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2022 Summer Research Returns to In-Person Format

2022 Student Researchers at MSU St. Andrews

The Summer 2022 program hosted 24 area high school students who participated in person for eight weeks from June 20 through August 12 at St. Andrews. Students worked alongside preceptors in hands-on research across nine topic areas in organic chemistry, environmental science, and materials science. New in 2022 was the addition of two research opportunities in Radio frequency identification (RFID) for Food Packaging Applications…

Summer Research Pivots To Virtual Program During Pandemic

Student researcher at home.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 MSU St. Andrews Summer Research program was held virtually for six weeks from June 22 through July 31.

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Lewis Acid Catalysis

Two Students from Group

Maya Albright, Jared Gonder, Madylin Sherman (all from Midland High School), Kaedon Cleland-Host (Dow High School), Samuel Layher (Great Lakes Bay Early College) and Sarah Syeda (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy) and their mentor, Dr. Jack Kruper have been working on two projects this summer: using Lewis acids for novel refrigerants and assisting in the intermediate step when synthesizing an antimicrobial (Zyvox)….

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Gas Cylinder Tracking and Dashboard

Hydrolysis Students

The Gas Cylinder Tracking System Group, including students; Joey Griffin, Sarah Menzl (both from Dow High School), Olivia Zielke (Frankenmuth High School), Phil Spannagel (Hemlock High School), Gabe Proprave, and Noah Adamick (both from Midland High School) have constructed a web application that will allow MSU employees to check gas cylinders in and out of labs using their smartphones.  Each cylinder and…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Organic Battery

Battery Students

Isabel Chaput and Kathryn Altes (both Dow High School), Jacob Berry (Western High School), Hanna Haque (Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy), and Dominik Servinski (Midland High School), are working in conjunction with their mentor, Dr. Adina Dumitrascu, to investigate ways in which to improve the safety of lithium ion batteries and to create new, more robust, cheaper and less toxic active compounds…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Professional Writing

Seven interns in the writing program

Students from the Writing Group add the “A” into STEAM on the St. Andrews campus with a new collaboration between Creative 360 of Midland, MI, and MSU.  Students including; Madeline Champagne (Nouvel Catholic Central High School), Emily Coston (Midland Christian School), Brooke Duley (Freeland High School), Shane Hogan and Meghan Killmaster (both from Dow High School), and Kyla Richardson and Jahdiel Wingard…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Hive Tool

HiveTool Group

The honeybees have another ally on the MSU-St. Andrews campus; the Hive Tool Group. This group has focused on testing and calibrating sensors which will be placed inside St. Andrews’ beehives. These sensors will monitor the hive temperature, humidity, and weight. However, students are also evaluating ways in which to keep the sensors free of wax and comb which could potentially cause…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Automated Gaming

Automated Gaming Students

The automated game opponent group, including students; David Lin, Amelia Mylvaganam, Sreya Manchiraju, Nathaniel Kalantar (all from Dow High School), Sid Somasi (Carmel High School), and Elliot Moore (Midland High School), studied Python for three weeks and then sought to design an automated opponent that can play a board game against a human player. The strategy game that they are analyzing has…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Water Purification

Water Students

Reema Patel, Emma Allington (both from Dow High School), and Gage Slominski (Hemlock High School) have been collaborating with their mentor, Dr. Daniel Henton, to remove fluoride from water without the use of electricity.  The purification process involves an ion exchange resin where ionized groups are attached to a polymer backbone.  This resin provides sites, which can bind various positive ions that…

STEAM Internship Spotlight: Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis group

Kaily Metz and Rebecca Kowalczyk (both from Dow High School) have been conducting research on polyethyloxazoline and polyethylenimine (PEI) polymers in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the formation of the PEI product, which is used for gene transfection. Rebecca and Kaily are creating the PEI product through the process of hydrolysis and have spent considerable time examining the characteristics of…