Creating industrial internships that could lead to job opportunities for undergraduate physics majors is a major element of a $40,000 seed grant awarded the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Renato Camata, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor of physics in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, will lead the central research component of controlling microstructures in advanced materials. Robert Arslanbekov, Ph.D., senior principal scientist at CFD Research Corporation, will train UAB physics graduate students in the use of CFDRC’s plasma simulation code.
Two undergraduate students studying applied physics will be selected as full-time research interns, who will investigate thin film growth, ion-probe plasma measurements and plasma simulation under the direction of Camata.
Funding from the National Science Foundation supports the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, where UAB’s Department of Physics participates in the Connecting the Plasma Universe to Plasma Technology in Alabama program. The project seeks to understand, predict, and control plasma processes and interactions in low-temperature plasma (LTP) environments. This knowledge can be used to develop new technologies for aerospace, manufacturing, medicine, agriculture, and food safety.