This summer, three chemical engineering majors worked full time as Dean's Undergraduate Engineering Research Fellows through a new initiative created by UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West. The program provides wages for undergraduates to continue working in faculty labs during the summer.
In professor Roseanne Ford's lab, rising fourth-year student Alexandra Cresci spent the summer trying to determine how quickly the Vibrio fischeri microorganism, a bacterium, breaks down microplastics in groundwater. Specifically, she measured the rates at which Vibrio fischeri attaches to the microplastic in correlation with different amounts of surface weathering.
“My research findings will determine the optimal roughness properties of the microplastic for bacteria attachment to advise the design of future plastic products,” Cresci said.Abbie Frost, a rising second-year student in associate professor Bryan Berger's lab, worked to improve solubility and stability of silicatein, a protein found in sea sponges. Through a process called biomineralization, the protein naturally manufactures silica nanoparticles, which have a variety of beneficial uses, from catalysis to drug delivery.
“Overall, this work is significant because improving the solubility and stability allows the silicatein protein to be more effective in green, sustainable nanoparticle synthesis,” Frost said.
Rising fourth-year chemical engineering student Zexian He worked in the environmental catalysis lab of William Epling, department chair and Alice M. and Guy A. Wilson Professor of Chemical Engineering. He researched the interaction between sulfur and cerium compounds to improve the effectiveness of three-way catalytic converters, which are used in automobiles to eliminate hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and nitric oxide pollutant gases.
“It is important to address this problem to keep exhaust cleaner, longer,” He said.
Several CHE faculty also employed non-CHE engineering undergraduates in their labs under the program.