MAY 2022 Undergraduate Research Scholars COHORT
Faylyn Bruecken
B.S. in Environmental Engineering
Faylyn Bruecken graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Environmental Engineering. She was recognized as a ReNUWIt Scholar starting in Fall 2019 and pursued research with the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. She contributed to hydraulic selection research at the pilot-scale wastewater treatment at Mines Park. Faylyn plans on working in consulting for water resources after graduating.
Amanda Camarata
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Amanda Joy Camarata graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. During her time at Mines, she has received the AIAA Diversity Scholar award and the Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) at AGU 2021 for her previous research on solar wind discontinuities. Under the mentorship of Dr. Dylan Hickson in the Geophysics Department, she has participated in asteroid research exploring additional planetary radar analysis methods to improve our understanding of asteroid surface composition and its relation to optical observations and asteroid taxonomy. She will intern with Lockheed Martin Space during Summer 2022 and return to Mines in the Fall to pursue an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.
Julia Eiken
B.S. in Computational and Applied Math, Minor in Public Affairs
Julia is excited to be graduating from Colorado School of Mines with her B.S. in Computational and Applied Mathematics. She worked with Dr. Karin Leiderman of AMS to create a web-based application that allows easy user interaction with a blood-coagulation model developed by Dr. Leiderman. She was involved in many things on campus, including undergraduate research, the Society for Women in Mathematics, and hosting a radio show for Mines Internet Radio. She also played on the varsity volleyball team for four years which allowed her to become a representative in and eventually president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Julia has loved her time in Golden and is excited to start her career with FAST Enterprises upon graduation.
Morgan Ezell
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Biological Track, Minor in Computational and Applied Math
Morgan Ezell graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Biological Track and a minor in Computational and Applied Mathematics. From Spring 2021 to Spring 2022 she worked with Dr. Andrew Herring in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department studying the effect of electrode composition on alkaline water electrolysis cells as part of work done in the Colorado Fuel Cell Center. She also briefly worked on a project involving struvite deposition and hydrogen generation using electrochemical cells. In the future, she would like to work in the pharmaceutical manufacturing or specialty chemicals industries.
Noah Fields
B.S. in Computer Science, Minor in Computational and Applied Mathematics
Noah Fields graduated in Spring 2022 from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Computational and Applied Mathematics, intending a Master’s degree shortly thereafter. His research is with the Computer Science department under Dr. Bo Wu, on continuous subgraph matching on large data graphs. He intends to get a PhD and continue research throughout his life. He also graduated summa cum laude.
Griffin Hampton
B.S. in Computational & Applied Mathematics, B.S. in Biochemistry, Minor in Public Affairs
Griffin Hampton graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a BS in Computational and Applied Mathematics, a BS in Biochemistry, and a minor in Public Affairs through the McBride Honors Program. Griffin has been actively involved in research in the math department with Dr. Diniz Behn, studying the mathematical dynamics of glucose and glcyerol metabolism. Griffin has also done transgenic research in the chemistry department with Dr. Matthew Posewitz, introducing a gene for producing isoprene into the highly productive algal strain Picochlorum celeri. During his undergraduate tenure, Griffin has been recognized twice with the Ryan Sayers Memorial Scholarship, as a MURF fellow in 2019 and 2020, as the 2019 outstanding student in Organic Chemistry, as the 2021 outstanding student in Biochemistry, as an outstanding poster presenter at the Joint Mathematics Meeting 2020, and with a Red Sock Award at the 2021 SIAM Dynamical Systems conference. Griffin’s research has long been involved in biochemical and biomedical research, which he hopes to continue. Next year, he will be working full time as a research analyst at the National Institute for Aging studying machine learning and parameter estimation in magnetic resonance imaging and relaxometry signal models.
Benjamin (Ben) Hanson
B.S. in Physics, Minor in Robotics and Intelligent Systems
Benjamin Hanson graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Engineering Physics, with a minor in Robotics and Intelligent Systems and an area of special interest in Space and Planetary Sciences and Engineering. Benjamin is a Mines Undergraduate Research Fellow, and has been since the Fall of 2021, performing research in the Chemical and Biological Engineering department in Dr. Ning Wu’s lab. Benjamin’s research is in the field of self-assembly of microparticles under electric and magnetic fields. Along with this research, Benjamin works with Dr. Fred Sarazin on his research on the characterization of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. After graduation, Benjamin plans on pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering but has not decided his school at this time. Benjamin plans on performing research in the subfield of satellite constellations and swarms.
Kevin Huang
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, minor in Biomedical Engineering
Kevin Huang graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. During his time as an undergraduate, he was involved in two research projects. One project with Dr. Justin Shaffer investigated characteristics of figures represented in anatomy and physiology textbooks. Another project under Dr. Dylan Domaille involved developing a novel method to track extracellular reactive oxygen species with high spatial resolution. In the future, Kevin plans to continue help improve people’s quality of life either through a career in engineering medical devices or as a physician.
Rachel Lively
B.S. in Chemical engineering, Minor in Energy
Rachel Lively graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Energy. Rachel received the Mines Undergraduate Research Fellowship (MURF) from 2019-2022; conducting research in the chemistry department under the direction of Professor C. Michael McGuirk. She had the opportunity to showcase her research project, Hydrogen Storage and Delivery in Porous Frameworks, during the 2021 Mines Undergraduate Research Symposium. After graduating, she began a full time Engineer I position with Seran Bioscience LLC. In the future, Rachel hopes to use her education to improve the lives of others and promote sustainable engineering practices.
Pilar Martin
B.S. in Chemical Engineering
Pilar Martin graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. She conducted research within the Chemical and Biological Engineering department under Dr. Kevin Cash from Fall 2019 to Spring 2022. Her projects included developing and characterizing various types of nanosensors for sensing analytes such as sodium, sulfate, nitrate, and oxygen. In the future, she plans on pursing a career in industry.
Ryan Park
B.S. in Chemical Engineering
Ryan Park graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S in Chemical Engineering. He worked in Dr. Herring’s laboratory in the Colorado Fuel Cell Center and focused on the characterization and application of anion exchange membranes. His research can be found in a peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Membrane Science. Ryan is now working in industry for a biotechnology company with plans to pursue his master’s in the following years.
Henry Peel
B.S. in Biological and Chemical Engineering
Henry Peel graduated from Colorado with a B.S. in Biological and Chemical Engineering. He conducted research in the Geo-Environmental-Microbiology Lab under Professor John R. Spear and Professors Jonathan O.(Josh) Sharp for the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. His projects ranged from researching wetlands for the removal of boron and arsenic to investigating the microbial diversity of mixed culture beers. Henry transferred from Front Range Community College and was on the CSM Honor Roll. He plans to explore graduate programs in environmental and chemical engineering while working as a field engineer post graduation.
Cameron (Cam) Phillips
B.S. in Geological Engineering, Minor in Economics
Cam Phillips graduated from Mines with a B.S. in Geological Engineering and a minor in Economics. Following field camp in 2021, he performed research in the Computational Geomechanics Laboratory in Geological Engineering for the remainder of the summer and during his senior year. His research was focused on terrestrial lidar monitoring of rockfall for slopes along CO-74 and I-70. Cam earned Honor Roll for 3 semesters, Dean’s List for 3 semesters, and graduated Magna Cum Laude. His poster in the Geology and Geological Engineering Research Fair earned the distinction of “Best Undergraduate Poster”. Cam will spend the summer in Morenci, AZ, working as a Geomechanics Intern for Freeport-McMoRan, then return to Mines in the fall to continue his M.S. in Geological Engineering under Gabriel Walton.
Alexandra Raichart
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Biological Track
Alexandra Raichart is graduating from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering. She will be returning to CSM in the Fall to pursue a Master’s with thesis in Chemical Engineering. For the past three years she has been conducting research under Dr.Krebs in the Chemical and Biological Engineering department. She has been awarded the Mines Undergraduate Research Fellowship in the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 school years and received honorable mention for her contribution to the 2019-2020 research symposium. Her research is biomedical based and focused on the development of a hydrogel for diabetic wound treatment. Upon graduation with her M.S., she is looking to remain within the research world and find a position within a research and development department in the biomedical or food science field.
Marisa Sandoval
B.S. in Biochemistry
Marisa Sandoval is from Grand Junction, Colorado and earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Colorado School of Mines. Marisa’s research aims to find a short term-urinary biomarker(s) to predict weight loss. To do this, she performed an extensive open-ended analysis of data acquired from 154 urine samples by 52 participants across various platforms such as Cytoscape, MATLAB, R, Excel, MetaboHunter, and Bruker TopSpin. She is currently working on writing a paper on this research for publication. Marisa currently lives in Golden and enjoys traveling, skiing, and spending time with her German Shepherd, Sammy.
Kylee Shiekh
B.S. in Computational and Applied Mathematics, Minor in Data Science
Kylee Shiekh is graduating with a B.S. in Computational Applied Mathematics and a minor in Data Science. She worked with the Engineering, Design and Society department on research in engineering education and ethics education. She enjoys interdisciplinary work and strives to continue that interdisciplinary aspect of her master’s in quantum engineering. She has attended multiple conferences and hopes to continue to in the future.
Morgan Trexler
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
Morgan Trexler graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He did undergraduate research in the physics department under Professor Jeff Squier, working on improvements to metal 3D printing using laser feedback systems. He has specialized himself in a combination of optomechanics and robotics. Morgan is working for a startup company developing a novel lens fabrication technique.
Avery Tyndall
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Minor in Biomedical Engineering
Avery Tyndall is originally from Austin, Texas and graduated from Colorado School of Mines with BS in Chemical Engineering (Biological Track) and a minor in Biomedical Engineering. Avery was first introduced to academic research through the FIRST Fellowship at Mines where she worked in a single-molecule biophysics lab under Dr. Sarkar. This experience helped Avery realize a passion for research and she continued to look for more opportunities to get involved. Through an REU funded by NSF, Avery spent 10 weeks working in a chemical engineering lab at the University of Texas at Austin under Dr. Keitz. During this project, Avery focused her research on genetically engineering an inducible pathway to regulate electron transport in Shewanella oneidensis. Next, Avery was awarded the Mines Undergraduate Research Fellowship (MURF) and worked in the Domaille Lab Group in the Mines’ Chemistry Department. This opportunity expanded Avery’s horizons of interest to include organic synthesis pathways and resulted in the discovery of two novel synthetic methodologies. Avery plans to continue research after graduation, wherever that may take her. In her free time, Avery enjoys playing rugby, hiking, cooking, and binging true crime podcasts.
Kristen Ung
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Minor in Computer Science
Kristen Ung graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Integrated Circuits and Electronics, and a minor in Computer Science. Ung conducted research with the Computer Science department designing, building, and testing a multi-UAV testbed to simulate orbits of small spacecraft for evaluating communication protocols. Ung is a member of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society and was awarded runner-up for best poster alongside her teammates at the C-MAPP computing fair. In the future, Ung hopes to pursue a Masters in Computer Engineering while entering the workforce in the Aerospace Industry.