Fifth Annual Three Minute Thesis Competition

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Starting us off today is Jivyani excuse me it’s Devyani Jivani, with her presentation titled “Rethinking Needle in a Haystack Approach in Materials Discovery”. She comes from the materials design and innovation department in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and she grew up in Vadodara, India and likes to read and hike. In fact, she likes to hike so much that she was the vice president of the university hiking club during her undergraduate. Thank you very much for joining us and please go ahead when you're ready. Ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Devyani Jivani] If you had to, how would you look for a needle in a haystack? You would probably sift through the pile strand by strand until you found the needle, but what if you had no idea what a needle looked like, but you knew that it was heavier than hay? You might dump the hay in a pool of water, and hope for the needle to sink, but what if you knew that the needle was fire retardant and magnetic? Then, you could burn the haystack and use a magnet to pull it directly from the ashes into your hands. Once you know certain properties of the needle, the ones that set it apart from hay, there are multiple options to retrieve it. The task of discovering materials is comparable to finding a needle. New materials are discovered by trial-and-error approach, which is analogous to sifting through the hay, and this creates a premise for sub optimal materials being selected, which means that we may confuse a stiff pointy hair strand for the needle. In my research, we zoom into the material to identify the distinguishing and useful features. But why should we care about materials? Discovery materials are ubiquitous metals, plastics, even food is made up of materials, but did you know that some really common materials were discovered accidentally? Rubber, super glue, concrete were all accidents. One such accident was made by scientists who were trying to treat heart conditions thereby, little blue pill was invented and ironically, its side effect is heart attack. My work is to reduce this uncertainty while accelerating the discovery process to address the call for newer materials that that are designed just for our needs. We cannot depend on traditional discovery when new materials are synthesized before being tested for desirable properties. This is tedious and incredibly expensive. Computers are superior at solving complex problems, optimizing our needs while taking only seconds to make these decisions. My work is to develop algorithms to predict properties of compounds that do not even exist, and reduce physical experimentation significantly. I’ve applied this work to organic solar cells where the aim is to identify the key features that directly impact the cell performance. I further extended this work to plant-based meats. By infusing proteins in mushroom roots we can make it just as healthy as meat and address the 13 billion tons of waste, or 18 of greenhouse gases that is produced by livestock every year. Now you may wonder what these two seemingly different materials may have in common, but the properties depend on the structure of materials, and my work is to enable the extraction of these features or the needle in the haystack. And since we get to design materials based on properties, we could eventually create something as cool as Harry Potter's invisibility cloak. The possibilities are endless. Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our next presenter today is Olivia Licata. She comes to us from the Department of Materials Design and Innovation in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. I am told that she grew up in a house that has its own wiki page. We'll have to learn more about that at some other time. And her claim to fame is that she is proficient in movie quotes, and can in fact give better recommendations than Alexa. Ahank you for joining us today, we're looking forward to learning more about design from the atom app. And when you're ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Olivia Licata] Did you know that your cell phone has 100,000 times more processing power than the computer that helped us land on the moon? Wow what's really shocking about that statement, is that your cell phone fits in your hand. How could we go from a room full of computers to something that fits in our pocket? Because tiny is powerful, and over the last 50 years we've utilized the power of working at the atomic scale. Interactions at the atomic level influence life-size performance in our cell phones, computers, cars, even energy conversion and wind turbines. Now in order to design these components we need to be able to see at the atomic level. That's where my work comes in. In our lab, we can see atoms and know their identity and 3D location. Now just to give you a picture of just how small an atom is, think of one strand of your hair. The width of your hair is approximately one million atoms. In our lab, we focus on the semiconductors’ materials. Semiconductors are necessary in everyday devices like your phone and computer. The internet itself relies on semiconductors. Semiconductor materials are necessary because their conductivity changes based on an input such as temperature, which is how your rice cooker always cooks at the perfect temperature. You may have heard of semiconductors before in the form of a circuit or a chip. Our aim is to improve the fabrication process of these chips so that they can achieve maximum efficiency and performance. These rely on interactions at the atomic level. We provide the story behind each device component, how the layers stacked up, whether the materials were evenly distributed or segregated to different zones. From this story we can achieve maximum efficiency and performance.

So how this tool works is it removes one atom at a time. However, one of the major focus of mine is the unique occurrence where multiple atoms are removed at the same time and detected. These are more complicated events and so they're often overlooked. But to me, they can provide unique insight on the quality of the bond between layers, which don't always stack up so well. Imagine trying to stack legos on top of lincoln logs. That type of mismatch you would see on the atomic level. Mismatch requires an atomic level tool, the atom probe.

Our innovation is allowing for optimization of technology in your daily lives beyond just your cell phone or computer. We are making are your devices work faster and last longer through a more efficient conversion of energy. Tiny is powerful and can create a more sustainable future. Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our fifth presenter today excuse me Ronak, is going to be telling us about her work in bio-mediated soil enhancement. She comes to us from the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She's a strong advocate of climate change, and cares deeply about our planet and she is a foodie that cannot live without cheese. Ronak when you're ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Ronak Mehrabi] I’m a civil engineer and my job is to ensure your safety by designing stable structures. As you know the stability of all types of structures start from the solving system. This salt could be naturally dense and steep such as sea cleaves, or the walls of canyons and valleys. But this salt could be naturally loose and wet. Imagine a pool packed with ping pong balls and water. This example best represents the composition of a loose red soil. Now think what happens if you tap your food into this pool packed with balls and water. Yes, your foot will definitely sink into it. This experiment is similar to what happens to structures during liquefaction a geological hazard that is responsible for large infrastructural damages during earthquakes in liquefaction. The loose wet soil acts like a fluid rather than a solid due to earthquake shakes. As a result, their structures collapse and sink into the soil current and the current way to mitigate liquid fashion is mixing the soil with chemical cement to make it as strong as concrete. However, the chemical sequence is costly and the manufacturing of it is responsible for emission of up to five percent of greenhouse gases around the world. But we always can come up with an innovative and better design and solution to prevent the natural hazards by taking the inspiration from the smartest engineer around us, the nature this regard. My research investigates the use of a natural sustainable cement called calcium carbonate. Calcium cabinet is a mineral that is naturally created on earth, or in fresh water by means of microorganisms. And through some chemical reactions, this process can be synthesized in our laboratory by mixing the soil with a specific bacteria and a specific chemicals and letting the chemical reactions happen over a few days. The product is calcium carbonate, which is our natural cement. Now remember, the example of the ping pong balls. As the grains of our soil when the natural cement is produced between these grains by help of the bacteria this salmon attaches the grains or safe balls together as a glue this glue-like connection prevents the falls or grains prevents the movement and sliding of these balls or grains relative to each other. As a result, we have a solid concrete-like soil that withstand earthquake shakes and is reliable to build our infrastructures on. Now you can see where I found the biggest motivation to carry out this research inspiration by nature and sustainability. My goal is to promote and advance the use of processes found in nature to solve engineering problems related to earth structures. After all I’m a civil engineer, and I should put your safety first, why not to do it with the help of our mother nature? Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our fourth presenter today is Sarah Metcalfe she comes to us from Elmira, just a few hours away. She will be telling us about “When Good Turns Bad in the Oral Cavity”. and she's a student in the Department of Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine. In her free time, and particularly nowadays, she enjoys taking pictures and has been doing such of birds I guess in Buffalo since the pandemic very actively. Thank you Sarah for joining us today, and when you are ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Sarah Metcalfe] Did you know that nearly half the people here could have some form of gum disease? in fact severe gum disease is the sixth most prevalent disease worldwide it accounts for a major portion of the over 400 billion dollars in yearly cost for oral diseases. If you've ever had bloody gums when brushing your teeth. That's actually a sign of early gum disease. And I’m sure your dentist has reminded you that regular brushing and flossing, along with professional cleanings is usually enough to prevent the progression of gum disease along with the tooth loss and other link diseases like heart disease associated with it. However, there are many factors that conspire to enhance disease including genetics environment and microbes. This conspiracy of events leads to inflammatory conditions such as bloody and swollen gums, along with loose and sensitive teeth. You probably know that we are riddled with microbes like bacteria, most of which are harmless and in fact are important for maintaining our health. What you may not know is that these microbes are not always such good guys. Some are double agents. The same microbe that plays a beneficial role in one circumstance can be quite harmful in another. My research has found that a normally healthy oral bacterium can promote the inflammatory conditions seen in gum disease acting as fuel for the fire. The immune system in the mouth is one of those important factors that acts like a propellant gum disease. In fact, the disease in part results from an overreaction of the immune system leading to recession of the gums and destruction of the bones around the teeth, and even eventual tooth loss. My research is determining some of the mechanisms involved in the progression of disease development. Under healthy conditions there's a beneficial balance between microbes and immune cells that work to maintain a strong and mature immune environment. However, in disease the conditions can turn more like an uncontrolled wildfire where overgrowth of bacteria and introduction of bad bacteria can cause the painful inflammation. We see when brushing and flossing this inflammation counterintuitively can promote the survival of the normally healthy bacteria, which can in turn promote more inflammation leading to a fiery ring of inflammation destruction and disease progression. However, this detrimental feedback loop can be intervened with the work of dentists and improved treatment options. I know everyone wants to avoid painful dentist visits and high bills while brushing and flossing is important so is a better understanding of how disease can develop and better ways to intervene, saving money and smiles for millions of people. My research as an oral biologist is an important piece in the puzzle for fighting tooth loss and developing better therapeutics to give dentists better tools to fight the fire. Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our next presenter is Jennifer Mongiovi. Her title today is “How Treating Metabolic Syndrome Could Improve Ovarian Cancer Survival”. She comes from the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health at the School of Public Health and Health Professions. She's a native of Boston, sorry Ballston’s Lake. I’m sorry, and her guilty pleasure is to actually watch some good police crime drama shows, we share that in common. Thank you very much for joining us today Jennifer, and when you are ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Jennifer Mongiovi] If you've ever had a family member who was diagnosed with cancer then sadly, you're among the 50 of Americans who've gone through this upsetting experience. Despite advancements in screenings and treatments survival rates for some cancers hasn't changed much, and most people are doubtful will be a cure in their lifetime. This is true for ovarian cancer, sometimes called the silent killer. There are currently no screening recommendations for this cancer and the standard treatment has remained essentially the same since the 1980s, over 40 years ago. While the average woman only has about a one percent lifetime risk, that's still over 20,000 women each year in the United States alone who are told that they have a greater chance of flipping tails on a coin than surviving. Five years survival is much higher when catching this cancer at an earlier stage, but symptoms aren't typically experienced until later stages and are non-specific like weight loss or feeling bloated factors that predict survival are characteristics of the tumor itself like the cell type, or the size of the tumor which can't be modified. Therefore, the goal of my research has been to identify modifiable factors that could be intervened onto prolonged survival. One such approach is targeting metabolic syndrome, which is defined as having three or more of the medical conditions highlighted on this slide.

Medical earth, the metabolic metaboxy conditions have the potential to activate pro-cancer signaling pathways while shutting off anti-cancer signals. So far what we do know about this is that metabolic syndrome has been found to have a negative effect on treatment outcomes and several other cancers. What we don't know and what I’d like to find out, is that there are specific conditions or combinations like having both hypertension and diabetes that may be more or less favorable for ovarian cancer. To answer this question, my dissertation is focused on statistical analyses to identify combinations of risk factors associated with survival. Specifically, looking at metabolic syndrome conditions and related medications among women with ovarian cancer. Because we know that these conditions can be modified through diet, exercise and medication use it is possible that these same strategies could be applied to improve ovarian cancer survival. This is of increasing importance, since not only has survival for this cancer seen minimal improvement, but now over half of adult females in the us meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome. Also, female cancer patients are a particularly motivated group and often more receptive to lifestyle interventions. Simple lifestyle changes for healthier living or the repurposing of existing medications may have the potential to provide safe and non-invasive strategies to complement existing treatments like those from the 1980s. My hope is that through these analyses I’ll be able to identify specific groups of women who may benefit most from these complementary strategies and be able to live longer healthier lives. Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our last presenter today is Shreya Mukherjee. Her title today is going to be “Drive Towards Cleaner Vehicles”. She comes to us from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She's a native of Howrah, India, I hope I’m saying that right. Yeah that's great, very interested in public speaking, drawing, and singing and has a wish to visit every library in the world. I hope you get going soon. When you are ready, set, pitch.  

[Speaking: Shreya Mukherjee] Thank you Alan. Hello everyone. I’m actually, I like to work on different solving different energy technologies. As my title says, today I’ll talk about drive towards cleaner vehicles.  I don't know how many of you are excited to own or rent your own clean vehicle one day, but I just want to convey one message today. That zero emission cars use a fuel that not only burn without emitting any carbon dioxide, but the fuel when produced should not emit any carbon dioxide. So you know the electric cars which are already very popular should will be clean, 100 percent clean only if they are not they are always using 100 relievable electricity to recharge them. Which is one of the problems because currently only 20 percent of the electricity demand is met by renewable electricity for any purpose. The other alternative technology, which is there is hydrogen, which is a little less popular because hydrogen is very difficult to store and transport you know. There are hydrogen refilling stations only in California in U.S and that's because refilling stations are very expensive. So, to bring in renewable hydrogen from different states or different countries makes it even more expensive and there are like several scientists who are working on making the hydrogen transportation easier. But what we are trying to do is now use a liquid fuel like ammonia, which can be brought in on site and can be broken onsite into hydrogen on demand. But the problem there is currently the material that is used like the catalyst that is used to increase the conversion from ammonia into hydrogen is based on a very precious metal like ruthenium. And what we are trying to do is to use alternative or substitute materials which will make the cost which will make it cost effective, and which will be able to make it commercialized. So, we have been able to do that as of now wherein the cost reduction has become 50 percent and so it will it will actually help in reducing the hydrogen transportation problem and make the hydrogen technology at least feasible. There are some companies which like air products which are going into making this technology commercial and if you're questioning what if the chemicals that we are using are actually synthesized without generating carbon dioxide then yes. There are researchers who are actually trying to generate ammonia without generating carbon dioxide and we are also working on that so there should be an alternative technology which will not eliminate the battery vehicles, which will not eliminate electric vehicles but will also  be a substitute in making renewable energy more accessible to a wider  world for a cleaner drive towards cleaner vehicles Yeah thank you for your attention.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our next presenter is Kazi Md Mahabubur Rahman. Thank you very much for joining us today. He comes from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He's a native of Dhaka, Bangladesh and he would like one day to take a road trip on the Pan-American Highway and likes to invent quick cooking techniques, maybe he'll have some tips for us. When you're ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Kazi Md Mahabubur Rahman] Just in the USA, on an average every 60 minutes, there are two bladder cancer patients dead and 10 newly diagnosed. Bladder cancer is one of the costliest cancers to manage, mostly because of its recurrences. In fact, a full course treatment of the most recently approved medicine can cost a patient about 300,000. Unfortunately, there are no treatments which do not cause severe side effects on the healthy part of the bladder, or can fully prevent the cancer from coming back. The goal of my research is to treat bladder cancer without harming or losing the healthy part of the bladder. For that we need to find and kill the cancer specifically. Consider the bladder as an ancient village which is invaded by alien cancer cells. These aliens look almost like humans and it is very hard to distinguish them. Scientists came up with an idea of putting a chemical, let's say chemical A in every house of the village. Unlike normal villagers, aliens made a lot of chemical B using chemical A, that's exactly what was needed. As this chemical B is photoactive scientists lit up the whole village using laser and caused the houses which have chemical B in them to glow. Finding the aliens or cancer cells is not enough and this technique was not efficient enough to kill them either, that's where my research comes in. We have developed inactive chemotherapy drugs that will require light and chemical B to get activated. So once chemical A and our inactive drugs will be given in the bladder aliens will be making more chemical B, and with lasers we can activate our inactive drugs mostly in the aliens houses, and this will help us to kill the aliens; both by laser and chemotherapy as normal cells will not be making enough chemical B. Our drugs will not be active in the healthy tissue and ultimately, we can save the bladder. We have already developed several inactive drugs like this and found promising preliminary results in the experiments on cancer cells. And currently, we are evaluating our drugs in animal models to treat experimentally induced bladder cancer. These techniques can also help can also help to activate the body's immune system to fight against cancer coming back. That may help the recurrence problem of bladder cancer. We are very excited to complete this research here at UB and take it to the next level, where we can treat other cancers like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, etc. where we can use a similar strategy of activating inactive chemotherapy drugs, mostly in the tumor, so that we don't have to lose our hair, nail or beautiful skin while still killing the cancer using chemotherapy to live a healthy life. Thank you.

[Speaking: Alan Belicha] Our next presenter today is Behnoosh Sattari Baboukani the title of her presentation is a “Slippery Flatlands”. She comes to us from the Department of Materials design and Innovation in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. A native of Isfahan, Iran and since she was eight years old apparently she decided it was time to leave home, start living in a cave for the rest of her life and I guess the police got involved and we'll leave it at that for today whenever you're ready, set, pitch.

[Speaking: Behnoosh Sattari Baboukani] Have you ever thought about the role of your car engine oil? How does it protect your car from breaking down in the middle of the road? Your car engine efficiency suffers from the friction that occurs at various rubbing mechanical components such as the piston and the cylinder. These friction losses increase the fuel consumption and therefore, have a direct impact on greenhouse gas emission and climate change. The only solution for mitigating friction is developing fission lubricants in the same way we use oil drops to reduce the squeaking of the door. They can be used at the rubbing parts of an energy. However, to improve the performance of the oil, a small percentage of friction reducing agents is required. These tiny robots which we call them as a group additive. In my PhD research, I use graphene as a friction reducing agent. Graphene is only one atomic layer of graphite. Graphite the lid of your pencil, it consists of carbon atoms orange in a honeycomb structure. Graphene is the strongest material in the world, it is also flexible and inert and all these properties make this amazing material a potential candidate to be used as loop additives. However, graphene tends to absorb all oil molecules in an ordered arrangement layer by layer on top of each other in such an organized fashion. The density of oil molecules in the vicinity of graphene increases dramatically. This dense coherent structure behaves like a solid, rather than a liquid. Now tell me which one would you prefer using your surfboard on, water or on a road sliding and grappling with? An ordered structure of oil molecules will feel like surfing on a road. These ordered structures make graphene stiffer leading to higher friction. My goal is to understand the impact of the chemistry of oil molecules. In generating these ordered structures on top of graphene, and through careful selection of oil structure successfully we could reduce friction up to 90 percent. This means that using our new lubricant next time you don't need to hesitate for a few cents’ differences in the price of the fuel at different gas stations because you only need 10 gallons of fuel instead of 15 gallons, and still traverse the same distance with your Toyota Camry. Therefore, these next generation entities will not only conserve our environment but will also save our pockets by consuming less fuel. Thank you.