Summer of Research: Branching Out with Shape Memory Polymers

This video is part of a series on summer research opportunities for undergraduates at the University of Rochester, both for our own students, and for students from other research universities.

For a mechanical engineer, understanding the chemical composition and properties of shape memory polymers is rather foreign territory. Despite the learning curve, that's just the sort of opportunity that Ricardo Cardoza, a rising junior at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, was looking for.

The mechanical engineering major has an ambition to pursue a PhD and continue on with research, so this isn't the first time he has spent his summer working on research. The hope is that by continuing to network and broaden his experience beyond his major, he'll become a more competitive candidate for potential graduate schools, and down the road, for job opportunities.

By spending the summer on a particular area of research, it's a great way to focus in and really immerse yourself in a way that wouldn't be possible with the heavy workload of a typical semester. While Cardoza acknowledges the inherent failures that come with research, he says that's just part of the experience. In his mind, sometimes you have to see what will go wrong to fully understand the problem, and how to tackle it.

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