Student Researcher
Troy, Ny
• Co-investigated the optoelectronic properties of ZnO nanoparticles - Focused on the surface and bulk interactions of zinc oxide nanoparticles with ultraviolet light, proteins (aptamers), nuclear particles, and with Ohmic (aluminum) and Schottky (gold) contacts. • Fabricated a spectrally selective photodetector comprised of ZnO nanoparticles on glass and ZnO nanoparticles on AlGaN - Worked in a class 100 clean room, using a spin-coater, e-beam evaporation, and occasionally plasma etch and plasma deposition.• Co-developed an alpha particle detector - Directly coupled ZnO nanoparticles to a YAP:Ce scintillator substrate.• Designed and created a compact bacterial fluorescence detection testing rig - Used CAD to develop a model and hand and machine tools to create it. Allowed for interchangeable light sources (monochromator & white light, UV LED) and detector systems (ZnO photodetector, silicon photodiode, PMT).• Compared detector sensitivity (UV/fluorescence, alpha particle radiation) to silicon based technology.• Evaluated LEDs for spectral linewidth (with integrating sphere) and optical power.• Learned to cultivate bacteria samples.• Generated programs in VBA, C++, and LabVIEW to simplify data collection in the laboratory.• Culturally Situtated Community Sensors - Led the hardware team, designed, built, and wrote C code for ten low cost environmental sensor units used in the NSF funded Triple Helix grant.• Sensorcaching - Led the hardware team, designed and built a prototype environmental sensor using open source (Arduino) technology and coded a preliminary Android app. Also developed hardware to integrate sensor platform with a zinc oxide nanoparticle photodetector connected to the compact fluorescence detection system.
