Summer 2018 Soft Matter REU at CSU

The second year of Cleveland State University’s REU, “Synthesis, Assembly and Characterization of Soft Matter,” ran from May 29, 2018 through August 3, 2018, and hosted nine students from around the country, featuring 4 physics majors, 1 engineering physics major, 2 double majors in physics and math, 1 double major in biomedical engineer and physics, and 1 double major in engineering physics and math. The students developed strong research and presentation skills through the development of their individual projects as well as attending program-specific seminars and visits to nationally recognized research centers. To see Summer 2018’s final program schedule, please click here [LINK].

Research Projects:

Below is the list of 2018 projects and faculty responsible for those. For more details, please see the 2018 Project Descriptions [LINK].

• Structural control and macroscopic assembly of boron nitride nanotubes, Dr. Geyou Ao, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Self-Assembly of Organic Molecules, Dr. Jessica Bickel, Physics
• Drug Delivery Nanoparticles, Dr. Nolan B. Holland, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Polypeptide Bio-Inks, Dr. Nolan B. Holland, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Enhancing electron imaging capabilities of soft matter systems, Dr. Petru S. Fodor and Dr. Kiril A Streletzky, Physics
• Microfluidic channels and mixers, Dr. Chandra Kothapalli and Dr.  Petru S. Fodor, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
• Flowing past cilium, Dr. Andrew Resnick, Physics
• Studying Volume Phase Transitions of Polymeric Microgels, Dr. Kiril A. Streletzky, Physics
• Total Internal Reflection Microscopy (TIRM) of Anisotropic Particles, Dr. Chris Wirth, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering

Science Seminars:

Seminars were given by scientists currently working within the Soft Matter field in both experiment and computation, and were followed by a student lunch with the guest speaker. The lunch conversations covered topics ranging from  the subject of the graduate school experience and how to apply to graduate school to the students’ research projects. The seminar topics were as follows:

• “Multifunctional Materials Based on Nanofibers and Open and Closed Cell Aerogel Foams For Sustainability,” by Dr. Sadhan C. Jana, The University of Akron
• “The Physics of Bioemulsions,” by Dr. Elizabeth Mann, Kent State University
• “Nanoscopic Manipulation and Nanoimaging of Liquid Crystals,” by Dr. Charles Rosenblatt, Case Western Reserve University

Meeting Established Physicists and Visiting Research Centers:

Students with the CSU Soft Matter REU were once again invited to tour the facilities at the Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute (LCI) and NASA Glenn Research Center. Led by Dr. Robin Selinger, the students toured the LCI labs, spoke with its faculty and graduate students about projects and the program, and got to learn about the physics of liquid crystals from some of the LCI staff. At NASA Glenn, students were able to tour many of the center’s labs led by Dr. Jeffrey R. Mackey: including the Martian Dust Mitigation Lab, the Spacecraft Fire Safety Combustion lab, the Two Phase Flow Separation lab, the 2.2 Second Drop Tower, the Zero-G Facility, the Flow Boiling and Condensation Lab, the NIR Spectroscopy Lab, and the Icing Research Tunnel. They also had the opportunity to talk with Aubrey Lokey, a CSU student doing her second year of summer research with NASA Glenn, about her project and experiences working with NASA.

This year, students had the opportunity to attend Cleveland State’s AHA! Festival (LINK) to see astrophysicist Dr. Janna Levin present her talk Creativity from Limits. Prior to her scheduled talk at the Idea Center on Playhouse Square, Dr. Levin had a special meeting at Cleveland State’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Honors College for the REU students and some of CSU’s honors students. Here, students were able to ask Dr. Levin about topics ranging from her own work, graduate school, and life as a physicist after graduating.

Some Time for Fun:

During their time living on campus, the students had fun exploring Downtown Cleveland in their free time. For a taste of Cleveland’s history, Students took a trip to the Terminal Tower Observation Deck, which gives a stunning view of Downtown; they also took the time to explore the West Side Market in Ohio City, where students got to taste some of the local food scene. The students had to opportunity to see the Cleveland Orchestra perform twice: once at the free Star Spangled Spectacular concert held Downtown during Fourth of July weekend and once at the orchestra’s summer Blossom Music Center residence, where the students had a picnic on the lawn. Another highlight included going to a Cleveland Cavaliers watch party at the Q.

Presenting Their Findings:

The summer ended with the 15^th Annual Northeast Ohio Undergraduate Research Symposium, hosted by Kent State University on August 2, 2018, where the Soft Matter REU students represented Cleveland State University. All nine REU students, as well as one CSU student, prepared and presented posters summarizing the result of their summer projects, while two REU students gave an additional 20-minute oral presentation to the entirety of the symposium attendees. This event allowed students to compile their work from the course of the summer and provided both an introduction to formal research presentations 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 symposium are as follows:

1. Towards Understanding Microgel Volume Phase Transitions, Jacob Adamczyk (Cleveland State University), Dr. Kiril A. Streletzky
2. Oral Presentation and poster: Optimization of Serpentine Micromixers with Non-Rectangular Cross-Sections, Joshua Clark (Cleveland State University), Dr. Petru S. Fodor, Dr. Chandra Kothapalli
3. Evanescent Wave Scattering Morphology of Polymer Ellipsoids, Kenneth Gregg (University of Akron), Dr. Chris Wirth
4. Self-Assembly of Organic Molecules on Gold Surfaces, Abigail Hickin (Benedictine College), Dr. Jessica Bickel
5. Drug Delivery Nanoparticles, Ty Naquin (Troy University), Dr. Kiril A. Streletzky, Dr. Nolan B. Holland
6. Oral Presentation and poster: Self-Assembly of Pentacene on Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite, Troy Nemeth (John Carroll University), Dr. Jessica Bickel
7. Rheological Characterization of Aqueous Dispersions of DNA-Stabilized Boron Nitride Nanotubes, Sofia Panomitros (University of North Carolina at Asheville), Dr. Geyou Ao
8. Analysis of Pulsatile Flow through an Elastic Tube using Computational Methods, Niksa Paljak (Cleveland State University), Dr. Andrew Resnick
9. Tracking the dispersion morphology of DNA-wrapped boron-nitride nanotubes by microscopy, Michael Thompson (Grove City College), Dr. Geyou Ao

To read more about these projects, please read the projects’ final abstracts [LINK]. For a more in-depth overview of the symposium, please read the full report here [LINK].

Continuing Connections:

Students were also provided with $500 in travel funds to attend conferences and present their research. Current outside presentations include:

• Jacob Adamczyk and Samantha Tietjen presented at the Cleveland State Undergraduate Summer Research Award (USRA) symposium on September 6, 2018. Projects presented at this event included:
  • Towards Understanding Microgel Volume Phase Transitions, Jacob Adamczyk, Samantha Tietjen, Dr. Kiril A Streletzky
  • The Effects of Chemical Crosslinker on Polymeric Microgels, Samantha Tietjen, Jacob Adamczyk, Dr. Kiril A Streletzky

• Joshua Clark, Abigail Hickin, and Samantha Tietjen (whose research was done with Jacob Adamczyk) presented at the Ohio- Region Section of the American Physical Society (OSAPS) conference on September 28, 2018. Projects presented at this conference included:
  • Optimization of Serpentine Micromixers with Non-Rectangular Cross-Sections, Joshua Clark, Dr. Petru S. Fodor, Dr. Chandra Kothapalli
  • Self-Assembly of Organic Molecules on Gold Surfaces, Abigail Hickin, Dr. Jessica Bickel
  • The Effects of Chemical Crosslinker on Polymeric Microgels, Samantha Tietjen, Jacob Adamczyk, Dr. Kiril A Streletzky
• Sofia Panomitros attended the annual North Carolina Honors Association (NCHA) conference at High Point University on September 28^th and 29^th, 2018 to present a poster based on her project:
  • Rheological Characterization of Aqueous Dispersions of DNA-Stabilized Boron Nitride Nanotubes, Sofia Panomitros, Dr. Geyou Ao
• Niksa Praljak presented his research at the Annual Meeting of the Ohio Physiological Society (OPS) Conference on September 28^th and 29^th, 2018 at the University of Cincinnati:
  • Analysis of Pulsatile Flow through an Elastic Tube using Computational Methods, Niksa Praljak, Dr. Andrew Resnick

Jacob Adaczyk, Niksa Praljak, Joshua Clark, Ty Naquin, and Samantha Tietjen have all submitted abstracts to and are currently preparing to attend the 2019 APS March Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.