Demetra Yancopoulos ’22
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Spray Generation and Bubbles Bursting
Certificate(s): Sustainable Energy
I conducted research on collective bubble dynamics at the water’s surface. Bubble dynamics play an important part in a breadth of natural processes, but their role in the production of droplets at the ocean-atmosphere interface drew me to the lab. Water droplets containing compounds such as salt are ejected into the atmosphere by bursting bubbles where they serve as nuclei in the formation of clouds, influencing climate and weather on large scales. My research group hoped to improve understanding and predictions of climate and weather by isolating the parameters in these natural processes in an experimental setting. My research involved processing sequences of images of variously sized bubbles formed under different conditions. My daily work consisted of refining and running programs with Python software to detect and link bubbles across the sequences. I developed a deeper appreciation of coding in a research setting through my internship. The analysis using Python showed me how coding is not only a means of creation, but also a means of discovery. This internship motivated me to consider more courses in computing and data analysis so I can continue to utilize these powerful tools.
* This internship is connected to the HMEI Urban Grand Challenges project, “Extreme Wave Breaking in Coastal Urban Areas.”
2020
Climate and Environmental Science
Deike Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
Luc Deike, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute; Baptiste Neel, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering