February 12, 2024
(Ģý Laboratory for Laser Energetics photo / Eugene Kowaluk)
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
Hajim researchers recently helped develop an important process at the that could eventually help produce fusion reactions. In two studies , the authors discuss experiments to demonstrate an effective “spark plug” for direct-drive methods of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and how the technique could be applied at a future facility.
Using the , they completed several successful attempts to fire 28 kilojoules of laser energy at small capsules filled with deuterium and tritium fuel, causing the capsules to implode and produce a plasma hot enough to initiate fusion reactions between the fuel nuclei. The team is excited by the prospect of applying direct-drive methods to lasers with more energy. While demonstrating a spark plug is an important step, OMEGA is too small to compress enough fuel to get to ignition.
“If you can eventually create the spark plug and compress fuel, direct drive has a lot of characteristics that are favorable for fusion energy compared to indirect drive,” says Varchas Gopalaswamy ’21 PhD (), the LLE scientist who led . “After scaling the OMEGA results to a few megajoules of laser energies, the fusion reactions are predicted to become self-sustaining, a condition called ‘burning plasmas.’”
Read more about the research at the News Center and in .
3D-BIOPRINTING SYSTEM TO REPLICATE PLANT-BASED CHEMCIALS
(Ģý photo / J. Adam Fenster)
A multidisciplinary team of 10 undergraduates, including several students, pioneered new technologies to more efficiently replicate useful chemicals found in plants, including those endangered by Earth’s changing climate. Calling themselves “Team RoSynth,” the students created an affordable 3D-printing system for optimizing production of in-demand, plant-derived drugs and pharmaceuticals.
In November, the team entered their research in the 2023 , an event in which student-led teams from around the globe compete to solve real-world problems using synthetic biology. Synthetic biology takes advantage of engineering to build biological parts inspired by nature. The Rochester team’s project was nominated for the Best Biomanufacturing Project and Best Hardware and was awarded a gold medal, making them the third most recognized team in the United States. The team competed against 402 teams from six continents.
Read and about their fascinating project.
ED LALOR IN A NEURO MINUTE
(Ģý photo / J. Adam Fenster)
recently highlighted one of our faculty members from the in their “In a Neuro Minute” series. Associate Professor talks about his research, which aims to understand how the brain senses, perceives, and pays attention to things in the world. .
USING DATA SCIENCE TO BETTER UNDERSTAND TOBACCO USER BEHAVIORS
An interdisciplinary team of students, faculty, and alumni are analyzing social media data to better understand public perception and use of different tobacco products as well as other substances using natural language processing techniques, cutting-edge deep-learning, and large language models.
Associate Professor , deputy director of the , and his students have been collaborating with researchers at the including Dongmei Li and Zidian Xie to leverage social media as a data source, particularly when it comes to individual and group perceptions.
“We have had multiple capstone projects where Dongmei Li and Zidian Xie’s team has participated as the sponsor-partner providing valuable data and a problem statement that students can work on over a semester to produce deep insights, leading to research publications in many instances,” Ajay says.
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EMBRACING DIGITAL INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE
The UR Health Lab is the Ģý Medical Center’s digital innovation incubator, which brings together faculty and students from across the University to leverage technology to solve some of the most pressing problems facing patients and clinicians. On Tuesday, February 13, I’ll moderate a virtual panel about embracing digital innovation in healthcare featuring UR Health Lab co-directors ’07N (MS), ’13N (PhD) and ’88, ’92M (MD), ’97M (Res).
The event, part of the Huang Speaker Series in Technology and Innovation, takes place from noon to 1 p.m. .
INAUGURAL WOMEN IN TECH SPEAKER
I’m excited that a Hajim School alumna will be featured as a speaker at the inaugural Women & Diversity In Tech event on Thursday, February 15 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Wegmans Hall room 1400. The moderated discussion and open Q&A will feature Jennifer Allen ’97 (), ’10S MBA, senior engineering manager of program management at GE Renewable Energy as well as Manali Maity ’19S MBA, a technical solutions consultant at Google. Associate Professor will moderate the event.
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INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES FOR HAJIM STUDENTS AT EXCELL
Students who are seeking internship opportunities may want to consider positions open at Excell. An affiliate of the URochester, Excell is a venture capital fund that invests in seed stage, high-tech, high growth companies in the Upstate New York region. Excell typically invests in ventures developing novel solutions in medical devices, energy and industrial applications, materials, software, advanced manufacturing, and biotechnology.
Excell is currently seeking candidates for its venture analyst internship, which will train students in the processes and practices used by venture capital investors to review, price and close an investment, providing the student with hands-on practice and a set of tools to analyze ventures from the perspective of a VC investor. Analysts will complete a full investment cycle from pitch review to due-diligence, develop a term-sheet, and potentially close an investment in a startup. Interested applicants can email Maddie Barrett.
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
