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Reposted from UMBC News: From better batteries to safer surgery: Three engineering grads to tackle society’s big challenges with support from prestigious NSF research fellowships

How can we make the world a better place? It's a question that Nathaniel Glover '25, chemical engineering, Jacob Lombardo '25, mechanical engineering, and August Phelps '25, mechanical engineering, have spent a lot of time thinking about. And each has concluded that advancing science is a powerful way to advance humanity. From left to right, Nathaniel Glover, August Phelps, and Jacob Lombardo on the UMBC campus. The three were awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program support. (Photo by Catherine Meyers)

The three promising researchers were each recently recognized and rewarded by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), which provides financial support to U.S. graduate students who have shown the potential to be high-achieving scientists and engineers. 

"The NSF GRFP award is a very prestigious and competitive award," says Deepa Madan, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has worked with both Glover and Lombardo on research projects in her lab. So far this year the program has awarded 1,000 fellowships across the U.S., about half of the typical number, making the process even more competitive. This fall, Glover, Lombardo, and Phelps will all head to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to begin their graduate education and research. 

The thrill of research

Glover, Lombardo, and Phelps knew early in their college careers that they wanted to become researchers. The three are part of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at UMBC, which is at the forefront of efforts to increase diversity among future leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by supporting students who intend to pursue a Ph.D. or combined M.D./Ph.D. in these fields. Throughout their time at UMBC, they engaged in a variety of research projects with different faculty mentors. 

Nathaniel Glover stands next to the research poster he presented at the end of his internship at Argonne National Laboratory in summer 2024. (Photo courtesy of Glover)

"I really enjoy the quest to answer unanswered questions," Glover says, explaining what attracts him to research. Most recently, he worked in Madan's lab on a project to develop rechargeable, safe, and flexible zinc alkaline batteries, which could revolutionize how consumers power devices such as wearable health monitors.

Lombardo has also worked in Madan's lab, studying materials that can convert wasted heat into electricity, while Phelps recently worked with mechanical engineering assistant professor Ankit Goel to develop methods for improving control over the flight trajectory of multicopters. Multicopters, which use multiple rotors for lift and maneuvering, are inherently unstable and underactuated, meaning the craft is limited in the ways it can move and must actively stabilize itself at all times. The researchers developed a method to guide the aircraft along a desired trajectory as precisely as possible despite variations in operating conditions and physical properties of the multicopter.

The problems the students and their mentors study—such as how to power and control machines—transcend any particular application, and the solutions the researchers develop could have profound effects on a variety of technologies. 

For example, in graduate school, Phelps will join a lab that develops control systems for medical robots. There, he will study electrocauterization, a medical procedure that uses heat generated by an electric current to perform tasks such as removing harmful tissue and controlling bleeding during surgery. Phelps said the speed of the process needs to be carefully controlled to avoid excess damage to healthy tissue, and the lab he is joining is working on ways to automate this control. He notes that both his father and girlfriend have undergone medical procedures with long recovery times. Making the process better is personal to him. 

Glover and Lombardo agree that what keeps them going, even through late-night problem solving and failed prototypes, is the desire to improve the way things get done. "I love how engineering research takes fundamental science principles and applies it to making a difference in the world," says Lombardo.

"My real passion is figuring out how to progress as a species," echoes Glover. "Science is one of our most powerful tools for that." 

A launch pad for big dreams

Jacob Lombardo (left) and labmates Jiyuan Huang and Srushti Kulkarni attend the 2024 Consumer Electronics Showcase, as part of the Southwest I-Corp program. The program guides engineers to engage with stakeholders outside the lab to better understand market needs and consumer requirements. (Photo courtesy of Lombardo)