Cui, Foong, and Park named Berg Scholars

Undergraduate students Irene Cui, Yansi Foong, and Juhee Park were selected as Berg Scholars at the 9th Annual John Berg Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Research Symposium Poster Session.

Cui, Foong, and Park also presented their research at the Undergraduate Research Poster Competition during the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Student Conference in October. The Department of Chemical Engineering covered their travel and conference expenses. It was Cui's first professional conference, and she was interested to learn about the research being done by other chemical engineers from across the country. In sessions on semiconductors and climate, plastics, and artificial intelligence, Foong saw the ties between chemical engineering and other disciplines. Workshops and networking opportunities also helped students prepare for careers in the field.

"I gained valuable experience presenting my research to people with varying levels of technical expertise and explaining my thoughts concisely and clearly under pressure," says Park, who won 1st place at the poster competition in the Computing, Simulation, and Process Controls II section and in the Computing & Systems Technology (CAST) division overall.

Irene Cui

Poster: Biodegradable and renewable protein-based elastomers

In the Chan Group, Cui is using commonly available biomass sources to create a more sustainable alternative to petroleum-based thermoplastic elastomers. They are widely used in many products, including car parts, medical equipment, and sneakers. At the molecular level, thermoplastic elastomers have a hard part that provides structural integrity and softer parts that allow for flexibility.

Cui is using whey protein as the hard segment. To grow softer segments off of it, she is working with a lactone monomer that can be derived from tea leaves.

Because proteins are hydrophilic and the lactone monomer segments are hydrophobic, it was a challenge to get them to mix. By introducing a surfactant, which has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts, Cui was able to facilitate the polymerization conditions. She used different characterization methods to determine that the polymer successfully connected to the protein.

Cui is now working to process the thermoplastic elastomer that she synthesized so that it has desired mechanical properties, like strength. She's experimenting with the protein to polymer ratio, as well as modifying the protein. She has also started looking at other monomers.

Yansi Foong

Poster: Pre- and post-processing effects of protein structure in dynamic thermosets

Through Carnegie Mellon's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program, Foong also worked in the Chan Group. Daphne Chan, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is interested in biopolymers, primarily proteins, as more sustainable replacements for conventional polymers in plastics. Foong's research goal was to synthesize a protein-based thermoset, which is a type of plastic.

To determine how the secondary structures of proteins would impact the characteristics of the polymers, Foong experimented with the order of the steps to create polymers. Methacrylation sets up the protein to be polymerized by adding a vinyl group. Fibrillization assembles the protein into fibers. After mechanical testing, Foong found that the polymers she created were stronger and had less water uptake when she methacrylated before fibrilizing.

Foong also cut up the polymers and tried to remold them with heat and pressure. She found that the fibrilized methacrylated polymer can be remolded, which means it has more potential to be recycled.

Juhee Park

Poster: Machine learning driven quantitation of viable capsids for gene therapy applications

Park joined the Robinson Lab last summer specifically for research involving machine learning (ML). Mentored by Ph.D. student Lilianna Gutierrez, Park is part of a project that aims to automate the process for determining the concentration of viral capsids in order to lower the costs of gene therapy and expand access to more patients. Capsids are the protein shells that enclose the genetic material in a virus, and the effectiveness of gene therapy depends on whether they are full, half full, or empty. The best current method for quality control is a manual process that is time-consuming, expensive, and at risk of human error.

Park's summer project explored different ML algorithms, and she focused on feature engineering to maximize their accuracy. She annotated viral capsid images, then analyzed that data to extract meaningful features, like the symmetry of the capsid. Capsids are usually round. Park found that comparing the symmetry of a capsid allowed the ML algorithm to more accurately predict whether the capsid is full, partially full, or empty.

She is planning to continue her work to determine if the increase in accuracy she observed is statistically significant. Park is also considering other features to test.

Berg Symposium

The Berg Symposium is an opportunity for chemical engineering undergraduate researchers to share their results and practice professional communication skills. Students who conducted research during the previous academic year or summer are invited to present a poster. The symposium honors John Berg ('60), an alum whose financial generosity has made it possible for the department to enhance its undergraduate research program.