Undergraduate Engineers Receive Summer Research Scholarships Thanks to Support from General Atomics
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Eleven undergraduate engineering students at the University of California San Diego received scholarships to conduct research in labs on campus this summer as part of the IDEA Engineering Research Scholarship program at the Jacobs School of Engineering. This is the fourth year that the program has provided summer scholarships for undergraduates to master core research skills as they work on real-world engineering projects, thanks to support from San Diego-based industry partner General Atomics.
In those four years, the scholarship program (formerly known as GEAR2Career) has provided summer scholarship funds to more than 45 undergraduate students, who conducted research in more than 30 research labs across the Jacobs School of Engineering. Students develop workforce-ready research and problem-solving skills while tackling their research project, in this program run by the IDEA Engineering Student Center.
This summer, aerospace engineering student David Mkrtchian was awarded an IDEA Engineering Research Scholarship to continue his work on a drone with tilted motors. This design makes the aircraft capable of moving while remaining level. The goal is for this type of stable drone to be able to conduct building or infrastructure inspections for difficult to access spots, where the tipping and swaying of currently available commercial drones would make data collection unreliable.
Mechanical engineering student Olivia Hawrysh spent the summer studying 3D-printed steels, working to identify and characterize defects in these materials that result from the metal printing process. The goal of this ongoing work is to predict various mechanical properties from defect analysis.
Nanoengineering student Alison Lin developed prototypes for a soft, pneumatic vine robot that could one day replace the rigid and often uncomfortable speculums used for pelvic exams.
Nanoengineering student Alison Lin developed prototypes for a soft, pneumatic vine robot that could one day replace the rigid and often uncomfortable speculums used for pelvic exams. Her research this summer included quantifying the force constraints the device would need to withstand, and investigating potential materials.
“Finding out I received this summer scholarship opportunity was definitely exciting,” said Lin, who started her academic journey as an ecology student before transferring into nanoengineering. “It was a big confidence boost, because coming from a non-engineering background, I wondered if I could cut it. Getting the opportunity to spend more time doing research and have scholarship money invested into you as well helped assure me that I was doing something right. I’m going to continue working in Professor Tania Morimoto’s lab after this summer, hoping to write a paper on this once we finish the project. I’m passionate about this project, and hope to turn this into a real product that helps people one day in the future”
General Atomics has been contributing philanthropic support to the IDEA Engineering Research Scholarship and GEAR2Career program since 2022, with a goal of helping engineering undergraduates explore research, build confidence, and be prepared to translate their skills in their next steps in academia or industry.
“General Atomics is proud to support the IDEA Engineering Research Scholarships at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and its mission to drive hands-on, industry-relevant engineering education for a diverse student population,” said Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. “We believe that helping aspiring engineers to acquire research experience is a great way to introduce them to the limitless opportunities available to them from companies like General Atomics.”
These IDEA Engineering Research Scholarships are open to all undergraduate engineering and computer science students at UC San Diego. The complementary GEAR Up2Research program, also run by the IDEA Engineering Student Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering, provides a flexible, self-paced course designed to help engineering undergraduates explore research and prepare to pursue undergraduate research opportunities. After completing the online program, students in GEAR Up2Research participate in several in-person workshops and events, and have access to mentorship and coaching as they search for research opportunities. Together, the programs help undergraduates attain research experience, and then earn scholarship funding to deepen their research expertise and skills.
To learn more about the IDEA Engineering Research Scholarship, GEAR Up2Research program, or discover ways to support student scholarships for research, please visit the IDEA Engineering Student Center or contact Adrienne Bolli, Director of Development at the Jacobs School of Engineering.
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