Summer symposium celebrates student research with virtual presentations

By U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public AffairsAugust 10, 2020

CCDC Army Research Laboratory features symposium with live events, interactive poster sessions.
CCDC Army Research Laboratory features symposium with live events, interactive poster sessions. (Photo Credit: Shutterstock) VIEW ORIGINAL

ADELPHI, Md. -- The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory hosted its 2020 Summer Student Symposium Aug. 6.

With the pandemic, the symposium took place in a virtual environment for the first time in order to secure the health and safety of the attendees.

Ten finalists, five undergraduate and five graduate students, gave an oral presentation on their summer research project to a virtual audience, including laboratory director Dr. Patrick Baker. In addition, the event featured two interactive poster sessions, where attendees engaged with almost 100 posters and their presenters with the click of a button.

“The 2020 CCDC-ARL Summer Student Symposium hosted by the Outreach Office showcased the extraordinary student research projects performed in support of Army science and technology,” said Dr. Patrice Collins, ARL Special Programs Coordinator. “This year’s program was historic as CCDC-ARL hosted 189 summer researchers in its very first virtual summer research program.”

In addition to Dr. Baker, a panel of 13 laboratory fellows served as judges for the competition. The top three finalists in each category, undergraduate and graduate, received gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as cash prizes.

This year, the winners include students who worked in the lab’s Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate and the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate.

While the student research projects took place in a virtual environment this summer, Army said they believes the next generation of STEM leaders will continue to overcome challenges and contribute innovative ideas that benefit the lives of the Soldier.

“With over 140 attendees in every session, I believe this virtual symposium as well as the entire virtual summer research program was a major success,” Collins said. “The mentors and the mentees were extraordinary this summer, and even with all the new technical challenges, they were still able to make great strides for Army science.”

The following is a complete list of the 2020 symposium winners:

Undergraduate Category Winners

·     Gold: Bryson Howell, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Classification of Predatory Behaviors in Multi-Agent Systems (CISD)

·     Silver: Jenille Cruz, California State University, Fullerton, “Atomistic Probing of Catalytic Activities in H and O-Terminated Diamond (100) Surfaces” (SEDD)

·     Bronze: Jaclyn McLaughlin, Drexel University, “Development of a Toughened Thermoset Vinyl Ester Photolithography Resin for High-Performance Additive Manufacturing (AM)” (WMRD)

·     Graduate Category Winners

·     Gold: Peter Ryseck, University of Maryland, “Quadrotor Biplane: Wind Tunnel Setup and Flight Testing” (VTD)

·     Silver: Erick Guzman, California State University, Northridge, “Study of Thermal and Vibrational Properties of Terminated Diamond Surfaces from First Principle Calculations” (SEDD)

·     Bronze: Ben Evangelisti, Penn State University Park, “Understanding the Effects of Carbon-Coating on the Oxidation of Aluminum Nanoparticle Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations” (WMRD)

For information about the symposium, visit here.

(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

CCDC Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army’s corporate research laboratory, ARL discovers, innovates and transitions science and technology to ensure dominant strategic land power. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win the nation’s wars and come home safely. CCDC is a major subordinate command of the Army Futures Command.