First year engineering student, 胡安·巴勃罗·罗梅罗Vásquez.
麦基斯波特,爸爸. — 胡安·巴勃罗·罗梅罗Vásquez, a first-year engineering student at Penn State 更大的阿勒格尼, will participate in two prestigious summer research programs, giving him the opportunity to collaborate with faculty and industry professionals and prepare for a future career.
在第一个程序中, Penn State’s Multi-Campus 研究 Experience for Undergraduates (MC REU), Romero Vásquez will collaborate with Fernando A. 索托, assistant professor of energy engineering at 更大的阿勒格尼, and Kofi W. Adu, professor of physics at 十大网投平台信誉排行榜阿尔图纳分校. The trio will work on a project entitled "Energy Harvesting at the Carbon-Silicon Interface: A Computational Exploration of Heterojunction Solar Cells," as part of the "C3N project: Towards High Power Conversion Efficiency CNT/Si metamaterial Solar Cell."
The MC REU program supports Penn State undergraduate students in conducting research with Penn State faculty, with the aim of promoting mutual awareness and collaboration among faculty across the commonwealth. 索托 and Adu plan to continue collaborative work on the project in the fall 2023 semester.
据索托说, the goal of their research is to create a more efficient solar cell to convert sunlight into electricity. Solar energy is a clean and renewable source of energy that can help reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The aim of developing better solar cells is to help make solar energy more accessible and affordable.
“We are focused on developing a new type of material that can be used in solar cells,” said 索托. “在大阿勒格尼, Juan Pablo and I will run computer simulations to understand how the CNT-Si materials interact at tiny scales. This will help our 阿尔图纳 research collaborators design, 制造, 并测试高性能太阳能电池.”
今年夏天也会发生, Romero Vásquez will participate in the NASA L'SPACE Program's Mission Concept Academy (MCA) to learn NASA mission procedures and protocols and collaborate with team members to complete mission-related projects. The program aims to explore the Trojan asteroids, asteroids that orbit Jupiter around the Sun and hold clues to the formation of the solar system.
“This program is designed to prepare enthusiastic STEM students for a future in the space industry,罗梅罗Vásquez说. “Participants are from different backgrounds, and we can learn from NASA professionals.”
Those professionals include Donya Douglas, project manager for the Lucy mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; and John Dankanich, 中心首席技术, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, 阿拉巴马州.
在节目结束时, Romero Vásquez and other participants will present a solution proposal paper based on the work they completed.
索托, 罗梅罗Vásquez的学术顾问, is excited for the opportunities his student will experience this summer. “I am thrilled that Juan Pablo can be involved with these two prestigious programs,” said 索托. “I look forward to all he will achieve this summer.”
Penn State 更大的阿勒格尼 emphasizes the importance of student research experiences. Campus programs such as the Science and Engineering Course-Based Undergraduate 研究 Experiences (SECURE) lab, the Undergraduate Clinical 研究 Training Program and original research projects led by faculty make these high impact practices available to students as early as their first year on the campus.
To learn more about student research at 更大的阿勒格尼, visit the undergraduate research and fellowship mentoring webpage.
