REU 2021 Has Been Postponed Until 2022 – Learn More Here
Please Review the REUs and Select Your Choice Below for an REU to Apply For
3D Printing Membranes for Separations
Primary PI: Jeffrey McCutcheon
I am seeking to start a company on making membranes through additive manufacturing. We have developed a patent-pending process that will enable the fabrication of membranes from non-traditional materials and potentially expand the use of these materials in the areas of water treatment, gas separations, and fuels processing.
Removing PFAS from Water using Novel Catalysts and Membranes
Primary PI: Jeffrey McCutcheon
I am seeking to start a company on making membranes through additive manufacturing. We have developed a patent-pending process that will enable the fabrication of membranes from non-traditional materials and potentially expand the use of these materials in the areas of water treatment, gas separations, and fuels processing.
Bio-inspired Multi-functional Stimuli Responsive Hybrids
Primary PI: Luyi Sun
A number of marine organisms use muscle-controlled surface structures to achieve rapid changes in color and transparency with outstanding reversibility. Inspired by these display tactics, we have developed analogous deformation-controlled surface-engineering approaches via strain-dependent cracks and folds to realize the following four mechanochromic devices: (1) transparency change mechanochromism (TCM), (2) luminescent mechanochromism (LM), (3) color alteration mechanochromism (CAM) and (4) encryption mechanochromism (EM). These devices are based on a simple bilayer system that exhibits a broad range of mechanochromic behaviors with high sensitivity and reversibility. The TCM device can reversibly switch between transparent and opaque states. The LM can emit intensive fluorescence as stretched with very high strain sensitivity. The CAM can turn fluorescence from green to yellow to orange as stretched within 20% strain. The EM device can reversibly reveal and conceal any desirable patterns. The objective of this REU project is to continue exploring similar stimuli responsive hybrids with a wider scope of stimuli and responses. For example, we will explore to use temperature, moisture, UV radiation, etc. as new stimuli to tailor various optical properties of the designed hybrids. Considering such stimuli responsive hybrids with tunable optical property changes, including color, pattern, and transparency change, are promising for widespread application, related business exploration will be another focus of this REU project. We will collaborate with industrial partners to develop one or two products and to potentially commercialize such products.
Microbial-Mediated Transport of Beneficial Bacteria and Agrochemicals
Primary PI: Leslie Shor
Protists, single cell eukaryotic organisms, can move readily through unsaturated soils and chemotact towards bacterial prey, which are abundant at growing tips of plant roots. Many protists species are indiscriminate eaters, capturing and ingesting bacteria-sized objects in the soil. Protists may therefore serve as transport vehicles for nanocoated chemicals and symbiotic rhizobacteria targeting delivery to the growing root tips. Using a transport assay containing real sandy loam soil and a live plant within a 3D-printed device, we are studying the most promising protist candidates, tracking their progress through the soil. Facilitating transport and targeting delivery of valuable agrochemicals or bacteria to the tips of growing plant roots will greatly facilitate more sustainable no-till farming practices, reduce overall agrochemical use, improve surface water quality, and may dramatically reduce or even reverse the net impact of the agriculture sector on global climate change.
https://cbe.engr.uconn.edu/person/leslie-shor/
Smart Additive Manufacturing
Primary PI: Anson Ma
Additive manufacturing (AM), or more commonly known as 3D printing, refers to the creation of patterns and objects additively in a drop-by-drop or layer-by-layer manner. AM has been used for rapid prototyping with minimal tooling and is increasingly used for applications requiring a high degree of customization such as personalized medicine and dentistry. However, the performance of many AM parts falls short of expectations, mainly because of failure in optimizing the material and the corresponding AM process. A tedious trial-and-error approach is usually taken to optimize a new print material or a new printer. Our UCONN team aims to tackle this grand challenge using state-of-the-art machine learning methods.
High Performance Nanocoatings for Packaging Applications
Primary PI: Luyi Sun
High Performance Nanocoatings for Packaging Applications Coatings have been widely used to serve multi-purposes, including protection, decoration, and generation of various surface functions, including printability, adhesion, optical properties, photo-sensitivity, electrical/magnetic properties. It is highly desirable to create new coating technologies/formulations to lower cost but meanwhile improve performance. One of the directions is to create “nanocoatings”: coatings with low thickness in nanometer range and/or with nano-scale microstructures. The low thickness can help reduce cost, while the well-designed microstructure is expected to improve performance and/or bring in new functions. A new nanocoating technology has been developed based on the assembly of low cost polymer binders and inorganic nanosheets. The orientation of inorganic nanosheets along the substrate surface is the key to achieve high coating performance and thus ideal for packaging applications. The participants will work side by side with PhD students to optimize the coating process to coat substrates more effectively and efficiently. How to scale up this process is a key part of this project, which should take various factors, including investment, safety, environmental impact, profits, into consideration. Most importantly is to gain deep understanding the mechanism of nanosheet alignment through this project.
Addressing the Barriers to Cultured Meat Alternatives
Primary PI: Kelly Burke
Livestock production represents a serious burden on our environment and is a major contributor to climate change. Plant-based alternatives to livestock-based products primarily focus on mimicking burger meat where tissue is ground and then pressed into patties. Providing a cultured form of meat that could serve as an alternative to non-ground meats (e.g., steaks or chops) has the potential to greatly expand the market and use for meat alternative products, however current approaches lack the necessary spatial localization of muscle, fat, and matrix proteins. The objective of this project is to determine the opportunities and limitations of manufacturing three-dimensional (3D) structures of cultured meat. Students will use 3D printing to localize cells and protein content into solid meat structures and will use in vitro cell culture techniques to maintain the constructs in the laboratory. Characterization will focus on obtaining defined regions of muscle, fat, and protein and quantifying the timescales at which the cultured meats mature. Relationships between the 3D printing parameters and structures and textures of the cultured meat will be quantitatively established. Social, economic, and environmental impacts of the cultured meat will be assessed.
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