On August 23, 2021, undergraduate student scientists who spent their summer learning experimental skills and gaining laboratory experience at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI) presented talks about the research projects they completed during their summer undergraduate research experience. These Summer Undergraduate Talks were recorded, and we are pleased to share them here with each presenter’s permission.
Quantum Pathways students
Quantum Pathways program participants returned to in-person learning experiences in Summer 2021 after the program ran virtually in 2020. Quantum Pathways offers undergraduate students the opportunity to learn experimental processes and gain hands-on experience working in a research lab; first- and second-year undergraduate students interested in the field of quantum materials return to the labs at Blusson QMI each summer for up to four years to gain research experience and develop their scientific skills, and to discover and narrow their interest in quantum science and technology fields.
Van der Waals Heterostructure Assembly
- Speaker: Romina Mahinpei
- Supervisor: Joshua Folk
Read more about Romina Mahinpei’s summer experience: From Quantum Pathways to Cornerstone Models of Quantum Computing.
Sample Position Monitoring Inside the ARPES Spectrometer
- Speaker: Valentina Mazzotti
- Supervisor: Andrea Damascelli
Investigating the Properties of the Novel Battery Material LiNiO2
- Speaker: Gurleen Sandhu
- Supervisor: Alannah Hallas
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award students
NSERC’s Undergraduate Student Research Awards are meant to nurture an undergraduate student’s interest and fully develop their potential for a research career in the natural sciences and engineering. These awards are also intended to encourage students to undertake graduate studies in their field of interest.
Students participating in this program were supported in their experimental projects by Pinder Dosanjh and James Day as they completed Summer Skills Workshops and related training, including technical laboratory skills modules, scientific writing, and communication skills; they also received access to career panels and mentoring.
Lithography-Aware Subwavelength Grating Device Optimization
- Speaker: Julie Belleville
- Supervisor: Lukas Chrostowski and Jeff Young
Topological Photonics: Applications and Connections to Quantum Matter
- Speaker: Stephen Cashen
- Supervisor: Lukas Chrostowski and Jeff Young
Learning it the Hard Way
- Speaker: Peter Moen
- Supervisor: Sarah Burke
Searching for a Removable Cap for Monolayer Fe3GeTe2 Films
- Speaker: Dante Prins
- Supervisor: Ke Zou