Each summer, undergraduate students make significant contributions to research projects at ECE while working as interns. Mireille Ghoussoub is going into her fourth year in Electrical Option of Engineering Physics. She is working closely with Dr. Peyman Servati’s research group, especially Dr. Bobak Gholamkhass and PhD student Saeedeh Ebrahimi Takalloo this summer.
What research project are you working on?
I’m assisting Saeedeh with a project on organic films and transistors. Transistors are little switches. They have always been silicone based in the past. There is a lot of interest right now in moving towards making transistors in new materials.
Organic materials are a popular alternative for manufacturing purposes. Transistors made of organic materials could potentially be made alongside plastics to make plastic electronics and flexible devices. These new transistors still don’t perform as well as the traditional transistors.
For this research project I am coating transistors with organic materials and then testing their performance. We are conducting experiments to find the optimal parameters for the coating, for example, the best concentration for this material and the best method to apply the material, spinning or dipping etc. I measure each transistor’s drain current or mobility, their ability to act as an efficient switch after being coated using these different methods.
How did you get this internship?
I took EECE 352, “Electrical Engineering Materials and Devices” last year; this course is taken by most ECE and engineering physics students. I really enjoyed it and I knew I wanted to do some kind of research internship over the summer. I approached Dr. Servati, who taught EECE 352, at the end of term and said, “Hey I’m interested. Are you willing to take an undergraduate in your lab?” We applied for the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award together.
How did you approach Dr. Servati?
I went and talked to him in person. Professors get lots and lots of emails so I think it’s more effective to speak to them in person. I think it helped that he knew who I was from the course. I made a point of approaching him throughout the term, of going to his office and asking questions so I was a familiar face.
One question I prepared an answer for in my mind before speaking to Dr. Servati is, “Why do you want to work in my lab?” I was ready to talk to him about what interested me in his research. It was definitely worth my time to go to get an idea of the research from course and laboratory websites.
I think if possible, it’s a good idea to get in touch with students who worked with a professor in the past, maybe even contact a graduate student or someone working in the lab to find out more about the lab.
How will this work influence your future?
I think having any kind of internship that is related to research is really good if you’re planning on applying to graduate schools. Having a professor you have worked for can be a good reference for graduate applications. Personally, I’m unclear on what I’m going to do after my undergraduate studies, but I feel like this will definitely help me if I want to go in the graduate school direction.
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