{"id":3722,"date":"2018-02-07T11:06:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T11:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=3722"},"modified":"2023-07-17T18:09:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T01:09:08","slug":"gates-scholar-kirchan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/07\/gates-scholar-kirchan","title":{"rendered":"Gates scholarship supports ideal research match"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Anna Kirchan and Seungkeun Choi in research lab. \/ Marc Studer photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Douglas Esser
\nPromising biotechnology arises from the intersection of electrical engineering and chemistry. Imagine a flexible sensor the size of a quarter that could monitor glucose from a diabetic\u2019s sweat, instead of a painful prick of blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That research has been underway at the University of Washington Bothell, led by an assistant professor in the School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics<\/a>, Seungkeun Choi. Choi needed a research assistant with a special combination of skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choi found that combination in Anna Kirchan, a student double majoring in electrical engineering and chemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect match, and she was very self-motivated,\u201d Choi said of Kirchan who has worked with him since the spring of 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirchan\u2019s work is now supported with a Mary Gates scholarship<\/a>, a choice Choi is happy to see because she serves as a role model for female students in research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout having the Mary Gates, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to continue the research,\u201d Kirchan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choi aims to develop tiny, highly sensitive organic electrochemical transistors that can sense small changes in a chemical or biological substance. Kirchan demonstrated a prototype at the International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems last summer in Taiwan. Currently, Kirchan is investigating how the sensitivity could be improved by a micron-scale heating element. This is the work supported by the scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like shrinking a lab full of analytical equipment onto a tiny chip, said Choi, who says another possible use, in addition to glucose monitoring, might be chips that could test cancer drugs in minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can grow the cells on top of the transistor, and when you inject the drugs it responds with a small signal,\u201d said Choi who looks for more assistants to continue the research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirchan graduates this summer after five years of work to complete two challenging degrees. She hopes to find research-related work at a company in the Seattle area. Before assisting Choi she thought she might go into the field of power generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know organic chemistry and electrical engineering intersected at all. It was really cool to see the two fields I\u2019m interested in being put together in a way I hadn\u2019t thought of before. I think it would be interesting to go into the organic electronics field, especially because it\u2019s a growing area now,\u201d Kirchan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the most fun I\u2019ve had at Bothell \u2014 being able to do research \u2014 because it\u2019s really what I want to do with my degrees,\u201d said Kirchan who also is considering graduate school in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n <\/path>\n<\/svg>

The competitive Mary Gates Research Scholarships go to University of Washington undergraduates to enhance faculty-guided research. The $5,000 scholarship, disbursed in $2,500 installments over two quarters, enables students to focus more time and attention on their projects. Students present their work in the spring at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium.\n <\/path>\n<\/svg><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill and Melinda Gates endowed the scholarships in 1995 in memory of his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, who served as a UW regent 1975-1993. The endowment<\/a> takes applications twice a year, once in the fall and once in the winter, and announces recipients in winter and spring.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Kirchan, a double major in electrical engineering and chemistry, received a Mary Gates scholarship to support research led by UW Bothell Assistant Professor Seungkeun Choi. The research might lead to a small sensor that could monitor glucose from a diabetic’s sweat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,229,211,214,204],"tags":[287],"school":[],"class_list":["post-3722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-faculty","category-honors-and-awards","category-research","category-students","tag-scholarship"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":null,"link_2":null,"link_3":null,"link_4":null,"link_5":null},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":null,"button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nGates scholarship supports ideal research match - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2018\/02\/07\/gates-scholar-kirchan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gates scholarship supports ideal research match - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anna Kirchan, a double major in electrical engineering and chemistry, received a Mary Gates scholarship to support research led by UW Bothell Assistant Professor Seungkeun Choi. 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