Faculty Faculty Faculty e-mail Faculty home department A short title of the 1st proposed A short description of 1st

short description of 1st proposed The student will work primarily

Could
with this project be applied to one
first last name address project project of the Grand Challenges of
name Engineering? If so, which one?
1 Kevin Ahrendt kahrendt@mines.edu Applied Mathematics & Statistics Properties of the Caputo Fractional Students quickly learn first, second, and Postdoc Not applicable
Difference higher order derivatives in their first
calculus class, but what about a 2.5th
order derivative? The Caputo derivative
allows us to have such a case. In the
difference equations setting, there are
many unknown properties about the
Caputo difference which we will
discover and explore.
2 Mahadev Ganesh mganesh@mines.edu Applied Mathematics & Statistics Advanced algorithms and simulation for Space-time mathematical models are Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
an models with uncertain parameters fundamental to understanding various discovery
quantities of interest (QoI) in several
applications. Such models are usually
based on various input parameters that
cannot be determined exactly. The main
aim of this project is on advanced
computational techniques to quantify
uncertainties in the associated output
QoI.
3 Forest Mannan fmannan@mines.edu Applied Mathematics & Statistics Modeling motion in Stokes flow Students will first become familiar with Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate Not applicable
analytical and numerical approaches to student
fluid flow governed by Stokes
equations. Stokes flow is applicable to
viscous fluids and fluids at small scales,
so there are plenty of applications in
biofluids. In particular, the student will
work on simulations modeling either the
swimming of Chlamydomonas or rigid
motion near a planar wall.

4 Sumit Agarwal sagarwal@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Atomic Layer Processing for This project involved developing Graduate student Not applicable
Engineering Semiconductor Device Manufacturing methods for the growth and etching of
dielectric films at the atomic scale. The
growth and etching processes will be
studies using in situ optical diagnostic
tools such as infrared spectroscopy and
multi-wavelength ellipsometry.
5 Sumit Agarwal sagarwal@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Development of Contacts for Ultra-high Crystalline silicon solar cells constitute Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering Efficiency Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells 90% of the solar market. This project
involves development of low-cost
scalable methods for creating contacts
for interdigitated back contact silicon
cells. This work is in collaboration with
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory.
6 Nanette Boyle nboyle@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Genome-Scale Metabolic Network In order to model the metabolism of any Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Engineering Reconstruction of a Green Alga organism, all possible metabolic methods, 4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
reactions need to be enumerated. We
are interested in reconstructing the
metabolic network of a green algae that
is capable of producing an important
nutraceutical, astaxanthin. This project
will be mainly computational with a
small portion of experimental work.

7 Nanette Boyle nboyle@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Engineering photocatalytic limonene Cyanobacteria are a potential source of Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Engineering production in cyanobacteria renewable chemicals; however, their methods, 4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
metabolism needs to be engineered to
redirect carbon from biomass to the
desired chemical. This project will focus
on increasing yield of limonene
production in Synechococcus sp
PCC.7002 through metabolic
engineering efforts. It is a major
advantage for the student undertaking
this work to have already taken
genetics.
8 Moises Carreon mcarreon@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Lipid-Biomass Conversion to Transport Lipid biomass, derived from animal and Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Carreon Engineering Fuels over Nickel based Metal Organic vegetal oils is a low cost, abundant
Frameworks renewable feedstock. Removing
oxygen from these lipid biomass
containing fatty acids leads to the
formation of liquid hydrocarbons that
can potentially serve as or be converted
to direct replacements for traditional
petroleum-derived liquid transportation
fuels and paraffinic petrochemical
feedstocks. The current catalysts for
the production of diesel ranged
hydrocarbons from triglycerides and
fatty acids require the use of expensive
noble metals as the active catalytic
species. In this project, we aim at
demonstrating the catalytic conversion
of fatty acids to paraffins, branched and
aromatic hydrocarbons over Nickel
based metal organic frameworks
(MOFs) catalysts, a much cheaper and
potentially more active catalysts for the
proposed catalytic conversion.
 9 Moises Carreon mcarreon@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Carbon dioxide separation over Porous crystalline organic solids have Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Carreon Engineering crystalline porous organic membranes emerged as a novel type of crystalline methods
microporous materials which combine
highly desirable properties, such as
uniform micropores, moderate surface
areas, and thermal and chemical
stability, making them highly appealing
candidates for challenging molecular
gas separations. If prepared in
membrane form these materials can
display potential high separation
performance (both selectivity and
permeability) for industrial relevant gas
separations involving carbon dioxide. In
this project, the development of
continuous and robust type of
membranes, composed of porous
crystalline organic solids for CO2/N2
and CO2/CH4 separations is proposed.

10 Diego Gomez dgomezgualdron@gma Chemical and Biological Computationally-driven discovery of Current air separation technology is Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Gualdron il.com Engineering metal-organic frameworks for air based on energy-intensive cryogenic
separation distillation. This project aims to
computationally identify a nanoporous
material that could adsorb enough
amounts of either oxygen or nitrogen
with sufficient selectivity to separate air
in a much less intensive pressure-swing
adsorption process. The computational
exploration will be done using so-called
"in silico" synthesis of thousands of
candidate materials and application of
high throughput screening methods.

11 Diego Gomez dgomezgualdron@gma Chemical and Biological Water adsorption in metal-organic A recent proof-of-concept report has Faculty, Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
Gualdron il.com Engineering frameworks shown the ability of a metal-organic
framework to trap water from air in
desert areas. This projects looks to use
molecular simulation to understand the
link between the structure and
chemistry of the metal-organic
framework and its water adsorption
capabilities.
12 Andrew Herring aherring@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Direct low temperature fuel cells Low temperature fuel cells are limited in Faculty Not applicable
Engineering versatility because the only fuel that
works well is hydrogen. If a low
temperature fuel cell could be
constructed that ran on a more complex
fuel such as methane or ethanol, the
efficiency of utilization of these fuels
could be increased 4 fold vs heat
engines. In this project using in house
and partner catalysts and membranes
you will construct and test direct fuel
cells in the Colorado Duel Cell Center.
Students will be expected to produce
publications quality data and follow
strict safety protocols.
13 Andrew Herring aherring@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Analysis and improvement of polymer Our research group fabricates novel Faculty 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering electrolyte membranes and unique polymer electrolyte
membranes for diverse applications
such as electrochemical energy
conversion, and the purification of
water. We need student researchers to
help characterize these materials so
that we an have a better fundamental
understanding of how they transport
ions, water and small molecules.
Membrane stability is also of concern
and so the student will help us study
membrane degradation using
accelerated testing protocols.
14 Carolyn Koh ckoh@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Rheological Investigations of Clathrate Clathrate hydrates are solid inclusion Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Engineering Hydrate Slurries compounds comprised of a hydrogen- student methods
bonded lattice of water cages that can
trap different organic molecules, such
as methane, carbon dioxide.
Understanding the rheological
properties of clathrate hydrate slurries
is important in different energy
applications of hydrates, including
energy transportation and storage, as
well as carbon sequestration. This
project will involve crystal growth
studies of hydrates, with simultaneous
viscosity measurements to assess the
flow characteristics of the hydrate
crystals in a liquid hydrocarbon phase.
15 Carolyn Koh ckoh@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Desalination Using a Clathrate Hydrate Clathrate hydrates are crystalline solids Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering Technology that are formed from water and small student
organic molecules, such as
cyclopentane or carbon dioxide. Since
hydrate crystals can form from brine
solutions and exclude the salt ions, they
present a potential desalination
method. This project will investigate the
use of clathrate hydrates for the
desalination of seawater, using
experimental crystal growth methods
and conductivity measurements.
16 Carolyn Koh ckoh@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Rheological Investigations of Clathrate Clathrate hydrates are solid inclusion Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Engineering Hydrate Slurries compounds comprised of a hydrogen- student methods
bonded lattice of water cages that can
trap different organic molecules, such
as methane, carbon dioxide.
Understanding the rheological
properties of clathrate hydrate slurries
is important in different energy
applications of hydrates, including
energy transportation and storage, as
well as carbon sequestration. This
project will involve crystal growth
studies of hydrates, with simultaneous
viscosity measurements to assess the
flow characteristics of the hydrate
crystals in a liquid hydrocarbon phase.
17 Carolyn Koh ckoh@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Desalination Using a Clathrate Hydrate Clathrate hydrates are crystalline solids Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering Technology that are formed from water and small student
organic molecules, such as
cyclopentane or carbon dioxide. Since
hydrate crystals can form from brine
solutions and exclude the salt ions, they
present a potential desalination
method. This project will investigate the
use of clathrate hydrates for the
desalination of seawater, using
experimental crystal growth methods
and conductivity measurements.
18 Dave Marr dmarr@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Nanoparticle decoration of µwheels for Biofilms are a significant public health Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines
Engineering enhanced surface penetration concern as they are associated with
numerous diseases and physical
injuries. Commonly addressed with
antibiotics, treatment is hindered by
antibiotic resistance and the presence
of a protective exopolysaccharide
(EPS) film over the bacterial mat. To
break through this barrier, we have
recently demonstrated that small µm-
sized colloidal building blocks can be
assembled in situ with weak external
magnetic fields to create microwheels
that can effectively overcome diffusive
barriers to deliver drugs in microfluidic
models. We propose to extend our
approach to directed biofilm drug
delivery by employing µwheels to break
through the EPS matrix to enhance
drug delivery and facilitate biofilm
degradation using an approach
analagous to snow tires where small
(~200 µm) penetrating nanoparticles
are added to the surface of the wheels
to enhance traction and penetrate the
surface.
19 Keith Neeves kneeves@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Microfluidic models of blood clot The proposed project uses microfluidic Graduate student 7. Advance health informatics
Engineering formation technology to simulate vascular injuries
and monitor blood clot formation under
different flow conditions. The student's
responsibility will be to design and
fabricate devices, and to test them
using human blood treated with various
drugs that affect clotting.
20 Keith Neeves kneeves@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Bioreactors for blood storage The proposed project is to develop a Faculty 8. Engineer better medicines
Engineering tubular bioreactor to extend the lifetime
of stored blood, and in particular
platelets. The student's responsibility
will be to design and fabricate reactors,
and to test them using human blood
under a variety of environmental
conditions.
21 Joseph Samaniuk samaniuk@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Designing and printing molds for Composite materials made from soft Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering advanced composites polymers and hard, platelet-like
particles can be made to mimic the
strength and durability of biological
materials such as oyster shells. This
type of material, called Nacre, gets it
strength and durability from the
combined properties of the materials
that comprise it. We will design and
build molds that can be used to form
advanced composites similar to Nacre,
but for an array of applications.
Experiments and additive
manufacturing (3D printing) will both be
needed.
22 Joseph Samaniuk samaniuk@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Molecular Dynamics Simulations of It is common that at a fluid-fluid Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering Fluid-Fluid Interfaces interface such as oil-water, or even air-
water, microscopic particles happily
reside. The reasons for this are clear,
but what is unclear is how such
particles interact, and what structures
they form at a fluid-fluid interface with
time and varying concentration. This
information is very important if one
seeks to make thin, transparent films of
conductive material for solar panels, or
to create new 'soft material' composites
from two or more fluids for biomedical
applications. In this project we will use
molecular dynamics simulations to help
us understanding how such fluid-fluid
interfaces evolve with time.

23 Amadeu Sum asum@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Development of Thermodynamics Tools The student will develop working Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering for Phase Equilibria Calculations computational tools implementing discovery
thermodynamics models for
calculations of phase equilibria for a
wide variety of systems. The project will
require basic programming skills.
24 Amadeu Sum asum@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Discovering new models for modeling Electrolyte systems are ubiquitous. Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering aqueous electrolyte systems Existing models for electrolyte systems discovery
are very complex. We have developed
a simpler formulation which needs to be
tested with existing data.
25 Doug Way dway@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Investigation of novel fluorinated Characterize and analyze the Postdoc 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering reverse osmosis membrane performance of the Bureau of
Reclamation fluorinated thin film
composite membrane via instrumental
analysis and membrane transport
experiments. Also investigate gas
separation applications of this new
polymer.
26 Colin Wolden cwolden@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Scalable Manufacturing of We are using a innovative two-phase Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering Nanoparticles bubble column for the reactice
precipitation of anhydrous alkali sulfide
(Na2S& Li2S) nanoparticles for use in
solid state batteries. The focus of this
project is controlling the mass transfer
characteristics of the the bubble column
and understand the impact of these
parameters on nanoparticle size, purity,
and morphology.
27 Colin Wolden cwolden@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Reactive sputter synthesis of ternary Specifically the goal is to controllably Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering oxides synthesize magnesium-zinc oxides
alloys (MZO) for use as a front contact
for cadmium telluride solar
photovoltaics. The goal is to
reproducibly control the composition
and engineer it to optimize band edge
engineering for CdTe solar cells,
improving both current collection and
open circuit voltage.
28 Ning Wu ningwu@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Understanding the behavior of Artificial motors that can carry payloads Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines
Engineering microscopic motors under electric field and deliver cargoes on demand could
revolutionize many technologies
ranging from targeted drug delivery to
intelligent sensors. In this work, we will
study the propulsion behavior of
microscopic motors under the
application of an electric field.
29 Ning Wu ningwu@mines.edu Chemical and Biological Investigating Functionalized Gas hydrates are inclusion compounds Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering Nanoparticles as Novel Anti- formed by the hydrogen-bonding of
Agglomerants for Gas Hydrates water to trap gas molecules at elevated
pressures and low temperatures. Their
formation is a major concern in the
production of oil and gas, as their
accumulation and agglomeration in
flowlines can cause severe operational
and economic losses. In this work, we
will develop a new technology that uses
functionalized nanoparticles as novel
anti-agglomerants for gas hydrates.

30 Stephen Boyes sboyes@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Aromatic Polyamide Brushes for the The overall goal of this project is to Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
Preparation of Advanced Coatings expand understanding in the new area
of aromatic polymer brushes.The ability
to prepare well defined, living,
functional polymer brushes from
traditional step growth polymers, such
as aromatic polyamides, has the
potential expand the application and
interest of polymer brushes to new and
exciting areas. One such area is RO
membranes, where these new brushes
have the potential to overcome issues
with coating instability, biofouling, and
reduced flux capacity that limit current
polymer modified membranes.
31 Stephen Boyes sboyes@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Core-Shell Nanocomposite Scaffolds Nanofibers are one of the most Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines
for Bone Tissue Engineering researched nanostructures for tissue
Applications regeneration applications. The goal of
this project is to develop new core-shell
nanofiber scaffolds for bone tissue
engineering by designing amphiphilic
block copolymers. In addition,
hydroxyapatite nanoparticles will be
incorporated into the nanofibers to
improve the overall strength of the
scaffold.
32 Dylan Domaille ddomaille@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Kinetics of Iminoboronate Formation We are studying the effect of boronic Faculty 8. Engineer better medicines, 14.
and Hydrolysis acids on the stabilization of imines. The Engineer the tools of scientific
undergraduate researcher will be in discovery
charge of carrying out kinetic
assays/analysis with variable-
temperature UV-visible spectroscopy.
Ultimately, we will use these chemical
linkages in self-healing polymer
networks and draw connections
between the small-molecule kinetic
studies and the ability of a polymer
network to autonomously heal.
33 Dylan Domaille ddomaille@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Biocompatible Chemistry for Biomass The purpose of this project is to identify Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Conversion biocompatible catalysts that can methods
convert simple metabolites produced by
engineered to more complex,
industrially useful chemicals in culture
media that the bacteria are living in.
This will include measuring toxicity
values of different catalysts on E. coli,
growing, and maintaining active
cultures of engineered microbes.
Particularly ambitious students may
also be involved in studies to create
mutant strains of bacteria that produce
desired products.
34 Svitlana Pylypenko spylypen@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Development of PGM-free oxygen This project will involve development of Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
reduction electrocatalysts electrocatalytic materials based on non-
precious metal such as iron, nitrogen
and carbon for oxygen reduction
reaction in polymer electrolyte
membrane fuel cells. Focus will be
placed on synthesis of diverse set of
materials, followed by the
electrochemical evaluation of their
activity towards oxygen redution with
the goal of building structure-property
correlations.
35 Svitlana Pylypenko spylypen@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Electrochemical evaluation of nickel- This project will focus on evaluation of Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
based materials for hydrogen oxidation catalytic activity of nickel, nickel carbide
and hydrogen evolution reactions and nickel nitride catalysts for hydrogen
oxidation and hydrogen evolution in
polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
and electrolyzers. Studies will be
performed using rotating disk electrode
and results will be correlation to surface
and bulk properties of these materials
measured with a range of analytical
methods. Based on these results
synthesis parameters will be adjusted
to optimize the composition for
improved performance.

36 Ryan Richards rrichard@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Carbon coated nanostructured catalysts The catalytic coupling of biomass-
for biomass upgrading derived ketones offers a promising
route to produce renewable diesel-
grade fuels and high-value lubricants
using low cost basic metal oxide
catalysts. With advancements in
nanotechnology, basic metal oxides can
now be tailored to expose select facets
during synthesis for greater active site
densities, such as MgO(111), which can
increase ketone coupling activity by >10-
fold when compared to commercial
materials. However, despite the
promise of basic metal oxides for this
reaction, they readily deactivate when
exposed to water due to competitive
adsorption on active sites. To address
this limitation, carbon coating has
emerged as a synthetic strategy to
enhance the water tolerance of metal
oxide catalysts. Carbon coating
produces a robust, hydrophobic barrier
that enhances metal oxide stability in
water and allows for catalytic activity.
However, recent efforts have yet to (i)
examine the behavior of carbon
coatings on tailored facets of basic
37 Ryan Richards rrichard@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Developing catalyst systems for the metal oxidescatalysts
Developing to retainon
their
thesuperior
Moon and
Moon and Mars Mars will be an essential aspect of
space exploration and potential
inhabitation. However, catalysts in
space will need to be developed from
the native materials found in these
environments and target conversion of
abundant resources (ie. carbon dioxide,
etc.) to form fuels, oxygen, water and
other products. In this project, we will
start with iron titanate and other
materials known to exist in space to
begin examining their inorganic
chemistry and develop
structure/property relationships that can
be leveraged.
38 Mark Seger mseger@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Development of active-learning Principles of Chemistry II is currently Faculty 13. Advance personalized learning, 14.
curriculum for Principles of Chemistry II being redesigned (by faculty with Engineer the tools of scientific
undergraduate student contributions) to discovery
utilize active-learning pedagogies.
Several upperclassmen have
expressed interest in assisting to
develop modern approaches to
teaching General Chemistry. This
student involvement has been thus far
very productive, but limited in scope,
and we would like to expand their
contributions.
39 Alan Sellinger aselli@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Synthesis of 10B enriched The undergraduate student will design, Faculty, Graduate student 10. Prevent nuclear terror
arylboroxines for use in neutron prepare, purify and characterize
detection arylboroxines from 10B enriched boric
acid using advanced organic synthesis
techniques. These new arylboroxines
will then be tested for application as
neutron detection materials in plastic
scintillators in collaboration with Prof.
Uwe Greife's groups in CSM physics.
40 Brian Trewyn btrewyn@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Extended oral delivery of dental care Our body produces a wealth of Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines
molecules and pharmaceuticals enzymes and biomolecules that work in
conjunction to facilitate life. What is
proposed here is to develop a novel
porous material that will be loaded with
bio-active molecules and coated with
biopolymers. These biopolymer caps
will be hydrolyzed by enzymes naturally
produced by the body. By modifying the
specific biopolymer or amount of
biopolymer we will be able to tune the
release of bio-active agents from the
pores.
41 Brian Trewyn btrewyn@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Upgrading porous carbon and natural With our continual diminishing global Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
materials for water pretreatment usable water supply advances are
needed to enhance existing materials
that currently work in our desalination
and water purification infrastructure.
With this in mind, we will functionalize
and modify existing materials that scale
economically to combine multiple steps
currently found in the water
pretreatment procedure. This research
will utilize organic and inorganic
synthetic chemistry and material
characterization methods to optimize
materials to remove inorganic (i.e.
metals) and organic (i.e. drug, dyes,
pesticides, perfluoro-molecules) from
water.
42 Shubham Vyas svyas@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Designing N-Hydroxy Based Ionic N-hydroxylated compounds have Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 5.
Liquid for Oxygen Activation Mediated revolutionized the world of selective Provide access to clean water
Oxidation catalytic oxidative transformation of
valuable organic molecules. Their
application is though limited due to
solvent requirements. This proposal will
explore N-hydroxylated ionic liquids that
can overcome the solvent requirements
while the same or better catalytic
activity.
43 Shubham Vyas svyas@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Investigating Photochemical Properties Diazides generates dinitrenes which Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 5.
of Reactive Intermediates Generated by are useful to connect two entities Provide access to clean water
Diazides without any chemical perturbation such
as a drug and a drug delivery vehicle.
We have studied their photochemical
properties and generation through
computational methods in the past year.
This proposal will involve synthesis and
experimental measurements of the
reactive intermediates generated by
diazides.
44 Kim Williams krwillia@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Understanding and controlling This project aims to advance Faculty, Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines, 14.
thermophoresis understanding of why things move in a Engineer the tools of scientific
temperature gradient. discovery
45 Kim Williams krwillia@mines.edu Chemistry & Geochemistry Developing new tools for Field-flow fractionation will be Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
macromolecules and nanoparticles developed as a tool for characterizing a infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
analyses new type of hyperbranched scientific discovery
polyethylene (PE) that is water soluble
at room temperature. This new
material may be an avenue towards
more degradable plastic products (an
important advance since the annual
production of PE is ~80 million tons and
PE can take 10 - 20 years to degrade).

46 Tzahi Cath tcath@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Biological Treatment of Oil and Gas We investigate conventional biological Faculty, Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering Wastewater (produced water and frac and physical wastewater treatment
flowback) techniques for reclamation of
wastewater from unconventional oil and
gas sources (produced water). Tasks
include assisting with conducting
experiments, maintenance, and
sampling of both a bench scale system
and a fully automated pilot scale
system at Mines Park.
47 Tzahi Cath tcath@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Enhancement of biological wastewater Biological processes relay on Faculty, Graduate student 5. Provide access to clean water
Engineering treatment for lower energy and tailored separation of solids and efficient
water reuse performance of microorganisms.
Through modification of the gravity
separation process, it is possible to
select unique microorganizms that
more rapidely and efficiently treat
domestic or industrial wastewater. In
this project the student will help
develope hydraulic selectors for rapid
separation of biological solides,
resulting in promotion of granular
activated sludge.
48 Linda Figueroa lfiguero@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Novel microbial nitrogen removal Anammox bacteria are key to the novel Graduate student 4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
Engineering nitrogen removal process, they have
extremely low growth rates and thus It
is critical that growth conditions and
nutrient levels be optimized to promote
their growth. The proposed project is an
experimental bench-scale optimization
of anammox bacterial growth.

49 Reza Hedayat hedayat@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Direct shear testing of rock and soil Using an advanced geophysical Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering specimens imaging system and in collaboration infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
with a graduate student, the scientific discovery
undergraduate student researcher will
conduct experiments on layers of soil
and/or rock. During the experiments,
the soil/rock layers will be sheared
while the layer is being monitored by
geophysical waves propagated through
the layer.
50 Reza Hedayat hedayat@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Development of an analytical solution This project involves developing a Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering for ground and tunnel interaction Matlab code to calculate the stresses, discovery
strains, and displacements around a
circular tunnel. A mathematical solution
is currently developed for the
calculation of the stresses and
displacements around the tunnel. The
student will be involved with the
expansion of the analytical solution and
implementation of the solution into the
Matlab code. Experience with Matlab
and other programming languages is
desired. This project is suitable for a
student from any discipline, e.g.,
mathematics, statistics, computer
science, electrical, civil, mechanical,
geological, mining, and physics.

51 Amy Landis amylandis@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Access, Inclusion and Diversity at The student will assist with data Faculty Not applicable
Engineering Mines collection, and surveys on the status of
diversity at Mines for the President’s
Council on Access, Inclusion &
Diversity. They will analyze survey data
and conduct literature reviews
pertaining to diversity and inclusion.
The student will have an opportunity to
contribute to strategic planning and
initiatives that affect the culture at
Mines.
52 Amy Landis amylandis@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Sustainability of the bio-economy The student will learn and apply tools Faculty Not applicable
Engineering such as life cycle analysis to evaluate
the sustainability of bio-based
economies, products, and processes.
Some example products in the bio-
economy include natural rubber, food,
biofuels, and bioplastics. They will
cultivate inter-disciplinary and systems
thinking, and analyze significant metrics
to measure relevant real-world impacts.

53 Hongyan Liu hyliu@mines.edu Civil & Environmental The cost analysis of woodframe After Hurrican Harvey, Houston area is Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering residential building from flood damage heavily damaged by flood. A lot of infrastructure
residential buildings are now under
water. This project will investigate a
typical retrofit strategies after flood
damage and conduct an cost analysis
for repairing.
54 Mike Mooney mooney@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Statistical analysis of tunneling data Perform detailed multivariate regression Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering and related analysis on tunneling infrastructure
project data.
55 Mike Mooney mooney@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Soil conditioning for earth pressure Perform experiments on soils to Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering balance tunneling determine how foam and polymers infrastructure
influence soil behavior
56 Junko Munakata junko@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Impact of Rare Earth Elements on Rare earth elements (REE) are Postdoc 5. Provide access to clean water
Marr Engineering Wastewater Treatment increasingly used in electronics and
other high tech devices, but their
behavior is not well understood. The
student will assist with setting up,
maintaining and monitoring bench-scale
sequencing batch reactors mimicking
activated sludge and anaerobic digester
reactors, to investigate the impacts of
REE on microbial activity and
community. The student will collect and
analyze samples for traditional
wastewater constituents, as well as for
microbial community composition.

57 Junko Munakata junko@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Membrane-based bioreactor for Methane generated during wastewater Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Marr Engineering polymer production treatment is often flared. An alternative methods
is to feed it to bacteria that produce
biopolymer that can be used to
manufacture biodegradable plastic. This
project investigates the use of
membranes to deliver gases to grow
the bacteria and produce biopolymer.
58 Shiling Pei spei@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Three dimensional optical tracking for Building on a planar optical tracking tool Graduate student 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering earthquake testing developed in a previous project, we will discovery
built a 3D tracking measurement
system for the CSM shake table lab.

59 Shiling Pei spei@mines.edu Civil & Environmental Why building collapse: Experimental Simple specimens will be constructed Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering investigation on key earthquake and tested to collapse on the CSM infrastructure
characteristics shake table. We will investigate the
most important characteristics of
earthquake ground motion that cause
collapse of structures
60 Neil Dantam ndantam@mines.edu Computer Science Parallel and Accelerated Task and Robots performing complex tasks in Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Motion Planning human environments need to combine infrastructure
discrete and continuous planning
methods. Typical planning algorithms
are serial while modern computing
hardware is increasingly parallel. To
scale planning on modern hardware,
we must leverage multi-core CPUs and
massively parallel GPUs.
61 Neil Dantam ndantam@mines.edu Computer Science Secure, High-Performance, Real-Time High-performance robots and multi- Faculty 11. Secure cyberspace
Communication for Distributed Robotics robot systems require low-latency, real-
time communication. Typical
communication protocols, however,
prioritize bandwidth or security over
latency and do not meet the needs of
physical robots. This project will
leverage existing high-performance
communication protocols to develop a
secure, real-time communication
system for distributed robotics with the
ability to track and bound latency.
62 Qi Han qhan@mines.edu Computer Science Fine-grained Group Activity Detection Wearable computing devices show Faculty, Graduate student 7. Advance health informatics, 12.
using Wearable Devices promise in taking human life experience Enhance virtual reality, 13. Advance
way beyond expectations as a result of personalized learning
the number of attractive services
provided by them. These wearables
can be effectively used for the
identification of fine-grained user
groups who perform the same activity
at the same location using wearable
sensors. The primary aim of this
project is to identify such user groups
using sensors data that can be
extracted from smartwatches. The
undergrad student will be developing a
prototype smart-watch/smart-phone
app to demonstrate the practical
feasibility of our proposed solution.
63 Dinesh Mehta dmehta@mines.edu Computer Science Integrating Machine Learning with The domain area is the analysis of Faculty, Part of a research 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Statistical Design of Experiment to materials created through additive group discovery
Accelerate Scientific Discovery manufacturing. The underlying
techniques are based in Computer
Science and Statistics.

64 Hua Wang huawang@mines.edu Computer Science Developing Robust Brain Imaging The imaging genomic data provide Faculty, Graduate student 7. Advance health informatics
Genomics Data Mining Framework for great opportunity for the multiscale
Improved Cognitive Health analysis of the complex brain disorder
from the genetics to phenotypes, to
outcomes, and to biological knowledge.
Genetic factors play a key role in AD.
An emerging strategy to facilitate
identification of susceptibility genes for
disorders is to evaluate genetic
variation using outcome-relevant
biomarkers as quantitative traits (QTs).
Compared with case control status, QTs
have increased statistical power and
may be closer to the underlying
biological etiology of the disorder,
making it easier to identify underlying
genes.
In this project, undergraduate students
will perform the following research
tasks:
1. implement novel large-scale non-
convex sparse learning algorithms for
identifying genetic risk factors from
multiscale imaging genomics data;
2. to better capture the underlying gene-
to-QT mechanism, identify the genetic
markers with biological structures from
65 Hua Wang huawang@mines.edu Computer Science Learning Guided Catalysts Discovery massive genome-wide
The research objective SNP
of this data;
proposal Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 14.
and Synthesis via Robust Material is to design new robust data mining and Engineer the tools of scientific
Genome Data Mining machine learning algorithms for solving discovery
the computational challenges in
complex materials genome data mining.
The Materials Genome Initiative
research has been launched by U.S.
government to discover, manufacture,
and deploy advanced materials fast and
low-cost, which holds great
opportunities
to address the challenges in clean
energy, national security, and human
welfare. However, the major
computational challenges are the
bottlenecks for comprehensive
materials genome data analysis due to
unprecedented scale and complexity.
There is a critical need for new data
mining and machine learning strategies
to bridge the gap and facilitate the new
materials discovery. In this project,
undergraduate students will be involved
to solve the key and challenging
problems in mining such
comprehensive heterogeneous
materials genome data, and to develop
66 Tom Williams twilliams@mines.edu Computer Science Gesture Generation for Human-Robot a novel
In robust students
this project, data mining
will framework
work in the Faculty 12. Enhance virtual reality, 14. Engineer
Interaction MIRRORLab to enable humanoid the tools of scientific discovery
robots to generate gestures to relevant
objects in their environments. To
accomplish this goal, students will use
the SoftBank Pepper robot, the ADE
robot architecture, and potentially one
or more augmented reality platforms.
Students will work to develop or
integrate libraries for computer vision,
motion planning, and natural language
generation. As such, the interested
student should have strong Java and
C++ programming skills and be taking
or have taken at least two of the
following courses: Computer Vision,
Human-Centered Robotics, and
Introduction to Robotics.
67 Tom Williams twilliams@mines.edu Computer Science Gesture Understanding for Human- In this project, students will work in the Faculty 12. Enhance virtual reality, 14. Engineer
Robot Interaction MIRRORLab to enable the tools of scientific discovery
robots to understand human
gestures to relevant objects in their
environments. To accomplish this
goal, students will use the ADE robot
architecture and one or more
augmented reality
platforms. Students will work to develop
or integrate libraries for
computer vision and natural language
understanding. As
such, the interested student should
have strong Java and C++
programming skills and be taking or
have taken at least two of the
following courses: Computer Vision,
Human-Centered Robotics, and
Introduction to Robotics.

68 Dejun Yang djyang@mines.edu Computer Science Effortless Authentication: Unlocking Passwords and biometrics are the most Faculty, Graduate student 11. Secure cyberspace
Your Smartphone Just by Picking It Up popular means for smartphone
authentication. However, they are either
fiddly or vulnerable to replay attacks.
The goal of this project is to design an
effortless smartphone authentication
system based on the behavioural
signature derived from gestures of
picking up the smartphone.
69 Dejun Yang djyang@mines.edu Computer Science A Smartphone-based System to Since 1998, an average of 37 children Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Prevent Hot Car Deaths have died each year from being left
inside of a hot car. The goal of this
project is to design a smartphone-
based system to explore the embedded
sensors for hot car deaths prevention.

70 Chuan Yue chuanyue@mines.edu Computer Science An In-depth Investigation of the In this project, we analyze real Faculty 11. Secure cyberspace
Ransomware Attacks ransomware samples, investigate
ransomware distribution channels, and
design protection mechanisms.
71 Chuan Yue chuanyue@mines.edu Computer Science An In-depth Investigation of the Privacy In this project, we analyze privacy Faculty 11. Secure cyberspace
Attacks on Smartphone Users attacks on smartphone users, and
design effective protection
mechanisms.
72 Hao Zhang hzhang@mines.edu Computer Science Human-robot Teaming for Underground The long-term goal of the project is to Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Rescue enable teamwork among humans and a infrastructure
robot to search objects/victims and
restore infrastructure in the
underground environment in rescue
operations. The applicant will work with
PhD students and Dr. Zhang on data
collection, documentation, and
preprocessing.
73 Hao Zhang hzhang@mines.edu Computer Science Long-term Indoor Localization The goal of the project is to study and Faculty, Graduate student 12. Enhance virtual reality
develop a software system that can
perform indoor localization during a
long period of time (e.g., across the
entire year). The localization system will
be applied to autonomous systems like
robots, and to wearable or mobile
devices.
74 Ian Lange ilange@mines.edu Economics & Business Impact of drilling restrictions on This project will utilize data on public Faculty Not applicable
incidents at oil and gas wells webpages and those gathered by
DrillingInfo (an information and
consulting company) to determine how
well bonding (a fee held by the state
until the well site is remediated)
regulations impact the structure of the
oil and gas industry and the prevalence
of incidents (spills, etc) at the well site.
A student is requested to gather the
data and put it into an Excel (or similar
format) for statistical analysis.
75 Abd Arkadan aaarkadan@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Introduction to Basic Design Layout of This project and the companion project Faculty 1. Make solar energy economical
Smart Grid Testbed “Introduction to Components Modeling
of Smart Grid Testbed” share similar
objectives which involve conducting
research to understand smart grid and
smart grid testbed components
modeling and basic design layout. A
smart grid testbed is used to simulate
power systems generation,
transmission, control, consumption, and
integration of renewables. The setup of
a testbed allows testing of new
technologies related to power system
grids. In addition, a testbed could work
as a standalone system that can be
used to simulate the integration of
renewable energy sources and testing
of advanced metering, communication,
and security protocols.
76 Abd Arkadan aaarkadan@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Introduction to Components Modeling This project and the companion project Faculty 1. Make solar energy economical
of Smart Grid Testbed “Introduction to Basic Design Layout of
Smart Grid Testbed” share similar
objectives which involve conducting
research to understand smart grid and
smart grid testbed components
modeling and basic design layout. A
smart grid testbed is used to simulate
power systems generation,
transmission, control, consumption, and
integration of renewables. The setup of
a testbed allows testing of new
technologies related to power system
grids. In addition, a testbed could work
as a standalone system that can be
used to simulate the integration of
renewable energy sources and testing
of advanced metering, communication,
and security protocols.

77 Stephani Claussen sclausse@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Qualitative data analysis of students' This project will include helping to Faculty, Collaborators at other Not applicable
e views of ethics and social responsibility process and analyze interview data universities
from engineering undergraduate
students at four U.S. universities. The
student will work on cleaning the data
(ensuring that interview transcripts align
with the audio recordings) and coding it
(labeling the topics and themes the
interviewees discussed). Note that work
on this project will ramp up very quickly
and will be focused almost entirely in
the fall semester.
78 Stephani Claussen sclausse@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Development and analysis of course- This new project looks at how Faculty Not applicable
e based interventions to promote undergraduate engineering students
sociotechnical thinking can develop sociotechnical thinking (the
integration of social and technical
considerations into problem definition
and problem solving, etc.). This
research student will help develop
assessments of students' views and
abilities in this area, coordinate possible
changes to a course to impact those
views, and collect and analyze data.

79 Atef Elsherbeni aelsherb@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Clean Room Design for Fabricating Research is required to set up, and Faculty Not applicable
Antennas using Materials Printer operate inkjet materials printers to print
research grade antennas and circuits.
The Antennas, RFID, and
Computational EM Group (ARC) of the
Colorado School of Mines currently has
recently acquired a Fujifilm Dimatix
materials printer that will allow to
quickly, precisely, and efficiently
fabricate antennas and by using metal
inks. Some examples of antennas that
can be printed are dipoles, vivaldis,
loops, and meander line antennas all of
which are very useful in the RF
engineering world. The main type of
antenna that will be produced using the
materials printer is the antenna array
which is widely used in cutting edge
research but it requires numerous
adjustments and modifications which
need to be executed quickly. Besides
antennas, numerous analog circuits
(which also require intense precision)
and sensors can be created with this
printing technology. Some examples of
sensors that can be printed are
capacitive touch sensors, strain
80 Atef Elsherbeni aelsherb@mines.edu Electrical Engineering RFID Localization of Indoor Objects gauges, flex algorithms
Localization sensors, andneedtemperature
to be Faculty Not applicable
developed for use with RFID tags at
known positions to locate the reader or
the individual holding the RFID reader.
Recently RFID has been gaining
popularity in industry for its low price
and ability to transmit and receive
information. These features also make
RFID very desirable to be used for
localization. This proposal would like to
explore methods to developing a
systematic approach to locating an
RFID Reader by using the relative
information of multiple independent
passive RFID tags. There are many
useful benefits to localization using
RFID. Global Position System (GPS)
provides adequate positioning for a
wide variety of applications; however, it
lacks accuracy in indoor and small-
scale environments. RFID can be used
in places where GPS cannot be used.
RFID can be much more accurate in
small scale and indoor environments
such as a large warehouse or mine.
In this project, many different
localization methods will be explored.
81 Mohamm Hadi mhadi@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Effect of Geomagnetics Storms on When anmagnetic
Intense RFID reader
fieldstransmits
within thea Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
ed Power Grids atmosphere can be caused by the infrastructure
Sun's cyclical activity. These fields
couple to Earth's conducting crust and
adversely affect high-voltage
transmission lines and systems. End
result is an increased probability of
power faults and outages. The student
will learn of the phenomenon and help
develop a numerical method to simulate
it.
82 Mohamm Hadi mhadi@mines.edu Electrical Engineering CEM Code Optimization on Multiple Intimate knowledge of a computational Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
ed CPU and GPU Platforms tool is necessary to optimize its infrastructure
processing on supercomputers hosting
many CPUs and GPUs. Due to the
nature of CPU/GPU continuing
progression, code optimizations need to
also be continually revisited for optimal
computational throughputs. The
students will develop techniques to
optimize processing of several variants
of computational electromagnetics
methods for large scale urban EM
threat modeling. Good programming
skills are required.
83 Randy Haupt rhaupt@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Wireless Communications You will use the Signal Hound vector Faculty Not applicable
signal generator to modulate and
transmit data to a Signal Hound USB
SA44B which is a spectrum analyzer.
Experiments will be conducted on
modulation methods and propagation.
Finish by creating a jamming signal for
the NI software defined antenna array.
84 Randy Haupt rhaupt@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Matlab Program Development for This project aims at developing Matlab Faculty Not applicable
Software Defined Radios programs to collect and process data
using inexpensive software defined
radios (SDRs). The selected SDR is the
RTL2832U (RTL) is a demodulator
integrated circuit developed by Realtek
which falls under the "Generic
RTL2832U" category. It uses common
lower level software to provide the
interface between hardware and
software. Acquiring this data quickly
and importing into software like Matlab
allows one to work with a familiar and
reliable interface.
85 Kathryn Johnson kjohnson@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Improving Understanding of This new project uses a mixed-methods Faculty Not applicable
Sociotechnical Thinking in Engineering approach - analyzing both quantitative
Education and qualitative data - to study how
students learn to think sociotechnically
within engineering classes. The
undergraduate research student will
work with the larger team (5 faculty and
2-3 undergraduate research assistants
across 2 institutions) to collect and
analyze both types of data. He or she
will also gain insight into how teaching
decisions to achieve specific course
outcomes are made across both ME
and EE courses.
86 Payam Nayeri pnayeri@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Mircocontroller Program Development The goal of this project is to develop Faculty 13. Advance personalized learning, 14.
for Phased Array Antennas computer programs for beamforming Engineer the tools of scientific
with an 8-element phased array discovery
antenna. Each element of the array is
equipped with a 6-bit MAPS-011008
digital phase shifter. The phase shifters
will be controlled with a
MSP430FR5994 microcontroller on the
MSP-EXP430FR5994 LaunchPad from
Texas Instruments. In the first stage,
programs should be developed to
control a single phase shifter using the
MAPS-011008-001SMB sample test
board. In the next stage, programs will
be developed to control all 8 phase
shifters in the array and beamforming
experiments will be conducted.
87 Payam Nayeri pnayeri@mines.edu Electrical Engineering LabVIEW Program Development for This project aims at developing a Faculty 13. Advance personalized learning, 14.
Adaptive Beamforming with NI USRP LabVIEW program for controlling an Engineer the tools of scientific
Arrays array of National Instruments (NI) discovery
Universal Software Radio Peripherals
(USRPs). USRP is a flexible transceiver
that turns a standard PC into a wireless
communication system. This system
will then be used as a platform for
testing adaptive beamforming
algorithms. This is achieved by
developing a LabVIEW front panel that
can control the amplitude and phase of
the signal that are set for each USRPs.

88 Gongguo Tang gtang@minse.du Electrical Engineering Deep learning for inverse problems Deep neural networks have been found Faculty, Graduate student 9. Reserve-engineer the brain, 14.
successful in many machine learning Engineer the tools of scientific
tasks. This project will focus on discovery
applying deep learning techniques to
solve inverse problems, notable
examples of which include compressive
sensing and matrix completion.

89 Michael Wakin mwakin@mines.edu Electrical Engineering Modal analysis This project will extend our group's Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
theory and algorithms for modal infrastructure
analysis of vibrating structures for
applications such as Structural Health
Monitoring. Previous work, which
provided conditions for exactly
recovering mode shapes and
frequencies, did not incorporate factors
such as damping. This project will
incorporate a broader set of more
practical assumptions into our
framework.
90 Zane Jobe zanejobe@mines.edu Geology & Geological Using machine learning to solve Predicting petroleum reservoir Faculty 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Engineering geological problems for the petroleum presence and connectivity continues to methods
industry be a difficult problem. Often, low-
resolution data are the basis for making
decisions on well placement and facility
dimensions. We seek to provide a
better understanding of clastic
depositional systems (e.g., rivers,
deltas, submarine fans) by (1) collecting
data on from published literature and
(2) using machine learning algorithms
to statistical correlations within and
between datasets. We hope to use
these correlations to aid in predictions
of depositional environment from limited
subsurface data (e.g., a well log or
core). Our ideal candidate would
possess both computer-science skills
(e.g., matlab, python) and geological
interests.

91 Gabriel Walton gwalton@mines.edu Geology & Geological Applications of LiDAR to Deformation Monitoring ground movement is a Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Engineering Monitoring critical component of any
instrumentation program. 3D laser
scanning (LiDAR) represents a
potential valuable tool for making such
measurements. By taking advantage of
the large volumes of data collected by
LiDAR, highly accurate convergence
measurements can be made. This
position will involve processing LiDAR
data collected from various site to
evaluate the accuracy of the data and
the trends deformation of the segmental
liner as a function of time and/or
excavation advance; there may also be
opportunities for short fieldwork stints to
collect more data at tunnels and/or
mines. The ideal candidate would have
some experience either with MATLAB
or working with LiDAR data.

92 Gabriel Walton gwalton@mines.edu Geology & Geological Geological Controls on Rock Strength At a fundamental level, the petrologic Faculty Not applicable
Engineering characteristics (i.e. structure,
composition, alteration, etc.) of a given
rock will determine its strength. One
key characteristic is mineralogy – for
example, a quartzite will almost always
be stronger than a rock composed of
clay minerals. However, other more
subtle relationships exist (relative
abundance and distribution of different
mineral components, grain size, and
grain shape all have some influence).
This position will involve examining
these relationships using quantitative
methods by first identifying geological
controls on rock strength and
developing a database of geological
and geomechanical data. Whereas
previous projects have focused on
granitic and carbonate rocks, this
project will focus on clastic sedimentary
rocks. The ideal candidate would have
some geological background and a
basic knowledge of statistics.

93 Jeffrey Shragge jshragge@mines.edu Geophysics Low-cost Infrastructure and The introduction of low-cost Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Geotechnical Monitoring using seismometers using Raspberry Pi infrastructure
Raspberry Pi Seismology technology offers a novel way to
investigate and monitor essential
civilian infrastructure (e.g., dams,
bridges and tunnels) or geotechnical
hazards (e.g., landslides). This project
looks at developing, deploying and
maintaining a small network of seismic
sensors to continuously acquire
ambient geophysical data that can be
used to monitor beneath the surface of
infrastructure or earth over calendar
time. The student will work toward
automating the geophysical data
analysis so that it may transmitted in
real-time to allow for timely reporting of
developing issues requiring attention.
94 Jeffrey Shragge jshragge@mines.edu Geophysics Drone-based Ground Penetrating Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is an Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Radar important geophysical tool for ground- discovery
based investigations of subsurface
structure to the depth of a few meters;
however, challenges remain in
deploying GPR in scenarios where
humans are ill-advised to enter the area
of investigation (e.g., avalanches,
unexploded ordnance or UXOs). The
development of drones with improved
lift-carrying capacity and the
miniaturization of computer controllers
(i.e., Raspberry Pi) offers the possibility
of airborne GPR for use in these types
of scenarios. The student will work
toward designing a low-cost and
lightweight GPR prototype that fits
within design criteria for drone-based
investigations. Drone-based testing will
be conducted subject to regulatory
approval.
 95 Roel Snieder rsnieder@mines.edu Geophysics Monitoring time-lapse changes in Advances in seismic interferometry Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
bridges and buildings make it possible to extract the response infrastructure
of a mechanical system from ambient
noise (vibrations). We will apply this
principle to bridges--which are rich in
vibrations--to infer temporal changes in
bridge, and possibly buildings.

96 Whitney Trainor- wtrainor@mines.edu Geophysics Develop and Improve Geophysical The future of any mining company Faculty Not applicable
Guitton Methods for Brownfield Mineral depends on preserving and expanding
Exploration its access to high-quality ores. In
brownfield exploration, geochemists,
geologists, and geophysicists work
together to explore areas near or
adjacent to an already operating mine.
The risk in brownfield exploration and
the capital cost for processing the new
found ore is considerably lower than
greenfield exploration. With geophysical
modeling and interpretation, in addition
to the exploration data sets produced
by structure, geochemistry, and
geology, the company will be able to
increase precision and accuracy in
brownfield exploration while adding
value by acquiring new deposits within
economic transport distance of an
existing mine.

97 Whitney Trainor- wtrainor@mines.edu Geophysics Geophysical Data Integration Through The primary goal of this project is to Faculty 12. Enhance virtual reality
Guitton Visualization and Virtual Reality build plugins for the open-source, multi-
platform, data analysis, and
visualization application ParaView by
Kitware (https://www.paraview.org).
These plugins are tailored to the
visualization of spatially referenced
data in the geosciences. The
overarching purpose is to develop a
heavily documented library of plugins,
macros, and examples of how to view
standard formats of geoscientific and
geophysical data on the ParaView
software platform.

Through the deployment of this

software, geophysicists will gain an
ability to represent their 3D spatially
referenced data intuitively to interested
parties and stakeholders. By integrating
the visualization of various data,
interested parties will gain insight into
the value of the information in the
models.
98 Adrianne Kroepsch akroepsch@mines.edu Humanities, Arts, and Social Cumulative Impacts on River Systems: To analyze a series of five books on the Faculty 5. Provide access to clean water
Sciences A Narrative Analysis of the Colorado Colorado River published between
River 1946 and 2017. Though written by
different authors, these texts
operationalize the same narrative – that
of the source-to-sea river expedition –
as a way of capturing cumulative
human impacts to the river system. By
studying the progression of this
narrative package over 70+ years, we
can develop a better understanding of
what this enduring mode of storytelling
helps us see about the Colorado River,
what it leaves invisible, and how it
functions as a script for action and
policy change.
99 Joel Bach jmbach@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Characterization and validation of shear A new tool allows for measurement of Faculty Not applicable
measurement at the seating interface of shear at the seating interface of power
a wheelchair. and manual wheelchairs. While
pressure measurement has been used
for years, this is a new measurement of
unknown accuracy, repeatability, and
utility.
100 Robert Braun rbraun@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Grid-scale energy storage using Low-cost, high efficiency, electrical Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
reversible fuel cell technology energy storage (EES) is needed for the methods, Not applicable
future electric grid which will include
more variable energy resources, such
as wind and solar. Movement towards
predominately low-carbon energy
systems requires renewable resources
and could be accelerated by integration
of carbon capture and storage (CCS)
with renewable energy. This project
entails the undergraduate researcher
working closely with graduate students
and advising faculty to enhance and
exercise computational models that
examine novel methods of integrating
and operating reversible solid oxide
cells (ReSOC) with electric and natural
gas grid infrastructures. Evaluation of
ReSOC technology will be done in
terms of both its techno-economic and
avoided carbon emissions potentials.
101 Robert Braun rbraun@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Advancing protonic ceramic fuel cells CSM is one of the foremost leaders in Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
for high efficiency power generation the development of protonic ceramic
technology. Researchers in MechE and
Materials have demonstrated
exceptional protonic ceramic fuel cell
(PCFC) performance in terms of fuel
flexibility and cost reduction that
approaches commercial application
requirements. This project will entail the
enhancement and exercise of fuel cell
system models to evaluate the
technical and economic performance
outlook for kW-scale stationary power
systems. Written and oral
communication outcomes are expected
which will help develop the professional
skills of the student.
102 Steven DeCaluwe decaluwe@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Substrate bonding and self-assembly The student will use sensitive mass- Faculty Not applicable
effects in thin film Nafion properties uptake measurements and computer
simulations to understand the various
factors that influence properties in thin-
film Nafion. This is an important
material in fuel cells, and understanding
transport limits in thin-film Nafion is
critical to enabling economical fuel cell
vehicles.
103 Steven DeCaluwe decaluwe@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Understanding the Role of Functional Li-air batteries promise to revolutionize Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Polymers in Li-air Batteries the US energy sector by enabling
electric vehicles with greater driving
range between charges, but have not
progressed beyond the laboratory stage
due to a number of fundamental
questions. This work, funded by a DoE
Career grant, will address one
challenge - increasing reaction rates by
incorporating functional ion-conductive
polymers. This student will develop and
test critical battery testing platforms to
enable fundamental electrochemical
studies to complement in operando
neutron diagnostics developed by a
PhD student on the project.

104 Greg Jackson gsjackso@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Novel thermochemical water splitting This project is to explore a new method Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 4.
with redox cycles for splitting water using intermediate- Manage the nitrogen cycle
temperature redox cycles with
maximum temperatures below 1000
deg. C. Preliminary results performed in
our lab have indicated that water can
be split with reduced perovskite oxides
at temperatures below 600 deg. C. The
preliminary results need to be tested at
more practical conditions to assess the
potential for process scale-up in a
concentrated solar plant. The redox
cycle can produce H2 without O2,
which may facilitate renewable
production of ammonia.
105 Andrew Petruska apetruska@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Permanent Magnet System Design for The student will work closely with the Faculty 8. Engineer better medicines
Neurosurgical Applications faculty member to design, model, and
begin fabrication on a large permanent
magnet system to support research into
neurosurgical needle steering. The
system needs to be capable of creating
30mT fields within the patients brain
and must be able to be constructed in
such a manner as to allow it to be
turned off. The faculty member has
already generated base magnetic
designs to pull from that just need to be
flushed out for fabrication.
106 Andrew Petruska apetruska@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Automatic Needle Insertion Device The student will work to design and Faculty, Graduate student 8. Engineer better medicines
fabricate an electromechanical device
to for controlled insertion of
neurosurgical needles into test
phantoms. The design for the device
has been mostly completed after a
summers effort by a grad student, the
student will be responsible for honing
the design, fabricating, and integrating
it into our control system. Once
complete the student will perform some
initial insertion experiments to explore
how magnetically steered needles
move though brain-like materials.
107 Jason Porter jporter@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Optical measurements of battery Real-time optical and electrical Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
electrolytes for improved battery safety measurements of battery performance.
Infrared light is used to monitor
electrolyte health in an operating
battery. Measurements will be made at
elevated temperature with a range of
electrolyte compositions to study the
mechanisms behind battery failure.
108 Jason Porter jporter@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering A novel approach to produce high We are fabricating a pressure vessel to Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
pressure hydrogen gas demonstrate hydrogen separation and
compression from hydrocarbon
feedstocks using a novel
electrochemical compression approach.
The student will operate the
experiment, make modifications as
needed, and report results.
109 Neal Sullivan nsulliva@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Materials for "Electrofuels". Student will design, build, and Faculty, Undergraduate 1. Make solar energy economical
commission new equipment for testing researcher funded through
performance of materials used in MultiCultural Engineering
storing solar and wind power as liquid Program
fuels ("Electrofuels").
110 Paulo Tabares tabares@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Heat and mass transfer green roof A green roof is an engineering roofing Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
model for building energy optimization system with substrate layer, covered by infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
vegetation. It offers many benefits such scientific discovery
as: increase building sustainability,
decrease heat island effect, decrease
water runoff etc. However, the design of
green roofs requires careful analysis
using building energy simulation.
Previous undergraduate researcher
coupled green roof model with a finite-
difference conduction scheme. This
next stage project will add mass
transfer model into the system. The
project will continue validation efforts in
different climates.

111 Paulo Tabares tabares@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Analysis of thermal storage building Phase change materials (PCMs) can Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
applications using phase change reduce peak loads and heating and infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
materials cooling energy consumption in scientific discovery
buildings when installed and control
appropriately. Prior whole-building
energy analysis has showed that
careful analysis should be done when
designing PCMs in homes, as their
thermal performance depends on
several variables such as PCM
properties and location in the building
envelope. This project involves
improving a PCM model and use it to
systematically optimize PCMs
properties, PCMs location in homes
within internal surfaces, and HVAC
controls.
112 Nils Tilton ntilton@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Experimental study of flow through This project focuses on performing Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
porous media experimental measurements of methods, 5. Provide access to clean
unsteady flow through porous media. water
The objective is to develop new models
of fluid flow through systems such as
forest canopies, coastal structures,
aquifers, and oil reservoirs. The student
will collaborate with Dr. Tilton and his
Ph.D. student, and will be responsible
for performing experiments, managing
instrumentation and data, interpretation
of results, and informal presentations in
weekly meetings. This project
complements a parallel numerical
study, and there is strong potential for
the student to co-author conference
presentations and peer-reviewed
journal articles.

113 Nils Tilton ntilton@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Computational fluid dynamics The student will aid Dr. Tilton and his Faculty, Graduate student 3. Develop carbon sequestration
simulations of flow through porous PhD student in a numerical study of methods, 5. Provide access to clean
media fluid flow through porous media. The water
objective is to develop new models of
fluid flow through systems such as
forest canopies, coastal structures,
aquifers, and oil reservoirs. The student
will manage simulations on the Mio
computer cluster, process data, aid in
interpretation of results, and present
results in weekly informal group
meetings. This project complements a
parallel experimental study, and there is
strong potential for the student to co-
author conference presentations and
peer-reviewed journal articles.
114 Xiaoli Zhang xlzhang@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Process monitoring in laser additive This project will develop sensing Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
manufacturing techniques to monitor the laser additive
manufacturing processes.
115 Xiaoli Zhang xlzhang@mines.edu Mechanical Engineering Modeling and control for laser based This project will model the correlation Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
additive manufacturing processes between process parameters and
properties of the printed parts. This
model will be used in feedforward
control for quality assurance.
116 Geoff Brennecka gbrennec@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Compositionally-graded ceramics for Applications such as wireless Faculty 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering improved electromagnetic and/or communication, sonar, and ultrasound discovery
electromechanical coupling. suffer from inefficiencies associated
with impedance mismatches at material
interfaces. Such mismatches can be
reduced by gradually transitioning
material properties from one value to
another, but such gradients introduce
fabrication and processing challenges.
This project will use colloidal
processing techniques such as tape
casting and 3d printing to demonstrate
proof of concept parts with controlled
compositional gradients.

117 Geoff Brennecka gbrennec@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Exploration of entropy stabilized oxides A new class of materials has recently Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 14.
Engineering been developed for which entropy-- Engineer the tools of scientific
rather than enthalpy--is the primary discovery
driving force for reaction and phase
formation. This seemingly small change
has implications for every kind of solid
state property, from melting point to
diffusion to electrical, thermal, and
optical behaviors, all of which remain
largely unexplored. This project will
involve both fabrication and extensive
measurement of the properties of these
unusual new materials.
118 Kester Clarke kclarke@Mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Rapid heat treatment of advanced high Detailed understanding of the kinetics Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering strength steels of phase transformations must be infrastructure
understood to further develop
lightweight advanced high strength
steels for transportation and
infrastructure with strengths to 2 GPa
and beyond with ductilities that allow for
manufacturability and high energy
absorption during service. Simulation of
rapid thermal cycles utilizing an
induction dilatometer allow for the
measurement of phase fractions at
rates in excess of 1000°C/s, and the
design of alloy microstructures to
achieve unprecedented properties.
Precise analysis of dilation as a
function of heat treatment will be used
to better understand phase
transformaiton kinetics and scientifically
guide process design.
119 Kester Clarke kclarke@Mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Twin boundary mobility in shape Microstructures in shape memory alloys Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering memory alloys: A feasibility study with (SMAs) consist of self-accommodated infrastructure
internal friction networks of twin-related martensite
variants. Deformation within the shape
memory regime proceeds by the growth
of preferred variants, i.e. those with
transformation strains that can
accommodate the imposed strain, via
the motion of the twin boundaries. This
transformation strain is recovered
during the reverse transformation to the
parent phase upon heating. Aging or
precipitation can significantly influence
the shape memory effect (SME),
particularly the activation stress for
SME deformation, by impeding twin
boundary mobility. Although internal
friction has been used to study
interstitial diffusion, such as carbon or
nitrogen diffusion in steels, as well as
short-range dislocation mobility, the use
of this technique to study interfacial
motion has been less explored. Here
we propose to investigate twin
boundary mobility in SMAs, specifically
samples of Ni-Ti, with a torsion
pendulum instrument at the Colorado
120 Amy Clarke amyclarke@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Non-Equilibrium Processing of Non- School
Far fromofequilibrium
Mines that processing,
was recentlysuch Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering Ferrous Metallic Alloys as rapid solidification, enables the infrastructure
creation of novel metallic alloy
microstructures and properties not
attailable by conventional processing.
Metallic alloy microstructures may also
encounter non-equilibrium processing
during testing (e.g. at high strain rates)
in extreme environments. For example,
during shock a metallic alloy may
experience re-melting and rapid
solidification and/or rapid thermal heat-
treatment(s). The REU student will
explore the role of rapid solidification
and high-strain rate thermo-mechanical
processing on microstructural evolution.
Melt-spun ribbons of Al-Ge alloys will
be prepared at CSM, and the
metastable phases that form during
rapid solidification will be characterized
with electron microscopy and x-ray
diffraction to yield new new
crystallographic information.
Microstructural characterization of a Nb-
10Hf-0.7Ti (in wt.%) aerospace alloy (or
C-103), tested at the National Institute
of Standards and Technology in
121 Amy Clarke amyclarke@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Structural Examination of Cubic Gaithersburg,
Cubic MD incrystal
approximant comparession
structuresat Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering Approximants in Aluminum Alloys as a have the potential to form the basis of a infrastructure
Function of Composition new class of high temperature
structural aluminum alloys. However,
efforts to proceed in this design space
have been slowed by a lack of
structural studies of the approximant
crystal structures. In this project, the
structural effect on cubic approximants
of replacing transition metals will be
studied. It is expected that this will
result in a paper describing how the
atomic positions in the approximant
crystal structures are affected by
changing the composition of an alloy.
122 Robert Cryderman rcryderm@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Effects of Prior Microstructure on Austenite grain size has been shown to Faculty Not applicable
Engineering Austenite Grain Size of 0.56% C Steel be important for attaining high fracture
with Rapid Heating and fatigue strength in very high
performance steels used in shafts and
gears. Rapid induction heating provides
the means to restrict austenite grain
growth. This project would utilize the
quench dilatometer to rapidly heat and
quench specimens of 0.56% carbon
steels with different starting
microstructures to understand the
effects of heating rates and peak
temperature on austenite grain size
nucleation and growth. Austenite grain
size will be characterized by light
optical and scanning electron
microscope evaluations.
123 Emmanu De Moor edemoor@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Mechanical Properties Study of Steels will be heat treated using a Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
el Engineering Quenched and Tempered Plate Steels variety of parameters and mechanical infrastructure
properties will be assessed by tensile
and Charpy testing.
124 David Diercks ddiercks@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Focused ion beam preparation for Focused ion beam milling will be used Faculty Not applicable
Engineering correlative materials analysis by Raman to make site-specific transmission
spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and electron microscopy specimens and
atom probe tomography atom probe specimens. Correlative
techniques, such as Raman
spectroscopy and scanning electron
microscopy will be used to locate
features of interest, such as phase
boundaries, for detailed structural and
compositional analysis.
125 Kip Findley kfindley@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Fatigue of Steels Containing Advanced high strength steels are Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Engineering Metastable Retained Austenite being considered for automotive
structural parts as part of ongoing
lightweighting efforts to improve
automotive fuel efficiency. Many of
these steels contain retained austenite,
a phase that is metastable under
applied stress. However, there has
been little effort to evaluate the fatigue
performance of these steels. In this
study, a high strength-high ductility
class of steels with retained austenite
will be investigated.
126 Kip Findley kfindley@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Aging Behavior of Austenitic Steel for Alloy 709 is a candidate alloy for future Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Engineering Nuclear Applications light water nuclear reactors. However,
its mechanical behavior and
microstructure evolution at relevant
temperatures needs to be evaluated. In
this study, methods to accelerate the
development of representative
microstructures will be studied.
127 Brian Gorman bgorman@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Processing and characterization of The Center for Next Generation Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 4.
Engineering ternary nitrides Materials by Design has calculated Manage the nitrogen cycle, 14.
hundreds of theoretically stable ternary Engineer the tools of scientific
nitride compounds, many of which have discovery
unique mechanical and electrical
properties. Unfortunately, only a
fraction of these have been
synthesized. The goal of this project
will be to utilize polymeric precursor
processing to generate ternary nitride
ceramics and also characterize their
crystal structures, in order to correlate
with theoretical predictions.
128 Brian Gorman bgorman@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Synthetic Processing and TiO2 has several unique crystalline Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical, 14.
Engineering Characterization of Brookite Stuctured structures, each with unique optical and Engineer the tools of scientific
TiO2 electrical properties. Brookite TiO2 is discovery
especially interesting for its ability to
efficiently split water into H2 and O2.
This project will focus on the synthesis
of Brookite TiO2 using polymeric
precursors and sub-stoichiometric
oxygen anneals. Ensuring the proper
crystalline structure and oxygen
stoichiometries will be completed using
advanced characterization techniques.

129 Michael Kaufman mkaufman@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Thermodynamics and Characterization In the proposed work, thermodynamic Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Engineering of Single Phase Refractory Complex calculations will be performed to predict infrastructure
Concentrated Alloys the formation of single phase refractory
concentrated alloys (RCCAs). Single
phase RCCAs are promising for high
temperature structural applications, as
they afford high strengths and good
ductility in extreme environments.
Advanced characterization techniques,
such as scanning electron and
transmission electron microscopy and
laboratory and synchrotron x-ray
diffraction, will be used to examine the
microstructural evolution of single
phase RCCAs and the link to
mechanical behavior and performance.

130 Jeffrey King kingjc@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials 3-D Printed Radiation Shielding The project will test the neutron and Faculty 2. Provide energy from fusion
Engineering gamma shielding properties of
commercially available 3-D printer
filaments. In addition, the project will
develop an extrusion process for the
production of boron- or boron nitride-
doped filament materials.
131 Jeffrey King kingjc@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Remote Neutron Activation Analysis The project will complete the Faculty 10. Prevent nuclear terror
Engineering System construction and testing of a pneumatic
transfer system at the Denver Federal
Center. The system will remotely
transfer samples between a variety of
work stations, including the Geologic
Survey TRIGA reactor and High Purity
Germanium Detector. The complete
system will the allow users to conduct
Neutron Activation experiments
remotely, increasing the number of
people who can use these facilities.
132 Terry Lowe lowe@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Development of an advanced materials We have invented at Mines a hybrid
Engineering process for fabricating an impact metal-polymer composite material that
absorbing composite provides over 4 times more energy
absorption from impact that any other
material. Our intent is to make this
material available for use in over 70
different athletic sports where impact
injuries are of concern. The next
challenge in realizing the potential of
the material system is to find a means
to manufacture it inexpensively. Three
new inventions have been proposed to
address this challenge. Energetic
researchers, with interest in hands-on
fabrication and testing are needed to
implement the inventions and create a
cost effective fabrication method.
133 Terry Lowe lowe@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Next generation aluminum conductors Research at our $14 million metal
Engineering through nanostructuring nanostructuring testbed has shown that
we can increase the strength and
electrical conductivity of aluminum
alloys for electrical power transmission
cables by nanostructuring. Now we
want to extend this success to
nanostructure aluminum wires to
replace all copper wires in automobiles.
This is particularly important as
automobiles now contain over 1 mile of
electrical wire, with electric automobiles
containing even more. By substituting
nanostructured aluminum for copper we
can decrease the weight and cost of
vehicle wiring. With sponsorship from
one of the US major automobile
makers, we are pursuing this goal.
Undergraduate researchers interested
in fabricating and characterizing
nanostructured aluminum alloys are
needed to help develop the next
generation of automobile conductors.

134 Ryan O'Hayre rohayre@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Proton conducting fuel cells Work with team of PhD students and Postdoc, Graduate student 4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
Engineering postdocs to synthesize and
characterize materials for new ceramic
fuel cell devices. Develop new highly
active oxide-based catalysts for
electrochemical ammonia synthesis as
well as materials for hydrocarbon-
fueled fuel cells. Learn/apply
characterization techniques such as X-
ray diffraction, SEM/TEM, and surface-
area analysis.
135 Ryan O'Hayre rohayre@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Discovery of novel oxide materials for Work with team of PhD students and Postdoc, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering solar thermochemical water splitting postdocs to synthesize and
characterize oxide materials for high-
temperature solar-thermochemical
water splitting. These oxide materials
split water to hydrogen and oxygen via
a two-step thermochemical redox cycle.
Lab work will focus on synthesizing new
candidate water splitting materials via
sol-gel chemistry and characterizing
these materials using techniques such
as X-ray diffraction, SEM/TEM,
thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and
surface-area analysis.

136 Corinne Packard cpackard@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Sample preparation and testing for The projects involve sample Faculty, Graduate student 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
Engineering atomic- through macro-scale materials preparation and materials discovery
characterization characterization for the International
Center for Multiscale Characterization.
We solve industrially relevant problems
in materials science that span atomic-
to macro-scale by applying cutting edge
materials characterization techniques
and developing new ones. Current
projects include ceramics,
photovoltaics, resource recovery, and
others. Our preference is for younger
students who have interest in
developing more responsibility in the
projects over multiple years.
137 Ivar Reimanis reimanis@Mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Trying to attain the theoretical strength As part of a collaboration with fiber Faculty, Graduate student Not applicable
Engineering of glass glass manufacturer Johns Manville and
others, we are exploring how glass
fractures. The student would perform
fiber mechanical testing and
characterization (electron microscopy)
to better understand how flaws become
cracks, and ultimately, how to make
stronger glass.
138 Angus Rockett arockett@mines.edu Metallurgical & Materials Recrystallization of CuInSe2 for Student will conduct a series of anneals Faculty, Graduate student 1. Make solar energy economical
Engineering Accelerated Solar Cell Manufacturing in the presence of various transport
materials including a series of halide
compounds. The project will study
which transport materials facilitate
recrystallization and improve material
performance in devices. Following
annealing the student will conduct
materials analyses using SEM and
XRD and possibly other methods.
139 Hafize Duzgun duzgun@mines.edu Mining Engineering Quantitative Sustainability Assessment Quantitative sustainability assessment Faculty Not applicable
Sebnem for Mining Indutry for the mining industry reqıires
identification of indicators for the three
pillars of sustainability, namely, social,
economic and environmental. From a
global set of indicators, a subset of
them which best describe the
sustainability in the mining sector, will
be selected based on various criteria
like representativeness, quantifiability,
availability etc.Then they will be
customized according to the type (coal,
metal, nonmetal, quarrying) and
method of mining (surface vs.
underground). Finally, the indicator set
will be tested for a selected mine based
on quantitative sustainability methods
140 Hafize Duzgun duzgun@mines.edu Mining Engineering Online Mapping of DE in Underground Deisel exhaust (DE) is now considered Faculty 7. Advance health informatics, 13.
Sebnem Spaces to be potential human carcinogen. It is Advance personalized learning
known that workers in the underground
construction and mining industries are
exposed much higher rates of DE due
to the enclosed working environment.
NIOSH states that diesel particulate
matter (DPM) exposure in underground
mines is 100 times higher than the
typical environmental concentration of
DPM and more than 10 times what
might be found in other workplaces.
Hence realtime monitoring of DPM is
critical for determining prevention
measures. An airtec diesel particulate
monitor will be integrated with RFID to
map DPM realtime over the Edgar
Mine. A geospatial database will be
established for the measurements. 3D
risk maps of DPM will be obtined for
various time intervals

141 Rennie Kaunda rkaunda@mines.edu Mining Engineering Advanced rock fragmentation This work will build on ongoing Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
techniques research to improve mechanical infrastructure
excavation of hard rock using
microwaves. Efforts are being
undertaken to advance methods and
techniques for rock fragmentation using
laboratory experiments. Laboratory
experiments include microwave
treatment of rock samples, linear
cutting tests, uniaxial compressive
strength tests, indirect tensile strength
tests, punch penetration tests, point
load index tests, and more, including
data analysis.

142 Rennie Kaunda rkaunda@mines.edu Mining Engineering TBM/EBPM Performance in This work will build will focus on the Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
weak/sensitive rock investigation of TBM/EPBM infrastructure
performance in problematic ground
conditions and weak rock. Data from
field projects, index rock tests and
linear cutting experiments will be
compiled and analyzed.
143 Eunhye Kim ekim1@mines.edu Mining Engineering Computer numerical simulation Numerical simulation is a useful Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
technique in mining and UCT infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
engineering, especially when lab or scientific discovery
field test is expensive or impractical. I
am looking for undergraduate students
interested in PFC and UDEC software.
144 Eunhye Kim ekim1@mines.edu Mining Engineering Rock mechanics database The EMI (Earth Mechanics Institute) Faculty 6. Restore and improve urban
database is being constructed to infrastructure, 14. Engineer the tools of
provide public such as students, scientific discovery
researchers, and industry workers with
rock mechanics information. To enrich
the database, I am extracting and
collecting rock mechanics data from
literature. Currently I am finding
undergraduate students interested in
data mining techniques.
145 Hugh Miller hbmiller@mines.edu Mining Engineering Waterjet Shotcrete Repair in To circumvent the technical and Faculty, Graduate student 6. Restore and improve urban
Underground Tunnels operating challenges associated with infrastructure
conventional shotcrete removal and
repair, this research seeks to develop a
unique system that utilizes waterjet
technology as the primary excavation
tool. Building upon the success of
previous CSM research activities in
underground rock scaling and
scarification, empiric evidence indicates
that waterjets are capable of selectively
removing damaged areas of support
liners without structurally compromising
or damaging intact material around the
area being repaired. The primary
research objective is to compare and
contrast the unintended damage
caused to the surrounding structural
liner and rock substrate by both
mechanical impact hammers and
waterjet excavation methods during
empiric testing. This analysis will
involve physical testing on instrumented
shotcrete panels designed to quantify
fracture propagation, substrate
delamination, and stress distribution.
The intent of this research is to facilitate
146 Jamal Rostami rostami@mines.edu Mining Engineering Miniature linear cutting machine a better understanding
Working of perform
with EMI staff to the dynamic
some Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
(MLCM) testing… tests on the recently developed MLCM student discovery
and develop a relationship between
rock strength and the forces measured
by scratching rock surface.
147 Jamal Rostami rostami@mines.edu Mining Engineering Design of the electronic circuits of rock WE have recently developed and Faculty, Postdoc, Graduate 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
strength borehole probe fabricated a unique probe that can student discovery
scratch side wall of a small borehole
and by measuring forces, estimate rock
strength. The system has optical
sensors, strain gage circuits, and a
micro processor that records the data.
The circuit design for the unit should be
reexamined to make sure that the data
recording on the micro processor is
functional and perform some initial tests
on the unit.
148 Nicole Smith nmsmith@mines.edu Mining Engineering Gender in Artisanal and Small-Scale Student will conduct research under a Faculty Not applicable
Mining in Peru US State Department funded project
aimed at women who work in artisanal
and small-scale mining (ASM) in Peru.
The objectives of the project are to
identify women's work in ASM, provide
training and skill development
opportunities, and link women miners to
sustainable gold supply chains (jewelry
companies) in Peru. Spanish
speaking/writing student preferred.
149 Alfred Eustes aeustes@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Extreme Environment Drilling Analytics The purpose of the project is to provide Faculty Not applicable
an overview of drilling operations in
extreme cold environments and study
the significance of how to drill in such
environments. The course uses the
large amount of data from the Western
Antarctic Ice Sheets Core Project and
examines the relationship of the
operational parameters.
150 Azra Tutuncu atutuncu@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Proppant porosity monitoring Proppant pack conductivity is a strong Faculty, Graduate student 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
experiments function of stress change takes place discovery
during production. We have a special
experimental set up to investigate these
changes in various types of proppant
packs as a function of several fluid
compositions when these fluids are
flowing through proppant pack under
stress.
151 Azra Tutuncu atutuncu@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Role of CO2 sequestration for CO2 injection is considered to be one Faculty 3. Develop carbon sequestration
Formation Integrity of the best dual purpose methodology methods
for storing CO2 in a subsurface
formation for helping to reduce the
environmental impacts while also
potentially enhancing the oil recovery in
conventional as well as shale
reservoirs. There is limited research on
the change of formation properties
where CO2 injection is conducted for
short and long term integrity of shale
reservoir formations. This project will
improve our understanding on the level
of mechanical properties and strength
variations when CO2 is injected into
shale reservoirs in consideration and
any operational and geohazard risk
assessment in association with the
CO2 injection and storage in shale
reservoirs to improve current practices.
152 Xiaolong Yin xyin@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Mechanism of multiphase replacement The objective of this study is to use Faculty, Graduate student 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
in dead-end pores microfluidic porous media models to discovery
understand why under certain situations
a fluid that resides in a dead-end pore
is replaced by another fluid. The study
is experimental in nature.
153 Xiaolong Yin xyin@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Measuring capillary condensation in The objective of this study is to develop Faculty, Graduate student 14. Engineer the tools of scientific
nanoporous media using vibrations and verify a method that uses vibration discovery
to measure mass change in a high-
pressure and high-temperature
environment and to detect capillary
condensation of petroleum fluids in
nanoporous rocks. This study is
experimental in nature.
154 Luis Zerpa lzerpa@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Design and numerical modeling The main objective of this project is to Faculty 3. Develop carbon sequestration
evaluation of an experimental design an experimental apparatus to methods, 14. Engineer the tools of
apparatus to study petroleum recovery study petroleum recovery from low scientific discovery
from low permeability unconventional permeability unconventional formations
reservoirs that uses full-diameter core samples.
The apparatus is expected to work at
typical reservoir temperature and
pressure conditions, and net confining
stress. During the design, we will
identify the components required to
build the proposed apparatus and will
perform a risk and safety assessment.
We will evaluate the behavior of the
proposed apparatus using numerical
modeling to design operating
procedures and estimate duration of
experiments.
155 Luis Zerpa lzerpa@mines.edu Petroleum Engineering Preliminary modeling evaluation of The main objective of this project is to Faculty 5. Provide access to clean water
water ice extraction from Lunar adapt/modify a petroleum reservoir
permanent shadow craters by direct numerical simulator to model heat
heating of icy regolith transfer from a wellbore into icy
regolith, sublimation of ice and flow of
water vapor through porous regolith.
This will allow studying different well
configurations to extract water ice from
lunar craters, and assess feasibility by
identifying limitations and challenges of
such approach for lunar in-situ resource
extraction.
156 Kyle Leach kleach@mines.edu Physics Flexible and Complete Nuclear Data We are currently developing the most Faculty 2. Provide energy from fusion, 10.
Extraction Tool complete nuclear and atomic database Prevent nuclear terror, 14. Engineer the
extraction tool ever undertaken. The tools of scientific discovery
student will be working towards the final
piece: incorporating all known gamma
decay information into the extraction
routine. This project, to-date, has been
completed entirely with UG students,
and we are close to a release to the
international nuclear physics
community.
157 Meenaks Singh msingh@mines.edu Physics Quantum Memristors Memristors form the basis of more than Faculty 9. Reserve-engineer the brain
hi 90% of proposed hardware for
neuromorphic computing. They are also
the only passive circuit element which
does not have a quantum counterpart.
There are promising theoretical
proposals for a quantum memristor
which can bring some of the strengths
of quantum information processing (like
dense networking and parallel
processing) to the arena of
neuromorphic computing. This project
will explore experimental
implementation of a quantum
memristor.
158 Meenaks Singh msingh@mines.edu Physics Superconducting Spintronics Superconducting spintronics aims to Faculty Not applicable
hi couple the magnetic order of a
ferromagnet (useful for things like
computer memories) with the zero
resistance of a superconductor
(opening possibilities of memories that
need very little power and do not heat
up). In this project we will explore the
basic physics behind superconducting
spintronics and also make some device
prototypes. The model system for this
project will be superconducting-
ferromagnetic hybrid nanowires.