Undergraduate Summer Research Program

The Undergraduate Summer Research Program is designed to provide undergraduate students in engineering and computer science paid summer positions to work on research projects with faculty. Students will have the opportunity to use their academic training to gain hands on experience in their field of study. Students are encouraged to apply for up to three (3) research proposals. For examples of the scope of work involved in a summer project, prior summer project posters are on display in the hallways in the Engineering and Computer Science building. (Smaller posters 20 x 30″)

Applications will be reviewed by the Summer Research Program committee. Students are notified in April if they’ve been selected to work on a project. Students will be paid for up to 240 hours; exact time commitments and project scope vary. Work begins May 16. 

Contact for questions:  mary.bulger@wsu.edu

2024 Research Project Examples 

 

MIMO Antennas for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications, Tutku Karacolak Faculty Advisor	The number of connected IoT devices worldwide will increase nearly 2-fold, to almost 50 billion, and wireless/mobile data traffic is expected to increase thousand-fold within the next decade. To address this challenge, multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) systems are currently used in almost all 5G/6G wireless devices utilizing multiple antennas. The use of multiple antennas increases the data rate within the limited bandwidth and power levels. In this project, our goal is to design efficient MIMO antennas with large bandwidth, high isolation, and high gain.
Numerical Study on Reciprocating Piston Compression for Underwater Energy Storage, Chris Qin Faculty Advisor	Dive into sustainable energy with our summer project! Join us and implement MATLAB simulations to optimize heat transfer in piston compression, a key component of underwater compressed air energy storage. Explore reciprocating piston, applying thermodynamic principles to enhance efficiency. Contribute to renewable energy integration renewable energy systems like offshore wind and tidal energy. Unleash your potential, merging numerical skills with environmental impact for a greener future!
Interactive Hele-Shaw Cell Development, Stephen Solovitz Faculty Advisor	The Hele-Shaw cell is a remarkable device that displays two-dimensional flow behavior with great accuracy.  Using two closely-spaced, transparent plates, the planar flow is identical to potential flow, even with viscosity.  We plan to develop a novel Hele-Shaw cell that includes a grid of inlet and outlet ports.  Each port can be activated as a source or a sink, generating an arbitrary flow.  Ideally, this can generate flow around many different shapes, including airfoils.  This device will be used for research, such as study of porous materials, instability, and chaos.
Grid Forming Control for Inverter-based Resources, Hang Gao Faculty Advisor	As renewable energy-based electricity generation penetrates the grid, inverter-based resources (IBRs) are gradually replacing traditional synchronous machine-based electricity generation. The trend results in the loss of inertia in the grid, which impacts the grid’s stability especially during transients and under fault events. Existing inverters are mostly regulated by grid-following (GFL) controls, which assume the grid with constant voltage and frequency. Unfortunately, GFL controls are not suitable for a weak grid with very low inertia. To fill the knowledge gap, a small-signal analysis for CSI with GFM control will be conducted to incorporate CSI’s both AC and DC dynamic behavior. Based on the derived mathematical model, the stability analysis for CSI with GFM control will further be done, especially its transient stability analysis. Then, a droop control based GFM control for CSI will be evaluated during various transients and under different fault events. The results will be compared with a VSI with the same control technique and system parameters.
Large Language Models for Health Data Summarization, Scott Wallace Faculty Advisor	This project will examine using a Large Language Model (e.g., ChatGPT) to summarize health data from the college of nursing. We will explore various methods for prompt engineering and various LLM models to generate summaries of the text. Findings will be compared to hand coded results and to traditional methods such as term frequency counting.
Thermal degradation of stereolithography 3D printed molds for aerospace composite production, Dave Kim Faculty Advisor	Stereolithography (SLA) is a revolutionary additive manufacturing or 3D printing process that has significantly impacted industries worldwide. SLA utilizes photopolymerization to solidify polymeric liquid resin layer by layer, creating highly detailed three-dimensional objects. Many aerospace manufacturers employ SLA technology for soft tooling applications, referring to creating temporary molds or tooling fixtures using more flexible and less durable polymers than traditional hard tooling materials like steel or aluminum. However, one critical consideration in applying SLA soft tools is their susceptibility to thermal degradation. While SLA resins can exhibit excellent mechanical properties, they often lack the heat resistance necessary for the composite bladder molding process – the focus of this project. Rooted in Dr. Kim’s research collaboration with a local aerospace manufacturer, which uses bladder molding processes to manufacture hollow composite structures of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), this hands-on project offers an undergraduate research assistant the opportunity to design, conduct, and analyze the mechanical properties of thermally degraded SLA 3D-printed coupons and molds currently used in active UAS projects. The assistant will operate a brand-new SLA machine, a coordinate measuring machine, a programmable furnace, and our Instron tensile tester, available in our labs under engineering technicians, graduate students, and the supervisor (Dave Kim). The empirical modeling of the thermal degradation will draw the optimal bladder molding process conditions for SLA 3D-printed molds.
Big Data Analysis for Understanding Environmental Impact of Human Activities, Xinghui Zhao Faculty Advisor	The wildfire that swept through parts of Maui in August 2023 are now the deadliest in modern U.S. history, yet another evidence showing that the world has entered a critical state of climate crisis. Our days of discussing global warming and climate change are over and we need to move to action (Carrington, 2019). Human activities introduce an array of factors that impact ecosystems and their components, leading to an urgent need to transform human activities to ensure long-term sustainability. However, degradation of the natural environment and the climate crisis are exceedingly complex phenomena requiring the most advanced and innovative solutions. In this project, we will develop a novel causal AI framework which can shed light on the root causes of environmental issues. Using water quality issues as a case study, the proposed research will lead to a better understanding on the short-term and long-term impacts of human activities on water quality, and establish a foundation for developing effective mitigation strategies.