Honors Link

Two Honors College students, Bryan Maack and Jason Castaneda, have been selected to attend TECHCON 2013 in Austin, Texas this September. TECHCON is a prestigious research conference hosted by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, a leading technology research consortium. The conference brings together more than 300 representatives from both industry and academia and includes only 24 undergraduate students, who are selected from applicants around the United States based on research abstracts.

Bryan Maack, a senior in chemical engineering, has spent the past three years working in the materials science research program led by Dr. Brady Gibbons, an Oregon State faculty member in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering. Bryan’s research focuses on measuring properties of piezoelectric materials in an effort to reduce costs and ease the processing of these materials. Dr. Gibbons states that, “Bryan has been a valuable and integral part of our research laboratory for three years. His contributions to our work have been above and beyond my expectations. I am incredibly proud to have him represent us at TECHCON!”

Jason Castaneda is a sophomore in chemical engineering with a biochemical process option. In the summer of 2012, Jason began working as an undergraduate researcher in a National Science Foundation study that aims to help engineers and project managers assess and manage risk. Honors College Dean and Professor of Industrial Engineering Toni Doolen serves as Jason’s faculty mentor on a collaborative research project that includes Dr. Irem Tumer, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University and Dr. Richard Malak, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M. Working with Rachel Yim, a graduate student in industrial engineering, Jason’s research has focused on understanding the relationship between different measures of project complexity and the risks encountered by the project team. According to Dean Doolen, Jason has been a real asset to the research project: “It is rare to find a student who can contribute to a complex study at the level that Jason has, after only one year of exposure to engineering studies.”

Bryan and Jason will present their research at TECHCON and attend other attendees’ presentations. This will be Bryan’s second time at the conference, and he will present his laboratory’s work at two poster sessions. Jason is attending for the first time.

For both students, TECHCON is just one highlight in busy summer schedules.

Bryan has also been selected from a national pool for an internship working with Dr. Ron Polcawich in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. The internship will run from June through September. Bryan – who graduated this spring with an Honors Baccalaureate of Science – will begin graduate studies at Oregon State this fall.

Jason will engage in a summer internship as well, participating in a Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation through Portland State University. His work, though, will be directed here on the Oregon State Corvallis campus by Dr. Alex Greaney, a professor of materials science in the school of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering. Jason and a team of graduate and undergraduate students will be investigating the properties of nanomaterials. Jason will return to his studies in the fall, and he hopes to work in medical research or healthcare.