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 the measured particle size by a factor of 1.6.• 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