The Materials Partnership Program (MPP) with CSULA

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2001 Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

The CSEM Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program supports CSULA undergraduates in year-round, collaborative research projects bridging Caltech and CSULA. In addition, the Program gives CSULA students and faculty access to state-of-the-art experimental facilities, and supports a sabbatical program for CSULA faculty.

During the summer of 2001, in residence were six CSULA students, their mentors, along with several other summer SURF (summer undergraduate research fellows) and MURF (minority undergraduate research fellows). We are pleased to introduce the first group of CSEM Fellows, their mentors, and research projects. (Photos taken during a group luncheon on August 18th, 2001.)

Jorge Alarcon and Catherine Alpas worked with Professor Joel Burdick on a mobile arm support robotics device to help people who have weakened arm functionality. It is an almost frictionless device controlled by the person's own arm. Their work is to determine the best dimensions for the device. Their mentor at CSULA is Professor Samuel Landsberger.



Valerie Villareal studied the stability of hydrogels (aggregated fluoroalkyl-ended polyethyleneglycol) for applications in capillary electrophoresis. She and her mentors (Professor Julie Kornfield at Caltech and Professor Frank Gomez at CSULA) hope to show that drugs (or other components) can be immobilized in the hydrogel and that the hydrogel can also serve as a sieving matrix. Rob Lammertink (a Caltech Post-Doc, pictured at left) also worked on this project.



Jaime A. Leiva worked with Caltech Professor Ersan Üstündag, graduate student Cahit Aydiner, and CSULA mentor Professor Neda Fabris on the characterization of bulk metallic glasses. In particular, he made residual stress measurements, which require that he perform very high-precision drilling (200,000th of an inch) as well as use multiple strain gauges to obtain the information used to characterize the material.




From left to right: CSEM Director Julie Kornfield, Professor Neda Fabris from CSULA, CSEM/CSULA Coordinator Stanley Pine, and CSEM Fellow Jaime A. Leiva.



Caltech Chemistry Technical Staff Member Mario Blanco (standing), talking with CSEM Fellows Jorge Alarcon, Catherine Alpas, and Jose Barragan. Dr. Blanco has been working with the CSEM program on other outreach efforts, and dropped by Dabney Gardens during lunch.

Although Jose Barragan (far right) has a background in fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, here at Caltech he broadened his experience by working with Professor Ersan Üstündag on reinforcing bulk metallic glasses with wire to strengthen them, much like concrete is reinforced with steel rebar. He and his colleagues have found that tungsteen produces the best results. His CSULA mentor is Professor Neda Fabris.



Marco Curreli worked with Caltech Professor Harry Atwater on synthesizing ultra-thin nano-crystals and then characterizing the materials for use as potential optical switches. His CSULA mentor is Professor Yong Ba (pictured below).














In addition to the CSULA-Caltech CSEM Summer Fellowship Program, undergraduates from Caltech and other institutions are active in CSEM research. Social events such as this August luncheon provided opportunities for them to share their experiences.



Stepanie Culler, a student at UCSD, joined the CSEM Fellows this summer as a SURF (summer undergraduate research fellow) fellow. She and her colleagues (Caltech Professor Julie Kornfield and graduate student Eric Pape, pictured at right) examined the rheological properties of bio-compatible gels used for making intra-ocular lenses. Her work in characterizing the dynamic modulus (stress/strain ratio) of the material will lead to improved gels for eventual use in improving human vision.



Also joining the CSEM Fellows this summer is Yeliz Utku from Turkey. She is working with Caltech Professor David A. Tirrell and graduate student Kathy Di Zio on artificial extracellular matrix proteins that eventually could be used to repair damaged human blood vessels. Her project this summer is to purify proteins and cast them into very thin films that are small enough to fit into blood vessels. These materials might someday be used as vascular grafts.