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JRI Seniors Emerge from Research, Moving on to Exciting College Careers

June 1, 2011

Each year, JRI students graduate from the research program. In this way, 2011 is no different. However, this year, the students graduating from the Jisan Research Institute have achieved greatly, and together are one of the more successful graduating classes at JRI. The success of the students shows in their research achievements at JRI, as well as the schools they will be attending in the fall.

This year, the students of the Senior Class have, together, contributed to five different research publications including three in entropic energy devices and two in swarm engineering. The seniors, some of whom have been at JRI since 2006, have literally grown up at JRI, and have not only taken on some of the hardest research projects in JRI history, but have literally watched JRI grow from a computational-only research lab to a mixed research lab combining research in renewables and computation.

James Park joined the Jisan Research Institute in 2006, when he was fresh out of seventh grade and just about to enter eighth. James' first research project, undertaken with two other students, attempted to create a new kind of radiometer based on other technology under development at JRI. While the team succeeded in producing the radiometer, several technical limitations prevented the project from completing in a satisfactory way. While many students in similar positions have left the Institute out of disappointment, James and his group instead turned to another, safer project in swarm engineering.

James and his group took on a project initially examined by JRI graduate Hamik Mukelyan, who later attended Caltech. The project involved the development of a swarm that had two castes of agents. The group was able to demonstrate that the use of two castes was superior to any single caste swarm on a particular kind of foraging task. The swarm was implemented in software, and the group published their work in the First International Conference on Swarm Intelligence. The paper can be found here.

Miji Kim joined Roget You and his research group just after the summer of 2009. Roger and his group had just finished developing the first prototypical entrochemical refrigeration unit, with a refrigeration capacity of between three and six degrees Celcius. Miji quickly became a strong driver in the effort to experimentally characterize the performance of the device and then document its performance. The research was completed, and the paper describing this work was published in 2010 in the Renewable Energy Conference held in Yokohama Japan in 2010. The paper may be obtained here.

In the past year, Calvin Chau and Young Hong headed up a last minute effort to develop a distllation device based on the entrochemical effect. The device, originally envisioned by Dr. Sanza Kazadi, Chief Scientist at the Institute, is capable of utilizing the spontaneous process known as the entrochemical effect in which a thermal gradient is spontaneously generated in a system comprising two reservoirs of water. The effect can generate a temperature gradient spontaneously, and the group used this effect in a device that distills water using this temperature gradient. The implications are significant, as the device is the first distillation device capable of carrying out distillation without using traditional forms of energy (fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewables such as wind, direct sunlight, wave energy, etc.). A poster presenting this work was presented at the WRRC 2011 conference, and won the Best Research Poster award. The research was also presented at the Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment.

In addition to these significant achievements, the students attained colleges with an unusally strong acceptance. Several students faced choices between top colleges. One student found herself choosing between Harvard University, MIT, and Columbia University while another student found himself choosing between Cornell University, Princeton University, and Stanford University. All Seniors went to top universities with world-class programs. The eleven students are planning to attent MIT (1), Caltech (1), Cornell Univ. (3), U. Penn. (1), UCLA (2), UC Berkeley (2), and Princeton Univ. (1). JRI extends our best wishes and hopes for our graduates, who are joining an extremely distinguished alumni.

Additionally, JRI has received notice that JRI alumni Dr. Daniel Choi and Dr. Paul Hwu graduated from Northwestern University Medical School and Loma Linda Medical School, respectively earlier this year. Daniel is heading to the East Coast to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey University to do an orthaepedic surgery residency while Paul is coming back to LA to Cedars Sinai.

JRI Research Team wins best poster award at WRRC 2011 Conference

April 28, 2011

Eleven JRI students along with Research Mentor Dr. Sanza Kazadi won the Best Research Poster Award at the WRRC 2011 conference held in Yuma, Arizona yesterday. This is a first time for JRI, which has been nominated twice for best paper awards. Students Young Hong and David Kim were with Dr. Kazadi when the award was presented. Other members of the team including Arvin Javadi, Arnav and Apoorv Chaudhary, Miji Kim, Jessica Liu, Calvin Chau, and Ayesha Bose all participated in the poster presentation, but were not present at the awards ceremony. Student James Park was unable to attend the conference, but made significant contributions to the research effort.

The team investigated the use of the entrochemical process as an engine in driving a thermally active distillation device. The research concluded with the construction and characterization of the general kind of device that generates the entrochemical process as well as a device the generates distilled water without the input of traditional forms of energy. A formal paper describing this technology was also prepared and disseminated at the conference, in draft form, ahead of its planned presentation at the Asian Conference on Sustainability, Energy, and the Environment in Osaka, Japan this June.

The winning poster is available (here).

JRI Scientists and Students Develop Energy Neutral Desalination Technology

April 26, 2011

Eleven high school students coming from several Southern California high schools completed the development of a new revolutionary desalination technology as part of their first research experience. The research was carried out over the past several years at the Jisan Research Institute (JRI) in Alhambra, California. The groundbreaking research was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Sanza Kazadi, President and Chief Scientist of the Jisan Research Institute.

Kazadi began studying the technology several years ago when he noticed an interesting fact about salty water. "It's well known that salty water has a higher boiling point than distilled water," said Kazadi. "When one of the students was learning about this as part of her AP Chemistry preparation, I wondered why the effect couldn't be used for something other than melting ice." Kazadi and JRI alumni Roger You began studying the effect and some of the things it could be used for within the week. Some two years later, a group of students published their work demonstrating that the effect could be used to generate refrigeration and heating. The best part of it is that the entire effect is spontaneous.

Continuing in this vein, Kazadi and a larger group of students worked on building refrigeration devices that could generate more than 12 degrees of cooling. Student Miji Kim of Crescenta Valley High School said “We spent months and months taking data and working out new combinations.”. The process was grueling, with the development stretching over many months and new problems cropping up virtually everywhere. Student Young Hong of Burbank High School said “The problem was that we knew what we needed to do, but we didn't have the equipment to do it”. The students hit a roadblock when they needed a device that was more expensive than the Institute could purchase.

While trying to figure out how to overcome this problem, Student James Park of South High School began looking into the design of the desalination device as part of an application to the Intel Science Talent Search Competition. Unfortunately, James didn’t have time to complete the project for the competition. However, Kazadi was convinced the technology would work, and he convinced students David Kim of Burbank High School, Jessica Liu of Notre Dame Academy, Calvin Chau of Alhambra High School, and Arvin Javadi and Sam Kim of Crescenta High School to make a rough prototype two days before Christmas, 2010. The prototype worked, and the students began testing the device and writing up their results. Two months later, their work was submitted for publication, and one month later, it was accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific conference.

What makes this research so interesting is that it isn't supposed to be able to work. "When I told my Berkeley interviewer [who is a Chemistry professor] about the research he asked, 'Is this thermodynamically possible?'" said Sam Kim. "I said that there's a proof in the paper." When discussing the device, most scientists think it violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics which states that things that are hot tend to heat up colder things. The device operates in a little known 'grey' area where cold things transfer their heat to hot things spontaneously. Dr. Kazadi calls such systems entrochemical systems.

For most of these students, this is the first time they'll present their work to the scientific community. "It's exciting for the students to be able to get up in front of other scientists and teach them things they didn't know before. It's all the more exciting when you've got an iron-clad system that isn't supposed to be able to work." said Kazadi. "This is the initiation to a lifetime of scientific inquiry. I can think of no better way to learn about science than doing it." The work will be presented at the Water Resource Research Center 2011 Annual Conference in Yuma, Arizona and at the Asian Conference on Sustanability, Energy, and the Environment in Osaka, Japan. Students Arnav and Apoorv Chaudhary of Arcadia High School, and Ayesha Bose of Francis Parker High School are planning to attend the conference with their parents, making the achievement a family affair.

The work that the students have done has already been noticed by colleges and universities the students are applying to. "I don't think it's a coincidence that two of our eleven students were admitted to Caltech, and five have already been admitted to Cornell University." says Kazadi. "Doing scientific work of this caliber is one of the best ways of differentiating students, particularly when they're part of such a small and underfunded laboratory, yet still making serious contributions."

This new publication brings to 51 the number of peer reviewed publications of students of the Jisan Research Institute. The Institute, which was founded in 1995, has just over 100 alumni, seven of which have gone on to MIT, eight of whom have gone on to Caltech, and five who have gone on to Harvard. Of the students still in communication with JRI, nearly 80% have obtained graduate degrees. "Eventually we'll have a reunion," muses Kazadi, "and we'll be saying 'Hello Doctor', 'Hello Doctor', 'Hello Doctor'."