ADELPHI, Md. - John Miller, director of the Army Research Laboratory, said he was "blown away" by the quality of the presentations made by undergraduate and graduate students at ARL's first Summer Student Research Symposium held in the Adelphi Laboratory Center auditorium.

Speaking at the afternoon session of the symposium, Miller told the students that their work was exceptional and "meaningful to the Army." He invited the students to participate again next year when ARL will hold its second symposium. "We will have an even bigger, better event," he said.

Nearly 100 undergraduates and graduate students participated as interns in ARL research programs this summer. All students wrote a paper describing their work and the results of their research. The papers were reviewed by each directorate, and the top undergraduate and graduate students were selected to deliver their presentations to the ARL workforce at the symposium. The research papers highlighted both educational and scientific aspects of the student's ARL experience and demonstrated the progress made during the summer.

Eleven students were selected to present their research papers during the symposium. A panel of nine ARL Fellows served as judges of the papers and the presentations to select the winners. They also gave a "best paper" award from among students who finished their internship prior to the symposium and were not available to give presentations.


Prizes for student winners and plaques for the winners' mentors were presented by Miller and the ARL Fellows. The winning papers follow:

Graduate Student category

First: Steven Keller, Duke University.
Mentors: Dr. Art Sindoris and Dr. Steven Weiss.
Title: "Coplanar Waveguide Slot-Coupled Ka-Band Patch Antenna for Wafer-Scale Integration with Beam-Steering MEMS Control Board."

Second: Joseph Stanzione III, Drexel University.
Mentor: Dr. Robert Jensen.
Title: "Characterization of Room Temperature Ionic Liquid Solvent (RTIL) Based Free Radical Copolymerized Network Gels."

Third: Joshua Crone, University of Maryland at College Park.
Mentor: Dr. Peter Chung.
Title: "Quantitative Prediction of Tip-Sample Repulsive Forces and Sample Deformation in Tapping-Mode Frequency and Force Modulation Atomic Force Microscopy."

Undergraduate Student category

First: Nicole Whitten, University of Maryland at Baltimore County.
Mentor: Dr. Dimitra Stratis-Cullum.
Title: "Hybrid SERS/Fluorescence Bionanoprobes: A New Concept for Superior Detection of Toxic Materials."

Second: Aaron Harrington, University of Maryland at College Park.
Mentor: Harris Edge.
Title: "Waypoint Navigation Using 8-bit PIC Microcontrollers."

Third: Jessica Dibelka, University of Delaware.
Mentor: Dr. Robert Jensen.
Title: "Controlled Adhesive Bonding through Tailoring Surface Reactivity."

"Best Paper" category

Ricardo Arencibia, Miami Dade Honors College.
Mentors: Dr. Barry Vaughan and Robert Karsh.
Title: "Development of an Eye-Tracking Analysis Program for Night Vision Video Scenes."

Student winners received prizes of $500 for first, $300 for second, and $200 for third.


ARL Fellows who served on the review panel were Dr. Howard Brandt, Dr. Dattatraya Dandekar, Dr. Ken Jones, Dr. Tom Letowski, Dr. James McCauley, Dr. John Powell, Dr. Betsy Rice (Panel Chair), Dr. Bruce West and Dr. Thomas Wright.