Research

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• Solar Powered Device Maker
• Sustainable Laboratory Senior Design Project
• Materials and Physics Research Intern
• Computational Complex Materials Lab Intern
• Nanoscale Tribology Lab Research Assistant

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Solar Powered Device Maker

NCSU Materials Science & Engineering (Raleigh, NC) June 2018-Present

• Built solar power devices by making organic solar cells with bulk heterojunction active layers
• Laboratory training in safety procedures, clean up procedure, and contamination avoidance
• Device fabrication including spin coating, pipetting, annealing, and vacuum/glove box use

Sustainable Laboratory Senior Design Project

University Honors Program (Raleigh, NC) August 2017-March 2018

• Collaborated with a group of three to design a device that produced contained, intense blue light (5 W/cm2).
• Coded model to predict light distribution across sample space.
• Purchased, designed, machined, soldered, and built device on $300 budget and 12-week timeline.
• Considered sustainability throughout design to make best use of electricity, water, and materials.

 

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Materials and Physics Research Intern

Penn State University (State College, PA) May 2017-August 2017

• Designed LabVIEW system that integrates lab equipment, takes measurements, saves data, and presents it.
• Studied electronic and spin-related properties of two-dimensional superconductors.
• Trained on Clean Room procedures and shadowed during device component manufacturing.
• Orchestrated social events for ~40 students and sent weekly update emails.

Click here for more information on measurement program written to run any combination of equipment, as well as collect, save, and display data.

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Computational Complex Materials Lab Intern

NCSU Physics (Raleigh, NC) January 2017-February 2017

• Analyzed complex materials out of equilibrium with computer tools in Dr. Lex Kemper’s lab.
• Studied solid state physics and basics of electronic-structure/energy calculations
• Used computational tools such as Quantum ESPRESSO as well as basic coding in python.

Nanoscale Tribology Lab Research Assistant

NCSU Physics (Raleigh, NC) May 2015-March 2016

• Tested frequency response in quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors due to surface laser irradiation.
• Developed equations to predict stress levels and frequency shift in QCM due to laser irradiation
• Constructed vacuum chambers for experiments under Ultra High Vacuum conditions
• Presented results during a 10-minute talk at the national 2016 APS March Meeting, as well as other conferences
• Published “Simultaneous Stress and Mass Change Measurements Arising from Laser Induced Detuning of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance” in Journal of Applied Physics (2018)