SEO Header Title

Year 1 Experiences 

Solar Power (Materials for Natural Energy Capture)

Objectives: TRAs will understand how nature harvests solar energy in a leaf, with the energy utilized to generate food. They will understand additional energy harvesting techniques, including photovoltaics, thermoelectric, and hydrogen generation, and will learn how to use modeling, synthesis techniques, and an array of characterization tools, to design of novel energy harvesting materials and devices.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will learn the physics and chemistry of energy harvesting materials and devices. They will conduct experiments in synthesizing materials via physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, and laser ablation techniques. They will also learn to use characterization tools to evaluate optoelectronic, structural and chemical properties. Finally, they will form and test devices such as solar cells and thermoelectric cells.

Natural Fiber Composites

Objectives: TRAs will appreciate the wide range of materials used in the design and manufacture of composite materials. They will understand how to characterize material properties of resin and fibers used in composites manufacturing, as well as the process physics, mathematical models, process simulations and materials testing used for efficient manufacturing.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will learn materials characterization methods as well as composites manufacturing techniques such as resin transfer molding (RTM). They will become comfortable in using manufacturing simulation software and appreciating the role of mathematical modeling and engineering models that provide realistic predictions. Then they will design, manufacture, and test composite pieces containing natural fibers such as jute, hemp, and kenaf.

Groundwater Systems Modeling

Objectives: TRAs will understand the complexity of nonlinear processes involved in the frequent subsurface contamination by nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs), gaining an appreciation for interaction between environmental engineering and computational science. They will understand how numerical simulation errors relate to numerical discretization and alternative solution schemes.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will engage in experiments to develop models for NAPL dissolution. They will assess the value of simple, but somewhat inaccurate, models of NAPL dissolution against more accurate, but significantly more complex, models for making long-term predictions of groundwater contamination. They will demonstrate how to use the NAPL dissolution models to assess human and ecological risk and remediation strategy selection. 

Bio-Drug Delivery (Nature Inspired Drug Delivery)

Objectives: TRAs will learn how polymeric hydrogels can provide support to grow tissues and regulate delivery of DNA and protein drugs. They will understand chemical reaction kinetics and molecular transport concepts and adapt laboratory analytical techniques to classroom-accessible methods.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will synthesize biodegradable and non-biodegradable hydrogels. They will design and validate a hydrogel formation protocol, monitor gelation and degradation, fit data to a zeroth-order kinetic model, and determine the reaction constant. Finally, TRAs will synthesize, monitor and assess hydrogel dye release rates using spectrophotometrics and Fick’s second law of diffusion.

Year 2 Experiences

Biomedical Imaging

Objectives: TRAs will understand the fundamental principles of basic medical imaging and microscopy (including 3-D) techniques for static and dynamic imaging. They will understand basic image representations and manipulations, and develop their own modifications to existing techniques for a specific problem, e.g., segmentation.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will spend one week in the DBI Bio Imaging Center learning multiple microscopy techniques and the fundamentals of biomedical imaging (MRI/CT) modalities. The remaining weeks will focus on image representation and manipulation using freeware applications. Utilizing publicly available medical imaging data sets, TRAs will modify existing algorithms to segment anatomical features of interest, such as skeletal structures.

Green Roofs for Indoor Climate Control

Objectives: TRAs will understand heat transfer through participation in a “green roof” project designed to ameliorate indoor climate issues in a classroom with flat roof and southern exposure.  They will specify, purchase and install a monitoring system for the “green roof” that will be installed on a portion of UD’s Colburn Lab, using this monitoring system to collect and analyze data to determine experimentally whether the Chilton-Colburn analogy accurately predicts basic roof energy balance and the ratio between latent heat loss (evaporation) and sensible heat loss (air convection).

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will help specify, purchase and install a monitoring system on the Colburn roof in order to gather near-continuous data on air, roof and classroom temperatures, rainfall, humidity and wind speed. Examples of output from such a system can be seen at the website. By analyzing the recorded data, we hope to estimate the magnitude of evaporation and air convection; evaporation will be determined from monitoring water pans and trial planting areas on the roof.  In particular, we will determine experimentally whether the Chilton-Colburn analogy correctly predicts the ratio of evaporation and air convection. Following conclusion of the RET program, Prof. Shine’s group hopes to engage the classes of the teachers in the implementation of, and subsequent research on, our Colburn Lab green roof.

Robotic Flying Insects  (Biomimetic Flying Robots)

Objectives: TRAs will understand the fundamentals of dynamic design of flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) for hover applications, relating the designs and applications of FWMAVs to physical science standards, understanding the aerodynamics, kinematics, and geometry key to FWMAV design.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will study and quantify the aerodynamics of flapping wings as a function of geometry and kinematics, using models already assembled. Then they will develop FWMAV prototypes and perform predictive simulation of the vehicle motion, with the goal of contributing to improved maneuverability for effective search and surveillance capabilities.

Tissue Engineering

Objectives: TRAs will understand soft tissue properties and fundamentals in developing bio-materials that mimic tissue molecular composition, responsiveness, and multi-scale organization.

Laboratory Research Plan: TRAs will study, synthesize, and characterize multifunctional hydrogel materials that can be used as artificial tissue and for drug delivery. Established synthesis protocols will be taught and utilized by TRAs. Synthesized hydrogels will be characterized according to morphology, viscoelasticity, and temporal release of drug molecules using appropriate tools and techniques.