Previous Years Recap

Summer 2024 Soft Matter REU at Cleveland State University

The first year of the second edition of the Cleveland State University’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site “Synthesis, Assembly and Characterization of Soft Matter,” ran from May 28, 2024, through August 2, 2024, and hosted nine students coming from six states and 9 different colleges, featuring 3 physics majors (from Marietta College, University of Dayton, Rochester Institute of Technology), 3 chemical and biomedical engineering majors (from U of Rhode Island, Florida State, U Mount Union) 2 chemistry majors (from Stark College and U of Texas at Austin), and 1 material science major (from U of Virginia). The students developed strong research and presentation skills through advancing their individual projects, presenting research results to the REU entire cohort and at the reginal REU conference as well as attending program specific seminars, colloquia given by area’s leading scientists in soft matter and visits to nationally recognized research centers of greater Cleveland.  

Research Projects:

Below is the list of 2024 projects and faculty responsible for those.

• Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube-based Organic Color Centers, Dr. Geyou Ao, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Promoting Robust Crystallization of Organic Molecules via Row Surface Reconstructions, Dr. Jessica Bickel, Physics
• Protein-based Materials, Dr. Nolan B. Holland, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Microfluidic Reactors and Emulsifiers, Drs. Petru S. Fodor and Sebastian Sensale, Physics; Dr. Chandra Kothapalli, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Waste of Energy via Chemical Reactions in Multiphase Environments, Dr. Jorge Gatica, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Flowing past cilium, Dr. Andrew Resnick, Physics
• Confinement effects in Polymer Grafted Nanorod Solutions, Dr. Kiril A. Streletzky, Physics; Dr. Michael Hore, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, CWRU
• Crystallization of Anisotropic Particles, Dr. Chris Wirth, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering CWRU; Dr. Jessica Bickel, Physics

Soft Matter Science Colloquia:

Two colloquia were given by scientists currently working within the Soft Matter field in both experiment and computation to our REU students. They were followed by a student lunch with the guest speaker. The lunch conversations covered topics ranging from the subject of the talk to graduate school experience and how to apply to graduate school to the  students’ research projects. The colloquia given this year were:

• “Shape Morphing Polymers,” by Dr. Kevin Cavicchi, The University of Akron
• “Synthetic DNA Nanotechnology – reprogramming a familiar molecule,” by Dr. Divita Mathur, Case Western Reserve University

Meeting Established Physicists and Visiting Research Centers:

On July 12, 2024, the students of the CSU Soft Matter REU were taken to tour the facilities at the Kent State University Advanced Material Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI). Led by Dr. Robin Selinger, the students toured several AMLCI labs (Dr. Lavrentovich’s and Dr. Jakil’s labs), spoke with graduate students in those labs about their research projects. Students also got to learn about the physics of liquid crystals from Dr. Jonathan Selinger and about AMLCI graduate programs from Dr. Selinger and Dr. Jakli. The tour also included visit to Characterization Lab and Clean room led by Dr. Gao. After touring AMLCI and lunch with Dr. Selinger the students were taken to one of the spin-off liquid crystal companies created by AMLCI graduates, AlphaMicron, a Global Leader in Liquid Crystal Photonics. The company’s CEO/CTO, Dr. Bahman Taheri walked students through all the steps of design, production and testing of the liquid crystal googles produced by AlphaMicron.

On July 19, 2024, Soft Matter REU students visited NASA Glenn Research Center where they were able to tour several of the center’s labs led by Dr. Jeffrey R. Mackey. We started in the Telescience Support Center (TSC) from where the experiments are conducted on the International Space Station (ISS). In fact, Dr. Mackey was running his ISS experiments from the TSC the night before. We then went on to two Dr. Mackey's labs for the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), one phase of which is still at the. We also visited Zero-G Facility and observed a drop of combustion experiment there. Student had several opportunities to talk with students working at NASA Glenn on the toured projects and had a mini presentation on undergraduate research opportunities in a summer given by Dr. Nancy Hall, FBCE Project Manager.

Some Time for Fun Together:

During their time living on campus, the REU students had fun exploring Downtown Cleveland in their free time. For a taste of Cleveland in June, the entire REU cohort went to the annual University Circle Parade, visited the studios of The IdeaStream in the downtown Cleveland (kindly hosted by Ygal Kaufman). Many students also explored the Museum of the University Circle, the Pride Parade event in Cleveland, West Side Market and the Jazz Festival at the Playhouse Square.  In July, the students had an opportunity to see the Cleveland Orchestra at the orchestra’s summer Blossom Music Center residence, where the entire cohort had a picnic on the lawn. Finally, another highlight of July included a trip to Progressive Field for a Cleveland Guardians game.

Presenting Their Findings:

The summer ended with the 19^th Annual Northeast Ohio Undergraduate Research Symposium (NOURS), hosted by Kent State University on July 31, 2024, which brought together more than 50 students from four REU programs in Northeast Ohio (KSU Chemistry, KSU Engineering, Akron Polymer Science and Engineering, CSU SoftMatter). At the NOURS, all nine Soft Matter REU students, as well as one CSU student supported by USRA (physics major, Patrick Barrett), presented posters summarizing the results of their summer projects, while two REU students, chosen by CSU faculty and students, each gave an additional 10-minute oral presentation to the entirety of the symposium attendees. This event allowed students to compile their work from the summer into summarizing presentation and provided both an introduction to formal research presentation as well as an excellent networking opportunity with students and faculty from several other colleges and institutions from across Ohio.

Final projects presented at the NOURS symposium are as follows:

1. Oral and poster: Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube-Based Organic Color Centers, Anna Huszar (Florida State University), Dr. Geyou Ao
2. Oral and poster: Confinement Effects in Polymer-Grafted Nanorod Solutions, David Amirsadri (University of Rhode Island), Dr. Kiril A Streletzky, Dr. Michael Hore
3. Analyzing Polymer-Grafted Gold Nanorods using Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering (DDLS), Patrick Barrett (Cleveland State University), Dr. Kiril A. Streletzky
4. Synthesis and Thermo-Characterization of an ELP Diblock Intended for Use as a Hydrogel Bioink, Dana Aramouni (Stark College), Dr. Nolan B. Holland
5. A Reprogrammable System of DNA Origami Tiles Actuated with Electric Fields, Anisha Jarang (University of Virginia), Dr. Sebastian Sensale Rodriguez
6. Characterizing Mechanical Properties of Primary Cilium Using Optical Trapping, Madeline Aszalos (Marietta College), Dr. Andrew Resnick
7. Getting Atomically Flat Gold for Self-assembly of Organic Molecules, Sahil Vachher (University of Texas at Austin), Dr. Jessica Bickel
8. DNA Origami Nanostructure Fabrication, Samantha Skerbec (University of Mount Union), Dr. Petru Fodor, Dr. Chandrasekhar Kothapalli, Dr. Sebastian Sensale
9. Waste to Energy via Chemical Reactions in Multiphase Environments, Madeline L O'Mahoney (University of Dayton), Dr. Jorge E. Gatica
10. Coatings of Complex Fluids, Veran Stanek (Rochester Institute of Technology), Dr. Chris Wirth

 

Recap of the previous years of the Soft Matter REU at CSU can be found below:

• Summer 2019 Soft Matter REU at Cleveland State University
• Summer 2018 Soft Matter REU at Cleveland State University
• Summer 2017 Soft Matter REU at Cleveland State University