Lucas Watson wins undergraduate research scholarship

“Things are the way they are for a reason, but they don’t have to be – you can change things. And I do enjoy a good challenge." -Luke Watson

Engineers like to see how things work. They like to understand processes, and the underlying forces at work in a particular system. Probably most of all, they are curious -- curious whether they can either invent something new, or improve something to make it better and more cost-efficient. 

Lucas Watson, a sophomore who was recently selected for an Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship from the College of Engineering, demonstrates all of these qualities and then some.

Luke, whose advisor is Jacques Zakin, is excited to begin his research project this summer. He will work on micelle destabilization using an electric field for heat transfer enhancement of turbulent drag reducing surfactant solutions from May 23 until July 29, and present a poster on his experience at the fall Undergraduate Research Forum sponsored by the University Research Office.

He’s looking forward to the opportunity with enthusiasm.

“Research has been the most enjoyable thing for me in school,” said Luke, who in high school self-taught for four AP exams in chemistry, government politics, calculus and history because he found classroom work too simplified. To set his curriculum, he went to forums for professors and grad students and got their recommendations for books, reading several from different sources to see how they all fit together. “Chemistry, for example, tended to either dumb down the material too much or rush over it, so having multiple sources on the subject gave me a fuller picture,” he said.

Studying history, particularly his own family history, may have been one of the factors that contributed to Luke’s work ethic and values. “I think it’s selfish to say that something is too hard to even try. Our ancestors have done much more work than I’ve ever been required to do. For instance, my great-grandparents came here to farm from Germany. They started from scratch and didn’t even have electricity. My grandmother, who was orphaned at 15, supported herself and worked very hard her whole life. So who am I to sit around and watch YouTube and play video games all day, when I could be trying to live up to the standard set by my family?” he said.

Luke decided to study chemical engineering because he “likes to do everything. I like to do interesting, original things. It doesn’t do any good to just reinvent the wheel."

It’s this broader aspect of chemical engineering which attracts Luke.

“What I like about chemical engineering is that it’s on a bigger scale. Some chemistry tends to be more abstract, studying small samples and working only within the discipline of chemistry. Chemical engineering has enough physics to enable you to be a mechanical engineer, plus chemistry, and process controls, which could be used in computer programming or hardware,” he said.

In planning his college education, Luke visited a number of schools, including Ohio State because of its emphasis on undergraduate research. His Ohio State visit occurred during Easter break. 

“It was getting dark, and it was cold and windy outside. I was surprised that old Koffolt Labs was even open. But I wanted to meet a professor, because I had read that was a good thing to do when choosing a school, so I went in and wandered around this deserted building with half the lights turned off until I found Professor Zakin, who was still in his office. He was so warm, gracious, and welcoming, and he was excited to share his research program with me. Clearly here was a professor who was very interested in teaching and helping people,” Luke said, “and this is one of the reasons I chose to come to Ohio State.”

Luke is excited about his summer research project, admitting that regular coursework pales in comparison.

“It will be great to be able to just focus on research. It’s hard to focus on rote learning vs. solving real problems. I really enjoy Professor Kusaka’s classes, though. He’s a great professor. He poses a broad problem and you learn which assumptions are reasonable and what you need in order to solve the problem. This is in contrast with some classes that require students to blindly accept certain assumptions as truth. Having internships and research opportunities like this is so valuable – it’s where the real learning takes place and how one gains actual knowledge and understanding. Not following a set procedure, but having an open-ended question with no one answer, and finding a creative way to solve the problem.

“The goal of my summer project is to find a more cost-effective process to increase heat transfer in drag-reducing solutions which is also easier to retrofit to different applications. It will basically be mechanical engineering, studying how surfactants are affecting the solution. The project mixes physics, mechanical engineering, and a chemical understanding of surfactants.

“Normally, surfactants self-assemble and make these long threads that suppress turbulence. That reduction in turbulence reduces drag, but also heat transfer. Reversing that process uses a lot of energy. So if you wanted to add these to a system to make it more cost-efficient, you would need to locally disrupt the surfactant threads, do the heat transfer, allow the particles to re-assemble, and then disrupt it again. I’ll use electrophoresis, which is essentially an electrical field used to move particles in the solution. I’m hoping that with an electrical field, the self-assembly process can be interrupted,” Luke explained.

As he looks towards the future, Luke envisions getting a PhD and even now is getting ideas for possible areas to focus on. “I suggested a research project which one of our PhD’s is now pursuing – a self-assembled drag reducing chemical system for organic solvents. Right now polymers are used, but they degrade,” he said. “I also would like to start a project to switch Ohio State’s chilled water HVAC systems over to using these drag reducing solutions. We could save tens of thousands of dollars per year,” he said with a smile.