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MEM-C AYRA REU Kicks Off for 2024-2025 Year

MEM-C is thrilled to be welcoming 7 students to the 2024-20425 Academic-Year Research Accelerator Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (AYRA REU). These students applied and were accepted to participate in the program for up to two academic quarters. They represent a variety of UW majors from Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, MSE, Physics, Biochemistry and Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering. There are sophomores, juniors and seniors participating in the program this year. All of the students have one thing in common: they want an opportunity to do undergraduate materials research. MEM-C is lucky to have such an eager group, ready to participate in our research!

The Pozzo group (IRG-1) will be hosting two AYRA participants, both majoring in chemical engineering, and their research project will focus on implementing an ad-hoc accelerated materials synthesis platform for studying the cooperative synthesis and assembly of ultrasmall antimony (III) sulfide nanoparticles using the Jubilee platform. The Velian group (IRG-2) will be hosting a AYRA participant who is majoring in biochemistry and their MEM-C research will utilize clusters as building blocks for the bottom-up synthesis of materials is a way to generate new materials with tailored properties involving the crystallizations of salts with an attempt to form superatomic crystals. The Mo Li group (IRG-2) will be hosting an AYRA participant majoring in aeronautical & astronautical engineering who worked on MEM-C research in our previous award. Their research will include fabricating surface acoustic wave devices that can sense pressure and develop a procedure to transfer these sensors onto curved surfaces. Other participants are being hosted by the Gamelin, Yankowitz, and Cobden groups this year.

The AYRA program could not be possible without the NSF support, our incredible graduate students who mentor these undergraduates, and the faculty who host them. We’re looking forward to getting to know these AYRA participants and helping them gain research experience with MEM-C!