Students Exhibit Research at CMU Energy Week 2024 Student Poster Competition

CMU students are engaged in a variety of cutting-edge research projects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. With all this innovative research happening on campus, the annual Student Energy Research Poster Competition is a crucial component of CMU Energy Week.  

For CMU Energy Week 2024, 18 student posters were selected to compete for $2750 in prizes. Winners were announced from the main stage at the end of the day on Wednesday, March 20. The winning posters will be displayed in the Carnegie Mellon University Sustainability Studio in the Hunt Library. If you’re on campus, you can stop by the library to learn more about the exciting (and winning!) research.   

First Place and a $1000 prize went to Matthew Melfi and his poster titled “Mitigating Hydrogen Embrittlement of Structural Alloys: Tracking H-dynamics on defects.” Matthew is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering and this research focused on H-defect interactions that could help engineers create alloys that are more resistant to hydrogen-embrittlement and more sustainable.  

Second Place ($750 prize) went to Zhaoxuan Ge, a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering whose project explores using an alloy instead of steel to reduce GHG emissions related to industrial manufacturing of metals like steel and aluminum. Zhaoxuan’s poster is titled “Materials Innovation for Sustainable Energy: Designing Super Al Alloys via Additive Manufacturing for a Greener Future.” 

The $500 Third Place prize went to Andrew Jones, a PhD student in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Andrew’s poster, “Climate change impacts on future residential electricity consumption and energy burden:  A case study in Phoenix, Arizona,” helps us understand how to mitigate risk in vulnerable populations as we transition to more equitable electricity policies.  

Jessy Ha, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, won the Most Innovative Research Idea prize ($500). Jessy’s poster is titled “Thin film iridium catalysts via chemical vapor deposition for polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis.” This project advances our knowledge of sustainably producing hydrogen gas.  

The Scott Institute would like to congratulate these winners and everyone who competed in the poster competition. We would also like to thank our volunteer judges for taking the time to evaluate the posters and choose the winners.