Ariana Levitt
Carli Moorehead
PhD student Ariana Levitt (advisor: Caroline Schauer) and BS/MS student Carli Moorehead (BS Biomedical Engineering, MS Drexel Materials; advisor: Michele Marcolongo) are two of four current Drexel University students selected as 2017 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows.
Ariana’s current research focuses on developing conductive and piezoelectric nanoyarns for integration into knitted strain-sensing devices. As part of developing an entirely fiber-based wearable strain sensor, she is working towards characterizing the piezoelectric behavior of knitted textiles. She hopes that these devices will be used by people with chronic illnesses, athletes, and older adults for real-time health monitoring.
Carli is currently conducting research on both bulk ceramics – studying strong magnetic fields can be used to engineer microstructure through co-ops at the Army Research Lab – and synthetic proteoglycans – as a student researcher in the Biomaterials Laboratory Group studying collagen-proteoglycan interactions.
The fellowship provides funding for three years of graduate stipend and tuition support, as well as opportunities to conduct research internationally. Ariana and Carli were selected from 13,000 applicants for the NSF fellowship and are among 49 fellowships awarded to students in Materials Science and Engineering Departments nationwide.
In addition Drexel Materials PhD student David Howe (advisor: Andrew Magenau) and BS student Matthew West received NSF-GRFP honorable mentions.
With Ariana and Carli’s awards, a total of 17 students from Drexel’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering have received the fellowship. Past recipients include PhD student Sarah Gleeson (advisor: Christopher Li), PhD student Jessica Weaver (advisor: Andrew Magenau), PhD student Michael Ghidiu (advisors: Michel Barsoum and Yury Gogotsi), BS/MS student Emily Buck (advisor: Caroline Schauer), PhD student Chelsea Knittel (advisor: Caroline Schauer), BS/PhD student Amanda Pentecost (advisor: Yury Gogotsi), PhD student Derrick Smith (advisor: Christopher Li), PhD student Kristy Jost (advisor: Yury Gogotsi), BS student Prineha Narang (advisor: Yury Gogotsi), BS/MS student Holly McIlwee (advisor: Caroline Schauer), MS student Alex Moseson (advisor: Michel Barsoum), PhD student Stephen Niezgoda (advisor: Surya Kalidindi), PhD student Kris Behler (advisor: Yury Gogotsi), PhD student María Pía Rossi (advisor: Yury Gogotsi), and PhD student John Chmiola (advisor: Yury Gogotsi).