Purdue University’s honors college hosted the 2014 Undergraduate Research Symposium on Tuesday April 8. At this event, undergraduates prepared and presented research posters based on projects performed within the last year. Viewing was open to the public and posters were judged by a mixture of volunteer faculty and graduate students. Awards for posters were divided by college. Materials Engineering Junior Christopher Barney claimed third in the college of engineering.

Barney presented a poster entitled “Characterization of Dynamic Behavior in Cementitious Systems Through the Employment of a Soft Materials Framework.” The poster presented research investigating the effect of limestone filler on the rheology of cement paste, mechanical behavior of Al3+ crosslinked superabsorbent hydrogels, and confinement effects with phase change materials. Barney’s work on hydrogels contributed to a paper written with Zhu and Erk that was recently accepted by Materials & Structures*. Barney performed this research under the guidance of Professor Kendra Erk and her graduate students Qian Zhu and Matt Krafcik. Research was performed through participation in Purdue’s SURF 2013 program and two semesters of MSE 499, an independent research study offered through the Purdue’s School of Materials Engineering.

*Q. Zhu, C.W. Barney, and K.A. Erk, "Effect of ionic crosslinking on the swelling and mechanical response of model superabsorbent polymer hydrogels for internally cured concrete," Accepted By Materials & Structures, April 2014.