CSET Good News Report February 2023
Center for Materials Research and Engineering Department
Messaoud Bahoura, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center for Materials Research, received an award in the amount of $499,989 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his project titled “Excellence in Research: Dynamic All-Solid-State Hybrid Electro-Thermo Chromic Solar Radiation Modulator for Smart Windows Applications”. The project aims to solve the current limitations of smart windows by combining the effects of electrochromism and thermochromism into one hybrid coating structure to provide an adaptive solar modulator able to change its light transmission properties depending on the requirements of the building and the weather conditions. This dynamic and low-powered all-solid-state hybrid coating would provide independent, dynamic control over the transmission of visible and IR solar radiation with high optical contrast, fast switching times, and long cycle life. This three years project supports one research associate professor, two undergraduate students, and three high school students.
Messaoud Bahoura, Ph.D., Professor of Engineering and Director of the Center for Materials Research, delivered hands-on activities to students at B. M. Williams elementary school in Chesapeake. This one-day-a-week activity for 4 weeks after school, was an enrichment program attended by interested first and second-grade students.
Dr. Bahoura presented hands-on experiments and demonstrations about nanotechnology. Students were able to interactively see how small the nano is and what is different about the nano. They explored how tools are used at the nano level, discovered why the blue morpho butterfly has blue wings, saw how nanotechnology is used in water filtration and played with a powder that can absorb up to 1,000 times its weight in water.
Jasmine Beckford, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and a CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, published her research titled " Influence of oxygen on the optical, electrical, and heating properties of gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) films”, in AIP Advances 13, 025249 (2023); . Published 10 February 2023. Co-authors: Makhes Behera, Kelsea Yarbrough, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Jasmine Beckford, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and a CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, received a travel award from ERN to present at the 2023 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM in Washington, DC, February 10. This conference is hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Inclusive STEM Ecosystems for Equity & Diversity (ISEED) Programs, and the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Human Resource Development (HRD), within the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR). The presentation was entitled " Oxygen Dependent Study of Gallium Doped Zinc Oxide (GZO) Films for Ideal Transparent Heater Applications " and co-authored by Makhes Behera, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Kelsea A. Yarbrough, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and a CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, published her research titled "Observation of MOSFET-like behavior of a thin-film transistor based on amorphous oxide semiconductor with suitable integration of atomic layered deposited high-k gate insulator", AIP Advances 13, 025041 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0136037. 13 February 2023. Co-authors: Makhes Behera, Jasmine Beckford, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Kelsea A. Yarbrough, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and a CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, received a travel award from ERN to present at the 2023 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM in Washington, DC on February 10. The presentation was entitled " Effect of Post Annealing on the Electrical Behavior of MOS Capacitors" and co-authored by Makhes Behera, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Jacob Strimaitis, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, received a travel award from ERN to present at the 2023 Emerging 
Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM in Washington, DC on February 10. The presentation was entitled "Investigation of Calcination Temperature on Porous CaFe2O4 Anodes" and was co-authored by Samuel Danquah, Clifford Denize, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura. Jacob won 1st place in the Graduate Student Oral Presentation in the Nanoscience and Materials Science division contest.
Jacob Strimaitis, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, submitted his research titled " Investigation of the Effect of Degree of Prelithiation on High-Performing Hybrid Supercapacitors Made with Porous CaFe2O4 Anodes", to a peer-reviewed journal “Journal of Energy Storage (JoES; IF - 8.9)”.
Mamadou Mbaye, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, presented at the 2023 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM in Washington, DC on February 10. The presentation was entitled “Machine Learning-aided Thermoelectric Materials Design and Discovery” co-authored by Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Clifford Denize, a Ph.D. candidate at the Center for Materials Research and CREST CREAM scholar, advisor Dr. Messaoud Bahoura, received a travel award from ERN to present at the 2023 Emerging Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM in Washington, DC on February 10. The presentation was entitled “Effect of Sulfurization on the Electrochemical Performance of FeS2 Thin Film Cathode for Li-Ion Batteries” and was co-authored by Sondai Riddick, Jacob Strimaitis, Makhes Behera, Sangram Pradhan, and Messaoud Bahoura.
Renny Fernandez, Ph,D. Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering, published a collaborative work in IEEE Access Journal. The research "Smart Irrigation System for Selective Localized Irrigation." Engineering Department graduate students, Midhun Nair and Jalajamony Harikrishnan, and Dr. Patricia Mead are co-authors on the effort. The study focuses on the development of a smart irrigation system that utilizes drone technology and machine learning to selectively irrigate dry regions in an targeted region. The system is able to improve irrigation and water management capabilities for agricultural applications.
Department of Nursing & Allied Health
Alicia C. Moore, Ph.D., Health Services Management Program Director, and Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing & Allied Health, along with Dr. Nicole Kyser from the Department of Secondary Education and Dr. Faith Fitzgerald from the Division of Student Affairs published an article titled “Campus Environments for LGBT+ Students Among Allied Health Programs at HBCUs: A Brief Analysis” in the 2022 Summer / Fall 20th edition of the Journal of the National Society of Allied Health. This research was funded by the NSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning 2021 Summer Research Award.
Department of Mathematics
Michael Parker, Associate Director of DNIMAS/Assistant Professor of Mathematics, along with six (6) DNIMAS students attended the 14th Annual Career and Technical Education Professional Student Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn, Suffolk Riverfront. They were panelists in the Opening Session of the Conference. Panelists included: Kennedy Brown (SR) Chemistry Major; Wayne Cochran (JR) Chemistry Major; Ebony Hansberry (JR) Computer Science Major; Myles Parks-Tillar (JR) Chemistry Pre-Med Major; Niya Thompson, (SO) Biology Major; and Alexandria Woods (SO) Biology Pre-Professional Major. Each panelist addressed the 90-plus, 9th grade student audience and at the end of the session the 9th graders were so impressed that they stood in line for each panelist to sign their souvenir booklet.
Department of Biology
Nazir Barekzi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor for Biology, Dr. Barekzi and his team of Phage Hunters are proud of this new publication to GenBank because it was a collaborative effort between his research team, the students from the Genetics Lab course held in the Spring of 2022, colleagues at ODU and a major collaborator, Dr. Katie Mageeney, from Sandia National laboratory. The entire process took over a year and the team of researchers along with the CURE participants were able to isolate a novel bacteriophage, sequence the genome and annotate the entire phage genome called Bassalto. You may recognize some of the co-authors who are biology students from NSU. The publication was recently approved and the website link is now active (see reference citation below). Mycobacterium phage Bassalto, complete genome. Dec. 2020. Accession # OP777409.1 in GenBank NCBI.
Maureen Scott , Ms., Biology Instructor and Dr Nazir A Barekzi, Professor and 16 Biology NSU undergraduate students continuing our tradition of scholarship and excellence presented research and attended at the 2022 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists in Anaheim, California.
DonnaMarie Miller, Biology major has been accepted to the PHD Biological Science program at University of Maryland Baltimore County with full financial graduate support and additional she has been selected to be a recipient of G- Rise Meyerhoff Fellowship.
Biology students, Aariana Tucker, Dejanah Lorthe, and DonnaMarie Miller attended and presented research at the 2023 Emerging Researcher National Conference in STEM in Washington DC in February.
Aariana Tucker won 1st place Poster Undergraduate Presentation in Biological Science (Physiology and Health) An Analysis of Cannabinoids and Ammonium Nitrate Aquatic Pollution on the Morphological Development on Pre-Metamorphic Tadpoles: Researcher Advisor/Mentor Maureen Scott.
DonnaMarie Miller won 3rd place Poster Undergraduate Presentation in Biological Sciences (Plant, Air, Water, Ecology and Pollution) Effects of Coal Tar Creosote on the Early Developmental Stages of Local Germinating Plant Life Research Advisor/ Mentor: Dr. Stephen Via.
Dejanah Lorthe, presented A Study of the Susceptibility of the Reproduction and Morphology of Danio Rerio to Ammonium Nitrate Toxicity. Researcher Advisor/Mentor Maureen Scott.
Maureen Scott, Biology Instructor attended the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS) Annual Conference in Jacksonville, FA. She serves on the Board of Directors. ACHS sets the standards for organizational excellence and scholastic eligibility, for the certification of honor societies national and international as well as assuring member participation in governance so that the interests of individual members are advanced. Ms Scott is hoping to increase the number of certified Honor Societies at Norfolk State University.