91���Ҹ�

Biological Engineering

Advisor: Jason Burdick
Lab: Burdick Biomaterials and Biofabrication Laboratory

Ack's research focus is in creating implantable meniscus tissue, the shock-absorbing cartilage in the knee, using engineering approaches and materials that are safe for the body, to treat damaged menisci. If successful, this research could provide a therapy for the hundreds of thousands of people who sustain meniscus injuries every year, improving their quality of life and reducing future risk of osteoarthritis and other joint injuries.��

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisors: Michael Schneider (NIST)
Labs: Spin electronics group (NIST)

My research will focus on the application of high-speed superconducting electronics to neuromorphic computing. While classical computers based on the von Neumann architecture face scaling difficulties due to their physical separation of computation from memory, a neuromorphic computer takes inspiration from biological brains in the hope of achieving much higher throughput, scalability, and efficiency. Superconducting electronics are a near-ideal platform for neuromorphic computing, as superconducting circuits can operate nonlinearly at high speeds while consuming very little energy. By working towards a scalable spiking neuromorphic architecture mimicking the rich dynamics of biological brains, this research aims to ultimately support the development of the next generation of computers for machine learning and other resource-intensive tasks.

Chemical Engineering

Advisor:Kōnane Bay
Lab: Huli Materials Lab

I make and test polymer films (very thin layers of plastic) thinner than a human hair to study how they fail when stretched. The ability for polymers to have strong material properties at small scales greatly improves their applications in coatings, transistors and other products.

Environmental Engineering

Advisor:Mike Hannigan
Lab: Hannigan Air Quality and Technology 91���Ҹ� (HAQ) Lab��

My proposed research focuses on leveraging low-cost sensors, activity data, and crowdsourced reporting to characterize overlapping environmental hazards—such as air pollution, extreme heat, and noise—in urban environments. My goals are to identify coincident drivers of multiple hazards and help cities be more strategic about data collection and mitigation actions.��

Materials Science & Engineering

I wrote my GRFP application on the use of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and machine learning to better understand high-power (i.e. fast charging/discharging) batteries. This technology has many important applications including, electric vehicles, fast response grid-balancing, and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Battery charge speed is largely limited by the dynamics of ion transport into the battery anode, which is most commonly graphite. Synchrotron XRD is a popular tool used for investigating this process, but the large XRD datasets are often not fully utilized due to processing constraints. The goal of my proposed study is to��apply machine learning to efficiently analyze full XRD datasets��and unlock deeper��understanding of the underlying physics��that��constrain fast-charging batteries.��If successful, this machine learning technique for extracting weak signals from noisy XRD data could be��broadly applied to many fields of crystallography.

Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisor: Sean Peters
Lab: Peters Lab

I am developing an orbital radar simulator to forward model the data we expect to see from Europa Clipper's radar sounder instrument By creating an efficient simulator which can operate at planetary scales we can form better interpretations and improved inversions of the icy moon's subsurface, helping the mission goal of habitability investigation and planetary exploration.

Biological Engineering

Advisor: Timothy Whitehead
Lab: Whitehead 91���Ҹ� Group

My research focuses on designing and engineering proteins that can sense and respond to small molecules found in plant extracts. The idea is that these proteins could capture these small molecules more effectively than traditional chemical extraction processes, which are currently costly and low yield. The small molecules that these proteins are trying to capture are used in many pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and even in foods and beverages that the average person uses. By simplifying the purification process for these molecules, we can potentially make these molecules more readily available, driving down costs for consumers.

Biological Engineering

I am interested in developing and using molecular, synthetic and systems biology tools to deepen our understanding of living systems and how they interact with their environments.

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Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisor: Torin Clark
Lab: Bioastronautics Lab

My research will broadly focus on human performance and adaptation in aerospace environments. I am particularly interested in studying sensorimotor and physiological responses to altered-gravity conditions, as well as human interaction with autonomous systems in complex operational settings. My work will involve developing experimental and computational approaches to characterize how humans adapt to dynamic environments and collaborate with automated systems, to inform predictive 91���Ҹ� and countermeasures that support astronaut health, decision-making, and operational effectiveness. This research contributes to the development of human-centered aerospace systems for safe and sustainable space exploration.

Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisors: Penina Axelrad and Dennis Akos
Lab: COMPASS Lab and the Radio Frequency & Satellite Navigation Lab

I am interested in enhancing the precision timing abilities of small satellites for reliable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). There is a current shortfall in timing systems and methods that function with the low operating parameters required of small satellites and also meet the stability performance required for communication, PNT, and networking. These applications range from LEO constellations to cislunar missions.��I want to investigate methods to improve performance using compact atomic clocks. In past research, I demonstrated the impact of limiting environmental temperature perturbations for such clocks as well as explored hybrid timing architectures to improve their long-term performances.

Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisors:John Evans and Kurt Maute
Lab: Computational Mechanics and Geometry Laboratory (CMGLab)

My research develops adjoint methods for hybrid particle-continuum solvers used in hypersonic computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Current high-fidelity hypersonic simulations couple continuum fluid solvers with particle-based Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) methods to accurately model flow across all altitude regimes, but no framework exists to efficiently compute gradients for these systems. By formulating an adjoint method for this hybrid solver — and implementing it on GPU-accelerated hardware — the work will enable gradient-based optimization of hypersonic vehicles at a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches, opening the door to high-fidelity multidisciplinary design optimization across the full hypersonic flight envelope for the first time.

Jain has also been awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) Federal rules allow honorees to receive only one fellowship. He has chosen the CSGP.

Civil Engineering

Advisor: Aditi Bhaskar
Lab: Hydro-Urban Bhaskar group

I am researching how low-impact residential development affects water quantity and quality in the West Stroh Gulch watershed in Parker, Colorado. The findings will help clarify how urbanization is impacting hydrology in the greater Denver area. In the later chapters of my PhD, I will use my GRFP award to study how water-wise landscaping influences wildfire propagation risk.��

Biological Engineering

Advisor: Jason Burdick
Lab: Burdick Biomaterials and Biofabrication Laboratory

My research is about creating hydrogel adhesives, soft, flexible, gel-like materials, ��that can be 3D printed and safely used in the body as medical adhesives. These materials can help repair damaged tissue—like supporting the heart after a heart attack—or act as patches to stop bleeding during surgery. They can also be designed to slowly release medicines or even be injected, so they can be delivered with less invasive procedures. Heart attack survivors have an increased risk of heart failure due to damage to the heart muscle and subsequent scarring which decreases cardiac output. With our tough hydrogel patches, we hope that we can reinforce the damaged region and prevent the remodeling of cardiac tissue that would otherwise reduce its function and necessitate a transplant. As a tool for closing wounds, hydrogel adhesives involve less trauma to tissues than sutures and can be engineered to have specific adhesive regions, helping wounds heal faster and more efficiently.

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor:��Noel Clark
Lab:��Clark Liquid Crystal Group

Maly’s research involves using light to study molecular dynamics in complex, ordered fluids. He hopes to use the techniques he’s learned to make advancements in the fields of energy storage or renewable energy generation.��

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Advisor: Jason Burdick
Lab: Burdick Biomaterials and Biofabrication Laboratory

In the Burdick Biomaterials and Biofabrication Laboratory, I engineer heart tissues with specific regions of scarring to model what happens to the heart following a heart attack. Using biomaterials and 3D bioprinting techniques, we fabricate these tissues to closely mimic the architecture of a damaged heart and subsequently investigate how specific proteins might be targeted to reverse scarring. I have also contributed to research in the , where I investigate how our respiratory microbiome (the collection of bacteria naturally present in our airway) interacts with and protects against pathogens, with implications for how we understand and treat respiratory infections.

Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisor: Sean Peters
Lab: Peters Lab

I'm currently using synthetic-aperture radar to study the spread of a tree disease (ROD) in Hawaii by analyzing small changes in reflectivity. At Caltech, I'll transition to planetary geophysics, where I will use synthetic-aperture radar to understand the subsurface composition of icy moons. By observing small crustal deformations using radar, we can use inverse methods to determine the thickness of ice sheets, informing the possibility of life.��

Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Advisor:Vishala Arya
Lab:

I will be conducting research under Dr. Vishala Arya in the area of astrodynamics and autonomous space systems. I plan to have a specific focus on trajectory optimization and robust guidance, navigation, and control for space systems. This research aims to develop optimization and control frameworks that improve the resilience, adaptability, and efficiency of future space missions.��

Environmental Engineering

Advisors: Daven Henze and Kelvin Bates
Labs: ,

Nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) and ammonia (NH₃) are primary contributors to reactive nitrogen (Nr) deposition and react in the atmosphere to form aerosol ammonium nitrate, a key component of fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅). PM₂.₅ causes over four million premature deaths annually, and nitrogen deposition degrades ecosystems. While U.S. NOₓ emissions have declined, NH₃ emissions remain highly uncertain and are often systematically underestimated, limiting the predictive skill of air quality 91���Ҹ� such as My research uses satellite observations to improve reactive nitrogen emission estimates. I will conduct a high-temporal-resolution joint inversion of NO₂ and NH₃, assimilating TEMPO, CrIS, and IASI satellite observations into GEOS-Chem using an ensemble-based data assimilation framework. This work will produce more accurate emission estimates that strengthen predictions of air quality and nitrogen deposition, supporting exposure assessment, ecosystem analysis, and policy-relevant decision making.

Computer Science

Advisors:Nikolaus Correll and Alessandro Roncone
Labs:Correll Lab and

Vision tells a robot what the world looks like, but touch teaches it how the world pushes back. My research gives machines this physical intuition by engineering sensors that capture full 3D force vectors in real time. By embedding lightweight machine learning and adaptive control policies directly on the hardware, I am building closed-loop systems that process complex touch data in under five milliseconds. This framework allows platforms like the Unitree H1 humanoid robot to 'think through their fingertips'—instantly detecting slip, safely modulating grip strength, and adapting to unpredictable materials. Ultimately, my goal is to bring this tactile intelligence into clinical settings, enabling autonomous systems to safely and reliably physically interact with human patients during assistive care and diagnostics.

��Materials Science & Engineering

Advisor: Seth Marder
Lab: Marder Group

My research will investigate how the molecular chemistry of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) controls interfacial structure, energetics, and stability in metal halide perovskite (MHP) electronic devices. I will systematically compare phosphonic acid (PA) and alkoxysilane (AOS) anchoring groups using molecularly matched SAM pairs to isolate the effects of anchoring chemistry, backbone interactions, and terminal group functionality. Through this work, I seek to specifically establish the influence of SAM chemistry on packing order, dipole formation, and charge transport. These SAMs will be deposited on conducting device substrates and characterized using techniques including contact angle goniometry, X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy to quantify surface coverage, bonding, morphology, and electronic structure. The most promising systems will then be integrated into perovskite solar cells and related devices, where electrical performance and stability will be evaluated under operational stressors such as light, heat, humidity, and bias. By correlating molecular-level design with device-scale performance, this work aims to establish design rules for engineering robust, high-performance interfaces in next-generation optoelectronic technologies.

Electrical Engineering

Advisor:Yide Zhang
Lab:

My research focuses on pushing quantum imaging out of the lab towards real-world applications. Quantum imaging (QI) uses quantum-entangled photons to image objects. QI methods have demonstrated imaging at classically impossible noise levels, transferred images from one wavelength to another, and achieved resolutions beyond the diffraction limit. While these methods have shown unique and powerful imaging properties, they can be impractically slow, sometimes taking days to achieve high-quality images. My research aims to make QI faster, ideally real-time. This speed will allow us to use QI as a practical tool in biomedical imaging, enabling us to capture enhanced images of delicate living samples.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor:Zoya Popovic
Lab:Microwave and RF 91���Ҹ� Group��

My research will address techniques for design and multiphysics modeling of efficient multi-mode kW-level cavities for microwave heating of various materials to high temperatures above a couple hundred to thousand degrees Celsius. Microwave heating has been demonstrated to be significantly faster and more energy efficient than traditional processing methods, providing an electrical route to decarbonization of industrial heating. Applications of microwave heating include sintering of ceramics, waste-to-fuel conversion, processing of food and cement, and more. As an extension of the design, I will investigate diagnostics techniques including IR imaging for measuring surface temperatures and microwave thermometry to reconstruct internal temperatures of the heated objects.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor: Nicole Bienert
Lab: ��

My research is focused on understanding the water content of trees using radio waves. Water stress in trees is a common indicator of fire risk. Increasing temperatures across the Western United States and increased frequency of wildfire requires the development of more accurate wildfire predictions. My research, which will improve tree hydrologic 91���Ҹ�, will provide key insights into wildfire behavior. Current tree hydrology studies use probes or satellite data, but these techniques place time or spatial constraints on data.��I��plan to mitigate these constraints by collecting data using drone-mounted field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Similar to how light changes its color and intensity when it reflects off surfaces of varying materials and roughness, radio waves scatter and propagate depending on tree geometry and volumetric water content. By aggregating radio wave scattering data from multiple angles, we can construct a more accurate hydrologic model of tree water. My work extends the capabilities of the platform, which will provide fields ranging from civil engineering to ecology to geophysics, with a simple multi-static radar. This project is possible in part because of the multidisciplinary swathe of experts in radio engineering and earth sciences offered at CU 91���Ҹ�.