2015 Archives - High Meadows Environmental Institute

Alternative Energy

Acevedo, Melina ’16

PROJECT

Copper Nanowires for Hydrogen Evolution and Hydrogen Oxidation

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Princeton University Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Bruce Koel, Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering

This summer I conducted research in the Koel lab of the Princeton CBE department. The purpose of my research was to synthesize and characterize copper nanowires for alkaline water splitting. I used scanning electron microscopy to characterize my nanowires, and cyclic voltammetry and polarization curves to asses their activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction. In addition to gaining familiarity with microscopy and electrochemistry techniques, I also gained perspective as to what life is like as a materials science/chemical engineering graduate student. Overall, this internship allowed me to become more comfortable as an independent researcher and to develop a method of approaching scientific research problems. This year, I will build upon the research of this summer and work to improve the activity of my nanoparticles. I would recommend this internship to anyone interested in the fields of materials science and energy.

Ho, Emily ’18

Undeclared

PROJECT

Clean Small Fusion Reactors

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Samuel Cohen, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

I worked as a research intern for Dr. Sam Cohen at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), which is dedicated to achieving fusion as an economical and clean alternative energy source. Dr. Cohen is focused on a type of reactor called the Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration (PFRC-2) because he believes that small reactors are the safest, most sensible means to that end. Under his tutelage, I studied and examined the various causes of oscillations in the plasma. Understanding the behavior of the oscillations of ions and electrons and interactions between those oscillations is key to analyzing how instabilities will grow and behave in plasma. For this project I used a Phantom camera, which takes videos at thousands of frames per second, and a Langmuir probe, an electrode inserted into the plasma. Working with these tools in the lab alongside Dr. Cohen’s other undergraduate and graduate students not only gave me a glimpse of how experimental physics research is conducted, it also gave me a new passion to study physics.

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Jiao, Sally ’18

Chemical and Biological Engineering

PROJECT

Crystallization of Thin Films Under Spatial Confinement

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Loo Group, Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Lynn Loo, Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering

In organic semiconductors, charge is transported from molecule to molecule along conjugated backbones. Understanding how various factors affect the arrangement of these molecules (i.e. how they crystallize) can help us build more efficient organic electronic devices. To that end, I researched the thin-film crystallization of TES-ADT (triethylsilylethynyl anthradithiophene), an organic semiconductor. TES-ADT films are disordered upon spincoating, but crystallize upon exposure to 1,2-dichloroethane vapor. My project focused on probing the relationship between the thickness of a TES-ADT film and its crystallization growth rate and nucleation density. I found no nucleation in films less than 50 nm, instantaneous nucleation with 0.3 nuclei/mm^2 in films 50-130 nm, and progressive nucleation with 1.6 nuclei/mm^2 in films 130-300 nm. I also found that the growth rate increases linearly with thickness across the whole range of film thicknesses tested. Tuning the film thickness could thus be an important tool in producing patterned films with desired properties for electronic device applications. In addition to developing and practicing the practical lab skills needed to carry out the experiments, I discovered the importance of meticulousness and patience in an academic lab setting. This internship reinforced my interest in materials science research with real world applications.

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Laoui, Anid ’18

Operations Research and Financial Engineering

PROJECT

Financial Modeling for Mobile Electric Device Commercial Project

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Lightening Energy, Dover, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Eric Materniak, Lightening Energy

The environmental impact of our current carbon-based economy is quickly becoming unsustainable. As governments and companies alike look to alternatives, it is apparent that battery technology will be an integral part of future energy consumption. This summer I had the chance to work at Lightening Energy, a government-contracted company looking at the future of the battery. As an intern, my primary responsibility was to assess the viability of the company’s novel technology for current and future commercial markets. Such analysis required extensive financial modeling across a variety of industries where battery demand is expected to grow. To achieve accurate models, the other interns and I used large amounts of data from energy utility companies along with other targeted market research to assess a market’s potential. After compounding our results, we were given the opportunity to present our findings to the rest of the team as well as several board members, business consultants and patent attorneys. Working with the Lightening team enriched my passion for the value of renewable energy and provided me with insight into both the public and private side of technology development. This opportunity has augmented my professional interest in the field and I hope to continue pursuing sustainable business tech in the near future.

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Li, Weimen ’17

Electrical Engineering

PROJECT

Electrical Engineering for Mobile Electric Device Commercial Project

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Lightening Energy, Dover, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Eric Materniak, Lightening Energy

My internship at Lightening Energy centered on envisioning and developing different technologies that utilize renewable energy sources. I worked on three different projects during my time there. The first project focused on the RCube, an autonomous energy storage and microgeneration platform that would allow residential customers and small businesses to generate and store renewable energy from multiple sources and provide a platform for home automation technologies. My role was to design and then write a simulation for a control system for the RCube. I also helped to plan additional automation features that could be integrated into the system. The second project was the Athleticap, a fitness tracking/ injury prevention wearable electronic that uses Lightening Energy’s proprietary battery technology. My primary role in that project was to design and prototype the electrical circuit that the system would use; one of my ideas was to make use of energy harvesting systems in the circuit that could greatly prolong the battery life of the Athleticap. Finally, I designed an experimental procedure to help form and test the company’s proprietary battery technology. My internship was a great experience. All the projects I worked on fueled my interest in robotics and control systems, which I plan to further explore at Princeton.

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Liu, Guanghao (Jackey) ’18

Operations Research and Financial Engineering

PROJECT

Clean Small Fusion Reactors

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Samuel Cohen, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

This summer I worked as an intern at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) on a computational project for the Clean Small Fusion Reactor project under Dr. Sam Cohen, which involved simulating the fusion reactor and experimenting with the simulation. The goal of my project was to implement and observe a new type of heating called “autoresonant heating” which Dr. Cohen predicts could be developed as an alternative or supplemental heating source. Through this internship, I gained valuable experience working with and coding very technical physics simulations, which allowed me to apply a lot of what I learned in computer science, math, and physics courses at Princeton to a project outside of the classroom. Unlike working on projects for a class, however, this internship gave me the opportunity to understand how real, open-ended research is carried out. I learned that in the real world, it’s just as important to be able to frame problems as it is to solve them. This internship has prompted me to consider pursuing more computational-type internships in the future, and also to consider programming as a career choice.

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Chemistry

PROJECT

Fluorous Organocatalysis in Green Medicinal Chemistry

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Zhang Lab at University of Massachussetts, Boston, MA

MENTOR(S)

Wei Zhang, University of Massachusetts Boston

Many medically important small molecules can be synthesized in the lab, but often these syntheses involve the use of environmentally harmful catalysts and solvents. Over the summer I worked with a group that works to synthesize structures common in biologically active small molecules using organocatalysts (catalysts containing mostly carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and other non-metal elements) instead of metal-containing catalysts. This project focused on the synthesis of spirocyclic oxindoles, a class of molecules that includes a number of molecules with important biological activity. My main tasks were running reactions and characterizing and purifying the resulting products. I also copy edited manuscripts before they were sent for review. Over the course of the internship, I learned techniques often used in organic chemistry labs, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (a method used to identify the compounds present in a reaction mixture) and high performance liquid chromatography (a method used to separate the components in a reaction mixture). I hope familiarity with these techniques and with the research process overall will be helpful in any future research I may undertake.

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Biodiversity and Conservation

Chiu, Carol ’17

Chemical and Biological Engineering

PROJECT

The Role of Alternative Nitogenase Usage in Environmental N2 Fixation

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Morel Laboratory, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

François Morel, Professor, Geosciences

For summer 2015, I researched in the Morel lab on the benefits of the alternative nitrogenases over the Mo nitrogenase in a purple nonsulfur bacterium called Rhodopseudomonas palustris. Nitrogenase is the enzyme used for nitrogen fixation. R. palustris is special in that it can express three types of nitrogenase, Mo, V, and Fe. I discovered that the alternative nitrogenases grow better than the Mo nitrogenase in more reduced environments. The theory is that the alternative nitrogenases are better at getting rid of excess electrons during nitrogen fixation.

Coates, Danielle ’18

Chemical Engineering

PROJECT

Rainwater Catchment System, Kenya

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Engineers Without Borders

MENTOR(S)

Peter Jaffe, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Kenya team of the Princeton University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders is working on providing clean, accessible drinking water to different communities in Kuria West. To date, our team has designed and built two 60,000L rainwater catchment systems that harvest water in Muchebe. This project involves installing gutters along the roofs, laying pipes around the school, and excavating a pit for our storage tanks. We worked alongside community members in building the system out of locally available materials. Additionally, we taught them both how to maintain the system and how to develop better sanitation practices. This trip was an immensely valuable experience for us to learn about international development challenges as well as ways to run a sustainable engineering program within a community. Looking forward, we hope that by raising awareness of the risks of poor hygiene and waterborne illnesses, community members will encourage other members to share proper sanitary practices. This will, in turn, allow the members of the community to be healthier and thus be able to work and go to school.

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Dooner, MacKenzie ’17

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

PROJECT

Teaching Assistant for Conservation Clubs

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Mpala Research Center, Kenya

MENTOR(S)

Daniel Rubenstein, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Nancy Rubenstein, Mpala Research Centre

This summer, I worked with the Northern Kenya Conservation Clubs (NKCC) alongside Nancy Rubenstein of the Mpala Research Center. These after-school clubs run in 12 schools in the Laikipia district, with the aim of instilling students with ecological awareness through experiential learning. Over 300 primary and secondary school students participate in club activities and conservation projects. My role this summer was to deliver lessons on topics ranging from the water cycle, to behavioral adaptations, to the value of biodiversity. I worked side-by-side with a college-bound intern from the Mpala village to deliver the dynamic NKCC curriculum to one after-school club each day. I became fully convinced of the importance of environmental education, especially in the developing regions of the globe. I was so struck by the ecosystem dynamics in Laikipia that I decided to change concentrations from geology to ecology and evolutionary biology when I returned to Princeton in the fall.

Gideon, Roan ’18

Undeclared

PROJECT

Rainwater Catchment System, Kenya

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Engineers Without Borders

MENTOR(S)

Peter Jaffe, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Kenya team of the Princeton University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders is working on providing clean, accessible drinking water to different communities in Kuria West. To date, our team has designed and built two 60,000L rainwater catchment systems that harvest water in Muchebe. This project involves installing gutters along the roofs, laying pipes around the school, and excavating a pit for our storage tanks. We worked alongside community members in building the system out of locally available materials. Additionally, we taught them both how to maintain the system and how to develop better sanitation practices. This trip was an immensely valuable experience for us to learn about international development challenges as well as ways to run a sustainable engineering program within a community. Looking forward, we hope that by raising awareness of the risks of poor hygiene and waterborne illnesses, community members will encourage other members to share proper sanitary practices. This will, in turn, allow the members of the community to be healthier and thus be able to work and go to school.

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Woodrow Wilson School

PROJECT

Central Valley Habitat Exchange

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Environmental Defense Fund, San Francisco, CA

MENTOR(S)

Daniel Kaiser, Environmental Defense Fund

This summer, I worked for the Environmental Defense Fund on the Central Valley Habitat Exchange (Exchange), an initiative that is developing incentives for farmers and ranchers to conserve the habitat of at-risk species in the Central Valley of California. During the course of my internship, I did a mix of research and writing of outreach materials. I looked into how counties in the Central Valley meet mitigation requirements for threatened and endangered species. Later in the internship, I wrote several communications to be distributed to farmers and ranchers, wildlife agencies, and local government officials, most notably a detailed overview of the Exchange and the tools and services it provides. I also helped to write part of a survey about habitat conservation that will be sent out to farmers in the California Farm Bureau. This internship taught me how to think critically and problem-solve, taking into consideration the complicated intersection of wildlife and habitat issues, the economics of agriculture, and state, federal, and county law. Although I’m not sure if I will end up pursuing a career in environmental policy, learning how to approach a complex issue and how to think about it critically is an invaluable skill that I will take with me wherever I end up.

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Climate Change and Environmental Science

Amaral, Vinicius ’17

Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROJECT

Mapping Vegetation in African Drylands, Kenya

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Caylor Ecohydrology Lab, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ and Kenya

MENTOR(S)

Kelly Caylor, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

While in Kenya, I worked on a project that involved using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to map vegetation patterns with high temporal and spatial resolution. In a broad perspective, this project helped examine how climate change and warming are affecting vegetation growth and variability in African drylands. These factors serve as an indication of water and nutrient availability, which are important ecohydrological factors. As a field assistant for this project, I conducted vegetation surveys with the UAV, a quadcopter-style drone, by flying the UAV over plots of land while it took aerial images of the land surface. I then processed these images using a program that stitches the images together to produce an orthophoto, which resembles a high-resolution aerial map of the surface below. Given time and technological constraints, my goal was to figure out a workflow for conducting surveys and running images through the processing software. Ultimately, the UAV was to be flown over plots in regular weekly intervals to capture vegetation maps that could be compared across seasonal timescales. This experience has strengthened my interest in environmental engineering research and has made me more confident in the prospect of attending graduate school in the future.

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Baird, Garrett ’17

Chemical Engineering

PROJECT

Nitrogen-Fixing Soil Bacteria and Their Response to Trace Elements

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Morel Lab, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

François Morel, Professor, Geosciences

This summer I had the opportunity to study two nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria, Azotobacter Vinelandii and Azotobacter Chroococcum, and their response to trace elements such as Boron and Tungsten. I tracked the growth of the bacteria by measuring optical density. Additionally, I analyzed their siderophore production by running liquid chromatographymass spectrometry (LC-MS) samples to see which molecules the bacteria were producing in response to various concentrations of metals being added to their growth media. I found that Azotobacter Chroococcum grew better under high Tungsten concentrations than Azotobacter Vinelandii, which is unusual since Vinelandii usually grows better than Chroococcum under most conditions. Finally, I collected samples for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure intracellular metal concentrations. This suggests that Chroococcum could be using Tungsten instead of Molybdenum in the nitrogenase responsible for converting atmospheric nitrogen into forms of nitrogen that organisms can use. This internship was a great opportunity to apply some of the skills I learned in the classroom as well as learn many new techniques and skills. It gave me valuable research experience that I will apply towards undergraduate independent work and my future career as a chemical engineer.

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Chemical and Biological Engineering

PROJECT

Measurement of Methane Leakage from Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Mauzerall Group, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Denise Mauzerall, Professor, Woodrow Wilson School

Few attempts have been made to accurately quantify methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas (AOG) wells. Since the orders of magnitude of methane emissions vary so much from well to well, it is important to gain more insight into the dynamics of these emissions to effectively target the high emitting wells for immediate remediation efforts (i.e. proper plugging). Working with other interns, I took methane samples from AOG wells in western Pennsylvania. In addition, we started to take measurements in West Virginia. In order to accurately estimate methane emissions, we designed, constructed, and prepared chambers to collect and store these gas samples. My individual project involved analyzing the status of our current chamber design, improving problematic design flaws, and constructing new chambers for the future. This internship has strengthened my interest in the environment. I hope to continue conducting field work and studying sustainable energy and environmental health.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROJECT

Methane Leakage from the Natural Gas System

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Climate Central, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Eric Larson, Senior Research Engineer, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

This summer I worked as an energy intern at Climate Central, a non-partisan climate research and journalist organization. I worked closely with my adviser Dr. Eric Larson, a senior research engineer from the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, examining methane leakage from the natural gas system. Natural gas has garnered attention recently, hailed as the bridge fuel between coal and renewable energy sources. However, natural gas mainly consists of methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2 in the long term. It is crucial that we understand methane leakages from the natural gas system in order to properly assess the implications of natural gas development. During this internship, I conducted a thorough literature review of the available studies on methane leakage from the natural gas system in order to evaluate the current state of affairs and related studies. Through this experience I not only learned how to ingest large amounts of data and studies, but also how to organize and categorize them. I have now developed a deeper understanding of the topic as well as the ability to critically analyze studies. This internship greatly influenced my choice to continue research in environmental engineering with an emphasis on emissions from fossil fuel sources.

Forden, Atleigh ’16

Geosciences

PROJECT

Fish Ecology from Ear Bones (Otoliths) Past and Present

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Ward Lab, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Bess Ward, Professor, Geosciences

My internship with PEI this summer was an extremely important step in my academic journey here at Princeton. With this position, I was able to explore a new area of my department I had never considered, and along the way I was able to jump-start my thesis research a few months early. I also learned how satisfying it is to solve problems as a team. I worked very closely with a graduate student on her project. It was very helpful to attack difficulties we were having with one aspect of the project or another with a second set of eyes. I now feel confident going into my senior year knowing where I am going to take my thesis and who I can go to for guidance through the year. This internship has also helped me confirm my plans to proceed to graduate school after graduation.

Gleason, Jeffrey ’18

Computer Science

PROJECT

The Princeton Atlas Project

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Princeton University Council on Science and Technology, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Catherine Riihimaki, Associate Director, Science Education, Council on Science and Technology

This summer I worked to help launch the Mapping Princeton project, a project with the long-term goal of creating a Princeton atlas, under the guidance of Catherine Riihimaki from the Council of Science and Technology. The goal of the atlas was not just to map locations, but also to focus on things like the campus’ physical evolution and changing demographics. Over the course of eight weeks, my co-intern and I put together a 30-page Princeton atlas divided into three sections: people, history, and the environment. In the people section we put together layouts on where undergraduates study abroad and how Instagram traffic is distributed around campus. In the history section we mapped the campus’ expansion and how its uses have changed. Finally, in the environment section we made layouts of Campus Dining’s food sources and the campus’ light distribution. The project was a fascinating exercise in capturing information through mapping; it will be interesting to see what we can continue to learn about Princeton through different ways of mapping. This internship solidified my interest in data analysis and the application of data analysis perspective to projects where that perspective isn’t immediately apparent.

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Gray, Christian ’17

Chemistry

PROJECT

4-Dimensional Study of Earth’s Most Ancient Reefs in the Canadian Rockies, Canada

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Maloof Group, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ and British Columbia, Canada

MENTOR(S)

Adam Maloof, Professor, Geosciences

This summer I had the opportunity to do field research on the fossils of two species of organisms, Namaclathus and Cloudina, in a remote section of the Canadian Rockies. These species formed reefs approximately 550 million years ago, right before and on the edge of the famous Cambrian explosion. While in the field, I took note of what was in the rock layers above and below our fossils, and then tried to determine and justify in what sort of habitat these ancient reefs could have developed. For example, I took many measurements of the paleocurrents to try to determine in which direction the water was flowing. We also gathered samples for the Grinding, Imaging and Reconstruction Instrument (GIRI), which will be grinding samples throughout the school year to create 3-D representations of the fossils embedded in the rocks we collected. With the information we collected in the field combined with the 3-D images of the fossils, we hope to discover more about the physiology of the creatures and what effects they had on the rapid expansion in biodiversity that occurred only a few million years later. While I do not foresee geology as a subject influencing my major, the experience of doing fieldwork in such a remote location and the logical deduction skills I developed will stay with me throughout my scientific career.

Woodrow Wilson School

PROJECT

Detecting Thresholds in Linkages Between Climate and Marine Fishes in the California Current Ecosystem

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Sarmiento Group, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Jorge Sarmiento, Professor, Geosciences

The goal of my summer project was to determine whether relationships between fish and their environment break down due to climate change. I worked with Rebecca Asch, a postdoctoral fellow in the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department under Jorge Sarmiento. The way we worked to answer this question was through data analysis of CalCOFI data which was sourced off the coast of Southern California. We cleaned the data up in MATLAB and did some preliminary statistics and then used Generalized Additive Models in R to answer the question. I did this analysis for sardinops sagax, commonly known as sardines. We found that the relationship between temperature and fish breaks down with global warming. This implies that the models we are using now that predict the relationship between fish and temperature are wrong because they assume the relationship will hold even with climate change. Through the internship, I learned how to think critically and analytically, how to code using MATLAB and GAM on R, and about other topics relating to atmospheric and oceanic sciences. I will now be working on a senior thesis project that is tangentially related to my project this summer.

Su, Sophia ’17

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

PROJECT

Droughts of the Future: Climate Change Impacts on Western US Forests

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Pacala Group, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Stephen Pacala, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

This summer I worked with Dr. Bill Anderegg studying the effects of climate change on western U.S. forests in Cortez, Colorado. In the first experiment of the summer, we subjected the one seed juniper plant to a simulated drought environment by building transparent chambers around selected branches and artificially raising the temperature in the contained environment. In doing so, we were trying to understand the effects of a short-term heat shock and how quickly the juniper plant responds to and recovers from such an event. During the second half of the internship, we studied the depth ratio of water-conducting sapwood to non-conducting heartwood in four tree species in the San Juan National Forest. Fieldwork included tagging trees to establish new plots; surveying each tree for trunk diameter, bark depth, and other parameters; and taking core samples from each tree trunk and counting the number of sapwood rings and total rings. By studying the core samples, we were able to see how sapwood depth varies within a species and between species, as well as the effects of drought on tree growth. Through this internship, I gained extensive fieldwork experience, and learned new lab techniques and experimental design skills. The research allowed me to apply classroom knowledge and enriched my understanding of ecological systems.

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Swadba, Kellie ’17

Geosciences

PROJECT

Effects of Amazon Deforestation on Patterns of Cloud Formation

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Medvigy Group, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

David Medvigy, Assistant Professor, Geosciences

This summer I assisted a geoscience professor and his graduate student with a project involving simulation of cloud coverage over a deforested region of the Amazon Rainforest. Studies from the 1990’s reveal uniform cloud coverage over Rondonia, Brazil. Since then, however, larger sections of forest have been cleared. The graduate student’s previous work had revealed that the newer intermediate-scale deforestation generated a distinct pattern of cloud formation during the dry season. My goal was to determine if similar patterns were generated during the wet season. To accomplish this, I needed to download large quantities of publically available Gridsat data, particularly infrared and visual data, which give information about temperature and albedo (reflectivity of the earth’s surface), respectively. I gained invaluable experience working with MATLAB to download the data, and improved my analytical skills as I mapped and interpreted the data. I was able to work independently to understand concepts and generate code; but also sought help and engaged in discussions with the professor and grad student when problems required a team response. I look forward to using the skills I’ve acquired this summer as I complete my junior projects this year.

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Tasistro-Hart, Adrian ’17

Geosciences

PROJECT

Late Cretaceous Milankovitch Climate Cyclicity, Bolivia

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Maloof Group, Geosciences Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ and Bolivia

MENTOR(S)

Adam Maloof, Professor, Geosciences

My summer research, which will form the foundation for my junior papers and senior thesis, centered on detecting long term (10,000-100,000 year) climate cyclicity in a late Cretaceous (65 million-year-old) lake in western Bolivia. These cycles, the same that paced the ice ages of the past several million years, are caused by periodic wobbles in Earth’s rotation and orbit around the sun. Because the late Cretaceous was marked by atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations more than double those of today, this lake could demonstrate if and how these astronomical cycles influence global climate in a “hot-house” world. To detect these cycles, I led a two-month field season in the Bolivian Andes, measuring the thicknesses of rock layers that had been deposited in the lake and collecting samples from those layers. With measurements such as magnetic susceptibility and mineralogy taken from the samples, in addition to high-resolution aerial imagery collected with a drone, I will attempt to detect periodic signals in the sedimentary record that I can then correlate with astronomical cycles. By planning and executing my own field season, I learned how to manage the logistics of international research, to prioritize research objectives in a limited amount of time, and to adapt to challenges.

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Woodrow Wilson School

PROJECT

Exploring the Mesophotic Zone: Lionfish, Fisheries’ Targeted Species, and the Goldface Toby, Bermuda

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Bermuda

MENTOR(S)

Tim Noyes, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences

As an intern in the Coral Reef Ecology and Optics Lab of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), my goal this summer was to further the development of the organization’s research within Bermuda’s mesophotic zone by exploring the abundance and distribution of lionfish, fisheries’ targeted fish, and the goldface toby. In order to assist marine spatial planning and species specific planning, my project was dedicated to modelling the potential effects and repercussions of the invasive lionfish on both known important commercial species and unknown biodiversity. The main question I was trying to answer was: Which types of environmental variables and fish associations determine the abundance and distribution of lionfish and other targeted fish? Through this internship I gained an immense amount of knowledge about marine biology, specifically on the identification of coral reef fish, and learned how to analyze numerical ecology in both R and GIS. Overall, I attained a one-of-a-kind research experience that will most certainly help me with data analysis and research projects in the future.

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Health

Arendt, William ’16

Civil and Environmental Engineering

PROJECT

Hazardous Element Mobilization in Shale Wastewater

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Peters Group, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Jeffrey Fitts, Research Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

During our summer internship, Jeffrey Chen and I conducted research in order to facilitate understanding of the existence of hazardous elements within fracking-produced waters. By conducting batch experiments with three different shales exposed to three different fluids, we simulated each step of the fracking process. Taking samples of each batch, we analyzed the fluid and determined in which conditions hazardous elements were most abundant. This analysis was done using ion chromatography, inductively coupled plasmamass spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and an environmental scanning electron microscope. In addition to performing scientific analysis, we had to present progress reports in weekly meetings and provide recommendations on other projects within the research group. Using teamwork skills and honing our presenting techniques helped us progress in our ability to communicate results in a concise and effective manner. This research experience has given me a greater look into the environmental concerns associated with fracking and will be researched further in my senior thesis.

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Chen, Jeffrey ’17

Chemistry

PROJECT

Hazardous Element Mobilization in Shale Wastewater

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Jeffrey Fitts, Research Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

This summer I interned with Dr. Jeff Fitts, a researcher in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department working on characterization of hazardous element mobilization in waste waters produced from shale operations. Fracking requires large quantities of water, and the waste water generated contains various hazardous elements that may severely impact local water sources. In this project, we performed batch experiments on shale samples from different rock formations under various solution environment conditions, focusing specifically on heavy metals. Characterization of the mobilization of these heavy metals could allow for understanding of leakage of heavy metals into local water sources near fracking operations and could provide insight into the adequacy of heavy metal removal processes. This experience not only afforded me the opportunity to work on an interesting project and use state-of-the-art machines, it also made me more aware of the issues that surround the practice of fracking. This internship has spurred me to seek fields that integrate multiple disciplines of study.

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Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

PROJECT

Potable Water System, Peru

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Engineers Without Borders, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ and Peru

MENTOR(S)

Peter Jaffe, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Princeton University Peru team of Engineers Without Borders has been working to provide water to the small rural village of La Pitajaya, Peru for the past five years. During our partnership with La Pitajaya, we have built two water pipelines; one in the upper part of the community, Alta, and one in the lower part of the community, Baja. These were completed in the summers of 2013 and 2014, respectively. The overall purpose of this past summer’s trip was to conduct maintenance and repairs on the two pipelines, to close out the project in La Pitajaya, and to survey new communities for our next project. During the trip, the team did construction work on both pipelines, making repairs so that the system could function optimally after closing the project. Examples of these repairs included fixing the Alta pipeline source capture and spring box, adding a new user to the Alta system, and widening the Baja source capture to increase the flow of water to the pipeline. The team also conducted technical and qualitative surveys of new communities for our next project. With this summer’s trip, we successfully closed out our project in La Pitajaya, and began planning our project for next year. Ultimately, this project allowed the team to engage in international development work, while gaining hands-on experience in engineering construction and design.

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Technologies for Environmental Study

Choi, Hun ’17

Computer Science

PROJECT

Combining the Human Eye Machine Learning to Better Map African Crop Fields

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Lyndon Estes, Associate Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School

The Mapping Africa project serves to provide a better understanding of the distribution of crop fields in Africa. The platform currently uses crowdsourcing to classify the crop fields in satellite images, which can be costly in terms of both money and time. The goal of my internship was to develop the proof-of-concept for a crop field mapping platform that combines the current crowdsourcing system and the advanced classification algorithm worked on by former graduate student Stephanie Debats to ultimately classify crop fields automatically and accurately. I spent most of my time figuring out the workflow in Python and QGIS, and used a Maximum Likelihood Classifier to stand in as a rudimentary classification algorithm. I was able to create the entire workflow from taking a satellite image to iteratively improving the classification results. In this way I helped advance active research and lay the foundations for the project’s future. This internship introduced me to the world of research and taught me technical skills in Python, remote sensing, and GIS. Through my work this summer, I confirmed that I wish to continue pursuing computer science, and I also broadened my view of prospective industries I wish to work in in the future.

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Du, Savannah ’18

Operations Research and Financial Engineering

PROJECT

Illumination and Radiometric Correction of UAV-Collected RGB and NGB Images

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Lyndon Estes, Associate Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School

This summer I worked with RGB and near-infrared imagery collected by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The use of UAVs allows capture of high spatial and temporal resolution images, which can be used to monitor crop stress (in our case, fungi patches in southern New Jersey cranberry bogs). However, collected imagery is affected by particle interactions in the atmosphere. This atmospheric attenuation, in addition to other issues such as uneven illumination and changing camera angle, must be corrected when comparing images over time and different areas. I worked on devising a method to normalize illumination within and between images and to calibrate them to ground reflectance such that they would most accurately represent surface characteristics. Through this experience, I was able to get a glimpse of some of the important issues and progress in remote sensing while working on implementing my understanding through code. Although my work was not directly related to my academic study, this internship taught me what the research process entails and how to approach issues and failures from different angles, which will undoubtedly be helpful for future endeavors.

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Huang, Stacey ’16

Electrical Engineering

PROJECT

Design and Implementation of an Automated Imaging and Auto-Focusing System for a Remote CLaDS Methane Sensor

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Wysocki Lab, Electrical Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Gerard Wysocki, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering

My project this summer dealt with the design of a robust auto-focusing imaging system for a methane sensor to be deployed in the fall of 2015. The dynamics of methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, are not well understood, but deciphering them is necessarily in order to properly regulate emissions. In the Princeton University Laser Sensing Lab, we built an improved sensor, which is based on a technology known as Chirped Laser Dispersion Spectroscopy (CLaDS) and is perfect for long-term sensing in traditionally difficult-to-map areas. This summer, I was responsible for the design and implementation of both hardware and software for the imaging system, which helps the sensor locate and focus on targets. My project allowed me to gain skills and knowledge in image processing, as well as an increased familiarity with optical systems. Prior to my research this summer, I was primarily interested in optics, but my positive experience has convinced me to continue to learn about computer vision and imaging. I hope to continue this research project for my senior thesis.

Principato, Eric ’16

Mechanical Engineering

PROJECT

UAVs for Ecological Observation

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

MENTOR(S)

Lyndon Estes, Associate Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School

This summer I worked in the field with drones and developed software to process imagery taken by the drones. Currently, satellite imagery is widely used in many fields including agriculture and ecology. Farmers can manage their crops, terrain topology can be analyzed, and protected areas can be monitored. The main drawbacks of using satellite imagery are that it is very expensive and highly susceptible to weather and cloud conditions. Drones are a useful alternative for collecting high quality aerial imagery because they are inexpensive to fly and can be deployed in less than an hour. The goal of my project was to develop a workflow for generating drone imagery and rectifying that imagery with existing imagery. This allows researchers to analyze trends in both space and time at high resolution.

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Sudhakar, Soumya ’18

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

PROJECT

Forecasting Smallholders’ Yields Via with In-Field, Cloud-Distributed Sensing, Zambia

ORGANIZATION / LOCATION

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and Zambia

MENTOR(S)

Lyndon Estes, Associate Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School

Climate change is already affecting the reliability of crop yields worldwide. For farmers in Zambia, getting better forecasts of maize yields as early as possible is critical to livelihoods. These forecasts, however, currently rely on only a few weather stations for the entire country of Zambia. In an effort to improve upon this, Princeton Ecohydrology Lab is working to deploy many smaller, cheaper, cloud-connected “PulsePods,” which provide data for crop modeling, in the hope that the models will be able to better predict yield of a crop like maize in Zambia and in a changing climate. I aided in data analysis, and wrote programs to pull data from the pods, clean up and evaluate the data, and feed the data into DSSAT, a global crop modeling software. The internship taught me skills such as programming in R and gave me the opportunity to visit Zambia where I was able to work with pods in the field and talk to farmers who are on the front lines of climate change and its ramifications. I look forward to continuing research on ways to adapt in a changing climate and to help find sustainable engineering solutions.

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Our New Home

Meet Our Past Interns - 2015

Acevedo, Melina ’16

Ho, Emily ’18

Jiao, Sally ’18

Laoui, Anid ’18

Li, Weimen ’17

Liu, Guanghao (Jackey) ’18

Melesse, Bizuwork ’16

Pardinas, Kevin ’16

Pearcy, Jacob ’18

Tayvah, Uriel ’17

Chiu, Carol ’17

Coates, Danielle ’18

Dooner, MacKenzie ’17

Gideon, Roan ’18

Harvey, Morgen ’16

Hung, Brendan ’17

Lin, Lucy ’18

Martocello, Donald ’18

Ni, Julia ’18

O’Connell, Ryan ’17

Spiegel, Marcus ’17

Stoner, Cecilia ’17

Taneja, Anjali ’16

Urheim, Jane ’17

Amaral, Vinicius ’17

Baird, Garrett ’17

Bauk, Ejeong ’16

Begland, Kate ’17

Blume, Catherine ’18

Campbell, Ethan ’16

Cho, Eugene ’17

Chrisitian, Shanna ’16

Coronado, Maricela ’17

Dominguez, Alex ’16

Dubitsky, Lena ’18

Ejeong, Baik ’16

Forden, Atleigh ’16

Gleason, Jeffrey ’18

Gray, Christian ’17

Jacques, Angeline ’16

Kaiser, Christianese ’17

Mehl, Justin ’17

Murray, Joshua ’18

Raghu, Aparna ’18

Rambarran, Jaclyn ’16

Redmond, Joseph ’18

Santi, Lauren ’18

Schwartz, Aaron ’17

Sims, Zoe ’17

Sobolewska, Joanna ’16

Su, Sophia ’17

Swadba, Kellie ’17

Tasistro-Hart, Adrian ’17

Tian, Sarah ’18

Trase, Olivia ’17

Van Cleve, William ’17

Wang, Sunyoung ’16

Xie, Ay ’17

Yao, Vivian ’17

Yi, Young (Paul) ’17

Zhou, Jennifer ’16

Arendt, William ’16

Chen, Jeffrey ’17

Chong, Julie ’17

Douglas, Isabella ’17

Guiracoche, William ’17

Kavanaugh, Corrie ’17

Kersting, Lydon ’18

Li, Amanda ’16

Shah, Kasturi ’16

Umansky-Castro, Joshua ’17

Choi, Hun ’17

Du, Savannah ’18

Huang, Stacey ’16

Principato, Eric ’16

Sudhakar, Soumya ’18