Making their mark
Temple engineering students win CARAS grant
for antimicrobial coating research
Two Temple undergraduate engineering students are putting their fingerprints on researching high-touch surfaces in their own way.
Powered by a Creative Arts and Scholarship grant from Temple and working with mechanical engineering professor Dr. Dmitriy Dikin, Celine Miro and Patrick Case are investigating the mechanical properties of antimicrobial paints and coatings available for commercial applications. The primary focus is on products containing silver and graphene ions and coatings applied to high traffic surfaces and exposing them to common bacteria such as E. Coli, Staphylococcus Aureus, MRSA, and Streptococcus Pneumoniae.
According to their abstract, the active ingredients work to kill microbes carrying bacteria and inhibit their growth for extended periods of time.
The active ingredients within these coatings adhere to bacterial microbes, disrupt cell membranes, kill bacteria, and prevent their growth.
Through experimentation, the durability, hardness, hydrophilicity and scratch resistance of these additives were measured through their application to high traffic surfaces such as acrylic barriers, door handles, elevator buttons, and walls.
The hands-on nature of their work makes sense as both come from families with engineering backgrounds, as well.
"My grandfather on my mother's side was an electrical engineer for the US Navy. My Grandfather on my father's side worked in a steel mill called Youngstown Sheet and Tube," Case (pictured above) said, adding that the latter, while not technically engineering, was in part inspiration for both his own study and his decision to work in the machine shop for a small bicycle frame builder, Bilenky Cycle Works.
Miro's grandfather, the oldest of nine children, is a civil engineer and almost all his siblings are also engineers, as well.
"Even when I was very young, I had a natural interest in anything that had to be assembled or with moving parts. My dad and grandpa definitely tapped into this and developed my innate curiosity by pushing me towards extracurriculars that aligned with those interests," Miro (pictured right) said.
"Mainly, I was part of my high school's robotics team which allowed me to develop an engineering mindset before I ever took a class at Temple. My senior year, we even competed at FIRST Robotics World Championships!"
After a challenging 18+ months, both are also looking past this work to their next steps: Miro is part of the Temple 4+1 program and is set to complete her master's program shortly after graduation. Case (pictured right) is project lead for the NASA RockSat-C senior design project and is considering HVAC work after Temple.
"It was a little odd being around campus with so few people, but at times also very heartening," Case said, recounting a day when he was working in a lab when students from the Temple Formula Racing team came in the door carrying a chassis for the latest car.
"After spending a year working in the abstract, learning from home, attending lectures on Zoom, interacting with other students through mediums like Discord, it was just one of the most uplifting experiences I'd had in a while," he said.
"Like "YES! BUILD ALL OF THE THINGS!"
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