4/9/2025
Written by
The University of Illinois Graduate College recently announced the semifinalists for the graduate student edition of Image of Research 2025, an annual collaboration between the Graduate College and the University Library’s Media Commons.
Graduate students from MechSE represented a significant percentage of the finalists this year, with three out of 24:
“Serendipity in Science: Biomimicry in Copper Electroplating”
By Arielle Gamboa (advisor Nenad Miljkovic)
When science, art, and nature collide, a happy accident can come to fruition. Meet Flik, a copper “insect” named after a beloved animated ant from my childhood. In this scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image, Flik takes center stage, flaunting intricate corncob-like structures. These structures were formed by electroplating, a process whereby an applied voltage drives copper ions to deposit onto a surface, creating coatings with adjustable structure, thickness, and porosity. In theory, this technique could have produced an advanced heat spreader for electronics or a highly efficient boiling surface. But experiments don’t always go as planned. Imperfect preparation led to an uneven distribution of copper nucleation sites, and instead of an optimized boiling surface, Flik was born—a beautiful, unexpected reminder to celebrate the unintended artistry and lessons in failure.
“Luminous Webs: Crafting Soft Biological Structures Through 3D Printing”By Tanver Hossain (advisor Randy Ewoldt)
Embedded 3D printing has revolutionized the creation of soft and intricate biological structures. By extruding a liquid filament into a supportive matrix with specific yield stress properties, this technique enables the production of delicate features beyond the capabilities of traditional 3D printing. For those unfamiliar with this method, imagine it like drawing with syrup into a bowl of thick yogurt, where the syrup remains in precise patterns without spreading. The image displayed shows a soft fiber structure, illuminated under ultraviolet light and approximately 100 microns in size, demonstrating this technology's ability to craft biocompatible structures with exceptional precision and stability. The matrix, an aqueous microgel suspension, supports the uncured filament during printing, which polymerizes to achieve the desired structure. My research harnesses this technology to replicate complex biological structures such as spider webs and hagfish slime threads, thereby enhancing the design of biomimetic materials for a range of applications and simultaneously addressing technological limitations to refine precision.
By Yun Seong Kim (advisor Sameh Tawfick)
Emerging from the earthy foundation, the twisting helix in this image represents our research journey from potential to realization. Fabricated via ‘growth printing’, a novel additive manufacturing process we developed, the helix mimics the principles of natural growth seen in plants and organisms – where chemical reactions interact with the environment to drive development. Utilizing chemistry that converts liquid resin to solid plastic, we ‘grew’ this helix into its shape using a motion stage. This sprouting helix showcases the potential of merging nature's wisdom with scientific innovation, opening a doorway to a more sustainable future for manufacturing. For those interested in the technical aspects of materials science: the growth printing is driven by frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) chemistry, carefully coordinated with printer motion and heat transfer. The self-sustaining exothermic FROMP reaction cures a resin mixture of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and polybutadiene (PBD) into a thermoset polymer at a curing at speed approximately 1 mm/s. This process does not require any continuous input of energy to the system to sustain the chemical reaction, making growth printing remarkably energy-efficient and faster compared to conventional additive manufacturing methods.
Additionally, a graduate student in Aerospace Engineering, Sainath Barbhai, advised by MechSE professor Jie Feng, was also one of the finalists:
"Beads-on-a-String Structured Jets Produced by Bursting Bubbles with a Viscoelastic Compound Layer"
Bubbles, though seemingly simple, are fascinating in fluid mechanics and play a crucial role in environmental processes. As they rise through marine columns, bubbles scavenge contaminants through flow mechanics and physical chemistry, including biocontaminants such as microbial extracellular polymeric substances. These biocontaminants form intricate three-dimensional polymeric networks, creating a viscoelastic coating layer on the bubbles’ surfaces. When a contaminated bubble with such a layer reaches the air-liquid interface and bursts, it produces a distinct “beads-on-a-string” pattern during the formation of the Worthington jet, ejecting biocontaminants as small droplets into the atmosphere. By varying the compound layer fraction and polymer concentration, a diverse range of bursting dynamics and jetting patterns can be observed. My research focuses on understanding the bursting dynamics of such contaminated bubbles, as this is crucial due to their role in transporting contaminants within marine ecosystems. All scale bars in the image represent 1 mm.
The winners will be announced after the People’s Choice voting closes at the end of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, on April 11.