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Students who participated in REU programs in 2024

Every successful engineer starts as an inexperienced undergraduate. Their journey begins with an idea and, propelled by curiosity, those embers of interest can become a lifelong passion for exploration. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) provide opportunity for inquisitive minds looking to build an early foundation of technical experience and applied knowledge. They also give undergraduates who are undecided about their educational path a first look at a career in research.

Students who participate engage in hands-on lab work accompanied by classroom education, seminars and workshops that cover technical and soft skills. Research paper writing, research ethics and effective presentation techniques are some topics meant to develop undergraduates professionally and personally. This experiential learning is directed by the VCU College of Engineering’s experienced faculty and industry professionals.

At the VCU College of Engineering, over fifty students participated in one of several summer REU programs. View photos from the REU Summer Symposium on the VCU College of Engineering’s Flickr and read a sampling of the different programs available to students below.

Build Back Better Summer REU for Student Success

REU Site in Pharmaceutical Engineering

End-User Programming for Cyber-Physical Systems

Mechanobiology at VCU

REU Site in Magnetics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Central Virginia Node


Build Back Better Summer REU for Student Success

Learning the theoretical concepts behind pharmaceutical drug manufacturing, students engaged in experimental work related to the design and development of processes to synthesize, monitor and verify small molecule, protein and nanoparticle bioactive compounds. These items are important throughout the process of medication manufacturing and provide real-world experiences in problem solving, communication and teamwork within and between faculty laboratories.

Build Back Better Summer REU students from the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at the REU Summer Symposium
Build Back Better Summer REU students from the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at the REU Summer Symposium

This REU was funded by the Department of Commerce Build Back Better Regional Challenge award to the VCU and coordinated by Nastassja Lewinski, Ph.D., chemical and life science engineering associate professor. Focused on developing women and students from underrepresented groups in STEM, the program aimed to give students a broad perspective on the many applications of chemical and life science engineering.

The program’s participants were:

  • Jeremy Barber, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
  • Annika Bogstad, University of Arizona
  • Ngoc Doan, University of New Mexico
  • Tayona Hurley Burgess, Virginia State University
  • Rayna Jones, Virginia State University
  • Nabil Mouhajir, George Mason University
  • Amanda Richardson, University of South Florida

“I learned a lot from my graduate student mentor, Kaitlin Kay, as well as other students and faculty from the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering,” said Hurley Burgess. “Of particular interest to me was work around process analytical technologies (PATs) and their applications. I was introduced to PATs in the lab and they relate directly to my own research on UV-Vis spectroscopy, which measures the absorption of light in the UV and visible spectrums.”

REU Site in Pharmaceutical Engineering

The pharmaceutical industry is in need of talented engineers to solve the health challenges of the future. Developing this multidisciplinary workforce is the main objective of VCU’s REU Site in Pharmaceutical Engineering. Students learn laboratory research techniques in tandem with co-curricular activities to enhance their career potential. This NSF-funded REU recruits students with limited opportunities for STEM research or who are from underrepresented communities within STEM.

Organized by Thomas Roper, Ph.D., and Sandro R. da Rocha, Ph.D., the co-directors of the Pharmaceutical Engineering REU program, students receive additional benefits from the experience of faculty who are part of The Center for Pharmaceutical Engineering and Sciences at VCU. The center hosts the United States’ only Ph.D. in pharmaceutical engineering, with over 30 students enrolled since its inception.

The program’s 2024 participants were:

  • Grace Guimond, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Natalie Mueller, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Grayson Ramsey, Virginia Tech 

End-User Programming for Cyber-Physical Systems

For students without computer programming experience, the REU for End-User Programming for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) tasked undergraduates with software development. Robotics and home automation appliances are examples of CPS and encompass a range of technology that respond to and control items in our physical environment.

Students from underrepresented groups within computer science and institutions without research-intensive programs are chosen for the program in order to give them opportunities to develop their skills. The program was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and organized by Kostadin Damevski, Ph.D., computer science associate professor.

Before arriving at the VCU College of Engineering, students selected a project proposed by faculty mentors. These groups progressed together, working with their chosen mentor to complete the projects in small groups. Undergraduates spent many hours in the lab to produce meaningful results by the end of the program.

“I decided on the summer REU at the VCU College of Engineering because the interesting research addressed real world problems,” said Bobby Zita. “My project focused on developing a machine learning model to promote inclusivity in open-source software projects, an issue I find super important. I learned how research isn’t necessarily a direct process. A few times over the course of my research, we had to change our approach or adapt based on our findings. I also learned a lot of technical skills that will help me succeed in graduate school.”

Zita’s project, Study of Conversational Derailment on GitHub, examined historical data from toxic conversations on GitHub, a computer code repository. Students derived a pattern from the data and developed an algorithm based on GPT-4 to proactively detect heated conversations that may violate GitHub’s code of conduct.

The program’s participants were:

  • Wonder Akpabio, University of Maryland Baltimore County
  • Steven Bui, North Carolina State University
  • WanXiang Chen, University of Buffalo
  • Rebekah Copeland, Eastern Mennonite University
  • Josh Makela, James Madison University
  • Zachery Nolan, University of Memphis
  • Christian Novalski, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Vaishnavi Ranganathan, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Isabella Villarreal, Texas A&M International University
  • Robert Zita, Elmhurst University

Mechanobiology at VCU

Engineering and life science intersect within the mechanobiology discipline. This REU provides opportunities for undergraduates to enhance their scientific literacy and communication, preparing them for graduate study or careers in research.

Funded by the NSF and organized by Rebecca Heise, Ph.D., the Inez A. Caudill, Jr. Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Priscilla Hwang, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor, students participate in research projects to learn research skills in the areas of microfluidics, mechanotransduction pathway analysis, functional tissue engineering, cell-material interactions and cancer cell biophysics. They also learn the basic scientific method, statistics skills, research ethics and the workings of collaborative biomedical research laboratories. 

Between school activities mechanobiology REU students enjoyed social events, like an ice cream social to beat the summer heat.
Between school activities mechanobiology REU students enjoyed social events, like an ice cream social to beat the summer heat.

Research projects themselves involve experimental and computational approaches to mechanobiology problems in the areas of cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, cell and organ mechanics, tissue engineering, cellular senescence and orthopedic regenerative medicine. 

Participating in this program gives undergraduates the chance to share their research at a national level through peer-reviewed publications and presentations at meetings like the Biomedical Engineering Society conference.

To provide students with a better understanding of mechanobiology , an invited scholar seminar brought several industry experts to the VCU College of Engineering. They shared their innovative research and the career path they took to arrive where they are today.

The program’s participants were:

  • Johnathan Hancock, Reynolds Community College
  • Gweneth Hogan, Saint Louis University 
  • Munir Murad, University of Pittsburgh
  • Kyle Newman, North Carolina State University/UNC at Chapel Hill
  • Grace Panek, Iowa State University
  • Jenna Sadowski, William & Mary
  • Natalie Schulz, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Morgan Summerlin, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Grace Tully, George Fox University
  • Lydia Williams, James Madison University
  • Brooke Wunderler, University of Maryland- College Park

REU Site in Magnetics

This unique program is the only magnetics REU in the United States. Students learn the application of magnetics principles in a variety of practical and cutting-edge research scenarios. From employing voltage control of skyrmions that can be used to build synapses for neural networks to development of transcranial magnetic stimulation coils for brain therapy, a variety of detailed topics are presented for participants to examine.

Undergraduates also spend time at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Harvard University and Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The site visits allow students to conduct additional experimentation ranging from neutron diffraction to brain stimulation. To gain insight into how the technology they employ is used, REU students also visited Micron Technologies for insight into nanofabrication facilities currently used in the computer industry. 

Magnetics REU students presenting their work at the REU Summer Symposium
Magnetics REU students presenting their work at the REU Summer Symposium

Funded by the NSF, the site is managed by Ravi Hadimani, Ph.D., mechanical and nuclear engineering associate professor. He is also director of the Biomagnetics Laboratory at the VCU College of Engineering.

Continued involvement in the IEEE Magnetics Society and American Institute of Physics is encouraged, so students may continue learning beyond the REU program. The REU Site in Magnetics seeks to train a diverse group of students in both research and professional skill sets.

The program’s participants were:

  • Maira Azam, Virginia Commonwealth University 
  • Abdullah Mohamed, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Andrew Chernesky,Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Colin Guilbault, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Brock Lodato, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Turab Rizvi, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Ellie Sabalewski, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Samantha Smith, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Erin Sprouse, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Quinton Tittle, Virginia Union University 

“Being able to ask questions is an important part of the lab experience for me,” said Smith. “Talking to and forming relationships with people you may not directly work with really enriches the learning experience. It can be intimidating for someone who’s just starting out, but it’s part of the process. Working in a lab to gain valuable experience and interacting with individuals outside of my chemical engineering major made me happy.”

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, Central Virginia Node

Students had the choice of three REU programs, hosted in part at VCU, and funded by the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Central Virginia Node (CCI-CVN). 

The Soil Moisture Sensing with Wireless Signals participant leveraged the propagation characteristics of wireless signals under the soil, which change based on the amount of water, to develop a low-cost moisture sensor using the channel state information of WiFi signals and machine learning models. It was organized by Eyuphan Bulut, Ph.D., computer science associate professor.

This program’s participant was Micah Kinney, Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Finding out what I truly love about research is one of the best things about this experience,” said Kinney. “Having the time to solve problems and think of new methods for my experiments is great!”

Magnetic devices used in deep brain stimulation, also used at the REU Site in Magnetics, that are connected to a computer network are subject to the same threat of cyber attack as any other connected device. The Intentional Electromagnetic Interference in Brain Stimulation Devices REU tasked students to research techniques to protect this medical technology, and the patients who use it, from outside influence. Ravi Hadimani, Ph.D. was the program organizer.

This program’s participants were:

  • Kai Feng, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Akshita Ramesh, Virginia Commonwealth University

“It’s fascinating to see the potential intersections of biomagnetics and computer science/computer engineering,” said Ramesh. “I have really enjoyed my REU experience. It has given me a huge opportunity to delve into topics I never thought I’d be able to do work with, especially as a computer engineer.”

Optimizing large-scale computations is difficult with current technology because of the complexity involved. Students of the CCI CVN REU, titled An Exploration of Classical and Quantum Approaches to Solving Optimization Problems, explored the application of Quantum Annealing on D-Wave computers and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm on an IBM Quantum simulator to solve optimization problems that could have future applications for security and autonomous systems. Jayasimha Atulasimha, Ph.D., Engineering Foundation Professor with the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering organized this REU and his Ph.D. students Aniruddha Chakraborty and Md Fahim Chowdhury mentored REU students, helping them with formulating the problem and IBM’s Qiskit programming.

This program’s participants were:

  • Hugo Davalos, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Hussein Elshowaya, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Kennedy Martin, Virginia Commonwealth University

The opportunity to collaborate with a diverse team of individuals from various backgrounds, disciplines and majors is what excited me most about this opportunity,” said Martin. “Having not done research before, the experience was incredibly eye-opening. I was happy with my team and our ability to work with and rely on one another. It’s been invaluable to leverage each other’s strengths throughout the REU. This experience enhanced my research skills and gave me deeper insight into the research field as a whole.”

Categories Biomedical Engineering, Chemical & Life Science Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, Student Stories, Undergraduate Student Stories
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