SMART ITAC Summer Interns Showcase Innovative Research

Sept. 13, 2023

SMART ITAC (Industrial Training and Assessment Center) summer interns, John Pham, chemical engineering major and Daniela Ruiz, mechanical engineering, PhD student, presented findings from their research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Intern Symposium on July 31 in Golden, Colorado.

Pham’s research on supply chain risk analysis in enzymatic recycling has significant implications for sustainable waste management and plastic recycling. Ruiz’s work on understanding the behavior of oxygen bubbles in PEM electrolysis holds promise for advancing clean energy technologies.

The internship program with NREL is sponsored by UCI SMART ITAC program to support two research-based internship opportunities at NREL each year. Students work on site at the laboratory in Colorado over the summer and gain valuable hands-on research experience, while being mentored by real-world scientists and researchers.  Students can apply their theoretical classwork to research projects and observe how a research lab operates.

“While at NREL, Daniela and John represented not only the SMART ITAC program, but also UCI as a whole very professionally and we’ve received great feedback from the NREL mentorship team regarding our student’s dedication and work ethic.  I am so proud of both Daniela and John for their accomplishments this summer,” says Chelsea Choudhary, program manager, SMART ITAC.

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy. It is the only federal laboratory dedicated to research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

For more information about SMART ITAC, visit https://smartiac.calit2.uci.edu/