Senior Ria Nandwana recently won second place in the Materials Science & Technology 2020 Undergraduate Poster Competition.  Nandwana’s poster, “Maximizing Magnetostriction in Fe-Ga-Zr Nanocrystalline Alloys,” summarizes her research of the last two years.

Nandwana began her research on the optimization of magnetostriction in FeGa nanocrystal for applications in sensors and actuators when her advisor, Associate Professor Matthew Willard, told her about a project he had available. “I was immediately interested in the cool applications of the research he described,” she said.  She creates nanocomposite ribbons of FeGa nanocrystals in a Zr matrix and is working to understand and optimize magnetostriction in FeGa nanocomposite ribbons.  Nandwana and Willard also research with Professor Yumi Ijiri of Oberlin College and have started a collaboration with scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  

This was Nandwana’s first time presenting at MS&T, though she has presented her research at CWRU’s ShowCASE in the past.

During her time at CWRU, Nandwana’s favorite courses have been ones that focus on manufacturing, processing and applications.  She particularly enjoyed the HoloLens module in EMSE 328: Mesoscale Structural Control of Functional Materials with Associate Professor Alp Sehirlioglu and the connections to her pre-health double major in EMSE 345: Materials for Biomedical Applications with Associate Professor Mark De Guire.

Nandwana, who was born and raised in India and now lives in Chicago, Ill. with her family, first became interested in materials science after studying organic chemistry in high school.  “I thought it was pretty neat that you could understand and modify the structure and composition of a molecule to predict and modify its properties,” she said.  “And then I realized there was an entire major that taught you how to do that for every material imaginable. I really enjoy the pattern of critical thinking in this field.”

While Nandwana is choosing to pursue medicine as a career rather than engineering, she expects her training in engineering to benefit her when she starts medical school in July 2021.  “I’ve found that engineering gives me the ability to change thousands of lives with one technological innovation, whereas medicine touches one life at a time,” she said.  “In the long-term, it would be incredibly fulfilling to see my work on the bench improve the lives of my own patients at the bedside.”

Over the past four years, Nandwana has bonded with other materials students who had a second passion.  During the first weeks of her first semester, her SAGES instructor, Associate Professor Peter Lagerlof, introduced her to a materials pre-dental student, Bethany Cook, who helped her plan a schedule with both pre-medical and materials courses.  To this day, Nandwana remains close with Cook, who graduated in 2018, and Jessica LaLonde, who graduated in 2019 with a double major in biology and materials science and engineering.

Nandwana is most proud of “fitting in everything I love and enjoy in four years - academic majors and minors, research, extracurriculars, jobs, cultivating interests, and spending time with friends and family” during her undergraduate career.  “The ability to balance different aspects of my life will most certainly be a useful skill for me in the future.”  She praised Willard for being “incredibly supportive in helping me accomplish all that I imagined and more.”  One of Nandwana’s favorite things about Cleveland is the different food options.  She has loved exploring the restaurants, cafes and local shops in the Cleveland area, and some of her favorites are Mitchell’s and Zoma.