Student Research Spotlight - Pravin Parasakthi Aravindhan
Pravin Parasakthi Aravindhan won the Graduate Research Poster Award for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering during the 2022 Auburn Research: Student Symposium.
Hometown: Medavakkam, Tamil Nadu, India
Degree and major: Doctorate in Chemical Engineering
College: Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
Department: Chemical Engineering
Class year: Second year of doctoral program
Faculty mentor: Bryan Beckingham
Investigating Structure-Property Relationships in Crosslinked Ion Exchange Membranes
What are you researching?
I am investigating the role of specific components in the membrane structure and their effect on solute transport and other essential membrane properties toward electrochemical fuel cells.
How could the results benefit individuals, agencies or companies?
The results will help us understand how the transport of a single solute is affected by various other solutes co-transporting through the membrane. This understanding can help individuals and companies to design membranes for targeted applications.
Tell us why you enjoy research.
Since I can witness unexpected results, it helps me to brainstorm and read research articles to explain a particular phenomenon. This experience helps me to look at various problems and develop research questions to work toward solutions, which is interesting.
What advice would you give to other students considering doing a research project?
Choose an area where you are interested in working and email professors for opportunities. Once you land in a research group, develop your skills in that area and analyze your strengths and weaknesses to improve yourself daily. As you grow personally and professionally, you can bring a change in this world with your ideas.
Tell us about any hobbies or activities you enjoy.
I like reading world history, geography and facts about all the countries in the world. I also enjoy running, which helps me to stay fit and healthy.
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