Internships
Connecting Science and Sustainability
Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Grade 10
During my internship at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, I had the privilege of shadowing Dr. Ramya Sethuram, who guided me through exploring the universe and its vast array of stars and galaxies.
Since astronomy was not covered extensively in my school curriculum, I reached out to the dean of IIAP hoping to delve deeper into topics I had only scratched the surface of before.
With my mentor, I learned about galaxy scaling relations and what they can tell us about these galaxies' formations. The project allowed me to expand on my knowledge and investigate new areas of my favourite subject.
University of California
Santa Cruz
Grade 12
Hydrogen poises itself to be an effective green alternative to coal and oil with the benefit of being one of the most abundant elements on our planet, while also only producing water as a byproduct in a hydrogen fuel cell.
Hydrogen and oxygen gas can be efficiently extracted in large quantities from sea water via high current density electrolysis. Sea water poses some challenges however, as halogen byproducts such as chlorine and fluorine are produced as a part of the process alongside the more desirable oxygen gas.
This process is significantly impacted by a number of variables including the applied voltage and current across the electrodes, as well as the material and geometry of the electrodes.
The goal of my project at UCSC was to model the electronic properties of graphite electrodes under various electrical stimuli and the impact it has on the overall electrochemistry of the sea water electrolysis process.
