Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
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The following positions are available for Summer 2023 within the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Lehigh University to all current ChBE undergraduate students. 

Lehigh University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. 

Mountaintop Summer Experience on "Exploring Active Granular Media"

Professor Gilchrist will be leading a group of 5 students (2 Fellows who work full time and are paid through the MTSE program for the summer and 3 Associates who participate part-time) to explore experiments and applications of granular microrollers developed in his laboratory.  Specific goals and broad training in experimental design, image analysis, creative approaches to research, and communication will be fostered through the program.  Fellows will have a STEM major and the Associates can be any major.  Diversity of the team both in training and their background is encouraged.  Students interested in being either "Fellows" or "Associates" should email Professor Gilchrist for details and apply through the 2023 MTSE website

To inquire: contact Professor Gilchrist 

Mountaintop Summer Experience on "STEM Visualization"

This MTSE experience project is about developing interactive visualization-based python modules to explain engineering concepts; such modules will then be deployed as in-class activities in existing courses at Lehigh (and made available to anyone through the web). Students will work with Profs. Menicucci and Rangarajan and external advisor Dr. Thiagarajan to develop these modules two full-time (fellows) and three part-time students (associates) for this project. Interested students should email Professor Rangarajan for details and apply through the 2023 MTSE website

To inquire: contact Professor Rangarajan

Mountaintop Summer Experience on "Building a DNA Computing and Storage Platform: When Biomolecules meet Computer Arithmetic"

This project aims to create a lab-on-a-chip system for DNA manipulation using open source software and hardware. The system, called ”Purple Drop,” will sequence the movement, heating, and cooling of droplets containing DNA for precise control and information processing. The project will impact the field of computing and contribute to communities in biomolecular engineering, automation, computer arithmetic, and hardware integration. Students in computer science, engineering, chemistry, biology, or bioengineering majors are encouraged to apply. Interested students should email Professor Kothare for details and apply through the 2023 MTSE website

To inquire: contact Professor Kothare

Undergraduate Summer Laboratory Assistant

The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is looking for two students interested in setting up, designing, and running experiments in support of the department's teaching laboratories. 

To inquire: contact Professor Menicucci
Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunity

ChBE major interested in learning and contributing to topics related to design, operation of oxygen concentrators in an experimental setup and through simulations using gPROMS.  The project will involve learning how to operate a cyclic pressure swing adsorption system using machine learning methods, conducting either experimental studies or simulation studies with gPROMS to optimize the performance and demonstrate high medical grade oxygen production in a test setup.

To inquire: contact Professor Kothare

Course Preparation Assistant for CHE044
An undergraduate student will work with Professor Chaudhury to upgrade prepared notes for the CHE044 fluid mechanics course. Professor Chaudhury's intention is to prepare the notes that would present the subject, hopefully, in a more concise manner than what is available in the standard text books using various examples related to chemical engineering. Also preparing various experimental demonstrations that would be included in class during lectures. The student will help prepare the notes and various videos. 
 
To inquire: contact Professor Chaudhury
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (1)
This project will investigate the deposition of semiconductive polymer coatings over ~10 weeks to perform research with the Gilchrist and Reichmanis Laboratories. Student responsibilities include laboratory safety, experiments, characterization, and summarizing/reporting their findings to the research groups.  Summer students must complete the required HST safety training before entering the laboratory.
 
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (2)
The Schultz lab is seeking 2 summer undergraduates that will do research in how stem cells interact with biomaterials. This work would involve guided and independent research and will include designing, executing and analyzing laboratory experiments. Each student will be trained by a graduate student, so no prior laboratory experience is required. Students will preferably have majors in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering or another closely related major. Students interested in these positions should email Professor Schultz for more details and to apply for the position.
 
To inquire: contact Professor Schultz
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (3)
A team of researchers from ChBE (Schultz and Gilchrist) and Bioengineering (Cheng) are scheduled to launch research samples into space for an experiment this fall and over this summer we need an assistant to get this done. The student working on this project will primarily 1) Laser cut glass slides and help assemble them into the devices that will hold our samples and 2) help run the code for image analysis of our images from our microscope.  Students will also have an opportunity to shadow researchers and develop their own experiments.
 
To inquire: contact Professor Gilchrist
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (4)
Electricity-driven production of high energy density hydrogen fuel is more sustainable than steam reforming of hydrocarbons due to the avoided greenhouse gas, such as CO2, emissions. Electrolysis of water involves two half-reactions, namely oxygen evolution (OER) at the anode and hydrogen evolution (HER) at the cathode, where the Gibbs free energy change of the overall reaction is 237 kJ/mol and the thermodynamic voltage required for electrolytic decomposition of H2O is 1.23 V. The success of implementing the use of hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier on a global scale depends on the choice and the long-term stability of the materials that catalyze the redox processes in electrochemical water splitting reactions and bimetallic electrocatalysts have recently been proposed.  Several recent studies have highlighted both negative and, surprisingly, positive effects of iron ions present in the electrolyte on HER and OER.  Iron ions originate from and accumulate in the electrochemical systems during the extended cycling use from the piping and are an example of an anthropogenic contaminant that will affect the overall HER and OER performance.
 
During the proposed project, an undergraduate student will familiarize themself with electrochemical techniques for hydrogen generation, work under the supervision of a Ph.D. student and a postdoc to synthesize bimetallic catalyst, NiMo, and investigate the effects of Fe3+ ions in the electrolyte during HER on their structural, chemical properties as well as their electrochemical performance during extended cycling.  In particular, XRD, XAS, XPS, STEM, in situ Raman as well as the extensive electrochemical characterization during HER will be utilized.
 
To inquire: contact Professor Baltrusaitis
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (5)
Investigation of Buoyancy of Janus Particles: Janus particles are those that have one type of property on one half and another type of property on the other half. If the density of a particles is less than that of water, they would float at the surface of an air-water interface. My colleague, Professor Ferguson of the department of chemistry, discovered many years ago that not all particles of density less than that of water would float on the surface. Rather they would come near the surface and stay below the interface. Similar phenomenon is sometimes called as the “Moses Effect”. On the other hand, we discovered in our lab several years ago that certain bead with density more than that of the liquid do not sink all the way down. They become neutrally buoyant after descending in the liquid below.
 
Prof Ferguson and Professor Chaudhury are planning to do some research in these problem in order to understand thoroughly the reasons behind these unique findings. The student will be jointly supervised by both professors.
 
To inquire: contact Professor Chaudhury

 

Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (6)
Objective: Evaluate the use of renewable electrical energy in high temperature processes
 
Expectations: Explore the Mass and Energy balances, thermodynamic equilibrium and simple kinetics of important endothermic processes to minimize environmental impact.
 
Expected background: Junior/senior level to be able to understand what drives current chemical processes in a fundamental basis. A very motivated rising sophomore could also workout.
 
Project: Transforming electrical energy into high temperature is a very efficient use of energy either captured from the sun (solar cells) or wind (wind farms). Three processes are of immediate interest:
Hydrogen production by steam methane reforming (with CO 2 Capture) CH 4 + H 2 O=CO 2 + 4H 2 (1000C). Hydrogen is critical for ammonia fertilizer production, clean steel production, hydrogen cars and other processes such as glass production. Currently steam reformers are enormous structures (40x40x40 ft) that burn large amounts of methane. An electric regenerative process reduces the size to 10x4x4 ft. Initial calculations indicate this to be highly feasible.
 
Cement production: Cement production is responsible for about 10% of industrial CO 2 . This is due to the need to decompose Limestone to CO 2 and provide enough heat to raise the temperature of CaO and
SiO 2 to ~1300C to form the clinker that when ground will yield the hydraulic cement used in construction. The flue gases of the current process contain up to 30% CO 2 but separation is still needed. Replacing the high temperature flame by an electric will produce pure CO 2 ready for sequestration. (This already being used
 
Hydrocarbon Dehydrogenation: These are high temperature/low pressure endothermic processes such as ethane dehydrogenation to produce ethylene and hydrogen, ethylbenzene to styrene and hydrogen. These are building blocks for plastics such as polyethylene and polystyrene as well as potentially biodegradable polymers. Again, the issue is to use electrical heat with no CO 2 emissions.
 
To inquire: contact Professor Caram
Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant (7)

Green Electrocatalytic Upgrading of Bio-Derived Feedstocks: The McIntosh and Snyder labs are looking for motivated undergraduate students (up to two) to work on a novel approach to electrocatalysis . The goal is to use renewable energy to upgrade plant-derived molecules into useful chemicals that can, for example, be used as replacements for fossil fuel derived plastics.

To inquire: contact Professor McIntosh