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Juliana Bernal Ostos

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Graduate Research Assistant

Education

Please follow this link to Juliana's current resume.

  • Ph.D. Candidate in Macromolecular and Biomolecular Materials, UC Santa Barbara, September 2007- present
  • B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, 2007

Industry Experience

  • Boeing Company, Senior Consulting Program for Engineering, Olin College, 2006-2007
  • Bose Corporation, Materials Division Research Intern, Summer 2006

Awards and Fellowships

  • Materials Research Laboratory Diversity Award, UC Santa Barbara 2008
  • Olin Scholarship, $130,000 award for tuition and board over four years, 2003-2007

Research: Bio-inspired energy-dispersive composites

My current work focuses on applying design concepts found in nature to the creation of new materials for personnel protective systems. In particular, we are focusing on creating materials that exhibit (i) sacrificial bonds and hidden lengths, (ii) graded structures and (iii) order at several length scales. For goal (i), we are working with a poly(N-vinyl imidazole) polymer system which can be readily complexed with metal ions. In particular, we want to characterize the effect of metal-ion complexation on the mechanical properties of the polymeric material. In order to do this, we have developed a method that allows us to create samples with macroscopic dimensions and are currently developing a technique to complex these samples.

Efforts (ii) and (iii) are in collaboration with Tony Evans and Frank Zok at UCSB and with HRL Laboratories. We hope to create a composite material that combines the energy-absorbing capabilities of a lattice with the smooth compression behaviour of a stochastic foam. In order to achieve this, we are using polymeric microtruss lattices created by HRL and incorporating them into a composite.

Mentoring and Outreach

  • Mechanical Engineering Mentor Dos Pueblos Enginering Academy FIRST Robotics Team, 2008-present
  • Research Mentor West Point AIAD Summer Program, 2008 - present
  • Research Mentor West Point Chemistry Elective, 2008 - present
  • Volunteer Family Ultimate Science Exploration Night, California NanoSystems Institure UC Santa Barbara, 2007 - present
  • Volunteer It's a Material World, Materials Research Laboratory UC Santa Barbara, 2007 - present

Contact

bernalostos [at] engineering.ucsb.edu

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