Congratulations to CHBE undergraduate Fouad Elgamal for winning the K. B. MATHUR Prize last week! Fouad gave the best final oral thesis presentation in CHBE’s undergraduate thesis course. Students who are also in the top category include: Zichen Wang, Afonso Canedo Magalhaes Mendonca, and Sasha Plichta.
CHBE undergraduate thesis courses (CHBE 492, 494, and 496) allow students to conduct literature searching, planning, equipment design, experimental design for an individual research project leading to a written proposal and oral presentation. The research projects are overseen by one or more faculty advisors in the department.
What interested you about taking the thesis course?
Following my co-op term in R&D, I began to be very interested in the prospect of graduate research and education, but had limited experience in academic research. Given that industry research is starkly different to academic research in terms of purpose, depth, funding, etc. I could not make a decision purely based on my co-op experience. I reached out to professors in the department and asked about opportunities for research assistantships and was referred to the thesis course, CHBE 491/492. This served as an amazing litmus test for what graduate research would be like!
What is the title of your thesis, and how did you select the topic?
The title of my thesis is the “Organocatalyzed Photoredox Mediated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (O-ATRP) of Styrene” and is supervised by Dr. Zachary Hudson and PhD student Ryoga Hojo. This topic fills a niche for creating polymers with precise properties without the use of transition metals, therefore opening up the applications to drug delivery, electronics, and more. This was very much outside any of my previous experience which presented its own set of challenges but I was extremely interested in the unknown and operating in the grey area of uncertainty during the research process!
What were the insights you gained about your thesis topic and the process of conducting research for your thesis?
My thesis journey taught me crucial research skills and insights into not only my field, but the entire scientific process. Planning and organization were key, ensuring clear goals and timelines with enough contingency to account for definite setbacks. Thorough literature review and guidance from my supervising PhD student Ryoga Hojo helped framed my objectives, while repeatable methodology led to reliable data collection. Fundamental laboratory skills, analysis, and interpretation refined my technical and communication abilities while feedback refinement improved my methodology and thesis quality. My focus on O-ATRP shed light on key parameters for the optimization of a photocatalyst in this limited space and the associated challenges with balancing conflicting performance indicators. I was able to correlate my findings with practical implications in the field of controlled polymerization and suggest future research to address the limitations. My thesis experience equipped me with essential open-ended project management and soft skills, introuduced me to transferable laboratory skills, and served as an amazing introduction into the scientific research process.
Would you recommend taking the thesis course to undergraduate students?
The course gives great background on the qualitative planning, technical writing, and communication skills necessary to succeed in academia. For anyone interested in pursuing research of any kind, gaining hands-on laboratory experience, and being able to learn from senior PhD students and their principal investigator, I would 100% recommend pursuing an undergraduate thesis!