The Research Immersion Camp
The University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas at San Antonio is a multicultural discovery enterprise institution with nearly 31,000 students. It is the largest university in the San Antonio Metropolitan region.
UTSA offers custom-made short term programs to students from partner institutions, including our Signature Undergraduate Research Immersion Camp.
Apply now and experience life as a Roadrunner this summer!
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RESEARCH PROJECTS
Areas of Research Interest:
Fabrication, characterization and use of the magneto-electrical properties of nanosized materials such as molecules, multicomposition nanodots and nanowires, thin films, and superlattices.
Carlos Monton
Physics and Astronomy
Project Description:
The summer student will be trained on several fabrication techniques including electrochemical deposition, physical vacuum evaporation, and wet chemical synthesis for the fabrication of multifunctional (optical and magnetic) nanostructures. These prototype nanostructures will be evaluated for applications in ultra-high density data storage and biomedicine. To this end, the candidate will perform a comprehensive structural and magnetic characterization of these nanostructures using electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), x-ray diffraction, and magnetometry techniques available in the laboratory.
Areas of Research Interest:
Thermogravimetric and microstructural investigations of high temperature materials. Intermetallic compound synthesis and testing. High temperature steam testing, and mixed gas atmosphere oxidation dynamic measurements. Material systems of interest to the nuclear fuel cycle including uranium bearing compounds, FeCrAl alloys, SiC, and high entropy alloys.
Elizabeth Sooby Wood
Physics and Astronomy
Project Description:
The summer student will be engaged in thermal analysis of materials relevant to civilian nuclear power. The student will learn thermal analysis techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The student will also gain experience in metallurgical sample preparation including arc melt synthesis, segmentation, sample grinding and polishing. Lastly, the student will utilize advanced characterization tools, x-ray diffractometers and scanning electron microscopes, to study the effects of extreme environments on the samples they synthesize and prepare.
Areas of Research Interest:
Modeling and experiments on Cytoskeleton filaments: How and why age and inherence affect neuron functions. 2- Modeling and characterization of smart oxide nanoparticles for cancer therapies. 3- Modeling synthetic polymers and their applications on artificial muscles.
marcelo.marucho@
utsa.edu
Marcelo Marucho
Physics and Astronomy
Project Description:
The student will investigate novel mechanisms to transmit information (in form of ionic current) from ion channels to other organelles and their potential role in neuron information processing. The research project involves theoretical characterization of fascinating yet poorly understood conducting and electrical (e.g. bionanowire) properties of cytoskeleton filaments (F- actin, microtubules). The student will use multi-scale models to account for the atomistic details of a protein molecular structure, its biological environment, and their impact on the amplitude, velocity, and attenuation of electrical impulses propagating along cytoskeleton filaments.
Areas of Research Interest:
Electromagnetic wave phenomena in complex, inhomogeneous media and structures and their applications in electromagnetics and photonic. Anderson photon localization in random media, symmetry breaking in layered photonic structures involving nonlinear, magnetic and phasechange materials, high-power coherent fiber-laser combining for the infrared, wide-aperture sheet isolators, limiters and polarizers for highpower applications.
Andrey Chabanov
Physics and Astronomy
Project Description
The summer student will participate in measurements of electromagnetic wave transport in complex media. Periodic assemblies of dielectric and metallic layers, as well as random collections of dielectric spheres will be measured with microwaves, in order to determine the effects of structural order/disorder, material volume density, magnetic field, etc. on wave transport. The project will involve literature studies and simple computer simulations.
Areas of Research Interest:
Electrochemical enzyme assays – the development of internally calibrated electrochemical continuous enzyme assays (ICECEA), Electrochemical (bio)sensors and modified electrodes – the development of biocompatible approaches to the integration of enzymatic reactions and electrodes, and Electrode films – the design, formation, and characterization of selective films for the amplification of electrode current.
Waldemar Gorski
Chemistry
Project Description:
The goal of this summer project is to develop a rapid sensor for the heart attack biomarker enzyme myeloperoxidase. The student will learn the fundamentals of enzymes and electroanalysis, get the hands-on experience with electrochemical workstations, and use biopolymers and carbon nanotubes to design the sensor.
Areas of Research Interest:
Chemical imaging, Laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight mass spectrometry, Mass spectrometry, Metal clusters and Nanomaterials.
Stephan B. Bach
Chemistry
Project Description:
The summer student will work on a project focused on the selfassembly of Nobel metal nanoparticles using mass spectrometry to follow the assembly process. The student will gain experience with the synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles. A variety of thiol based ligand will be used in making the nanoparticles to determine their impact on the self-assembly process. They will learn about various types of mass spectrometers used for the characterization of nanomaterials. They will also be exposed to various spectroscopic techniques such as ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy.
Areas of Research Interest:
Computational Genomics and Proteomics, Bayesian Methods,
Statistical Signal Processing.
Yufei Huang
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Description:
Detecting brain signals of cybersickness during virtual reality games using machine learning. The student will work on applying and building machine learning models for detecting the onset of cybersickness from EEG data. The student will gain experience on collecting and analyzing human EEG data, the concept and applications of machine learning, building EEG-based brain-computer interface systems.
Areas of Research Interest:
Energy-efficient logic and memory devices for future data-centric computing paradigm; Emerging nano-materials including CNTs, graphene, GNR, and TMDs; Experimental and computational nanodevice research; Beyond-CMOS nanoelectronics including spintronics (spin + electronics, magneto-electronics), steep sub-threshold swing transistors, and energy-harvesting and conversion materials and devices technology.
Ethan C. Ahn
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Description:
Nanotechnology has become a critical field of study for decades by enabling transformative innovations in a wide variety of disciplines of fundamental science, electronics, mechanics, and biomedical engineering. The UTSA Nanoelectronics Laboratory is conducting numerous research on nanotechnology to create novel nanoscale materials and devices for machine learning, robotics, quantum computing, and energy-harvesting applications. Participating summer students will work under Dr. Ahn’s supervision to gain hands-on research experience on one of these research areas in Nanotechnology.
Areas of Research Interest:
Wireless Sensing and Location Technologies, Human Activity Data Collection and Supporting Mobile Applications.
David Akopian
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Description:
Indoor positioning and navigation. The student will gain an experience in collecting radiofrequency location-dependent background data for indoor location finding. Similar to GPS which works outdoors. Advanced topics will relate to the integration with Google Indoor Maps.
Areas of Research Interest:
Electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices, ferroelectric, piezoelectric, and pyroelectric oxides; crystal chemistry and structurecomposition-property relationships; low loss and frequency agile microwave dielectrics and devices; electrooptic, photorefractive, and nonlinear optical single crystals; multifunctional and tunable composites for sensors, actuators, and modulators.
Ruyan Guo
​Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Description:
The summer student will learn design, simulation, and fabrication of microelectronic circuits using hybrid 3D printing technique. The student may expect to be trained in the skills of conducting finite element analysis modeling using COMSOL, conducting inkjet fabrication of composite structure, and testing the properties of fabricated microelectronics by an array of advanced techniques.
Areas of Research Interest:
Aqueous corrosion, including stress corrosion cracking; hydrogen embrittlement; coating adhesion; passivation; localized corrosion; atmospheric corrosion; corrosion inhibitors; and corrosion in reinforced concrete. Currently working on stress corrosion cracking for oil and gas, nuclear, and aerospace applications; corrosion resistance of a newly developed coating, and hydrogen embrittlement of additive manufactured alloys.
Brendy Rincon
Mechanical Engineering
Project Description:
The student will work on at least two different projects related to environmentally assisted cracking. The student will learn to use different techniques for surface preparation and characterization, and will also run electrochemical and will assist on fracture mechanics related experiments.
Areas of Research Interest:
Development of macromolecular bio-interfaces towards challenging biomedical problems, focusing on designing exclusive, powerful nanomaterials systems to manipulate cellular signals and behaviors, engineering stimuli-responsive soft matter and biocompatible nanomaterials for their applications in drug delivery and control of cellular signaling.
Gabrielaromero.uribe@
utsa.edu
Gabriela Romero
Chemical Engineering
Project Description:
Fabrication of Scaffolds for the effective Treatment of Corneal Diseases. The summer student will work on fabricating and characterizing polymeric scaffolds to promote corneal innervation. The student will gain experience in polymer processing, electrospinning technologies, characterization of macromolecular interactions, and primary tissue culture techniques.
Kathryn Mayer
Physics and Astronomy
Areas of Research Interest:
Use of ultra-sensitive localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors to measure molecular binding and conformational changes on surfaces, Super-resolution microscopy studies of surface bound molecules, including nanoparticle-bound antibodies, and singlemolecule kinetics studies based upon microwell technology.
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Project Description:
The summer student will work on a project relating to the use of gold nanoparticles for dose enhancement in radiation therapy. The student will gain experience with the synthesis and functionalization of nanoparticles, methods for the characterization of nanoparticles (including optical spectroscopy and electron microscopy), and techniques for assessing nanoparticle-cell interactions (including optical microscopy).
Lorenzo Brancaleon
Physics and Astronomy
Areas of Research Interest:
Protein/dye systems, establish and understand the mechanisms by which photoactive dyes non-covalently attached to proteins can prompt conformational changes of the protein upon irradiation with visible light; Inactivation of specific proteins; introduction of photosensitive, "artificial" properties (structural, enzymatic, etc.) to globular proteins.
Project Description:
The summer student will work on a project that investigates the use of pterin-, retinol- and porphyrin-like photosensitizer for the photoinduced modifications of protein targets. Protein targets will include albumins and globulins. The student will familiarize with a series of biophysical spectroscopies and computational analysis for the characterization of the protein conformational changes induced by photosensitizers. Methodology will include UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, time-resolved fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy but also computational methods such as docking simulations and molecular dynamic simulations.
Nicolas Large
Physics and Astronomy
Areas of Research Interest:
Theoretical group conducting research in the exciting field of Nanophotonics and Plasmonics. Using electrodynamic calculations and a large variety of computational methods (such as FDTD, DDA, BEM, FEM, and Mie theory), we aim at investigating, designing, and understanding the optical properties of plasmonic-based and nanophotonic systems.
Project Description:
The summer student will be involved in the investigation of the optical properties of plasmonicbased nanostructures. He/she will use electrodynamic simulation methods such as finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD, )boundary element method (BEM), or discrete dipole approximation (DDA), to calculate the far-field (scattering, absorption, reflection, transmission), and near-field properties. In particular, the student will focus his/her summer research on nanostructures that will combine the properties of plasmonic materials with dissimilar materials such as semiconducting, magnetic, or biomolecular materials and investigate the formation of novel polaritonic modes such as plexciton, ferroplasmons, such as lattice plasmons.
Arturo A. Ayon
Physics and Astronomy
Areas of Research Interest:
Physics of materials at the micro and nanoscale and their potential utilization in practical applications including superparamagnetic nanoparticles, metamaterials, quantum dots, sensors, actuators, thin films and photovoltaic devices.
Project Description:
The summer student will work in a clean-room environment on the synthesis and characterization of multifunctional quantum dots. In addition to the learning safe laboratory practices for the chemical synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots, the student will collect absorption and emission curves, identify by deconvolution the radiating relaxation modes that contribute to their photoluminescent behavior, estimate bandgap energy and nanoparticle size employing Tauc’s approach and Brus’ equation and characterize them employing x-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
Karl Klose
Biology
Areas of Research Interest:
Bacterial pathogenesis, including genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, vaccinology, genomics, and a variety of imaging techniques; special emphasis on Francisella tularensis, Vibrio cholera.
Project Description:
The summer student will work on a project relating to the development of a vaccine against bacterial pathogens. The student will gain experience with cloning technologies, genetic engineering, microbiological techniques, methods for the evaluation of protein expression (Western immunoblotting and ELISA), and small animal model evaluation.
Michael P. Doyle
Chemistry
Areas of Research Interest:
Catalytic oxidation processes, Design and development of chiral catalysts, Diazo chemistry, Highly enantioselective catalytic reactions, and Medicinal chemistry.
Project Description:
Asymmetric Catalytic Constructions of Heterocycles and Carbocycles by Cycloaddition. The summer student will investigate the transition metal catalyzed vinylcarbene approach to cycloaddition that we have developedfor highly chemoselective, regioselective, and stereoselective cycloaddition reactions. Examples of [3+4]-, [3+3]-, [3+2]-, and even a [3+1]-cycloaddition reaction have been reported using dipolar metallovinylcarbenes generated from silyl-protected enoldiazoacetates, generally in high yields with low catalyst loadings. Those systems that have been examined suggest a broad applicability of this methodology. This project uses many spectroscopy and chromatography instruments and techniques.
Kirk Schanze
Chemistry
Areas of Research Interest:
Interaction of light with small molecules, polymers, and materials, Photochemical and photophysical processes that are stimulated when molecular systems absorb light, the phenomenon of luminescence..
Project Description:
The student will work on a project involving the fabrication of conjugated polymer films using the Layer-by-Layer approach. The films will be characterized using a variety of techniques, including atomic force microscopy and fluorescence microscopy. The Layer-by-Layer will be used as sensors for detection of analytes such as adenosine phosphate (ATP) and pyrophospate (PPi) in aqueous solution. The student will gain experience on the techniques described above, in the course of the research project.
Eugene B. John
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Areas of Research Interest:
Energy Efficient Computing, Ultra-Low Energy Computing for Implantable Cardiac Devices, Efficient Hardware for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Integrated Circuit IP Security and Trust, Hardware Security, Low Power Integrated Circuits and Systems, Power-Aware and Secure Systems, Power Aware Cloud Computing, Computer Architecture, and Performance Evaluation
Project Description:
Power consumption is one of the major problems in current mobile devices. The summer student will be trained on the various aspects of power reduction in integrated circuits at different levels of abstraction. Specifically the students will be trained on the energy optimization of hardware for machine learning and artificial intelligence. The students will also gain experience in various machine learning platforms such as TensorFlow.
Chunjiang Qian
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Areas of Research Interest:
Robust and adaptive control of nonlinear systems, Homogeneous systems theory, output feedback control, Observer design and fault detection, Intelligent control systems, Control of nonholonomic systems, underactuated mechanical systems, Aerospace systems, Communication network, Robotics.
Project Description:
The summer student will work in C3 lab on the modeling and control design of nonlinear dynamic systems with applications to power systems, electric vehicles and robotics. The students will learn advanced control theories and gain hands-on experiences in computer simulation and controller implementation using computers.
Amar Bhalla
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Areas of Research Interest
Electronic and optoelectronic Materials and devices, sensors and actuators, nanocomposites and Nanosystems, magnetoelectrics, bio-ferroics, metamaterials..
Project Description:
The summer student will work on a project related to ferroic/multiferroic materials, specifically on their magnetoelectric (ME) effects, and characterize their suitability for weak magnetic field detection. The student will gain experience in synthesizing the ME composites and measure their characteristics using direct electrical measurements, AFM, PFM and several other nanocharacterization tools including some microscopic techniques.
Wei Gao
Mechanical Engineering
Areas of Research Interest:
Mechanics and materials, with expertise in multiscale materials modeling and nanomechanical experimentation. We are interested in both engineering and biological materials. Our goal is to understand the fundamental principles governing mechanical properties and behaviors of materials at different length scales. Our research has plentiful applications in nanotechnologies, biomedicine, energy and others.
Project Description:
Students will be trained on high performance computing on mechanics and materials research. Students will work on multi scale materials modeling, including atomistic simulation and continuum mechanics modeling. Several projects are available: (1) finite element modeling of 3D printed lattice structure (2) molecular dynamics study of two-dimentional materials (3) transition state calculation on materials phase transition behavior (4) atomistic modeling of biological protein.
Mahmoud Abdelwahed
Chemical Engineering
Areas of Research Interest:
Involved in the development of a variety of novel functional nanomaterials and the study of the optical and catalytic properties of materials through high-resolution optical characterization, highresolution electron microscopy, and in-situ Operando catalytic characterization techniques of individual particles and single molecules, in order to produce nanomaterials with optimal conditions on large scale applications.
Project Description:
At the nanoscale research laboratory (NRL), the students will gain experience regarding the nanomaterial’s science. Focusing in the study and enhancement of the properties of different nanomaterials such as nanorods, nanodisks, nanopillars, and two-dimensional materials (2DM). The student will be involved in different aspects of the research, starting from the colloidal chemical synthesis, nanoparticle assembly, and the study of their different properties through highresolution optical facility and complementing their acquired knowledge with computational modeling. (1.) Study the mechanism of the nanocatalysis and photocatalysis in the individual particle and the single molecule resolution, (2.) Study the growth mechanism of the nanocrystals, (3.) Spectroscopy of nanomaterials and (4.) Computational modeling of nanomaterials.
