Work-Study Research Assistant Program

Faculty Name: Xinyu Zhao

Faculty School/Department: School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing 

General Research Focus: The research program aims at explaining basic concepts of heat transfer using existing research data from the lab, and from the literature. The student has the opportunity to contributing to new materials on educational websites and textbooks that have an international audience. 

Brief Position Description: The student is expected to 1) clean up existing research data so that the data can be easily shared and used by people with interest; 2) digitize data from the literature and plot them in a prescribed format to be publishable either online or in book format; 3) running/adding to python programs that explain basic problems in heat transfer using existing or digitized research data; 4) review/proof-read materials for future book publication and create contents for websites. 

The student will fortify their understanding of engineering fundamentals such as mathematics, programming and heat transfer/fluid dynamics/thermodynamic, through working on these unique examples created by the professor. The skillsets can lead to accelerated Master's position or ph.D. position at the professor's lab or other universities. The skillsets are also going to be differentiate the student from the rest of their cohort when they seek a job opportunity outside academia.

A "Student Research Review Assistant - 205" will assist faculty in research effort by conducting review of literature and subject material specific to research topics. A student in this position will: 

1) reduce the size of existing research data so that it is easy to be downloaded and used by other interesting parties;

2) compile contents from the literature on a specific topic:

3) look up and check references, extract bibliographical information from the source in acceptable format;

4) run and/or edit python programs in Jupyter notebook to manipulate the research data;

5) plot data to acceptable format;

6) proofread and edit manuscript drafts