The URECA website regularly features students’ perspectives on research and/or creative activities. This month’s student is Alicia Elliott, a senior in the University Scholars program majoring in engineering science. She first began doing research under the direction of Gary Halada in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Summer 2013 as a participant in the “Nanotechnology for Health, Energy and the Environment” NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.
In the Halada group she investigates electrochemical methods for environmental and energy applications, including formation of noble metal nanoparticles using a biodegradable polymer, chitosan, and solution-based methods for noble metal nanoparticle growth on 3D printed polylactic acid structures. Last summer, Alicia had the opportunity to work at Cornell University’s Nanofabrication Facility under the direction of James Engstrom as an intern in a REU program that concluded with a presentation at the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network REU Convocation at Georgia institute of Technology. Her talk was titled “Selective Area Atomic Layer Deposition: Developing Techniques that will Enable Single-nm Technologies.”
Alicia has also presented at the Advanced Energy Conference in Albany and the New Horizons in 3D Printing, Digital and Additive Manufacturing Conference at Stony Brook, where she won a best poster award. She is also doing a senior engineering design group project on an anaerobic biodigester for residential use.
At Stony Brook Alicia has been active with the Sailing Team and was a digital media and ePortfolio consultant and a mentor in the pilot peer mentoring program offered in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Alicia has been a teaching assistant and an intern in the Thermal Spray Laboratory, and she is a member of Tau Beta Pi Engineering Society. She is applying to PhD programs in Materials Science and Engineering.
Click here to read the complete interview.
Don’t forget, nominations for Undergraduate Recognition Awards are due February 6.
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