The College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is a unique opportunity for college of engineering undergraduate students to engage in hands-on research with a faculty mentor while using critical thinking, collaborative, and entrepreneurial skills. SURP is an 8-week long program (can be non-contiguous), and students are expected to spend at least 20 hours/week working on their research projects and additional time preparing and presenting their poster for the annual SURP symposium; SURP students and their faculty mentor will agree upon a start date and timeline for their research project (with a suggested start date of June 26th, 2023). The goals of SURP are to: 

Project Title: Characterization of Materials for Improving Bi-Facial Photovoltaic Module Performance

Secondary Project: Development of Cost-Effective Methods for Rapid Detection of Common Water Pathogens

Faculty Email: jlee473@calpoly.edu

A growing number of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the U.S. are now being designed and constructed with bi-facial crystalline silicon PV modules, which can convert light into electricity from both the front and rear sides of the module. The energy incident upon the ground-facing side of the modules depends on several factors including solar irradiance and ground albedo (reflectance). This project seeks to improve the energy harvest of bi-facial PV modules via ground surface albedo treatments to increase the amount of solar energy reaching the ground-facing side of bi-facial PV modules, and results from this work are expected to contribute to improvements and best practices in the area of solar energy/renewable energy. A team of two students will identify and characterize 2 – 3 high albedo / high reflectance materials that can be used as ground treatments, taking into consideration factors including material cost, availability, ease of deployment, maintenance requirements, and estimated expected increase in energy harvest. A comparison of white versus silver high reflectance materials is of particular interest. Characterization of the test materials will include measuring their change in albedo and reflectance over time under outdoor exposure conditions, and measuring their physical degradation via mechanical testing under each of outdoor exposure and accelerated weathering conditions. Clearway Energy is supporting this project by loaning the use of an albedometer and a MET (meterological) station valued at $5,000. 

The secondary project of this SURP research focuses on colorimetric detection of common water pathogens. As the primary project may or may not have large amounts of down time, work on this secondary project will proceed as time permits. Current commonly-used detection methods for these pathogens are time consuming and might not be accessible in certain parts of the world due to cost or resource limitations. This project aims to develop a nanotechnology-based method that can rapidly give a qualitative indication of the presence of water pathogens through color change, and quantitatively determine the concentrations of pathogens in water samples using non-sophisticated equipment. This detection technique has previously been reported in the literature using gold nanoparticles as the nanosensors. In this technique, the addition of the negatively-charged enzyme ßgalactosidase (ß-Gal), the dye chlorophenol red-β-D-galactopyranoside (CPRG), and positively-charged gold nanoparticles to a water sample without microbes will result in the ß-Gal binding to the gold nanoparticles via Coulombic attraction, and the color of the water will not change. However, when the negatively-charged microbes are present in the water sample, competitive binding will take place and the microbes will bind to the gold nanoparticles, freeing up the ß-Gal to react with the CPRG and change color. The magnitude of color change is directly proportional to the microbe concentration in the water sample. Initial results have indicated that high isoelectric point (IEP) materials (i.e., materials that are positively charged with respect to neutral water) tested with non-pathogenic E. coli support the hypothesis that Coulombic effects between a high IEP nanosensor material and E. coli predominates over any chemical bonding effects between a high IEP nanosensor material and E. coli in the colorimetric sensing of E. coli in water. This project seeks to build upon these initial results by testing high IEP nanosensor materials with other common pathogens such as salmonella and/or listeria. This project will also investigate whether positively-charged nanosensor materials can be eliminated altogether from this technique by using an electrically insulating material to contain the water sample (such as a clear glass vial) and positively charging the container. In this case, it is hypothesized that any negatively-charged microbes in the water sample will be attracted to the walls of the container, and that the ß-Gal and the CPRG that has been added to the water sample should react to change the color of the water to indicate the presence of microbes. If successful, the technology from this project can be commercialized and used for the testing of water quality in resource-challenged locations to determine if their water is safe to drink and use. A team of two students are anticipated for this project.

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