MNT-CURN Research Program - Cohort 2
Micro Nano Technology Collaborative Undergraduate Research Network (MNT-CURN)
Meet the Students
Student Participants of MNT-CURN Cohort 2
Abdikarim Abdi
Name: Abdikarim Abdi
Majors:
Aerospace engineering / electrical engineering
School:
Highline college
Research Activities, Interests, and Experiences:
I am interested in anything to do with thermal heat, I think global warming is our biggest concern, and with no way to lower the CO2 level fast enough I believe using excess heat from things like nuclear power plants, and eventually warehouses can create real change.
Connection to Personal Interests or Passions:
my personal passion and interest are to create, I think the person who asks a significant question is leading the world more than someone who answers, I want to someday create rockets that lead us somewhere we could never imagine.
Current Job/Career Activities
I work in a warehouse sometimes
Andy Lam
School: PCC, Majoring in the Computer Science Program
Interested in: Coding
Anton McFadden
Anton McFadden
I am currently a bio major at CCP in my last year. I work at both the chem lab at CCP and UPenn’s Singh Center for Nanotechnology. I am interested in the link between biology and nanotechnology, specifically CAR T cells and microfluidic devices.
- Behaving collegially
- Communicating science
- Team-Oriented
Benjamin Bekey
Benjamin Bekey is a non-traditional student changing careers to STEM, exploring possibilities for graduate school while taking classes at Pasadena City College. He conducts research on alkali halide crystal growth in a materials science / applied physics lab. Career plans include scientific research, and mentoring aspiring scientists."
Brandon Wong
Brandon Wong
I graduated high school in 2021, then applied to the Community College of Philadelphia. I am a double major in Criminal Justice and Biological Sciences. Criminal justice was my first major. In 2022 I just added Biological Sciences. Right now, I have known research activities or experiences. But doing the MNT-CURN Student every Friday on zoom seems very interesting.
Emily Elam
Elam is an engineering major at Bossier Parish Community College. She plans to earn a degree in Aerospace Engineering and is interested in aircraft manufacturing and technology. Emily is currently serving as an active duty crew chief for the US Air Force.
Emilio Mendoza
Emilio Mendoza is a Mechanical Engineer major at Santa Monica College. Currently partaking in the NASA MINDS and NASA MITTIC competition, he hopes he will contribute in solving both space-related and earth-related issues. Emilio is interested in nanotechnology as he hopes to work in the space industry in the future.
James Griffin
James Griffin is currently a senior in the Cybersecurity and Forensics program at Highline College, where he also works in an IT Support role, and is involved in the Cyber Competition club that competes against other colleges and universities in a variety of hacking competitions and challenges, including a 6th place finish at PRCCDC. He is interested in researching about how nanotechnology can further the field of brain-machine interfaces and medical prosthesis. His educational passions include learning, supporting others in the learning process, and always striving for excellence.
Jenna Miller
Name: Jenna Miller
Major: Biological Sciences
School: Delaware Technical Community College
Research Activities, Interests, and Experiences: Molecular biology, marine biology, and chemistry
Connection to Personal Interests or Passions: Learning about the way things work on the molecular level (such as cosmetic chemistry) and gardening/plant science.
Current Job: Beauty advisor at Sephora and a Therapy Assistant at a Chiropractor's Office
Jocelyn Zhu
Jocelyn Zhu is a Computer Science major at Pasadena City College. She currently participates in building an underwater ROV and researching the application of ROVs in climate action for the MATE ROV competition. She plans on pursuing a career in data science and research to contribute to scientific discovery and innovation.
Kasielynn Bussard
My name is Kasielynn Bussard, but I go by Kasie. I am majoring in Materials engineering and planning to specialize in Nanotech, Biotech, and Microscopy. I am a student at Salt Lake Community College. The current research projects I am working on are synthesizing nanowires with the Nanotech club, helping the Robotics club design the life-detecting section of a rover they are entering into the URC, and a personal project that involves creating a new kind of cortisol test. I am excited to pursue more medical and technologic research down the road.
Kateryna Melnychuk
Kateryna Melnychuk - student at Community College of Philadelphia, major: Health Care Studies - Nursing.
I'm an explorer by nature. And I always was curious about biology, anatomy, microbiology, neuroscience, space biology, nanotechnology, immunology, pathology and medical science. Pursuing Nursing degree, I completed different courses in science and allied health, maintaining my 4.0 GPA, and gaining more interest in biomedical research, biotechnology and bioengineering. I want to turn this passion into career and aspire to double major in Biology.
Currently I involved in microbial metagenomics research project lead by Dr. Salerno, and eager to gain new knowledge and experience. I aim to earn PhD and hope someday to make a positive impact on humanity.
Kevin Ethridge
Pleased to meet you, I'm Kevin D. Ethridge. I've worn many hats such as founding president of the Biology Club for the community college of Philadelphia and being the east district president for The middle states region of Phi Theta Kappa national honor society.I have extensive experience in the biology field working in food safety and Cancer research. I aim to get my Doctorate in virology and take part in any opportunity to better myself along the way. I look forward to meeting you.
Kiryl Zdor
Kiryl Zdor is a chemistry major with a specialization in material science at Los Angeles Pierce Community College. I'm planning on conducting research to discover new reactions and material interactions to improve industrial output or develop new products. I'm planning to pursue a career as an R&D chemist.
Mahan Pourfakhr
Mahan Pourfakhr is a biomedical engineering student at Los Angeles Pierce College where he currently maintains a 4.0 GPA and is the TA for the organic chemistry class. Mahan plans on transferring to a University of California campus to earn his bachelor's degree and start research and plans on eventually working in the biotech industry.
Narely Rivas
Hello everyone! My name is Narely Rivas. just graduated High-school and now I am a freshman at Highline Community College, my major is Electrical Engineering. I am excited to see what I will learn from this program and how it will help me and others in the future.
Nayely Rolon-Gomez
Nayely Rolon-Gomez is majoring in laser technology and electronics technology at Pasadena City College. Nayely is passionate about conducting research at the intersection of optics and electronics, with a particular interest in remote sensing and quantum hardware. They hope to one day have a career developing enabling technologies that will aid humanity in moving toward a more sustainable future.
Rachael Orkin
Rachael s a biochemistry major at Los Angeles Pierce College. Since participating in MNT-CURN, she has had many opportunities that validate her choice in pursuing pathology and structural biology. She is currently doing research with electronic noses, biomechanic software, leprosy, and plans to engage in more. However, she would also like to participate in research regarding micronanotechnology and its intersections with medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. She is also interested in food chemistry! Rachael hopes to be a pathologist or clinical geneticist in the MD/PhD route.
Robert Valtierra
Robert Valtierra is a Computer Science major at Pasadena City College. Robert explores the different ways to implement object-oriented programming in the context of data structure. Robert continues to learn other SFML techniques for the purpose of adding graphics to C++ projects.
Rukia Adan
HI, my name is Rukia Adan I’m a sophomore currently attending Highline College and majoring in Electrical Engineering. I was first exposed to STEM in middle school so it’s always been in my back pocket. It really piqued my interest but I also had a thing for the medical field. Wanting to find a bridge between Medicine and Engineering, I thought Nanotechnology would be a great place to explore it. I’m sure through this internship I’ll find the kind of exposure that’ll help me succeed in my future field.
Rukia Yahya
Rukia Yahya
Major: Respiratory Therapy
School: Salt Lake Community College
Connection to Personal Interests or Passions; and Current Job/Career Activities: I work Intermountain as a Physicians answering service. I like reading and photography
Stephanie Escoto
My name is Stephanie Escoto and my major is Aerospace engineering. I am currently studying in Pasadena City College. My current research interest is metrology, aerodynamics and material science. I have some amount of experience as I have already worked in a clean room. My personal interest is some day work at formula 1 being a technical engineer as cars are part of my passion. I do not have current jobs but I am always looking for new internships.
Thet Paing Da Na (David Da Na)
Thet Paing Da Na (David Da Na)
Major: Electrical Engineering
School: Pasadena City College
Current Job: Physics lab assistant at PCC and Math Tutor at the PCC Pathway center
Extracurricular activities: The founder of the Burmese Club at PCC, ICC representative of International Christian Fellowship
Career goals: Want to have an Engineering startup company which innovates and invents the products which will help people’s lives easier.
Ulysses Contreras
I'm Ulysses Contreras My major is Electrical Engineering and I'm currently at Highline College. I'm unsure on what to research, but I think researching and developing prosthetics would be cool. I currently work as a Writing tutor at the Highline Writing center. I'm passionate about technology and want to learn how it works to fuel my curiosity and to help create innovative technology in the future.
Valentina Arce
Valentina Arce is a current student in Pasadena City College in California pursuing a degree in Molecular and Cell Biology. Since being in the MNT-EC program it opened the door to opportunities in the internship of many fields in research of Biosciences. She is interested in biomedical research focused in cancer mechanisms, the use of bacteriophages and its clinical applications.
Yucheng Zhao
My name is Yucheng Zhao I am currently a student from Pasadena City College who is majoring in Computer Science. I am interested in building games and software development. I don’t have any experience in doing research but I have taken an AP Course during high school. I am very passionate about things related to computers.
Meet the Mentors of Cohort 2
As a research participant you will work alongside Faculty and Student mentors.
Student Mentors
Aagam Rajeev Shah
Aagam is a doctoral student studying Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he works with Dr. Sameh Tawfick and Dr. Elif Ertekin. He develops data-driven predictive models for graphene synthesis by chemical vapour deposition and laser powder bed fusion. He also works on using machine learning for segmentation of electron and optical microscopy images.
Sophia Barber
Sophia Barber is a Neurobiology major and CS minor at the University of California, San Diego. She spent her time at Pasadena City College co-leading the NanoBio mAB for Cancer Therapies project, the Analysis of Remote Research in COVID-19 project, and the Student Engagement and Statistical Analysis team while also tutoring Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. In 2021 she pursued an internship at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine where she worked with mice models to identify neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in α1A adrenergic receptors. Sophia then joined the Wu Lab at UCSD where she first studied chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathies and now tracks lysosomes and mitochondria across various disease models. She also collaborates with the Berns Lab at UCSD where she studies Wallerian degeneration upon laser ablation in dorsal root gangions.
Isiah Ramos
Isiah Ramos (he/him) is a graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign under Dr. Elif Ertekin. He previously earned his B.S. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering with a minor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois, as well as an associates in Engineering at Parkland Community College. Previous research experiences include but aren’t limited to; impact of influenza on remyelination of neurons, composing a review on graphene-lipid biosensors, and SEM masking for model training.
Justice Robinson
Justice Robinson is a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pursuing a B.S. in Neuroscience with minors in Chemistry and Biology. She graduated with an Associate degree in Biology from Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma as an Honors Scholar and Barry Goldwater Scholarship recipient. She holds a current position as a Research Assistant with the Frohlich Lab at UNC School of Medicine where she assists in studying neural oscillations and psychiatric illnesses.
Paula Kirya
Paula Kirya is an undergraduate bioengineering student at UC San Diego. She transferred to UCSD in Fall 2020 from Pasadena City College. There under Dr. Ashcroft, she engaged in a research project studying the interdisciplinary applications of structural color in Morpho wing nanostructures to develop an educational module that can be incorporated into classrooms. Paula’s interest in biomimicry and nanotechnology prompted her to pursue a summer research internship at Penn State University in 2019, in which she aided in research developing a self-healing material from squid ring teeth proteins. Her previous research experiences led to her acceptance as an undergraduate representative at the 2021 Posters on the Hill Conference. Paula joined the Nanophotonics for Global Health lab at UCSD in August 2021 and is working on characterizing and quantifying the optical behavior of nanostructures and developing new applications of structural color in colorimetric metasurfaces to detect disease in biological tissue.
Kat Nykiel
Kat Nykiel is a graduate student working with Dr. Alejandro Strachan at Purdue University. Her research focuses on density-functional theory simulations to predict stability of atomically thin materials. Prior to Purdue, Kat completed a double major in Materials Engineering and Applied Physics in her undergraduate degree.
Faculty Mentors
Alejandro Strachan
Alejandro Strachan is a Professor of Materials Engineering at Purdue University, the Director of the MURI Center for Predictive Chemistry and Physics of Materials at Extreme Conditions (PCP@Xtreme) and the Deputy Director NSF’s Network for Computational Nanotechnology and nanoHUB. Before joining Purdue, he was a Staff Member in the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory and worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar and Scientist at Caltech. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1999. Among other recognitions, Prof. Strachan was named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar (2012-2017), received the Early Career Faculty Fellow Award from TMS in 2009 and the Schuhmann Best Undergraduate Teacher Award from the School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University in 2007 and 2017. Prof. Strachan’s research focuses on the development of predictive atomistic and multiscale models to describe materials from first principles and their application to problems of technological importance. His group uses these tools to understand how materials work and seeks to translate this insight into the design of new materials combining simulation and experimental results with data science tools. Application areas of interest include: high-energy density and active materials, metallic alloys for high-temperature applications, materials and devices for nanoelectronics and energy, as well as polymers and their composites. His scholarly work also includes the development of cyber-infrastructure to make modeling and simulation pervasive in research and education.
