Southern University and A&M College senior chemistry major, Jalilah Muhammad, will spend summer at Harvard University doing cutting-edge research.
Harvard's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program provides a community to inspire and encourage young scientists to continue on to graduate school and a career in science and engineering.
Muhammad will be working on 3D printed liquid crystal elastomers under the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center during her internship at Harvard.
“We will use the modern technology of 3D printing in order to produce these liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) in the desired structure, where these structures can stretch and retract at any given direction we designate,” she said.
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file, explains 3DPrinting dot com, a leading source for everything about 3D printing.
The opposite of subtractive manufacturing, which is cutting out/hollowing out a piece of metal or plastic with for instance a milling machine, 3D printing enables you to produce shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods.
The Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science is 10 weeks long (June 4 to August 11). Students receive a $5000 program stipend and up to $350 for travel. Free on-campus housing provided.