Engineering

In addition to her work as a changemaker, Alexandria is a Mechanical Engineering Student at the University of South Florida. She currently works with Dr. Nathan Gallant in the Cellular Mechanotransduction and Biomaterials Laboratory researching the incorporation of cationic monomers into the NIPAAm network to improve cell adhesion to pNIPAAm, a commonly used smart polymer. 

In the summer of 2021, Alexandria worked with Dr. Harold Hatch at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, where she simulated Leonard Jones Canonical, Grand Monte Carlo, and Transition Matrix Monte Carlo to better understand the current methods to calculate uncertainty in Monte Carlo simulations. 

Alexandria previously interned at Nascence, a biotech startup, where she was responsible for recreating, and improving the N2D2 technology. This technology exploits the shear forces produced by the hydrophobic to hydrophilic transition produced by cooling PNIPaam gels to release cells without the use of chemicals that reduce cell-yield.

As a high school student, Alexandria worked with Dr. Thomas Angelini in the University of Florida Soft Matter Research Laboratory to research the buckling behavior when oil based microgels of a particular size are printed into water-based jammed microgels of a particular yield stress and contributed as second-author to a published study of capillary forces in hydrogel assemblies which transition between solid-and fluid-like states enabling them to be shaped in 3d.

Publications & Presentations

O’Bryan, C. S., Brady-Mine, A., Tessmann, C. J., Spotz, A. M., & Angelini, T. E. (2021). Capillary forces drive buckling, plastic deformation, and break-up of 3D printed beams. Soft Matter, 17(14), 3886-3894.

Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Gallant, Nathan. Controlling Cell Adhesion to PNIPAAm Through Incorporation of Cationic Monomers. Presented at: Sigma Xi Annual Meeting. Nov 2021.

Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Hatch, Harold. Uncertainty Quantification in Transition-Matrix Monte Carlo Simulations. Presented at: NIST SURF Research Symposium. August 2021.

Hatch, Harold (presenting author); Siderius, Daniel; Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Shen, Vincent. Uncertainty Quantification in Transition-Matrix Monte Carlo Simulations. Presented at: American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting. Nov 2021.

Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Gallant, Nathan. Incorporation of Lysine into PNIPAAm to Enhance Protein Adsorption. Presented at: University of South Florida Undergraduate Research Conference. Apr. 2021.

Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Gallant, Nathan. Incorporation of Lysine into PNIPAAm to Enhance Protein Adsorption. Presented at: Nano Florida Conference. Sept. 2020.

Brady-Mine, Alexandria; Gallant, Nathan. Incorporation of Lysine into PNIPAAm to Enhance Protein Adsorption. Presented at: Nano Florida Conference. Nov. 2019.