Author: joshua_kendall

We finally got to print/make the design we chose. Even though the bowtie structure seems rather simple and repetitive, it was difficult to make, and it took us multiple tries. In a mold, we added layers and layers of polymer and used the hot plate to assist in solidifying the polymer. After a few redos and many, many layers of polymer, the structure was dipped in acetone and removed from the mold, and we were left with this thing: (this is where the image would go if the blog website wasn’t not letting put in a picture). Anyway, we didn’t have time to calculate the Poisson’s ratio, but we did find the measurements for it. When the structure was stretched in length by 0.1 cm, it also stretched in width by 0.05 cm.

To start off, two of Dr. Zhu’s graduate students showed us what they were working on – one thing they had made was this worm-like structure that responds to light and scoots along like an inchworm. It is capable of travelling through narrow slots. After learning about the graduate students’ projects, we went on to make a new design of metamaterials: this one is a very intricate pattern that took about an hour to fully cut out. When stretched on its sides, the structure also expands up and down.

Today was yet another asynchronous work day. The work that Dr. Zhu and his graduate students do in the lab is complicated, so when we do go to the lab, we often spend a bit of time researching metamaterials on our own with the graduate students there to help us with any questions we have. (This means we can do the same research from home almost just as well, and it’s a lot more convenient.) Anyway, we’ve been reviewing the academic paper that Dr. Zhu sent us and also looking at outside resources to figure out what metamaterial design we want to print. One option is the “bowtie” design which is like a hollow rectangular prism that buckles down so that it’s flat. However, the design that most interests me is this one design that is really hard (and slightly annoying) to fold correctly but turns out really cool: it starts as a zig-zag mess of folded paper and expands in not one but two directions into a jagged sheet of paper. I made an origami model of this design (see below for pictures). The next step (or at least an upcoming one) is rather exciting: we get to work with the graduate students to print the design that we end up choosing!

We took a break from our usual WEP activities at NCSU to visit Grifols – a pharmaceutical company – in RTP. We were given a thorough tour of a model plasma donation center and the company’s R&D labs, but one of the many highlights of our visit has to be the discussion panel we had with some of the people who work there.

During that panel, we gained a good sense of what lab work was like – sometimes things go wrong in mysterious ways, but ultimately, the real thing that holds lab workers back are redundant federal regulations (and the like). We heard interesting stories of how the panelists ended up where they were: some of them thought that they wanted to become doctors, but found that they liked a more lab-based field of science. And they all seemed to truly enjoy what they do and were happy with it. This was especially refreshing to hear amidst the noisy pressures that coerce high schoolers to become doctors or lawyers in the pursuit of being in a good place in life.

I’m hoping to replace this image with one of us from the discussion panel, but we have to wait for our host to make sure she has the authorization to release the photos of us first. But as sort of a placeholder, here’s one of Grifols’ donor centers – Grifols’ work involves the use of plasma, so plasma collection/donation is an important part of their process!

For WEP, Hannah, Ava, and I will be working with Professor Zhu at NC State to explore nanomaterials with a negative Poisson’s ratio, which means the materials expand when stretched rather than thinning.

Since every blog post needs a visual and we haven’t started WEP yet, I drew a smiley face (see below).