ODES-Lab: Outreach

Video Lecture Series

Created and curated by “the three amigos” Marc-Antoine Fardin (Institut Jacques Monod, CNRS, Université Paris Cité); Mathieu Hautefeuille (Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, UMR7622, Sorbonne Université); Vivek Sharma (Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago) 

2. Video series on Mechanics, focusing on the interplay of mechanical quantities, and how these result in particular kinematics and dimensional analysis. https://www.numbersnature.org/mechanics .

1. Video series on Explosions, focusing on the kinematics of explosions, including a detailed dive into Taylor’s scaling of 2/5 and the Trinity test. https://www.numbersnature.org/explosions 

The videos can also be accessed on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@naturesnumbers

Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers, Summer 2019

Activities included seminars by visitors from industry and academia, tutorials to develop skills and knowledge related to complex fluids, experimental techniques including rheological characterization, high speed imaging, etc and special focus on development of soft skills needed for networking, interviewing and presenting better.

Seminar Speakers (Topics): Jeff Ting, PME, University of Chicago (The Art of Presentation), Varun Kulkarni, Mechanical Eng., UIC (Drop Coalescence and Fragmentation), Amanda Marciel, Rice University (Quests in Polymer Physics), Jeremy Koch, Northwestern University (Drops & Electrodyhdrodynamic Instabilities), Sarai Chavez and Eduardo Martinez, UIC (Correspondence: The Unwritten Rules), Meng Shen, PME, University of Chicago (Transport in Polymers), Alex Marras, PME, University of Chicago (Nucleic Acid Polyelectrolyte Complex Micelles), Jelena Dinic, PME, University of Chicago (Coacervates: Structure and Rheology), Abhinendra Singh (Simulating Soft Matter Rheology) and tutorials by Sharma Soft Matter ODES-lab.

Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers, Summer 2018

Activities included seminars by visitors from industry and academia, tutorials to develop skills and knowledge related to complex fluids, experimental techniques including rheological characterization, high speed imaging, etc and special focus on development of soft skills needed for networking, interviewing and presenting better.

Seminar Speakers (Topics): Yamil Colon, University of Chicago/ Notre Dame (A Primer for Starting Research), Deborah Schneiderman, IME, University of Chicago (Writing Good Scientific Paper), Vivek Narsimhan, Purdue University (On Faculty Search), Pete Nelson, Dean, UIC (Leadership), Amanda Marciel, IME, University of Chicago (Polymer Physics & Presenting Polymer Physics), Blair Brettman, Georgia Institute of Technology (Project Management), Sarai Chavez and Eduardo Martinez, UIC (Correspondence: The Unwritten Rules), Meng Shen, IME, University of Chicago (Charged interactions in polymers and emulsions), Cynthia Jameson, Chemistry, UIC (“To freely go… exploring the unknown”), Jeff Ting, IME, University of Chicago (Precision drug delivery), Jon DeGroot, Dow Silicones (“Careers & Research in Industry”), Alex Marras, IME, University of Chicago (First impressions: CV, Resume & Cover letter), Abhinendra Singh, IME, University of Chicago (Simulating Suspension Dynamics), a visit to Abbvie (arranged by ODES-lab alumnus Andrew Rasmussen), and tutorials by Sharma Soft Matter ODES-lab.

PRINTING PLASTICS, SOLAR CELLS AND CHOCOLATE (June 26 – July 21, 2017)

The Chemical Engineering Department created a summer program on “Printing Chocolates, Plastics, and Solar Cells: Understanding Chemical Engineering” for the Knowles UIC-COE WIESP 2017 (was funded for $3500 for materials & support for student instructors and teaching assistants). The key topics and application areas covered in this program included: (1) Principles of 3D Printing of Plastics (Chemical Manufacturing and Materials Design), (2) Chocolate Processing (Food Engineering), and (3) Graphene-Based Solar Cells (Renewable Energy).

The ODES-lab student mentor Leidy Nallely Jimenez (Ph.D. candidate) lectured and involved twenty-four high school students in hands-on activities. Leidy was assisted by two excellent T.A.s: Faizan and Justina Mei.

Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers, Summer 2017

Activities included seminars by visitors from industry and academia, tutorials to develop skills and knowledge related to complex fluids, experimental techniques including rheological characterization, high speed imaging, etc and special focus on development of soft skills needed for networking, interviewing and presenting better. Included invited presentations by  Amanda Marciel, Handan Acar, Samanvaya Srivastava and Yamin J. Colon (all post-doctoral researchers at U. Chicago), Cynthia Jamieson (Professor Emeritus, UIC), and tutorials by Sharma Soft Matter ODES-lab.

Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers, Summer 2016

Dr. Sharma and ODES-Lab acknowledge COE funds of 15000 for the 2016 edition. Included invited presentations by Samanvaya Srivastava (U. Chicago), Harsh Katekar (U. Chicago), Cynthia Jameison (Professor Emeritus, UIC), and Aurelie Hourlier-Fargette (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France), and tutorials by Sharma Soft Matter ODES-lab.

Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers, Summer 2015

ODES-lab and Dr. Sharma acknowledge a grant of $21,000 from COE Annual Funds. Activities included seminars by visitors from industry and academia, tutorials to develop skills related to imaging as well as interfacial phenomena and rheology, and presentations by participating twenty undergraduate students.

Special Seminars (excluding tutorials and lectures given by the P.I. and the graduate students in ODES-lab):

1. Applying Chemical Engineering Knowledge in real world; perspectives from ODES-Lab alumni: Collin Pearsall, Sandy Younan, Nallely Jimenez and Steven Priest.
2. Leadership, Pete Nelson, Dean, College of Engineering at UIC.
3. Networking, Paroon Chaddha, CEO & Co-founder, Passageways
4. Publish or Perish, Samanvaya Srivastava, Post-doctoral research associate, University of Chicago.
5. Applied Rheology, Jeremy Brunette, Kimberley-Clark.
6. Energy Research on both sides of Atlantic, Ryan Bayliss, UIC Chemistry.

AIChE Midwest Regional Conference, March 10, 2014

Dr. Vivek Sharma and Yiran Zhang demonstrated how surfactants and catalytic reactions produce foam. Around thirty students learned concepts and ideas related to surface tension, foam stability, surfactants and catalysis.

Engineering Week at STEM Magnet Academy, February 18, 2014

Dr. Belinda Akpa, Dr. Vivek Sharma, Dr. Randall Meyer, and graduate students Jelena Dinic, Catalina Mogollon, and Subinuer Yilixati spent an afternoon with 4th graders, engineers of future, at Chicago’s STEM Magnet Academy. Explosive foam formation sparked the greatest response from these kids, though they seemed impressed also by he fact that surface tension allows paper pins to float on water and some insects to walk on water.

PROJECT SYNCERE & Middle school students, December 7, 2013

On Saturday, December 7, Dr. Belinda Akpa, Dr. Vivek Sharma, Dr. Randall Meyer and Yiran Zhang conducted a workshop on the science and applications of bubbles and foams.  The activity aims to contribute to the Emerging Engineers Program. The Workshop was organized at Project SYNCERE’s home base on Chicago’s South Side. Nearly 40 middle and high-school students attended and conducted a series of hands-on investigations / experiments about surface tension, foam formation, colors of bubbles and soap films, bubbles jumping on trampolines (formed with soap films), pressure inside a bubble and minimal surfaces formed by soap films.

Flow 3D Users Conference: We won the best presentation award.

Society of Rheology Meeting 2017: Five talks, two collaborative talks, and a poster, including work on Dripping-onto-Substrate Rheometry, Foam Film Hydrodynamics, Dynamics of Polyelectrolytes and Computational Fluid Dynamics Studies of Pinch-off Dynamics.

AIChE 2017: Nine talks, three posters, with Jelena Dinic featured in the Graduate Polymer Symposium

Applied Soft matter Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (ASSURE) and Mentored Professional Development Program for Future Chemical Engineers: Every Summer

Demonstrations on Foams and Soft Matter Physics: Project Syncere, STEM Magnet Academy School, AIChE Midwest Conference, Engineering Open House.

Organization of Chicago Society of Rheology Meeting (every Summer).

Hosting post-doctoral researchers and future faculty for seminars (past speakers in the series include Charles Sing (then Northwestern, now faculty at UIUC), Samanvaya Srivastava (U. Chicago, headed to UCLA), Ruth Cardinaels (visitor to Princeton, now faculty at TU Eindhoven), Sanjay Behura (then post-doc, now Research Faculty at UIC), Handan Acar (post-doc in U. Chicago, future faculty in Oklahoma), Yamil Colon (currently post-doc at U. Chicago), Amanda Marciel (currently post-doc at U. Chicago), Harsh Katekar (currently post-doc at U. Chicago), and Aurelie Hourlier-Fargette (PhD student at Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France; currently post-doc in Northwestern).

Seminars in Universities, Conferences and Industry.