Breakthrough SJC rising high school senior German Guzman and rising high school junior, Francelia Lievanos gained valuable research experience this summer interning at University of California, Irvine’s Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Lab, with Professor Mecartney and her graduate students.
Over the six-week internship, German and Francelia studied how steam affects atom mobility in technical ceramics and received hands on experience making and testing materials, and using scanning electron microscopes. In addition, the two Breakthrough students learned about different fields of engineering and experienced firsthand what college life is like for students at UCI.
Francelia commented on her experience, “It opened my eyes to new fields I have never been exposed to. We learned about different types of engineering and I became very interested in biomedical engineering”.
Professor Mecartney was very impressed by German and Francelia! The two students wrapped up their internship by visiting the Breakthrough SJC summer program and not only presented their research to Breakthrough students but also helped with demonstrations performed by Professor Mecartney and her team of graduate students.
