Vishista V. Nayak, a first-year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Cincinnati, and is working under the mentorship of Sumita Pennathur at the University of California Santa Barbara(UCSB) over the summer. As the Lead intern, Vishista supports multiple research projects and guides high school interns, playing a crucial role in the smooth operation of the research team. Her primary responsibilities include providing testing and experimental assistance.
One of Vishista's key projects involves testing and characterizing fluidic channels for conductivity. She is responsible for creating prototypes, conducting experiments, and collecting data on the performance of these channels. The goal of this project is to provide experimental data to support computational modeling and simulation efforts by other researchers. By collecting and analyzing data on the fluidic channels, Vishista's work will help inform and validate simulations aimed at optimizing channel design.