The top two undergraduate research competitions which feature engineering students are the SEAS- wide Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium (URDS) and the pan-University President's Research Poster Competition. This year's winners both had research based in materials science and both had Rob Kelly as their research adviser. Not only did Lark Washington and Bailey Risteen each win a competition, but they both did so as non-4th years competing against students who had just wrapped up their 4th year undergraduate research projects.
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| L to R: Rob Kelly, Bailey Risteen, and Eric Schindelholz. |
Third year Chemical Engineering student and Rodman Scholar
Bailey Risteen (CHE '14) won first place at the SEAS-wide Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium with her poster and talk titled “Marine Aerosol Drop Size Effects on the Corrosion
Behavior of Plain Carbon Steel.” Eric Schindelholz, (MSE PhD Candidate in Kelly's group), designed and built the instrument Bailey used.
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| L to R: Lark Washington, Rob Kelly, and Jay Srinivasan. |
Lark Washington (CE '15) was the 2013 first place winner for Engineering Undergraduates in the President's pan-University Research Poster Competition, which recognizes
research as central to the University's mission and seeks to showcase
the research endeavors that have significant impact for innovation and
the Commonwealth. Awards are divided into seven broad impact areas
spanning the academic disciplines. From the seven areas, three graduate
and three undergraduate finalists are selected who then are ranked 1st,
2nd, and 3rd place. Washington's poster, "The
Cathodic Kinetics of 17-4 PH Stainless Steel," compared corrosion
potential across atmospheric, coating, and surface variables. Her research in Prof. Kelly's lab, assisted by graduate student Jay Srinivasan, was part of a REU offered in materials science by Prof. Jerry Floro in the summer of 2012.
In his typical self-effacing style, Professor Kelly remarked of the outstanding coincidence that "even a stopped
watch is correct twice a day."
