Jessica and Olivia participating in REU Program this summer!

Congratulations to both Jessica Hornyak and Olivia Liseth, undergraduate researchers in the Sharma Lab, for their acceptances to REU programs this summer!

Jessica has been accepted to the University of Connecticut Entrepreneurship REU. This program is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). According to their site, this REU Site program “will engage undergraduate students in a 10-week intensive, summer research experience focused on projects identified as having a high potential for translation to commercial projects and which encourage cross-disciplinary discussions and stimulate creativity. The research program will be complemented by a formal engineering entrepreneurship program that will focus on the creative process, idea generation, prototyping, and the realities of starting a business. Students will develop communication skills through required presentations to the REU cohort, their faculty mentors, and entrepreneurs. This REU program translates the model used by a successful graduate course in entrepreneurship at the University of Connecticut to a context appropriate for undergraduate”. Jessica will be working in the Nguyen Research Group with Dr. Thanh Nguyen. In her REU project, she will be exposed to new technologies and methods of processing and formulating biodegradable biopolymers which will be used to create novel drug-release carriers, engineered tissue scaffolds, and biodegradable implanted sensors.

Olivia has been accepted to University of Florida’s Summer Undergraduate Research at Florida (SURF) program. According to their website, the SURF program entails a 10 week Summer Undergraduate Research experience at the University of Florida strictly for students planning to enroll Ph.D. to UF. SURF provides the opportunity to work with a premier faculty adviser and a senior Ph.D. student mentor. Students will engage in research and spend in depth time furthering their path to applying and enrolling in a Ph.D. program at the University of Florida”. Olivia will be working in the Sharma Lab and will continue her project on the protective effects of secretomes from adipose-derived stem cells on cytokine-challenged cartilage explant model and characterization of reactive oxidative species generated in the cytokine-challenged cartilage explant model.

Congratulations, Jessica and Olivia!