. Xu's lab in the department of biology at Florida Tech in Summer 2015. Her project focused on Alzheimer Disease pathogenesis. She studied gel formation and amyloid fiber formation rates associated with Alzheimers by incubating different regions of sheep brain in an amyloidgenic protein solution.
Troy Bakley ('16) worked on an internship at iBox Printers in Summer 2015. During this internship, Troy helped develop a production 3D printer.
2014
Sarah Qaiser ('16) worked as a Quality Control Technician at Absolutely Natural Inc. in Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. Her duties included performing visual, olfactory, pH, viscosity, specific gravity and microbial tests on incoming raw materials and manufactured skin products.
Corey Mason ('16) worked on an internship at DRS Technologies in Melbourne, FL in Summer 2014. He worked as Government property intern and was involved with managing inventory and conducting audits at plant locations. During the internship, Corey got first hand experience working in a large scale production plant and he learned about planning, team work and other key aspects involved in manufacturing products.
2013
Sydney Smead ('14) worked on an internship at Appleton, WI in Summer 2013. Her duties included research industry testing protocols, construct and execute a green chemistry experiment, apply company's existing capabilities to new markets and technologies, participate in a Kaizan event to standardize research project pipeline.
Amy Frydryck ('14) worked on an internship at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA during the Summer of 2013. She worked to create a GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) method to analyze FAME species. She presented the results from her work to the Metabolism group at Pfizer.
2012
Andrew McCaskill ('13) worked on an internship with the DEVELOP program at NASA Langley Research Center in Summer 2012. The program employs remote sensing to various applications areas such as climate change, agriculture and disaster mitigation. He worked on SatNet which is an online access point for novice users to access and process satellite data.
Sydney Smead ('14) worked on an internship in Spring and Summer 2012 at Appleton Papers Thermal R+T Co-op. She performed proprietary work involving rheological evaluation of coatings, material evaluation of paper stock, cost reduction and product optimization, environmental improvements and raw material evaluation.
Allison Marshall ('14) performed research at Florida Tech under the guidance of Dr. Brenner in Summer 2012. Her duties involved gathering information and writing a literature review on gene gun technology.
Amy Frydryck ('14) worked on an internship at Pfizer in Cambridge, MA during the Summer of 2012. She worked with mass spectrometer and liquid chromatography to examine lipids and other small molecules. She worked on developing a method to measure the concentration of ATP, ADP and AMP. She was involved in preparing rat plasma and liver tissue samples and also performed data analysis using Excel.
Brittany Kociuba ('14) performed research in Dr. Novak's lab at Florida Tech from Fall 2010-Fall 2012. She presented a poster based on her work at the FAME Chemistry Conference.
Alayibo Semenitari ('14) worked on an internship at Ferrate Treatment Technology under Dr. T.D. Waite. During the internship, she learnt about the importance of cost and environmental effects on production.
Mitchell Solomon ('14) worked on an internship at Mainstream Engineering Corporation in Fall 2012. He worked on two projects. The first project focused on testing and modification of pyrolytic solid waste remediation system for the purpose of converting solid biomass waste into combustible bio-oil. The second project focused on developing a protocol for synthesizing PbTe nanowires for increasing the materials thermoelectric for waste heat recovery from diesel generators.
Katrina Conn ('14) worked on an internship at Ferrate Treatment Technologies in Summer 2012. Her duties included using chemical ferrate in treatability studies for the treatment of wastewater and drinking water.
Shavi Tolan ('14) performed research in the Chemistry department at Florida Tech in Summer and Fall 2012. Her research focused on the effects of Fe(VI) on Ampicillin. She travelled to China to present a paper based on her work on Fe(VI) on Beta-Lactam antibiotics. The paper was presented at the International Symposium for Environmental Science and Technology (ISEST).
2011
Andres Philips ('12) worked with Dr. Brenner at Florida Tech in Summer 2011. He assisted Dr. Brenner to prepare a manuscript on Creating a Nanoscience and Nanotechnology minor at Florida Tech for the National Science Foundation. His work also involved compiling and processing data generated by students in the nanotechnology courses and also redo some experiments to generate additional data. He also performed particle analysis of images taken using an atomic force microscope.
Angela Troxell ('12) completed a 12-week internship at UOP LLC, a Honeywell company in Des Plaines, IL in Summer 2011. She worked in the Materials Characterization group in the R&D division to demonstrate the applicability of a fluid properties analysis sensor to a hydroprocessing pilot plant at the facility. She performed a number of proof of principle experiments using hydrocarbons and pilot plant samples and presented her results to the sensors team and senior level scientists at UOP.
Austin Wagenhals ('12) worked for the Materials Group in Rockford, MI in Summer 2011. She gained experience in working with plastic recycling, blending and extrusion.
Janelle Branch ('12) worked as and Environmental, Health and Safety intern for INVISTA in Summer 2011. Her duties included working with upper environmental management staff to perform statistical analysis on environmental aspects for the company's numerous domestic and international manufacturing sites. She also worked on a project to ensure continuous compliance with TCRA requirements for one facility. Additionally, she also performed a gap analysis between the company's environmental management system and guidelines set forth by the ISO 14001 standard.
Nicole Marshall ('12) worked on an internship at Tyndall AFB in Summer 2011. She worked at the Energy Lab of the Air Force Research Laboratory and conducted research on converting algae biomass to biofuels. Specifically, her research focused on the energy content of sea water and fresh water micro-algae, and how different flocculation techniques of the algae affected their energy content.
Amen MaryAnn Igbiniesu ('14) worked on an internship in the plant monitoring department of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Summer 2011.
2010
Dominic Casali (’11) worked at the NSF REU Program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC in Summer 2010. His project involved computer modeling of the degradation of lithium-ion batteries for the development of newer and safer battery management systems, particularly for hard-to-monitor applications, such as satellites, submarines, and hybrid electric vehicles.
Jonathan Kucharyson (’11) worked over the Summer 2010 on a research project in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Tech. He used molecular rotors to collect viscosity measurements for the amyloid fibers involved in Alzheimer's disease. The fibers formed a thick gel, therefore conventional means of measuring viscosity, such as cone-and-plate or coaxial cylinder viscometers, were not applicable.
Hilary Sofastaii (’11) worked on an internship in Summer 2010 at the Noblis Air Traffic Control Simulation and Modeling Facility. She aided in designing experiments testing different air traffic control technologies and procedures; organized input and output data sets for more effective/efficient data querying, and established customized configurations management processes for off-the-shelf software and tools.
Janelle Branch ('12) participated in the REU program at the University of Maryland during the Summer of 2010. The project was sponsored by NSF and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Department with Dr. Martinez-Mironda. The project was titled: Liquid Crystal ZnO Nanoparticle Photovoltaics: Role of Nanoparticles in Ordering the Liquid Crystal. In this project, the ZnO nanoparticles and octylcyanobipheryl (8CB) were combined in order to observe the effect of order on the transfer of charges.
Nicole Marshall ('12) attended the REU at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH during Summer 2010. Her project focused on Dielectric Properties at Elevated Temperatures. She tested and analyzed the dielectric strength of polymers at room temperature and elevated temperatures and concluded that as the temperature increased the breakdown strength of the polymer films decreased. She also studied the effect microlayering on the dielectric properties of polymer films.
Gilbert A. Castillo ('11) worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on a project entitled "Improving Adhesion of A793 thermol coating on composite materials" in Summer 2010. His work involved improving the adhesion of A793 on composites. Thermal coatings are used on spacecrafts to protect them from harmful radiation from the sun and keep the equipment at optimal operating temperatures. As composite materials become more popular, it is important to characterize these thermal coatings on composites.
Michelle Karl ('11) worked on an internship with Arch Chemicals at Charleston, TN in Summer 2010. Her main duties included collecting paste samples from the paste chlorinators and running them through a size analyzer. She characterized the D50 (median diameter) sanokes and plotted the data versus various parameters such as temperature, pH, time since last wash etc. to correlate between crystal size and production rate.
Matthew Melvin ('11) worked on an internship at Capaccio Environmental Engineering, Inc. during the Summer of 2010. The design aspect focused mainly on systems to comply with environmental regulations. These systems mainly included wastewater, soil remediation, and air scrubber design. Environmental reporting was also done. The main industries that were served are semiconductors, pharmaceutical, food processing, and chemical treatment processes.
Sebastian Ross ('11) worked under Dr. Brenner as a teaching assistant in Summer 2010. His duties included testing and setting up several labs for the nanotech courses to be offered in Fall 2011. He also assisted in teaching a class, processing the lab results and imaging samples using SEM, TEM, AFM and STM.
Brice Peters ('11) worked on an internship with Progress Energy at a Nuclear Power Plant in Crystal River, FL during the Summer of 2010. He worked with the senior chemical engineer who had control of secondary water processes. He gained experience working with mass balances, energy balances, and problem solving.
2009
Oluwaseyi Ayo Fowode ('11) - Worked as an intern at Fine Organics Ltd. during the summer of 2009. He worked at the Process Optimization/ Management department, for the production of major pharmaceuticals called FAP, OXYTRIZOLE and OCTOPAMINE. His role was to supervise and inspect the engineers and chemists during the production process and generate optimization assessments on how to create the products faster and with a smaller cost.
Hilary Sofastaii ('11) - Worked as an intern at Northrop Grumman - IT solutions during the summer of 2009. She worked at the Systems Engineering/Project Management department, on systems integration of legacy software in the Pascagoula, MS shipyard. She tested and implemented products of a European software company. Her major role was the design and implementation of a 90-day post Go-live support plan.
Aaron Liebold ('11) - Worked as an intern at KSC with the Dynamax corporation during the summer of 2009. His internship involved data analysis, operating and modifying Cambell Scientific data logging equipment, modifying the sensing, data collecting, and control equipment and software (CR Basic), and operating gas handling equipment.
David Piryk ('10) - Worked as an intern at NASA/Analex Corp. in the summer of 2009. He was involved in a project to design and develop NASA's next generation lightning detection systems for the Launch Services Program, using the Labview 8.5 software. The program addressed the major concern caused by lightning around the launch pads at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
2008
Ian McCarrell ('10)- Worked as an intern at Mainstream Engineering Corp. during the summer of 2008. He worked on a project titled "Development of a Self-Healing, Self-Hydrating Ration Pack." The goal of the project was to develop a product that can heat and hydrate dehydrated military rations using any fresh water source. His responsibilities included researching, designing, and testing prototypes that satisfied the scope of the project.
David Piryk ('10)- Worked as an intern at NASA/Analex Corp. as a materials analyst during the summer of 2008. He worked in a electromagnetic compatibility (EMC/EMI) analysis group under the Expendable Launch Vehicle Integration Support (ELVIS) contract for the Launch Services Program (LSP). The scope of the project was to perform materials research for understanding lightning phenomena at nearby launch sites. He also worked on another assignment researching high-performance polymer composite matrices for use in rocket motor nozzles.
Nolan Gallagher ('09) - Worked as a research assistant at the Nebraska medical center during the summer of 2008. His job was to fabricate two-dimensional porous polymer scaffolds for the seeding, proliferation and differentiation of all three types of retinal stem cells: photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and gangliar cells. This research aims at creating an artificial retina by generating and combining layers of all three types of cells.
Aubrey Heath ('09)- Participated in a REU at Texas A&M University on the project titled "Extracting Lipids from Wastewater Sludge to Produce Biodiesel" during the summer of 2008. She worked on simulations for extracting the lipids (triglycerides and free-fatty acids) from a complex mixture of wastewater sludge. The goal of the project was to use the lipid product as an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production.
Christine Flemming ('09)- Participated in a REU at the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) during the summer of 2008 on the project titled "Lignin Fibers: Creating Value-Added Polymeric Materials for 2nd Generation Biorefineries." Her job was to make lignin-containing fibers via the method of electro-spinning.
Charmaine Flemming ('09)- Participated in a REU at the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) during the summer of 2008 on the project titled "Sustainable Nanocomposites." Her task for the project was to examine the thermomechanical properties of nanocomposites made with polyactide (polymer) and multi-walled nanotubes (filler). The composites were analyzed using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical testing, and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Kelly Johansen ('09)- Worked as an intern at ATK Space Systems Launch Division, on the Minuteman III Program, during the summer of 2008. She worked on the completion of igniter performance reports based on Lot Acceptance Testing (LAT) and the updating of the Change Control Board (CCB) database. She also created a database with all the motor inspection findings, and assisted senior engineers in the resolution of production issues at the finishing building, where the rocket motors are assembled for delivery to the Air Force.
2007
Michelle Congdon ('09)- Participated in a REU at the University of South Carolina on the project titled "Methanol Crossover in a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC): Effect of Temperature, Cathode Loading, and Cell Compression" during the summer of 2007. She prepared electrodes with varying catalyst loadings and worked on the characterization of the effects of the variables that affect DMFC operation, with the goal of finding the optimal operating conditions.
Kelly Johansen ('09)- Participated in a REU project at Cornell University, titled "Interfacing Polymer and Solid-State Materials on the Nanoscale: Nanoconfinement Effect on Morphology of Hybrid Materials" during the summer of 2007. She worked on the process of electrospinning of ultra-thin fibers (10-1000 nm). The objective of her project was to cylindrically confine hybrid solutions made up of a block copolymer and an inorganic material commercially known as Ceraset, to form different morphologies. The product was a particular ceramic suitable for many applications, including molecular filtration, fuel cells, and implant materials.
Jimit Shah ('09)- Participated in a REU at Auburn University with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics during the summer of 2007. He worked on mathematical problems pertaining to isomer enumeration, probability and game theory, and heuristic search methods/algorithms.
Leslie Stark ('09)- Worked in the Research, Technology, & Engineering Department for Explosives at Dyno Nobel during the summer of 2007. She produced the emulsion (a mixture of oxidizer and fuel oil), which is used in the pour-holes as an explosive. She also worked on the production of ANFO (a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil), which effectively makes the emulsion more explosive, and on a new emulsion mixture which may be patented for its stability at higher temperatures.
Lisa Cole ('08)- Participated in a Co-Op at Anaren Microwave, Inc. in Syracuse, NY. Lisa worked to improve several of the company's current processes including chemical etching of circuit boards.
Matthew Herdiech ('08)- Participated in a REU at Yale University on the project titled "The Growth and Reactivity of Palladium Oxide Thin Films" during the summer of 2007. He worked at the Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena (CRISP) on growing the thin films (30nm thick) using molecular beam epitaxy(MBE). He also worked on the analysis of the catalytic behavior of PdO in various environments.
Alina Higham ('08)- Participated in a REU at Iowa State University on the project titled "Synthesis of Fluorescent Markers for Biomedical Purposes" during the summer of 2007. She worked on synthesizing CdSe:ZnS quantum dots, which are nanoscale crystalline core fluorescent markers that provide many advantages over organic dyes used for biological processes. The specific quantum dots were water-soluble produced by using high-temperature solvent ligands, since quantum dots are naturally hydrophobic.
Kellee Nelson ('08)- Participated in a REU sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defence Assure programs at the University of Illinois at Chicago on the project titled "Plasma-Assisted Synthesis of Molybdenum Carbide Catalyst" during the summer of 2007. She worked on the production of nano-layered molybdenum carbide samples in order to test its catalytic activity in a water-gas shift reactor.
2006
Laura Hoisington ('07)- Participated in an REU project at Boston University. She worked in an ECE lab in BU;s Photonics Center using a He/Ne laser in a spectral self-interfering set-up. This set up can measure the height of fluorophores on the surface of Si/SiO2 ships in the nanometer range.
Mutsa Kambarami ('07)- Participated over the summer of 2006 in a Pfizer Global Research and Development Project Title 8 Process Optimization for a Phase 2b Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient. Mutsa assisted in analyzing a 6 step reaction on a small scale batch reactor. Material balances were calculated to determine output composition when various reaction parameters were altered. The main goal was to find out what factors affected the purity of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), and, in the worst case, what the yield and purity of the APT would be prior to scaling up in a pilot plant.
Jenny Patterson ('07)- Participated in the summer REU program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Her research focused on Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC). The objective of her research was to determine the characteristics of the conditions in which methanol fuel cells lose efficiency. While at USC, Jenny won First place in a competition among the other 24 students interning with her. Her work from this internship will be published, and she will compete in the poster competition at the National AIChE conference in Cincinnati, OH.
Mathew Herdiech ('08)- Participated in a nine week REU program at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. Mathew worked on a project called "Self-Assembled Organometallic Copolymers as Templates for Ordered Arrays of Bimetallic nanomagnets." The goal of this research is to build a nanomagnet for increased storage of computer chips.
2004-2005
Laura Hoisington ('07)- Participated in the summer REU program at the University of South Carolina. Her research focused on the Synthesis and Characterization of Dendrimer Encapsulated Platinum and Palladium Catalysts. The research required her to create catalysts using Dendrimer in order to control the particle characteristics.
Jason Conrad (05)- Participated in the summer REU program at Clemson University in South Carolina. The project was titled "Rheological Characterization of Filled Polymers". The objective of the research was to perform steady state, capillary, and extensional tests on a 15% (by volume) glass in polystyrene blend in order to compare the effects of increasing shear rate on its viscosity versus those for pure polystyrene.
Lindsay Morgan (05) - Did a summer internship in 2004 at Malmstram Air Force Base in Montana. She worked on various projects with environmental engineers, including storm water drain velocity measurements and observations, environmental impact statements and analyses, total suspended solids observations measurements, and calculations in water leaving the base. She researched chlorine/chloramine reactions, processes, and ratios needed to be obtained on base to maintain safe drinking water.
2003
Mark Heavner (04) - Worked as an intern at the Argonne National Laboratory's Energy and Environmental Science and Technology Department in the summer of 2003. He was involved in the planning and setup of a project aiming to elevate the potential of a technique for producing hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide.
Delania DeShetler (04) -Participated in the project SABL (Simulation of Air Bourne Laser) at Boeing-SVS, Inc. in the summer of 2003. She worked with a team of Engineers to simulate an optical laser system aboard an aircraft, aiming to locate and track a missile fired from the ground. She also designed GUI's (Graphical User Interfaces) in Matlab to select sensors in the simulation and plot the sensor signal outputs.
Steve Anthony (04) - Participated in the NSF-REU program at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Summer 2003. He worked on developing nanoparticles for pulmonary drug delivery using an oil-in-water emulsion. He tracked uptake of the particles by epithelial cells using fluorescent microscopy and flow Cytometry.
Randy J Coslow (04) - Worked as a Manufacturing Quality intern at GE Sealants and Adhesives in summer 2003. He wrote several MS Access databases for inventory purposes and stable operatory database for recording production, delays and scrap. He also analyzed statistically the applied viscometry method, tested a new device and made a formal proposal for an improved system. He was briefly the quality control manager and worked on improving safety regulations on mixing equipment cleaning.
2001-2002
Dustin Phelps ('03) worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA in the summer of 2002 as a Research Intern in the Science and Technology department. He worked with a novel NMR sample prep procedure which made it possible to analyze monolayer thick lubricant film behavior.
Matthew Ascroft ('03) was hired as a summer engineer for the environmental affairs department of Gulf Power in summer 2002. Gulf Power is the North West Florida power generation portion of Southern Company (one of the biggest power companies in the south.)
Simone Cowan ('03) carried out a co-op study in the Summer of 2001 at Rowan University, sponsored by NSF. The project entailed research on solar alternatives and design of an alternative energy sub-system to supplement power delivery to the Rowan University Bookstore.
Dustin Phelps ('03) researched the effect of Pd loadings on Hydrogenation of trace Acetylene in Ethylene at the University of New Mexico, in the summer of 2001. He used a gas chromatograph to analyze reaction kinetics, studied tunneling electron microscope images for insight into the effects of loading on particle size and active sites, and created a model that related active sites to crystallite diameter.
Chin Ping Chng ('02) participated in the 2001 NSF Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Virginia Tech, where she successfully synthesized a novel crown ether and studied its polymerization with 4,4'-oxybisaniline.
2000
Chinping Chng ('02) co-oped on "Laser Ablation and Deposition of Lead Induim Phosphate (LIP) Glass" at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in the summer of 2000. She performed experimental research on the ablation characteristics of LIP Glass using a short-pulse laser source. The glass was prepared for deposition using a silicon wafer as a thin film.
Philip Cobb ('01) spent over a year at the Kennedy Space center working in a co-op study for NASA. He assisted in the design of the chemical plant that will be built on the surface of Mars to produce the propellant for the spacecraft's return to Earth. He also designed test equipment and helped with insulation testing and automation in the cryogenics testbed, a critical part of the space shuttle's fuel loading process.
Daniel Magro ('01) performed an internship study at Sulla Engineering in the summer of 2000. He designed process connections for a Coca-Cola Plant, using AutoCad as the drawing software.
Javier Junco ('00) co-oped for the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Enviromental Security & Safety Department in the summer of 2000 as an Assistant Engineer. He prepared a workplace exposure histories folder summarizing the chemicals used in each process, the possible effects, and the safety equipment that should be used in case of exposure. He also evaluated a heat stress central system for chemical protective equipment.
Bruce Locuson ('01) worked at NASA-KSC in the summer of 2000 on a Boiler Emissions (NOx) Study. This was part of a NASA/ASEE faculty fellowship with Dr. Maria Pozo de Fernandez. He was an on-site project coordinator and test engineer, and performed a detailed efficiency study of a water scrubber, supervised its construction and scheduled its test operations. He also co-designed a furnace reactor piping system to reduce the number of pre-heaters needed to increase the temperature of flue gas supplied to the reactor.
1999
Daniel Magro ('01) co-oped at Cerveleria Polar, a brewery in Venezuela, in the summer of 1999. He developed a labor procedure manual for the maintenance of the wells used for the water supply.
Javier Junco ('00) worked as an Assistant Engineer in a co-op study for the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Project Engineering Department in the summer of 1999. He designed a water treatment system for the organic synthesis production unit and proposed system improvements for a solvent recovery unit.
Philip Cobb ('00) has co-oped with the Mechanical and Electrical ground supports systems division of NASA Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. He worked in the fluids and propellants section of that group, assisting primarily in cryogenics research.
Patrick Engel ('00) contracted a co-op study with the Corporate Environmental Health and Safety Department of Harris Corporation. He dealt mostly with waste contractor audit criteria and health and safety data management issues throughout the global corporation, and helped a Risk Model team sift out companies that needed auditing, and initiated the proper procedures.
1998
Jennifer Herrmann ('99) co-oped for the Mead Specialty Papers Plant, at South Lee, MA, during the Spring of 1998.
Derek Huston ('99) did a co-op study at Harris Corporation in the summer of 1998. He was responsible for assessing the current environmental strategies at various business units and identifying possible improvement areas based on a numerical analysis matrix. He also assisted with the development of an investment recovery program for Harris Corporate Headquarters, performed wastes contractor due diligence audits, and developed a waste contractor management database.
David Scott ('99) co-oped with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in summer '98. He assisted with the process simulation and design of the In Situ Propellant Production (ISPP) Plant. The ISPP Plant is intended to operate autonomously on the surface of Mars to produce the fuel needed for the spacecrafts' return to Earth. David's contributions focused on the design of the adsorption compressor that will procure and compress the carbon dioxide of the Martian atmosphere. He researched the complex principles governing the compressor's performance, developed the proper mathematical model describing its operation, and wrote the numerical code to solve the model using LISP, an artificial intelligence language.
David Scott ('99) also worked for two semesters with Harris Corporate Headquarters Environmental, Health, and Safety division. He designed and maintained (using Microsoft Access) waste emission databases for a corporate-wide benchmarking program.
Patricia Kelly ('98) worked for several semesters for NASA in the Environmental/Propellants Office at the Kennedy Space Center. Her responsibilities included processing environmental check-lists, and assisting in paper recycling, halon phase-out, toxic release inventory, stormwater design, permit applications and National Environmental Policy Act Documentation.
1996-1997
Bruce Locuson ('01) completed a co-op study at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) in summer '97. He assisted a group of FSEC researchers led by Dr. Clovis Linkous in an experimental study of the photocatalytic inhibition of algae growth.
Debbie Goss ('99) assisted in the design of a photocatalytic reactor that used TiO2 to break down nitroglycerin into NOx, CO, and CO2. The study was carried out at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) during the summer of '97.
James Scrivener ('98) worked during the the summer of 1997 as a research assistant in the Special Projects Division of the Florida Solar Energy Center. The goal of the research was to design a vapor phase photo-catalytic detoxification unit for use at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Indian Head, Maryland. The unit was to be the largest reactor of its kind, and the first to utilize UV photo-activated catalysts for vapor detoxification.
Robert Pellegrin ('99) worked as a temporary technical specialist at the Cyanamid Agricultural Research Division in Princeton, NJ, during the Summer of '97. Bob characterized unknown potential herbicides using mass spectrometry, and worked on Structural Activity Relationships to develop mass spec-based screening methods for potentially active compounds.
Sabina Winters ('98) worked during the summer of '97 in the Safety and Environmental Department of Snyder Oil Corporation in Denver, CO. She was responsible for developing corporate-wide Emergency Response Plans. These Plans included information on emergency response resources and State and Federal regulations for Texas, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Joseph Coffmann ('97) worked under a NASA fellowship on two projects for Boeing North American. First, he completed Dr. Whitlow's project on modeling the cryogenic loading of the Space Shuttle External Tank. The developed model was incorporated into the knowledge base used in an expert system known as Boeing North American Propulsion Advisory Tool (PAT). The model was then used to predict and diagnose a wide variety of possible faults that could lead to safety problems, aborted launches, or faulty devices. His second project focused on statistical process control and data trend analysis for the Vacuum Jacketed Cryo-Test-Bed facility. The Vehicle Health Management analysis was introduced into an expert system for fault detection and diagnosis.