Oisín Wade, a UCD Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering Student

Having landed in Washington D.C. with 3 days to explore the capital and a 14hour Amtrak to South Bend, located right beside University of Notre Dame, fair to say it was already an experience prior to my arrival. South Bend is only two hours outside Chicago with the only passenger train line in the Midwest, so it was easy enough to get to and from Chicago and Michigan City. I lived in a house shared with 4 other Naughton Scholars, and the 10 weeks went by like a flash of lightning whilst working on the gorgeous campus. While there I got the opportunity to take part in different activities, sports, learn more about America and Notre Dame, attend workshops on many topics from considering committing to a PhD to Art appreciation. Through these I met the other Naughton fellows from my program but also Master Students doing the ESTEEM course, and I got to meet and get to know undergraduate researchers from the States and further afield!

During my time at Notre Dame, I worked in the Environmental Engineering Department in Associate Professor Kyle Doudricks lab which concerned itself with PFAs and water treatment. I worked with a variety of projects and had the chance to gain a familiarity with each PhDs and Postdocs work from single atom loading of catalyst membranes for heavy metal water treatment to thermal treatment (incineration) of PFAs loaded material, fair to say it was a holistic learning experience. I spent a lot of time in the lab gaining a lot of hands-on experience, gaining a lot of practical skills while learning how to think like a researcher. Having gotten a taste for research in environmental engineering in the area of PFAs & water treatment, building up a variety lab, research and critical thinking skills, it has been an extremely enriching professional and eye-opening personal experience. After a bit of time, my main worked ended up in researching, designing and executing my project titled “Efficient removal of textile dyes from synthesis wastewater using algal biomass : A study on Methylene blue, Methyl Orange and Rhodamine B” with help and support from Dr. Siwei Gu. Initially, this study explored other potential sources to produce activated carbon by using different types of seaweed, selected due the presence of multiple different functional/chemical groups within its cell matrix. However, after finding out that thermal treatment led to a degradation in adsorption capacity for the model pollutants, the project pivoted to characterising the adsorption capacity of seaweed as a novel method in the removal of contaminants from wastewater, using textile dyes as our “model” pollutant. I also had the opportunity to assist Dr. Liliya Chernysheva in her thesis work regarding methods to accurately quantify PFAs built up in soils, different manmade materials as as well as PFAs generated due to household cleaning products. It allowed me the opportunity to experience using new machinery such as PIGE, XPS, XRF, working with EPA methods and understanding the challenge in gaining certainty of results when working on such minute scales. I presented my seaweed findings at the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium at the end of my time at Notre Dame (more specifics on my LinkedIn if you’re interested).It was a pleasure presenting my findings in a easy to understand and engaging way to do so many people but equally exciting was the chance to see all the other projects that had been carried out which ranged from studying new ways to model nuclear kinetics to conjugates, a type of assistant molecule that results in significantly improved efficiency of antibiotic medicines.

I am extremely grateful to UCD for selecting me to take part in the Naughton Fellowship program at Notre Dame. If not for UCD, I would’ve never had the opportunity to study abroad or pursue this opportunity. Having opened so many doors for me, choosing to study Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering at UCD has been definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made so far. This course has given me a strong foundation in several engineering disciplines. I’m looking forward to spending the next two years back home at UCD where I will complete my Integrated ME Program in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering.I would highly recommend to anybody interested in the research side of engineering to apply to the Naughton Fellowship Program at Notre Dame. If you are passionate about a particular engineering topic you will be amazed at just how much you can contribute and learn from the world of research.