Sofia Rivalta Popescu Email & Phone Number

Santa Barbara, California, United States

• Developed a shrinking core model to better understand the recycling of polyurethane foam through acidolysis, specifically its kinetic and mass transfer limitations
• Designed and implemented code to fit experimental data to the derived model, allowing extraction of constants relevant to kinetics and mass transfer
• Applied statistical methods to asses the model goodness of fit

• Identified 100+ copyright violations and finalized 15+ copyright claims resulting in the removal uncredited activities, exams, and quizzes from various aggregate websites including Chegg and Coursehero
• Improved NGPF user accessibility for the deaf/hard of hearing by transcribing 10 professional development courses
• Enhanced and reformatted free-to-use worksheets, activities, and PowerPoints that 1000s of teachers use to educate middle and high schoolers on financial literacy

• Organized 2 educational events that helped 30 freshman students connect with undergraduate research opportunities
• Doubled club attendance from 15 students to 30 students at industry info sessions through new participation incentives and creative club announcements improving student body connections to industry
• Informed university staff and student body about industry and research events in 50+ professional communications

Pleasanton, California, United States

Cleaning R&D.

• Created a novel method for improving insulated nanoparticle sizing precision for “single-entity” blocking electrochemistry through varying the applied potential resulting in the reduction of the standard deviation of.
• Solved the low nanoparticle impact frequency problem using a novel microfluidics system increasing the rate of data collection by a factor of 2 and improving user accessibility
• Honed practical and analytical lab skills including measurement methods using potentiostats; MATLAB data interpretation; and hematite cube nanoparticle synthesis, modification, and DLS characterization
• Analyzed research results and reported data, figures, and interpretations of findings at lab group meetings