Many MSE students spend the summers on internships. This past summer, MSE rising junior Annika DeVol and MSE grad student Zachary Caprow were selected for internships at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Here’s how they spent their summer:
Annika DeVol:
“This summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). I worked with developing an aqueous silicon nitride slurry with high solids loading for use in the additive manufacturing of high temperature ceramics. Current fabrication techniques limit the part complexity that can be delivered at the right price point, thus additive manufacturing is of interest for production. Throughout the summer, I used zeta potential, which describes the repulsive forces between particles, to characterize the stability of silicon nitride in aqueous suspension with different dispersants. I was then able to test the most promising dispersants in ceramic slurries and evaluate those slurries via slip casting. My SULI experience at ORNL, and in particular my mentor, Beth Armstrong, were amazing and I highly recommend others to seek out this opportunity.”
Zachary Caprow:
“I was working with the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division to ensure the safety of a new fuel design involving thin uranium foil. My job was to determine whether accurate thermal diffusivity measurements can be taken on thin samples using laser flash analysis (LFA). I performed LFA experiments on samples with varying diameters and thicknesses and compared the results to finite element analysis (FEA) simulations that I built to emulate those experiments.”
