- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Central High School student mentored by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professors wins more than $60k for outstanding research

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 27 Jun 2018 16:46:28 +0000

When most people think of tea and molasses, their thoughts don’t stray any further than the kitchen. Meghana Bollimpalli, a Central High School student who was mentored by two chemistry professors at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, saw the potential to create a less-expensive renewable energy source that has earned her more than $60,000 in scholarships and prize money from science fair competitions. Meghana Bollimpalli, 17, of Little Rock, worked from October 2017 to March 2018 with chemistry professors Dr. Tito Viswanathan and Dr. Noureen Siraj on her high school research project to turn renewable waste materials like molasses and used tea leaves into electrodes for supercapacitors. Siraj, who mentored four high school students during the 2017-18 school year, said Bollimpalli was a talented and inquisitive student with a gift for chemistry. “The good thing about Meghana is she is always very interested,” Siraj said. “When a high school student comes in my lab, I want to make sure they don’t work as a technician without understanding the science behind the experiments. I push them to think creatively about the science. I push them to think a little bit deeper.” ��Ǳ��貹��’s novel, low-cost approach for synthesizing materials could greatly cut the production and energy costs of making electrodes for supercapacitors, which are used as energy sources in electronic devices including cars and medical equipment. She found that combining common substances like tea and molasses with nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing salts in a commercial microwave formed a powder that could be used as a coating for electrode-like materials, giving them similar properties of more expensive metals like platinum. “There is an increase in the demand for energy due to the alarming rate at which we are using our nonrenewable resources and the increase in population worldwide,” Bollimpalli said. “To address this demand, we need to find an environmentally and economically feasible way to store our energy. Supercapacitors are devices that address this demand due to their great properties such as portability, long cycle lifetime, and high energy density. But the problem is, in order for a supercapacitor to actually work, it needs a great electrode.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock chemistry professors Dr. Noureen Siraj (left) and Dr. Tito Viswanathan (right) mentored Central High School student Meghana Bollimpalli (center) on her project to create carbon-based electrodes for supercapacitors. Photo by Ben Krain/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

Electrodes in today’s market are usually made from expensive metals like platinum, gold, and palladium and can cost thousands of dollars. To address this problem, Bollimpalli created carbon-based electrodes for under $1 using renewable waste products such as tea powder and molasses. She won a total of $58,000 in in May at the 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award winners, taking home $50,000 as one of the top three presenters at the event, which attracted student researchers from 75 countries. She also won $5,000 for the Best of Category award in chemistry and $3,000 for a first-place finish in the chemistry category. So far, ��Ǳ��貹��’s project has won more than a dozen awards at six competitions in three states, winning about $61,000 in scholarship and prize money. She most recently was a Gold Medal recipient at the Genius Olympiad in Oswego, New York, in June. In March, she won a $1,500 scholarship as one of the top two award winners at the State Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Russellville. At the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair in Conway, she won four awards, including the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality Quest Award, which landed her a summer internship with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. “I am very thankful for everyone who helped me with this project. Science is not an individual project. You have to have a collaboration and have the perspectives of many people,” Bollimpalli said. “Dr. Tito and Dr. Siraj were patient in answering all my questions and proofreading my paper and exploring ideas and concepts with me. Dr. Siraj has a way to telling you things that make it stick.”

The best place to do research

Bollimpalli has been conducting research at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with the help of mentors since she was a freshman. She first worked with Dr. Shawn Bourdo in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences to create bioplastic samples to address the amount of plastic waste in the ocean. She synthesized bioplastic materials that could be used to create fast-acting biodegradable plastic shopping bags. “Regular plastics take hundreds of years to degrade, but the bioplastic samples I synthesized biodegraded in a week after you threw them away,” she said. In 2017, Bollimpalli worked with Dr. Anindya Ghosh, professor of chemistry. They used waste carbon dioxide to produce an eco-friendly, less-expensive cyclic carbonates, which are used in lithium ion batteries and pharmaceutical products like lipstick. “I want to continue doing research at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock because I have had great mentors and research opportunities here,” Bollimpalli said. “I love the professors and mentors and labs. I’d like to work again with Dr. Tito and Dr. Siraj, and I definitely want to stick within the chemistry department. I am lucky to be one of the few, the professors are willing to mentor. It was a great opportunity to learn so much and to meet all of the people at the international competitions. Getting all of this knowledge before I go to college is going to really give me a step up in college.” The Chemistry Department faculty at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is highly active in research as evidenced by funded research grants, publications, and patents. At the undergraduate level, faculty in the Chemistry Department mentored 15 Undergraduate Research Signature Experience awardees, all of whom presented at the 2018 Student Research and Creative Works Showcase and some at the Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans.

Future doctor plans to use language skills to help people get better access to healthcare

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 10 May 2018 13:29:13 +0000

As a Spanish interpreter at the 12th Street Health and Wellness Center in Little Rock, Rebecca Parker Moreira sees the challenges medical professionals and patients face when they cannot communicate with each other. “In the medical field, there are very few bilingual doctors,” Moreira said. “I think it is very important to build a rapport with patients by speaking their native language. It’s a big barrier for healthcare providers to not be able to communicate with their patients. It’s also a hindrance for the patients to have access to healthcare.” Moreira will graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock May 12 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a second in Spanish. To improve her language skills in the medical field, Moreira took Advanced Spanish for the Health Professions during the spring 2016 semester. Students in the class get the opportunity to volunteer as Spanish interpreters at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (��Vlog��ýMS) 12th Street Health and Wellness Center, a free clinic. Moreira had such a positive experience at the 12th Street Clinic that she completed a two-semester internship, which gave her enough credits to earn a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. She was also elected to the Spanish interpreter coordinator position and is the only undergraduate student to serve on the clinic’s Student Board of Directors. “My experiences at the clinic motivated me to apply to medical school because I saw the need for Spanish-speaking physicians, and I realized how passionate I was about medicine,” she said. “I want other students to be able to receive the same benefits I have from volunteering, which is why I have worked diligently to facilitate a partnership between the interpreter program at the 12th Street Clinic and the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of World Languages.” Moreira has always loved learning new languages. In high school, she studied Spanish and ancient Greek. Learning Spanish also helped her communicate with her high school sweetheart and future husband. “When we started dating in high school, my husband had just come to the U.S. a year before and didn’t speak a lot of English,” she said. “I felt like I would like to learn more Spanish so I could communicate with him better. It’s been really fun to be able to do that.” In addition to being a Spanish interpreter, Moreira is a Donaghey Scholar who works as a referee at Maumelle Soccer Club and a scribe at Anchorpoint Psychological Services. She recently received the American Institute of Chemistry Outstanding Graduating Senior in Chemistry award, the Undergraduate Research Award from the Department of Chemistry, and the Cervantes Outstanding Graduating Senior in Spanish Award from the Department of World Languages.

James Sellers and Rebecca Moreira admire chemistry beaker flasks they were awarded as recipients of the Department of Chemistry’s Outstanding Graduating Senior award. Photo by Ben Krain.

“��Vlog��ý Little Rock has been just the best experience that I could have hoped for at an undergraduate institution,” Moreira said. “Having the financial freedom through the Donaghey Scholars has been amazing. I have been able to help save up for medical school, and I have had a very broad education that I feel that I would not have been able to get at other institutions. Through the chemistry department, I have had opportunities to be involved in research that has shown me a whole other side to academia.” Moreira has conducted research with Dr. Tito Viswanathan, professor of chemistry, for two years. They are studying how a renewable resource-based waste product (woodchips) can be chemically modified to purify water from heavy metal contaminants. She was the recipient of an Undergraduate Research Signature Experience Award, which she used to present their research at the American Chemical Society national meeting in March. Moreira also presented her research at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Research and Creative Works Expo, where she received first place in the Physical Science division and first place in the Life and Physical Science division. Moreira also received first place in the Service Work and Professional Application division for a presentation on her work with the 12th Street Clinic. Moreira has been admitted to the ��Vlog��ýMS College of Medicine Class of 2022, where she will also earn a Master of Public Health degree so she can learn more about the socioeconomic barriers patients face when trying to access healthcare. She plans to become a doctor and use her public health education and language skills to advocate for better healthcare for non-native English speakers. “I am thankful to the Spanish department for the opportunity to use the language skills I learned in my courses to benefit the community because it also gave me the experience and passion to attend medical school,” she said.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host convocations to welcome freshman, faculty, and staff

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 13:00:14 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will welcome students, faculty, and staff for the start of a new academic year Tuesday, Aug. 15. The Freshman Convocation, an annual tradition offered by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student Affairs to mark the beginning of students’ academic journey, will be held at 11 a.m. in the University Theatre in the Center for Performing Arts. Following the Freshman Convocation, all students, faculty, and staff are invited for lunch, a pep rally with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s athletic teams, and an organizational fair at noon in the fitness center located in Donaghey Student Center. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Bookstore will host a fashion show at 1 p.m. During the Faculty and Staff Convocation beginning at 2 p.m. in University Theatre, Chancellor Andrew Rogerson will introduce new faculty members and talk about university initiatives. Provost Velmer Burton, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Mark Allen Poisel, Faculty Senate President Andrew Wright, and Staff Senate President Richard Harper are also scheduled to speak. In addition, six faculty members will give short TED Talks-style presentations on exciting research happening at the university: · Dr. Tito Viswanathan, professor of chemistry, will speak about water purification. · Dr. Moiz Bhal, assistant professor of economics, will discuss the outcomes of national teaching certifications. · Dr. Naveen Nagaraj, assistant professor of audiology and speech pathology, will talk about hearing, language, and cognitive science. · Dr. Nitin Agarwal, Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy endowed chair and professor of information science, will review his extensive work in social media research. · Dr. Rebecca Glazier, assistant professor of political science, will give a presentation about her research into religion and electoral politics. · Dr. Suzanne Penn, associate professor of clinical law, will discuss her work at the Delta Legal Clinic. After the convocation, a Champagne reception will be held in the University Theatre foyer to honor Provost Burton, Vice Chancellor Poisel, and new faculty members.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Central High School student mentored by ����Vlog��ý Little Rock professors wins more than $60k for outstanding research

Future doctor plans to use language skills to help people get better access to healthcare

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to host convocations to welcome freshman, faculty, and staff

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Central High School student mentored by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock professors wins more than $60k for outstanding research

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host convocations to welcome freshman, faculty, and staff