UB undergraduates address real-world issues through SUNY-funded program

Using artificial intelligence for innovations in drug delivery, energy storage and CO2 capture, and in helping robots interact with one another are just some of the projects that students in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will work on thanks to the SUNY Research and Creative Activities for Undergraduates Program (SUNY RCAUP).

The SUNY program aims to broaden access to research and creative activities for undergraduates, with participants conducting faculty-led research and creative activities while interacting with fellow undergraduate and graduate students.

Seven faculty members across departments in the engineering school are running the projects and will welcome students into their labs over the next several months. Each project focuses on research related to the specific faculty member’s research area, but many will give students a chance to work with researchers across disciplines.

“The interdisciplinary nature of the project means that students from different engineering backgrounds will work together, exposing them to diverse perspectives and encouraging creative problem-solving,” says Ketki Lichade, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a project mentor.

Each faculty member participating in the program receives more than $10,000 per student hire. The funding can support the student’s stipend and other expenses, such as travel and registration for conferences and other project-related or professional development expenses. In addition to gaining knowledge and skills associated with the project’s research, students also will develop skills needed to write reports, prepare research presentations and publish their findings.

Here are some of the projects students will be working on:

Exploring Materials Synthesis Conditions Via Large Language Model

Kaihang Shi, assistant professor, plans to enroll two students into this project, which integrates advanced AI tools with chemical engineering methods. Students will use AI and large language models to explore how materials like metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are synthesized. MOFs are nanoporous materials used in CO2 capture, drug delivery and energy storage, but synthesizing novel MOFs has been a major challenge.  

“Students will benchmark and improve an AI tool, collaborate with a graduate mentor, analyze scientific literature and possibly contribute to experimental guidance for MOF synthesis,” Shi says.

Assessing the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Technology and Policy Pathways for Plastic Recycling in the U.S.

Assistant Professor Aurora del Carmen Munguía-López is also hiring two students to work on her project.

“We will explore how different technologies and actions or policies in the U.S. can help improve plastic recycling rates, reduce environmental impacts and increase economic benefits from recovering various types of plastic waste,” Munguía-López says.

Her students will work on process systems engineering research in order to address critical sustainability challenges. Students will get the full research experience, including data-gathering, analysis and report-writing. This project will also teach students different skills, such as technology pathway analysis coupled with data-driven uncertainty quantification methods (Monte Carlo simulation), mathematical modeling, and techno-economic and life cycle assessment.  

“Evaluating the economic and environmental benefits of novel policies and plastic recycling technologies at scale is essential to accelerate their deployment and reduce the impacts of plastic waste on the environment, human health and social justice,” Munguía-López says.

Development of Bioinspired Manufacturing Technique for Rapid and Scalable Fabrication of Nature-inspired Functional Devices

Lichade hopes to enroll two students in her project. Working with graduate students in her lab, they will develop a new, fast way to make thin films for devices or materials using two advanced technologies. The first allows researchers to quickly layer materials and the second uses digital masks to project specific patterns onto surfaces.

“Imagine looking at a lotus leaf, which naturally repels water, or a shark’s skin that helps reduce drag in water,” Lichade explains. “Nature has created these incredible, high-performance features over millions of years. This project aims to copy these clever natural designs and create new devices or materials that can also have these amazing abilities.”

Slime Mold-Inspired Millirobots: Embodied Communication and Collective Problem Solving

Ryan St. Pierre, assistant professor in the departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, has worked with microrobots throughout his academic career. He will hire two students for his project.

“In my lab, we’re thinking about this idea of robot matter — how you make things out of robots. We took inspiration from slime mold,” St. Pierre says. “Slime mold has been studied extensively, and for a simple mold organism, it can do pretty complex problem-solving.”

In prior experiments, slime mold has been able to efficiently map the Tokyo metro system. It can communicate and solve problems without a brain. St. Pierre and the students on this project will work to bring that same secure physical messaging to robots.

“Slime mold has chemical and physical cues that it takes from its environment. We want to be able to do that with robots so that we have new ways of forming how robots solve complex problems by being able to interact with one another as cells.”

Green Hydrogen Production

Assistant Professor Hyeongyun Cha will enroll one student to investigate green hydrogen production prototypes.

“Green hydrogen, produced by splitting water with renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar, is a clean alternative to fossil fuels and a leading option for energy storage,” Cha says. “In this project, we propose to investigate the hydrogen gas evolution on micro/nanostructured surfaces during water electrolysis.”

The incoming student will work with a multidisciplinary team of engineers to develop green hydrogen production prototypes and gain hands-on experience developing engineered materials and experimental apparatuses.

Uncovering Important Reactions for Electrochemical Carbon Capture

Jonathan Boualavong, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, will run a project in which students will conduct laboratory experiments to develop knowledge of side reactions in electrochemical carbon capture, an emerging climate change mitigation technology.

Understanding Interactions Between Affect and Identity in First- and Second-Year Engineering Students

Students on the team of Jessica Swenson, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education, will work on her National Science Foundation-funded project to investigate how engineering students form their engineering identity through their experiences and personal identities.

For more information on any of these projects, visit the Experiential Learning Network’s website.