Undergraduate Research Fellowship Spotlight: Andrea Alvarez

Each semester, Wyoming EPSCoR selects and funds twenty or more Undergraduate Research Fellowships. These fellowships are excellent opportunities for students to gain quality experience in research, prepare for graduate programs, and obtain practical knowledge.

As a Petroleum Engineering student at the University ofWyoming, Andrea Alvarez was interested in the relationship between water with oil and gas extraction.

Andrea Alvarez

This interest led her to Dr. Ginger Paige, a professor in Ecosystem Science & Management at UW. As an EPSCoR Undergraduate Fellow, Andrea has the opportunity to study and conduct research under the direction of Ginger.

“I’m studying water quality analysis on the Wind River Indian Reservation,” says Andrea. “When people think of petroleum, they don’t really think of water, they think of oil and gas. But in reality, they’re very closely related.”

Although she’s conducting research in a field different from petroleum engineering, Andrea has enjoyed the challenge.

“The most challenging part is the fact that I don’t know much about water quality,” she says. “I came in from a totally different field. But it’s shown me my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working in a field that I don’t know.”

Throughout her time as a fellow, Andrea has learned a lot about water quality, but she’s also learned about herself and the world around her.

“Doing this really gave me a better idea of what grad school would be like,” Andrea says. “It showed me where I would be lacking and where I would have advantages. It kind of just broadened my horizons overall.”

For other students thinking about applying for fellowships, Andrea encourages others to give it a shot.

“Get out of your comfort zone,” she says. “Try everything once.”

By Robin Rasmussen 

Photo courtesy of Andrea Alvarez

SRAP Student Spotlight: Lydia and Fuel Cell Adhesives

SRAPer: Lydia Frost
Home state: Wyoming
Grade: Freshman in college
Studying: Engineering at LeTourneau University in Texas.

Creating a new form of glue isn’t how most students plan on spending their summer. For Lydia Frost however, that’s exactly what she’ll be doing, and she’s excited about it. For her SRAP project, Lydia is working with Dr. Dongmei (Katie) Li in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering department. “I’m working with fuel cells. What I’m doing is finding an alternate way to bind the catalyst to the membrane. The catalyst and the membrane assembly is called the MEA, or membrane electrode assembly. It’s the main component of a fuel cell that produces the electricity,” says Lydia. “The normal way to make an MEA generates thermal and mechanical stress, and after a few uses, the electrode starts to pull away from the membrane because it doesn’t have very good interfacial contact. So, I’m just trying to find a different way of gluing it together.”The work that Lydia will be doing on finding an alternative adhesive will be vital for the field of fuel cell research. Not only is this work important, but it’s a great chance for Lydia to practice what she’s learned in school. “It’s fun to actually put the MEA together and work in the lab and get to use the stuff that you read about,” says Lydia. While Lydia now enjoys science, this hasn’t always been the case. An experience at a young age, however, changed that for her. “I guess I started liking science when I took physical science in junior high,” says Lydia. “I really liked it, mostly because I had a really awesome teacher and he made it very cool. So, I got really interested in science.”Her experience in junior high led Lydia to have an interest in STEM fields. She plans to study engineering, and math has always been interesting to her. “My favorite subject in school was math. I like it because it’s really fun to solve problems and understand them,” Lydia says. “It’s just fun to work with something until you understand and are to solve it.”The opportunity to work on a real-life research project is a unique experience for most high school students. While the research that Lydia is doing is challenging, she is gaining knowledge and experience in the field of research that will serve her well in her future.

SRAP is a six-week intensive research program based at the University of Wyoming and sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR.

By Robin E. Rasmussen and Kali S. McCrackin
Photo by Robin E. Rasmussen
 

SRAP Student Spotlight: Maddie Zoltek and fuel cell research

SRAPer: Maddie Zoltek
Home state: Illinois
Grade in school: High School Senior
Plans after High School: Attend college to study biochemistry or biomedical engineering

Maddie Zoltek hasn't always loved science. Her sophomore year of high school, however, changed that.

“I hated science up until then; I didn't think it was interesting,” Maddie says. “But when I took chemistry my sophomore year, I really liked it because of the awesome teacher I had. So, I started doing more research and getting more involved in it.”

Her love for chemistry continued to grow, leading her to want to pursue a degree in biochemistry.

“I thought chemistry was really interesting,” Maddie says. “Whenever we did labs in class, I loved doing them. I like the math involved too; it was just something that I really understood and I feel like I can apply it in a lot of ways. I just thought it was such a cool class.”

Maddie’s SRAP project involves working with Dr. Dongmei (Katie) Li, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Maddie will take the knowledge she gained in chemistry and apply it to improve the durability of fuel cells.

“I have been working with fuel cells,” Maddie says. “When we make a fuel cell using the alternative approach, we dip the membrane in a chemical solution serving as a ‘glue’ instead of using heat and mechanical pressing. My project involves testing the effect of different times on the durability and overall performance of fuel cells.”

A fuel cell creates an electric current from a chemical reaction and is used in areas such as transportation, stationary power, and more.

“The kind of fuel cell we work with generates electricity from hydrogen and oxygen,” says Dr. Li. “And then you can generate electricity in which you can stack all of these single cells up to power your car.”

Maddie says that one of her favorite parts about creating and testing fuel cells is being able to work in the lab and get her hands dirty.

“The most interesting part is actually just being able to make the solutions yourself and make the fuel cells yourself and have a hands-on approach,” says Maddie. “Because up until now we’ve only been learning about it and talking about chemistry and other science disciplines, so the opportunity to use classroom knowledge is really cool.”

The research that Maddie is working on and the techniques she’s learning will be beneficial for her future.

“The molecule she’s using is mostly used in biochemistry,” says Dr. Li. “Researchers use that compound for various reasons in the field of biochemistry.”

Maddie is greatly enjoying her research project this summer, and she’s excited about the opportunity to be working in the field she loves while gaining invaluable knowledge and experience. 

SRAP is a six-week intensive research program for high school students. It is based at the University of Wyoming and sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR.

By Robin E. Rasmussen and Kali S. McCrackin

Photos by Robin E. Rasmussen

SRAP Alumnus Leo K. Perez Jr.: The Value of Learning Time Management

Going to college is not just about learning the specifics of your major. It’s also about learning how to be an independent, successful adult. For Leo K. Perez Jr., a sophomore at the University of Wyoming majoring in Petroleum Engineering, learning these important life skills began when he was in the Summer Research Apprentice Program (SRAP) as a high school student.

“SRAP gives you a little bit of an insight into what being on your own is going to be like,” Leo says. “In the program you’re pretty much independent and on your own. You have to take care of yourself and manage your time. I think that SRAP was pretty helpful and it helped me get a pretty good feel for the UW campus too.”

SRAP is an EPSCoR program which aims to encourage more underrepresented groups to pursue degrees and careers in science and to further their education after high school. The program gives students hands-on experiences in science labs at UW, where they conduct their own projects with a mentor and are paid to do so. Leo was in SRAP two years in a row, in 2009 and 2010.

“The first time I worked with Dr. Mark Gomelsky in Molecular Biology,” Leo says. “And then the second time I was with Kiona Ogle in the Botany department. That’s actually how I got my job. When Kiona went to Arizona, one of the grad students moved to a different lab and I got my job through him.”

Leo is an undergraduate lab technician in one of the Botany labs at UW. As a SRAP student, he studied water uptake and the ecosystem of sagebrush. The project has expanded since then, and now he is working on the broader grassland ecosystem.

While Botany and Petroleum Engineering do not exactly mesh well, Leo has found that his involvement in the lab has contributed to his education.

“I am learning the research process and how to run experiments, which could be valuable because I am thinking about staying at UW and getting my Master’s degree,” Leo says.

In his first two years at UW, Leo has been involved in a variety of academic as well as extra-curricular activities, including the collegiate Future Farmers of America (FFA). He has enjoyed having familiar faces from high school in UW’s FFA and networking with new people.

“College in general has been a lot of fun,” he says. “It was pretty difficult at first because I was adjusting to everything, including big classes, but I’m in the groove now and I’m doing pretty well with everything.”

As he reflects on the last few years, he looks again at SRAP. It introduced him to different fields of science but also to a group of new friends he would not have met in his hometown of Glendo, Wyoming.

“The whole experience in general was a complete blast!” he says. “You really get a taste of all different cultures. In Wyoming, you don’t get to experience that too much. Both summers in SRAP we had students from all over the country, so you really meet people from a lot of different backgrounds. I always thought that was pretty cool.”

This diversity and networking is exactly what EPSCoR aims for in SRAP and what SRAP encourages in the broader scientific community. 

The deadline for this year’s SRAP applications is March 15^th. More detail and applications can be found at: http://www.uwyo.edu/epscor/fellowships-and-student-programs/srap/index.html

By Kali S. McCrackin