The ongoing pandemic didn’t stop students from
gaining valuable hands-on research experience this summer through the
SummerTraining Academy for Research Success (STARS) program at UC San Diego. Melissa
Lepe, an aerospace engineering student at UC Irvine, got creative with her
STARS mentor
—UC San Diego structural engineering professor Ingrid Tomac
— to
find ways to gain data analysis skills while advancing our knowledge of
mudslides.
“When there are forest fires, mudflows often occur after the
fire,” said Lepe. “And in
Tomac’s Geo-Micromechanics Research Group, we wanted
to study the exact patterns of behavior during those mudflows, so we studied
the soil particles and how they attach to air particles, to try and really see
what we can learn about their movement, and what we can predict to establish
better building infrastructure and warning signals for mudslides.”
Since the research experience was virtual, Lepe and her
graduate student mentor, UC San Diego structural engineering PhD student Wenpei
Ma, tag teamed the research process. Ma would conduct experiments using very
high resolution cameras in Tomac’s lab, and send some of the resulting images
and footage to Lepe to analyze.
“My graduate mentor is working on different types of
samples, testing different types of sand to see how fine, coarse and medium
sand behave during a mudslide. He takes high resolution footage of these
particles moving around during tests so we can see how they bind with each
other and make aglomerate, a combination of sand and air particles. He uploads
the videos remotely to a drive, and I analyze them from here.”
From this high resolution footage, Lepe is able to track
these very small particles as they move during the experiment, following a
single particle across a span of time to see how it behaves, which particles it
is drawn to, or if particles in the aglomerate separate when they come in
contact with another particle. Tomac’s team will use this information to try
and answer questions about how the size of sand particles impacts the speed of
mudslides; how gravity impacts different sizes and shapes of particles; and
ultimately what we can do to mitigate the impacts of mudslides.
In addition to this research, the STARS program provides
students with GRE and grad school prep; a series of speakers on topics ranging
from imposter syndrome to different paths to grad school and the breadth of
careers possible with a graduate degree; leadership activities; and a community
of students to support one another.
“I’m a first generation college student so I didn't even know
what to expect when it came to applying to graduate school,” said Lepe. “I
thought the GRE was just another SAT, and in some ways it is, but there are
other components. So having the GRE class definitely helped me see what to
expect, but also learn ways that I could effectively study and approach the
exam.”
Lepe said the community building aspects of the STARS
program, even virtually, were also particularly helpful.
“It’s more than just a one summer research program--it’s
about finding a community with other like minded individuals and finding ways
to build up one another and potentially become more than just people you met during
the program, but a resource in the future or someone you could reach out and
talk to. It’s definitely about making connections that are more impactful than
one summer.”
Lepe, who has conducted research on renewable energy and
power plants at UC Irvine, plans to earn a PhD with a focus on energy systems
and propulsion in aerospace, working toward energy alternatives to create more
sustainable airplanes.
Learn more about the STARS program:
https://grad.ucsd.edu/diversity/programs/stars/index.html
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