Undergraduate Research

Beyond the Scope

Shannon Yee, a graduate student in nuclear engineering who received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State, has a passion for research.

“I couldn’t have lucked into a better discipline,” Yee said. “I get up, and I get excited about my research, and that’s what keeps me coming in every morning.”

He also has a passion to make engineering and research available to everyone.

For his undergraduate research project, which won him first place in Ohio State’s Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, Yee assembled a scanning tunneling microscope for less than $500; the conventional version retails for about $100,000. This microscope, used to create atomic-scale images of metal surfaces, is essential to nanotech research. Yee says his version of the instrument could make nanotech research a lot less expensive and thus more accessible.

“And there’s nothing that says a high school student couldn’t use this or have it in high school labs either,” he added.