This summer, over 20 undergraduate engineering students completed hands-on research projects alongside faculty experts in Marquette’s Opus College of Engineering. These projects offered students the opportunity to practice new technical skills, explore their curiosity and learn from experts in the field.
Thirteen of this year’s undergraduate researchers were supported by the Opus College’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program. In addition to hands-on laboratory experience, the SURF program also offers a professional development seminar series for students to attend throughout the summer, covering topics from using artificial intelligence in research to communicating technical work to a wider audience.
Later this year, the students will reconvene for the Opus College’s Undergraduate Research Day on Friday, Oct. 25. This annual event is an opportunity to showcase recent undergraduate engineering research success and to gather as one Marquette engineering community.
As these students return to their course work, a few shared their reflections from a summer focused on curiosity and discovery outside the classroom.
Ralph Audi
mechanical engineering major, french minor
Summer research focus: Finite element modeling of pedestrian-to-vehicle collisions
Faculty mentor: Dr. Karthik Somasundaram, assistant professor of biomedical engineering
What new skill(s) are you most excited about from this summer?
“I am most excited about my new technical skills with the software I am using (LS-PrePost) and using Finite Element Modeling in general (all of this was new to me). I am also excited to implement these new applications of stress, strain, kinematics and materials science to act as points of reference for learning the information in-depth in my upcoming classes. Additionally, I really worked on my leadership, problem-solving, time management, teamwork, and communication due to the intense environment that is research.”
What was the biggest surprise during this experience?
“My biggest surprise was how slow research can be. Sometimes it feels like you’re doing so much, and when you look at it from a different perspective, then it feels like you have done almost nothing at all. It can be a very slow and grueling process, but there is a lot of reward and satisfaction to be had in the challenge.”
What was your biggest challenge during this experience?
“My biggest challenge was also probably my biggest surprise. If I had to say something different, though, it would be getting used to using LS-PrePost. The whole concept of finite element modeling was new to me, let alone actually putting it to use by using software. So there was quite the learning curve to becoming comfortable with the software, but it was definitely worth the work.”
Alyssa Fons
biomechanical engineering major
Summer research focus: Bioresorbable materials/cardiovascular stent development
Faculty mentors: Dr. Roger Guillory, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Dr. Le Zhou, assistant professor of mechanical engineering
What new skill(s) are you most excited about from this summer?
“This summer, some of the most exciting skills that I learned were related to cell cultures, electron microscopy and microstructure analysis. Outside of just technical skills, I gained so much knowledge about the research environment and research-related communication.”
What was the biggest surprise during this experience?
“The biggest surprise to me was how different each week looks in a research setting, and how much flexibility there can be. Some weeks were filled with bigger, more time-consuming tasks, while others were smaller (and usually just as important) quick workdays.”
What was your biggest challenge during this experience?
“One of the biggest challenges I had initially faced was reading published research papers. There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to interpreting research documents, but I like to think I’ve gotten a hang of it in the past few months!”
Ryan Jacoby
bioelectrical engineering major
Summer research focus: Corrosion testing on magnesium alloys in vitro and in vivo
Faculty mentor: Dr. Roger Guillory, assistant professor of biomedical engineering
What new skill(s) are you most excited about from this summer?
“I am most appreciative of learning how to take charge of my own research and to fine-tune my methods so that I can produce results that I can demonstrate to others and feel confident in. I learned a ton about surgical procedures and husbandry through my time working with live specimens. By using both digital and electron microscopes, my abilities in microscopy and getting clear images have improved dramatically.”
What was the biggest surprise during this experience?
“The biggest surprise to me was that there is no such thing as a set schedule in research and when experiments did not go quite as planned, all of your endpoints could differ by weeks depending on something as simple as a bad injection.”
What was your biggest challenge during this experience?
“The biggest challenge I faced was remaining confident in my findings when I was still trying to find the best way to prove what trends I have been noticing. This, in fact, was the most pivotal point in my research as it forced me to become more proficient from all angles of my data collection, presentation and understanding. It was only through this setback that I was able to produce data that I not only understand but am confident in and can explain to others even in the face of doubt.”
Josh Nordan
biocomputing engineering major
Summer research focus: Virtual Reality balance games
Faculty mentor: Dr. Brian Schmit, Hammes Family Professor in the Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering
What new skill(s) are you most excited about from this summer?
“I appreciated learning how to manage my own experiment. I also gained hands-on experience using Unity and SteamVR. I also improved my ability to communicate complex scientific topics to a range of audiences.”
What was the biggest surprise during this experience?
“My biggest surprise was how helpful everyone is. Everyone is always volunteering to help out other researchers or even participating in their studies if they need someone.”
What was your biggest challenge during this experience?
“There was a SteamVR update that broke the VR game that I had to spend weeks fixing. I eventually figured it out and saved the game.”
Andrew Ozers
construction engineering, Excellence in Leadership program
Summer research focus: pedestrian and traffic safety in transportation engineering
Faculty mentor: Dr. Maggie McNamara, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering
What new skill(s) are you most excited about from this summer?
“I am excited about better learning how to program in R and Excel towards understanding what this will reveal about the data.”
What was the biggest surprise during this experience?
“A big surprise was all the publications and journal articles that are already available, and I am trying to read those toward better understanding how to approach our project.”
What was your biggest challenge during this experience?
“We are collecting camera data to analyze from several Milwaukee area intersections. A big challenge has been obtaining the intersection camera data from the county and being able to put that data into a usable format.”
