Dr. Reza Nazemi, Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage (RECS)

• Nutrient Recovery and Fuel Production System: The student will design materials and systems to recover nutrients and produce renewable fuels and chemicals from wastewater sources. 

Dr. Todd Bandhauer | Research, End Market, and Commercialization Hub CoLab

• Turbo-compression cooling system: The student will work on modeling, design, fabrication, and/or testing of the turbo-compression cooling system and its various sub systems. The turbo-compression cooling system is a low-grade waste heat driven cooling system where the system converts heat into cooling using a combined organic Rankine cycle and a vapor compression system. We have a 300 kWth prototype system at the Powerhouse Energy Campus. The project modeling work will entail thermodynamic models of energy systems, simple pressure drop calculations and how they impact system design choices, and/or developing a solid model of the turbo-compression cooling system or a sub-system. Design work will involve component selection, heat exchanger sizing and selection, and creating layouts of system components. The fabrication portion of the research experience, we feel, is a critical part to be a well-rounded engineer. Students will learn how to cut and thread iron piping, assemble swagelok fixtures, calibrate and install instrumentation, debug Labview Data Acquisition software, and additional tasks as required. Finally – testing the turbo-compression cooling system or the sub systems may be required throughout the summer time frame. 

   

Dr. Chris Weinberger, Advanced Computational Materials Engineering Laboratory 

• ENLACE: This project will be used to enhance the current outreach activities of co-PI Graeve at the K-12 and undergraduate levels and to expand them to the University of Alabama and Colorado State University.  Specifically, co-PI Graeve initiated ten years ago a 7-week summer research program for high school and college students from both sides of the U.S.-México border.  The ENLACE bi-national summer research program aims to encourage the participation of students in research in the sciences and engineering, while promoting cross-border friendships.  During ENLACE, students are organized in pairs (one from each side of the U.S.-México border) and they work together in a research laboratory at UC San Diego supporting the activities of a PhD student.  The ENLACE program has been astonishingly successful in promoting graduate education among the student participants, the great majority of which are from underrepresented minority groups and low-income backgrounds.  The first class of students, in 2013, consisted of five high school girls from Tijuana.  In subsequent years, the numbers increased to 19 (2014), 26 (2015), 70 (2016), 100 (2017), 104 (2018), 120 (2019), 125 (2021) and 185 (2022), quickly transitioning into a program with a budget of $1 million dollars.

  Among all the students in the ENLACE program, PI Graeve usually selects two pairs to work in her own laboratory.  This past summer, she selected one pair of high school students and one pair of college students.  All other students in the program were placed in other UC San Diego laboratories, based on their interests.  The research efforts from this TopUHTC project will be leveraged to provide summer research activities for a minimum of two pairs of ENLACE students per year.  We may select additional pairs, depending on the year and on the availability of the graduate students that will serve as their direct mentors.  If we select two pairs every year, then a total of 16 students (either high school or college) will benefit from participation in this TopUHTC project.  The number of students may be larger based on specific needs of the project.  Funding of any Mexican students would come from industry funding of the CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems [[i]].  In addition, PI Thompson and co-PI Weinberger will recruit and hire an undergraduate student from an underserved STEM demographic that will be engaged with ENLACE remotely and continue their research participation with the investigators during the academic year.

  During the ENLACE program, we have several highly relevant student activities that we will open to University of Alabama and Colorado State University students (as many students as are interested, as we are able to serve hundreds through webinar services):

  Grad School Prep workshops: A series of workshops during the 7 weeks of the ENLACE program, with the goal of educating students on the process of applying to graduate school.  The workshops will be available for University of Alabama and Colorado State University students through videoconference.

  Featured Scientist Lectures: A seminar series on STEM topics in which PI Thompson and co-PI Weinberger will present.  Here again, webinar services will allow us the opportunity to open the lectures to University of Alabama and Colorado State University students.