Research Experience

Research Assistant                     November 2020 – Present
Assistant to Professor Mohamed Serry, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The American University in Cairo 
•    Designed and fabricated a novel electromagnetically actuated micropump with an active synchronous valve for microfluidic applications. 
•    Gained experience in finding and contacting a multitude of national and international suppliers to secure necessary equipment for our research group. 
•    Procured, assembled, operated, and managed five Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) and Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printers to facilitate rapid prototyping for our research group and undergraduate students. 
•    Led a team of five students to design and fabricate a 3D printed low-cost mechanical ventilator for COVID-19 patients for our thesis graduation project.  

Research Assistant                                              January 2020
Assistant to Professor Roya Maboudian & Professor Carlo Carraro, Berkeley Science & Actuator Center (BSAC), University of California Berkeley 
•    Fabricated a tin-based metal organic framework (MOF) for ethanol gas sensing over a broad linear dynamic range (<100 ppm). 
•    Gained experience in meticulous literature reading and replicating techniques from recent literature in a chemistry lab where I learned the proper safety procedures for dealing with a plethora of chemicals.  
•    Learned and utilized an array of characterization techniques like Raman spectroscopy and light microscopy and tested the resulting material in a gas sensing rig with mass flow controllers. 

Research Assistant       November 2018 - December 2019 
Assistant to Professor Mustafa Arafa, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The American University in Cairo 
•    Successfully led a team of five undergraduate students to design and manufacture a novel high stability, high efficiency dog mimicking quadruped mechanism that we presented at the Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition at the ASME IDETC-CIE 2019 and placed first.
•    Experimented with the effect of Pulse Laser Annealing (PLA) on polytetrafluoroethene’s (PTFE) triboelectric properties.
•    Investigated the feasibility of a triboelectric material made of Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) dispersed in water.