Enrichment Highlight: University of California, Los Angeles

In summer 2019, 15 KGSP students conducted research at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where they received intensive, hands-on instruction in chemical and mechanical engineering guidance of distinguished UCLA professors and participated in weekly professional development workshops specifically tailored for future careers in engineering.   At the end of the program, participants presented their work at the campus-wide Summer Programs for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) poster session.

Shatha Alzahrani, a sophomore at George Washington University (GW) majoring in Geological Science, reports that she greatly enjoyed her enrichment experience at UCLA, especially having the opportunity to participate in the research labs.  Her project, “Comparison of Simple Approximation and Finite Element as Models for Magnetic Cell Capture Mechanism,” aimed to find an accurate and efficient computational model of the cell capturing mechanism to compare experimental results with theoretical calculations.  Shatha confirms that through this experience, she gained practical knowledge at a deeper level and which she can now apply in her physics classes at GW.  

Basem Eraqi, a junior at University of California, Irvine (UCI) majoring in Mechanical Engineering, conducted research on “A Method for Quantifying Battery Degradation Cost Due to Vehicle-to-Grid Charging,” which studied developing a model for predicting and quantifying the physical and economic values of electric vehicle battery degradation due to utilizing Vehicle-to-Grid technology.   He valued his many discussions with distinguished engineers about the future of smart grid technology and electric vehicle charging, and credits his academic preparation in circuit analysis and programming classes at UCI in helping him prepare for the research at UCLA. 

Lama Bahanan, a sophomore at Georgia Institute of Technology, presents her research poster