Below, you will find videos, posters and other materials relating to each of the 12 projects completed in August 2021, the first year of the program.
Dr. Saeed Jafarzadeh
"Inertial Measurement Units"
An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers. IMUs are typically used to maneuver aircrafts (an attitude and heading reference system), and spacecraft (including satellites and landers). But the application of IMUs is not limited to aviation and aerospace industries. They are used in many small hand-held electronic devices including smartphones. They determine the orientation of the phones, which then is used in mobile applications such as video games. Another interesting application of IMUs is in training for pilots and professional sports. In this project we will first learn the principles of operation for IMUs, and then use an IMU in conjunction with a microcontroller or a microprocessor to estimate the orientation. The orientation estimation is a well-established research area. Several digital filters are shown to successfully estimate orientation using IMUs. As part of this project, we tried some of these filters and experimentally compare the results.
Dr. Dayanand Saini
"Harvesting Geothermal and Biomass Energy Resources for Generating Electricity Using the Piezoelectric Technology"
Piezoelectric energy harvesting technology relies on the piezoelectric effect, which converts mechanical energy (e.g., compression caused by motion, impact, or vibrations) into electrical power (i.e., electrical charge or voltage). At CSUB, using the financial support provided by a local startup (AquaEnergy-Environment Engineering Solutions LLC co-owned by a CSUB Engineering Sciences faculty), senior-year Engineering Sciences students are working on designing a piezoelectric device-based electricity generation unit. Unlike the conventional rotating turbine-based electricity generation method, the designed unit uses a pressurized water stream to create multiple rain-like wobbling water droplets, which in turn, generate electricity by compressing piezoelectric wafers on impact.
In this project, participating students got hands-on experience to run the unit designed by the senior-year CSUB students. They were provided an opportunity to learn the theory and working principle of the current design and develop a more efficient bench-scale prototype. They also explored the potential of geothermal and biomass resources, which are already available locally, for generating the mechanical energy needed to create a pressurized water stream. The prospect of other biomass resources such as tumbleweed, rice straw, or sugarcane bagasse were also be explored for generating a steam-like pressured water stream.
Dr. Krishna Prasai
"Thermal properties of solid materials at room temperature"
In this three-week long project, students investigated thermal properties of a variety of materials at room temperature in order to understand the purity, composition, thermal tolerance, and quality of the materials. Students took data from two parallel experiments examining the thermal conductivity of different materials. One experiment examined the thermal and electrical properties of different soil samples utilizing the TLS-100 Portable Meter, the CDB-387 Conductivity Meter and the Hydro Crunch 3-in-1 Meter. The other experiment involved using the Leti-40 Comprehensive Heat Experiments Apparatus which is well equipped with a control with the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control system and multiple display units for different parameters such as temperature, pressure, voltage, and current, all with high-precision timing units.
Dr. Karim Salehpoor
"Rheological fluids Properties and Applications"
Rheological fluids are a type of smart materials that alter their apparent viscosity, reversibly, when subjected to an external stimulus. Magnetorheological fluids alter their apparent viscosity when they are subjected to a magnetic field. Electrorheological fluids are another type of rheological fluids that alter their apparent viscosity when subjected to an electric field. Controllable changes in apparent viscosity of rheological fluids give rise to a wide range of applications for these fluids.
Participants in the SURE 2021 summer project conducted literature review to become familiar with the types and structure of rheological fluids and how they alter their apparent viscosity under electric or magnetic fields. Following a review of the existing applications of rheological fluids, participants examined the use of rheological fluids in multiple applications and will work on finding new applications or designing new devices utilizing rheological fluids.
Dr. Tat Acharya
"Exploring Computational Fluid Dynamics – a State of the art engineering tool in thermal-fluid flows"
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a technology that is extremely popular in the energy industry. Today CFD is widely used in several industries such as aerospace, oil and gas, internal combustion engines, agriculture, and sustainable energy. CFD is a simulation technology that can predict results and help take timely decisions in the field of engineering design. CFD potentially saves the industry millions of dollars by precluding expensive experiments.
For this project, we used CFD to study conduction heat transfer with varying boundary conditions. We also validated our computational results against classical analytic solutions. The project involved 2D and 3D modeling, meshing, and performing CFD simulations.
Dr. Zhongzhe Liu
"Synergistic Treatment of Dairy-Derived Waste Streams for Energy and Resource Recovery"
The agricultural industry is facing many challenges at the nexus of nutrient, energy and water with the increase of agricultural production. One of the challenges is how to sustainably and properly dispose of a high-volume of agricultural wastes such as dairy wastes. California is the leading milk producing state in the U.S. in terms of the overall number of milk cows. Hence, sustainable and environment-friendly methods for handling huge amounts of cow manure are highly demanded in California’s agriculture-based areas, such as Kern County. Anaerobic digestion of cow manure is a commercialized biological process for energy recovery that produces biogas (the precursor of renewable natural gas). In addition to the major component of methane (CH4), biogas contains a high volumetric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be over 40%. Because CO2 lowers the energy content of biogas, biogas requires further upgrading to meet natural gas standards. Moreover, the anaerobic digestion process produces a solid remnant, digestate, which is usually used as a soil conditioner but still contains harmful pathogens. Therefore, a novel synergistic treatment process will be developed in this project to reduce the CO2 in biogas and to stabilize digestate simultaneously.
A new thermochemical method will be developed to treat dairy-derived biogas and digestate simultaneously. Digestate will be stabilized with minimized pathogen density and CO2 content is expected to be reduced. A lab-scale conversion system will be used in this project. The digestate will be collected from a local dairy digester with the help from the USDA-NRCS (United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resource Conservation Service) Bakersfield Office.
Undergraduate research assistants learned how to do a thorough literature review of related technologies. Then, students were trained on operating a lab-scale thermochemical conversion system. Students finally ran the tests independently and gain hands-on experience as a process engineer. Meanwhile, students conducted product collection (gas and solid), mass fraction calculation, and composition analysis as a chemical engineer.
Dr. Katie O’Sullivan
"Searching for pieces of the lunar mantle in a lunar meteorite"
Throughout the Moon’s approximately 4.5-billion-year history it has been bombarded by a litany of impactors, as clearly evidenced by its heavily cratered surface. Occasionally, a sufficiently sized impact event may eject lunar crustal (and potentially mantle) material at speeds capable of escaping lunar gravitation influence. The ejected material may then fall into the gravitational field of the Earth and eventually land somewhere on its surface in the form of a lunar meteorite. Through careful analysis of a lunar meteorite sample, many insights can be gained about lunar mineralogic & elemental distributions as well as the crystallization and thermal evolution of the parent magma that the crystals within it originated from. Of particular interest to lunar scientists is the nature and composition of the lunar mantle.
This project aimed to identify pieces of the lunar mantle within a recently acquired lunar meteorite. This meteorite was recovered from Northwestern Africa and had not yet been analyzed in detail. Students had an exclusive first look at the meteorite by using a petrographic microscope to find and identify olivine crystals in 19 lunar thin sections. Thin sections were photographed and examined in detail using Adobe Photoshop. Lunar mantle pieces will then be analyzed in future studies and Master’s projects.
Dr. Kane Keller
"Effects of anthropogenic disturbances on species interactions"
Understanding the mechanisms by which species interactions and within-species variation in traits related to species interactions affect population and community dynamics across trophic levels remains vital to the restoration and conservation of ecological communities. However, anthropogenic disturbances are not only affecting species individually, but these changes are also altering interactions between species in communities. In particular, an increasing frequency and intensity of anthropogenic disturbances, such as the spread of dominant or potentially invasive species, are causing havoc in critical and increasingly limited habitats. Our research will utilize two study systems to explore how anthropogenic activities are influencing the competitive outcomes of species interactions within ecological communities found locally to the San Joaquin Valley and southern Sierra Nevadas. In particular, we will be testing: 1) how species interactions are affected by plant secondary metabolites; and 2) how context-dependent coexistence across multiple biotic factors is mediated by a mutualistic interaction.
Students learned a mixture of skills and techniques, such as: maintaining and harvesting ecological experiments; greenhouse and field data collection; measuring plant traits and fitness; isolating and culturing mutualistic bacterial strains; learning and performing PCR reactions; learning how to critically read scientific literature; and gaining experience in data collection, entry, and analysis. This research will provide substantial insight into the potential short and long-term consequences of anthropogenic disturbances on both positive and negative species interactions and broader patterns of diversity and species composition within ecological communities.
Dr. Amber Stokes
"The role of stress on the unken reflex in rough-skinned newts (Taricha granulosa)"
Newts of the genus Taricha have tetrodotoxin (TTX) in the glands of their skin, which is used to defend them from predation. Tetrodotoxin is a small neurotoxin, that is most well known in puffer-fish, but is found in a wide array of other species. In spite of this toxin, newts also have an anti-predator behavior, the unken reflex. This reflex allows for possible predators to see the very brightly colored ventral side of the newt, which is a warning that they are toxic. There is a lot of variation in this behavior, and it can be influenced by the presence of the hormone corticosterone, which is released during stress. Students will learn to extract and quantify the stress hormone corticosterone from rough-skinned newts following measurements of their unken reflex under a variety of environmental conditions. Further, students will learn to extract and quantify TTX in the tissues of newts. This project will give students experience with basic lab skills like pipetting, as well as immunoassays, and solid phase extraction as means of quantifying biological chemicals in the lab.
Dr. Anna Jacobsen
"Leaf and wood anatomy of shrub species from mediterranean-type climate regions"
California is one of five global regions that has a mediterranean-type climate. This type of climate is characterized by winter rainfall and a hot summer dry period. Plants in these regions have developed many adaptations to tolerate this challenging environment, particularly the long hot summer dry period. We will use several different methods to examine the anatomy of leaves and stem xylem (wood) of shrubs species from mediterranean-type climate regions and will focus on plant species that are found growing on campus at CSU Bakersfield. Stem and leaf traits of different species will be examined in relation to drought tolerance and water use strategies. These traits will be compared to those found in shrubs that originate from other climate regions.
Oak Trees and their Response to Drought and Climate Events Presentation
Dr. Brandon Pratt
"Photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of shrub species from mediterranean-type climate regions"
California is one of five global regions that has a mediterranean-type climate. This type of climate is characterized by winter rainfall and a hot summer dry period. Plants in these regions have developed many adaptations to tolerate this challenging environment; however, they have limits that can be exceeded during droughts. We will use several different methods to examine leaf water use traits as well as photosynthetic performance. Research will examine leaf traits of different species and relate these traits to drought tolerance and different water conservation strategies.
Thriving in a Water-Limited Environment Presentation
Drs. Jacobsen and Pratt
"Leaf and wood anatomy of shrub species from mediterranean-type climate regions"
California is one of five global regions that has a mediterranean-type climate. This type of climate is characterized by winter rainfall and a hot summer dry period. Plants in these regions have developed many adaptations to tolerate this challenging environment, particularly the long hot summer dry period. We will use several different methods to examine the anatomy of leaves and stem xylem (wood) of shrubs species from mediterranean-type climate regions and will focus on plant species that are found growing on campus at CSU Bakersfield. Stem and leaf traits of different species will be examined in relation to drought tolerance and water use strategies. These traits will be compared to those found in shrubs that originate from other climate regions.
Seed Bank Density and Viability in Santa Catalina Chaparral Shrub Species Presentation