Shashane Anderson

‘26 chemical engineering - biotechnology & bioengineering track

When did you do your Research?

Fall 2023 - still doing it

Where was your Research?

My research is at the ATOMS Lab with Dr. Josephson at UMBC.

What is the focus of your Research?

My current focus is on formalizing proofs regarding chemical equilibrium using the Lean Theorem Prover.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Research? 

I am eager to become more proficient with the computational aspects of engineering and math. Although it can be challenging, it’s an incredibly valuable skill.

What was the best part of your Research OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Research?

As a beginner, it’s been fascinating to observe my growth. I’ve gradually developed the ability to apply the knowledge I’ve gained from my courses and research in more practical ways such as proving the mathematical concepts I learn in class. This has significantly strengthened my skills. For this reason, I can be more appreciative of the value of the learning process and the insight it brings.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Never underestimate your ability to learn and apply new concepts.

What are your goals after graduation?

I will be pursuing a job in the pharmaceutical industry.

David Ni,

‘25 chemical engineering - traditional track, computer science minor

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2024

Where was your Internship?

Exxonmobil in Clinton, New Jersey

What is the focus of your Internship?

Extracting data from multiple lab reports and looking for new insights using data analysis.

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

Best part of the internship was learning about Exxon's product line and wide career development within the company.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Network a lot and pursue a leadership role/team-based project.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

AIChE Senior Rep, ChemE Car Power Lead, CSA(Chinese Student Association) Treasurer

What are your goals after graduation?

Pursue a job in industry and potentially earn master's degree in the future

Learn more about David Ni: 

linkedin.com/in/david-n40725/ 

Maya Schreiber

‘27 chemical engineering - biotechnology and bioengineering track 

When did you do your Research?

Summer 2024

Where was your Research?

Rutgers University, RISE Program: Cellular Bioengineering REU (www.rise.rutgers.edu/)

What is the focus of your Research?

Investigating optimal chronic wound healing environments through measuring oxygen consumption.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Research? 

When first starting the research internship, I was excited to gain experience in a wet lab and a better understanding of graduate student life.

What was the best part of your Research OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Research ?

The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of continually asking questions! I was the only undergraduate in the lab. It could be intimidating at times, however I used it as an opportunity to learn from people with much more experience than me. I was inspired by the passion my mentor had for his research. He constantly encouraged me to think of new approaches for my own project. The friendships formed with my REU cohort in the BME department broadened my perspective, exposing me to various research techniques, studies, and research environments across the country.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Embrace every opportunity that comes your way! Never underestimate your resume or abilities—you might be exactly what a lab, company, or school is searching for.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

Event Coordinator for Society of Women Engineers, Member of the National Society of Black Engineers, College of Engineering and Informational Technology Peer Navigator

What are your goals after graduation?
After graduating, I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering.

Learn more about Maya Schreiber: www.linkedin.com/in/maya-schreiber1 

Read more about her summer research here: https://collections.libraries.rutgers.edu/new-brunswick-student-exhibits/presenter-list

Student Exhibit Description from RISE 2024 Cohort

Maya R. Schreiber

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Co-Author: Dr. Rick Cohen

Mentor: Dr. Francois Berthiaume, Biomedical Engineering

Measuring Oxygen Consumption to Understand Optimal Chronic Wound Healing Environments

Chronic wounds affect 6.5 million people across the United States, altering lifestyles and immobilizing patients. Adequate healing conditions for chronic wounds involve proper access to oxygen and nutrients, and since these quantities differ between wounds, we seek to quantify the extracellular oxygen consumption rate of wound cells to form conclusions about healing. To understand wound cell metabolism in the context of chronic wounds, we cultured immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCaT) in multi-well plates to mimic epidermal healing in a controlled environment. We developed a system to simulate wounds with differing oxygen levels and manipulate the environment easily and at a low cost. We hypothesize greater rates of oxygen consumption will correlate to faster chronic wound healing because oxygen is vital to cell proliferation and migration. Utilizing an extracellular oxygen sensitive dye allowed us to monitor the oxygen consumption of the HaCaT cells in the well. We standardized the method, confirming that fluorescence intensity increases with decreasing oxygen concentration. Then we plated HaCaT cells to confluence and multiple different treatments were added to the media. We observed changes in fluorescence as a function time over a two hour period. After validating these tools to manipulate oxygen uptake, my lab will perform a scratch assay and image cell closure over time with different conditions, such as the addition of drugs, amino acids, or using cell culture media with differing oxygen exposures. The assay would correlate oxygen uptake rate by the cells with the rate of healing in the wells. We also expect that chronic wounds will heal faster when in high-oxygen environments. The assay platform developed in this project will allow testing different compounds that improve cellular metabolism and wound healing rate, which will support the development of innovative treatments for people with chronic wounds worldwide.

Biography: Maya Schreiber is a motivated rising sophomore attending University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), originally from Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. Maya is majoring in chemical engineering with a biotechnology and bioengineering focus, aiming to deepen her knowledge in pharmaceutical sciences. She has been part of the cellular bioengineering REU, under the mentorship of Dr. Francois Berthiaume and Dr. Rick Cohen of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. With a passion for seeing under-represented groups succeed in STEM graduate and professional fields, Maya is a part of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, serves on the executive board of UMBC’s chapter of Society of Women Engineers, and is an ambassador for the College of Engineering and Informational Technology. She plans to participate in sustained research at her university this fall, and after graduating she hopes to attend graduate school in pursuit of a PhD.

Keerthana Goskonda,

M.S. student, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering 

When did you start your Internship?

Feb 2024

Where was your Internship?

Uplift Geo Systems, Baltimore, MD

What is the focus of your Internship?

Metal extraction from rocks

 What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

Ability to develop a process

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

Working on different rock samples and meeting new people.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Willing to work hard and think out of box

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

N/A

What are your goals after graduation?

Would like to work in research and development

Learn more about Keerthana Goskonda: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/keerthana-goskonda-ba5126204/

Nathan Gull, 

Ariel Wilson-Gray, ‘26 chemical engineering - biotechnology & bioengineering track, 

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2023

Where was your Internship?

Purdue University with Dr. Tamara Kinzer-Ursem

What is the focus of your Internship?

Optimizing Antibody Conjugation using F-C Specific Oligonucleotides

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

Before I started, I was most excited to step foot in a real lab and work on projects on my own.

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

As this was my first internship, the graduate student I worked with was very accommodating and I was able to learn a lot of new techniques including gel-electrophoresis, western blot, and NanoDrop.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Go for it! Even if the topic is not exactly what you’re interested in, the experience can help hone your interest and maybe introduce a new one.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

NOBCChE, ChewMBC, NSBE, AIChE

What are your goals after graduation?

PhD in Biomedical Engineering

Learn more about Ariel Wilson-Gray: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariel-wilson-gray-428646236/

Summer 2023 

Hennigan Lab

Developing new methods to measure atmospheric gas-phase ammonia

I am excited to deploy the instrumentation that we have been working on to collect data. It will be satisfying to see real tangible results come from something that I have worked on with other students!

The best part of my research is the people I work with, everybody in the lab is excited to be here and work on their respective projects.

Search for faculty and read about their research through their website or their department website. Then send an email to a professor who does research that speaks to you and/or aligns with your career goals.

AIChE ChemE Car Team Lead

Industry or M.S. in Chemical Engineering

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-welling-352602248/ 

Paul Loberg, '24 Chemical Engineering - Biotechnology & Bioengineering Track

Where was your Internship?

USALCO in Baltimore, Maryland

What is the focus of your Internship?

The focus of my internship was to develop an economical way to produce dry aluminum chloralhydrate. I am helping design and conduct experiments which would be used to advance the current R&D project through the pilot phase to a scaled up industrial version. I also did lab work to prepare and test the samples we collected from the experiments.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

I am looking forward to returning in the winter and seeing how the project has progressed and working on it further.

What was the best part of your Internship?

The best part of my internship was the level of autonomy I was given, as an intern, by my bosses and co-workers. We had a voice during all discussions, we could make designs and sketches independently, and give our personal feedback on the project and the direction we thought it should move.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

My advice would be, even if it's late in the spring and you haven't managed to find an internship, keep applying to postings you want. I got the text for an interview during finals week while I was taking my last exam. Definitely start applying earlier if you can but don't let rejections or a lack of responses stop you.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

I am the Treasurer of UMBC's student chapter of AIChE as well as a member of the Chemical Engineering Jeopardy team. I play basketball for the intramural CBEE team formed by ChemE students.

What are your goals after graduation?

I want to do R&D or process engineering full time.

Yoonjin Cho,

‘24 chemical engineering at Chung-Ang University, South Korea

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2023

Where was your Internship?

Blaney Lab, UMBC

What is the focus of your Internship?

We are working to develop sampling methods for certain PFAS compounds. This is necessary as governments and regulatory agencies are actively evaluating and implementing measures to restrict the use of certain PFAS compounds and set acceptable exposure limits.

Specifically, I am working on the following projects: 

-Detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater, and biosolids samples. 

-Researching the impact of solution pH, temperature, and salt concentration on KPFAS Cl using membranes for passive sampler 

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

I look forward to improving my ability to read papers effectively and efficiently, as well as gaining practical experience in a laboratory setting and enhancing my data analysis skills.

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

I gave a presentation about the calibration curve and internal standard during a group meeting. At first, it was challenging to understand the concept, but through the process of looking things up in English and asking questions to team mates, it became fulfilling. Additionally, presenting in front of my colleagues in the lab pushed me out of my comfort zone. 

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Use diverse sources, including not only academic papers but also platforms like YouTube and blogs, to gain an understanding of the topic you're interested in.

Take your time looking for fields you would like but don't hesitate to take action!

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

University of Maryland-Baltimore County(exchange student)

Chung-Ang University, Korea(senior majoring in chemical engineering)

What are your goals after graduation?

Pursuing master's degree

Ethan Banks, ‘24 Chemical Engineering - Traditional Track

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2023

Where was your Internship?

W.R. Grace in Curtis Bay, Maryland

What is the focus of your Internship?

Correlating laboratory results to easily measured in-process variables in order to improve the efficiency of production in a specialty catalyst plant.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

Getting to learn new things in a real working environment

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

Getting to work in a manufacturing environment everyday and applying the skills learned in my classes to the real world. I really enjoyed seeing all of the unit operations and core concepts I've learned about come to life.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Apply early and often! It can't hurt to apply to any opportunity that you may be interested in. Also, be sure to leverage your network. If you know somebody that works at a company you are interested in, don't be afraid to reach out.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

Vice President of UMBC's student chapter of AIChE, ChemE Jeopardy Team Member, Current Teaching fellow for ENCH300, Past Teaching Fellow for ENCH225L and ENCH215, Subject Tutor for Chemical Engineering Classes at UMBC's Academic Success Center.

What are your goals after graduation?

Get a full time job in industry

Learn more about Ethan Banks: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-banks-b3622521b/