 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|||||
|
|
|
Home > About Us > Corporate Citizenship > | |||||||
Students Share Nanotechnology Findings in Summer Review October 2011
Gold nanoparticles. Carbon nanotubes. Nano-enabled hybrid power systems. And those were just the morning presentations at the Nanosystems Research Group's 19th annual end-of-summer technical review. The group hires exceptional students from high schools and colleges across the country to serve as summer technical aides and to participate in cutting-edge nanotechnology research as part of the MITRE Student Program. The final review provided the 10 students, along with their nine senior-staff mentors, with a chance to present their findings to an audience of MITRE staff as well as representatives of government agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Dr. James C. Ellenbogen, chief scientist of the Nanosystems Group and the Command and Control Center's Emerging Technologies Division, introduced the students and their work. He also provided an overview of the group and highlighted its significant achievements over the past year, plus its major accomplishments during the 19 years since its founding. Following the presentations, Ellenbogen commented, "This summer's students put in a great effort and gave terrific presentations. Their work shows tremendous promise." The morning presentations focused on laboratory experimentation and development tasks. In her first year with the program, Cathy Zhang, a rising junior and chemical engineering major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, shared her advances in nanoforensics, involving the development of energy-transfer-based nanoindicator tags. Nanoforensics combines advancements in areas such as metrology, micro- and nanotechnology, and material science to produce devices and techniques that can support anti-tampering, source verification, and quality control as well as criminal investigations. Also in her first year with the program, Nalini Singh, a rising junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHS), discussed her work that supported laboratory experimentation with nanostructured biomaterials. In particular, Singh studied ultra-thin glycoprotein films, which have the potential to aid in identifying virus strains and defeating pathogens. Other morning presentations covered nano-enabled hybrid energy storage systems and carbon nanotube and graphene research. The afternoon presentations focused on system prototyping, plus nanosystems modeling and simulation research and development. Nick Arango, a rising senior at TJHS, and Evan Clinton, a rising junior and electrical engineering major at Virginia Tech, shared their work in nanoelectronic system design and prototyping. Returning student Scinju Gadamsetty, a rising senior and engineering major at Virginia Tech, worked with Ryan Anderson, a rising senior at TJHS, and Rocco LiBrandi, a rising senior and computer engineering major at the U.S. Air Force Academy, on refining the hardware and software for prototype millimeter-scale robots. Pranava Raparla, a rising senior at TJHS, described his design and fabrication of a tiny, chip-scale microscope. Singh and Will Bunting, a returning student and a rising freshman who will major in physics and mathematics at the California Institute of Technology, presented their work on the multi-scale modeling of materials. Singh, who was the youngest member of the Nanosystems Group, also was the only one who performed two summer technical tasks and delivered two presentations about them at the end-of-summer review. Ellenbogen already looks forward to next summer's group of students. "The returning students build upon the skills they learn the previous summer. We see an exponential growth in capabilities and focus each year a student comes back," he said. "Something is always happening in nanotechnology—we always have a busy and full summer." —by Katie Packard Page last updated: October 7, 2011 | Top of page |
Solutions That Make a Difference.® |
|
|
