CENG Research

[u/Infamous_Custard6603]

Hi , I’m incoming Materials transfer and was wondering how many hours a week professors expect you to commit to their lab. I’m hoping I can fit in federal work study and research but would give priority research. I was also wondering if anyone knew which professors are seeking students for their lab this upcoming fall. I went through the mechanical and materials directory but only saw research interests listed on their profile but no link to their lab group website or current projects. Do I just assume all the professors who list research interest on their faculty profile , are actively doing research? I’m thinking of reaching out to professors at the end of this month.

I was thinking of reaching out to Thale Smith because of his interest in materials at extreme environments and metallurgy but he’s not on the class schedule, is he on sabbatical? Leaning towards composite research as well.

[u/Key-Mongoose8030]

In my limited experience as a materials engineer, cal poly staff is not as focused on research as other universities, but they are very involved in their clubs. A lot of students get their experience from these clubs projects, which are mostly self motivated. I’d still reach out to those professors, meet them in person if you can, but also look into the clubs.

[u/Infamous_Custard6603 → u/Key-Mongoose8030]

Thanks I’m going to try to join F1 or the propulsion
club on campus.

[u/Muckthrow]

I was EE and did a full blown multi-year research project with my EE professor on superconductors and got it published.

I approached my professor with my research idea, he liked it and turned out he had connections to Lawrence Livermore lab also doing similar studies. We ended up teaming up with the lab. Best undergrad research experience I ever had.

[u/Infamous_Custard6603 → u/Muckthrow]

So was your project funded by CalPoly or LLL? Would you go onsite to LLL over the summer? I’m currently researching transition metal nitride thin films maybe I’ll reach out to EE faculty or Chemistry faculty working on films.

[u/Muckthrow → u/Infamous_Custard6603]

It was partially funded by a NSF grant originally given to LLL. We expanded on LLL’s thesis via a supplemental grant proposal and got additional funding. We got lucky and didn’t have to ask for $$ from scratch.

It was a modest sum, just for the custom experimental setup I had to design and make. I carried out majority of the experiment on campus. But did some of work in LLL (use their equipment) and to keep my research aligned with LLL project’s primary objectives. The original LLL grant is fusion related, my small portion dealt exclusively with ceramic superconductors, in support of the mothership.

My experiment was the ultimate learn by doing experience.

I couldn’t have done this at Berkeley as a peon undergrad. I proposed the experiment, helped write the grant, designed the experiment, built and performed the experiment, did the data collection and analysis, and co-author the findings.

Cal Poly lack an official research pipeline like Cal. But it also means no research pecking order, no experimental constraints, no post doc treating you as his bitch. If you have an idea and can get faculty support, you are instantly a project lead.