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2012 Intern Projects

2012 Summer Projects at IBM Research - Almaden

  1. Non-volatile memory devices
    Mentor: Geoffrey Burr
    Over the past few years, as we push towards creating devices that could enable Storage Class Memory, our group's focus has been non-volatile memory, including phase-change memory (PCM) and more recently, resistive memory (RRAM). Past internships in this area have ranged from device fabrication to device testing to simulation to materials studies. Students we have hosted have participated in many different journal/conference publications, leading to numerous individual citations. The prospective student we are looking for here would have strong physics, laboratory and programming skills, would be comfortable working in a team, and yet is highly self-motivated.
  2. Polymer-Magnetic Nanoparticle Assemblies for Nanomedicine
    Mentor: Alshakim Nelson
    Magnetic nanoparticles provide a set of building blocks for constructing stimuli-responsive nanoscale materials with properties that are unique to this scale. The size and the composition of MNPs are tunable to meet the requirements for a range of applications including magnetic fluids, catalysis, data storage media, and medicine. For example, superparamagnetic nanoparticles are suitable for bio-related technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents and biosensors, while ferrimagnetic or ferromagnetic nanoparticles are required for information storage technologies such as hard disk drives and magnetic tape.
    We have recently developed a series of non-aggregating nanoparticle composites which are readily processed in solution. These core-shell assemblies are comprised of an inorganic magnetic core and a diblock copolymer shell. The polymer that surrounds the nanoparticle provides a versatile platform for introducing functionality to the nanoparticle surface, as well as controlling the solubility of the complex. The goal of this project is to utilize this platform to develop magnetically sensitive theranostic materials which can not only deliver therapeutic cargo, but also act as a contrast agent for MRI. The project will include the synthesis of the nanoparticles via thermal decomposition routes, the synthesis of the functional block copolymers using controlled polymerization techniques, and characterization of the complexes.
  3. Synthesis of novel engineering thermoplastic polymers for water purification membranes
    Mentors: Ankit Vora, Young-Hye Na
    IBM has an active program in developing new materials for water purification membranes since 2008. In the past three years, we have developed new antifouling and antimicrobial polymers and demonstrated novel ways of modifying the commercially available ultrafiltration membranes to render them highly hydrophilic. The modified membranes have extremely high water flux and excellent antimicrobial properties when tested against model foulants and E. Coli bacterial respectively. This year we are initiating a new project to develop novel block copolymers using engineering thermoplastic polymers as one of the blocks for water purification membranes. The polymers would be synthesized using a combination of step growth polymerization and controlled radical polymerization techniques and characterized using standard techniques NMR, TGA, DSC, IR, etc. The polymers would be self assembled and processed to fabricate novel nanoporous membranes.
  4. Polymerizable Carbosilane Monomers: Synthesis, Characterization and Mechanistic Studies
    Mentors: Victor Lee, Robert Miller
    Hybrid organosilicate polymers have applications in many areas including microelectronics, optoelectronics and biomedical arenas. They also provide functionalizable platforms for the formation of porous media. One problem with organosilicates is their limited mechanical stability and tendency to crack. This can be mitigated by the incorporation of carbon bridging between multivarient silicon functionalities. We have devised a new synthetic approach to carbosilane monomers via acetylenic starting materials. We would like to expand the monomer set available using this procedure and study the mechanism of rearrangement that often occurs. The candidate should be interested in the synthesis and characterization of small molecules including those containing silicon , mechanistic studies, the preparation of organosilicate polymers by sol gel processes and the technological applications of such hybrid (organic/inorganic) materials. The candidate would work closely with a synthetic staff member in a well equipped laboratory.
  5. Modeling of Organo-Catalytic Polymerization Reactions in Solution
    Understanding the mechanisms of organo-catalytic polymerization reactions is an important aspect of polymer chemistry, and for many of these reactions there is no clear picture of the mechanism: Does it involve a radical intermediate? Is it a concerted reaction? What is the function of the catalyst? Does the solvent play an important role? The project uses computational chemistry methods to study these problems. A computational study of many possible reaction mechanisms helps elucidate the ones that may actually occur and to compare where possible with experimental data in the literature. In particular, we will investigate use of a variety of quantum mechanical methods and predict reactant/product structures, transition states and spectroscopic properties of the species involved. The intern's work will involve some computer programming, quantum chemical calculation, molecular simulation, data analysis and statistics.
    Prerequisite: Must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major and should have completed a course in physical chemistry. Student should be familiar with basic concepts of quantum mechanics. Must have some basic computer programming skills, and experience with Unix and Windows.
  6. Computer Simulations of Polymeric Systems
    Thin films of block copolymers containing nanoscopic domains have merged as a promising patterning method for the creation of sub-optical lithographic features. This project involves computational molecular modeling of single molecule self-assembly, as well as the modeling of molecular systems of many small polymeric molecules to understand the phenomena of phase formation, defect formation, migration, and annealing. Student intern will be involved in performing molecular simulations and the analysis of resulting data sets. The intern's work will also involve some computer programming, data analysis and statistics.
    Prerequisite: Must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major and should have completed a course in physical chemistry. Student should be familiar with basic concepts of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Must have some basic computer programming skills, and experience with Unix and Windows.
  7. Modeling solvent effects on the electronic structure of lithium ions in polymer electrolyte environments
    We are interested in applying MM/QM simulation techniques to study metal ions and metal oxide ions in solution, and, in particular, in model polymer electrolytes with potential uses in batteries. These would start with lithium ions in typical battery solvents such as propylene carbonate and extend to complex charged polymeric electrolytes. Some simulations have been done in this space, but these have been mainly classical, using either fixed charge or polarizable force fields. We would like to see what is happening to the electronic structure of the solutes using quantum chemical approaches. The challenge of this environment is that it is a dynamic high dielectric solvent containing mobile ionic species which produce both screening and shielding of electrostatic interactions, so traditional approaches that treat the solvent simply as a continuum dielectric material may not be sufficiently accurate.
    Prerequisite: Must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major and should have completed a course in physical chemistry. Student should be familiar with basic concepts of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Must have some basic computer programming skills, and experience with Unix and Windows.
  8. Computer modeling of polymeric nanoparticles designed for drug delivery
    There is growing interest in the use of biocompatible polymeric nanoparticles for drug delivery. The hope is that such materials can be engineered to absorb therapeutic (drug) molecules before their delivery into the body, and then to release them in a controlled or programmed manner under physiological conditions. We have an active program in the computer modeling of star polymers where each arm of the star is itself a diblock copolymer. This program seeks to use computer modeling to understand the structure and kinetics of star polymeric systems and how these depend on the chemical composition, arm length, and solvent properties. We are also studying the affinity of potential drug molecules for various compartments of designed nanoparticles and how these polymeric systems might be designed for controlled uptake and release of drugs.
    Prerequisite: Must be a chemistry or chemical engineering major and should have completed a course in physical chemistry. Student should be familiar with basic concepts of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Must have some basic computer programming skills, and experience with Unix and Windows.

Summer Internship Programs