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재미 한인 과학 기술자 협회

뉴잉글랜드 지부에 오신것을 환영합니다.

KSEA-NE is a recognized branch of the national Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) located in Washington, D.C. It is a non-profit professional organization with the intent to promote the application of science and technology to the general welfare of society, foster international cooperation, especially between the U.S. and Korea, and help Korean-American scientists and engineers develop their full career potentials.

KSEA New England Chapter Fall 2026 Symposium on Advanced Materials

Date & Time:    Saturday November 14th, 9am-1pm                           

Venue:              Room 132, Science and Technology Center. 4 Colby St. Medford, MA 02155                        

Parking:   Limited number of free street parking available around the building.
Parking instructions will be provided to participants.                                

Lunch:           Morning coffee and lunch will be provided.                         

Registration:     Free Registration Link                             

KSEA membership: Not required; annual membership fee will be reimbursed for participants who become members during November 1 – 15 upon submission of membership due receipts.     

FINAL AGENDA:

9-10 am Keynote Tak:
Advanced Manufacturing of Multi-Materials via Ultrafine Fibers and 3D Printing.
Jay H. Park
Associate Professor, Department of Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

While polymers have played vital roles in modern society, the emergence of nano-scale fabrication, additive manufacturing, and wearable technologies led to the importance of understanding processing-induced structures to tune properties, i.e., processing-structure-property. The Park research group aims to harness and engineer hierarchical structure of polymer, both at nonequilibrium and equilibrium induced by flow deformation and stress relaxation, respectively. To this end, this talk will focus on two form factors based on multi-layered multi-materials: i) ultrafine polymer scaffold with metal organic framework (MOF) nanopaticle, and ii) multi-material additive manufacturing.

Firstly, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers electrospun in conjunction with simultaneous electrospraying UiO-66-NH2 MOF particles that provides both breathable scaffold filters with highly reactive MOF sites with loading as high as 200 g/m2 are presented.  Air-controlled electrospinning/electrospray has been implemented and its implication on loading, morphology, and throughput is discussed. The processing-structure-property relationships of the said method are examined with textile functionalities in mind. Ultimately though the reduction of collector speed and transverse direction; higher loadings were produced which enhances the capability of MOF to be used for gas separation.

Secondly, co-extruded dual-material filaments that integrate materials with distinct glass transition temperature (Tg) and hardness into a single filament structure are presented. Primarily, these filaments pave the way for the fabrication of materials that have traditionally presented challenges in FFF, such as buckling. By integrating a stiffer core with soft thermoplastic elastomers, the structural integrity of the filament is preserved, facilitating the FFF process without compromising the material properties. Moreover, leveraging the differential Tg properties, the printed pars can be annealed at an intermediate temperature between the Tg of the core and the shell. This method effectively heals the shell-shell interfaces, enhancing the durability and longevity of the printed object. Simultaneously, the core, exhibiting a higher Tg, provides a scaffolding that maintains the original printed geometry, preventing warping and deformation commonly associated with annealing processes. Engineering applications that are unique to AM process are presented.

10-10:30 am Microfluidic Fabrication of Macroscale Multicore Hydrogel Capsules for Programmable Oral Delivery of Therapeutics.
Hye-Seon Jeong, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Tufts University

The growing prevalence of chronic diseases and advances in personalized medicine are increasing the need for oral therapies tailored to individual patients. However, conventional oral formulations are primarily designed for standardized mass production, limiting flexibility in combining therapeutic agents and controlling their release. We developed a microfluidic platform for fabricating uniform, millimeter-scale capsules containing multiple aqueous cores separated by oil layers within an alginate hydrogel shell. Adjusting flow rates and alginate formulations enables systematic control over capsule size, core arrangement, and cargo loading. The capsules maintain structural integrity under mechanical and chemical stresses that mimic gastric conditions, protecting encapsulated cargos throughout typical gastric residence times. Under intestinal conditions, varying the alginate concentration allows control over release onset and profile. The platform also enables the fabrication of multicompartmental capsules containing different cargos, supporting independently programmable release without interference between compartments. Together, these findings demonstrate a versatile approach to combining cargo protection and tunable release within a single capsule, providing a foundation for personalized oral delivery and combination therapies. In this presentation I will also highlight our recent results on integrated gastric protection-intestinal release control attesting to the robustness and tunability of our technology.

10:30-11 am Electrocatalyst-enabled Chemical Modulation for Advanced Biohybrid System
Inkyu Lee, Ph.D.
Research Fellow Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Broad Institute

Recent advancements in biointerfaced materials have enabled sensing and manipulating biological events. While chemical interaction is one of the major modes of inter/intracellular communication, however, recording and modulating chemical cues in biological environments still have remained challenging due to the requirement of external resources for chemical generation and complex chemical composition. Recently, catalysis has shown potential to generate small molecular biochemicals such as neurotransmitters, employing precursors in physiological fluids.

We applied an electrocatalyst to produce oxygen in situ for life support of implantable cell therapies by addressing necrotic core formation which is the most imminent obstacles in tissue engineering. Iridium oxide was selected with optimized synthesis. Assisted by finite element analysis, electrocatalytic arrays were designed and microfabricated. The invented platform demonstrated electrocatalytic oxygen production as well as the feasibility of cell viability maintenance in vitro. Electrocatalytic on-site oxygenator, named ecO2, was engineered to fully implantable form-factor, which demonstrated improved cell viability and successful delivery of therapeutics in animal models. Additionally, ecO2 enabled suppressed necrotic core formation, exhibiting alleviated hypoxic stressed with reduced expression of hypoxia inducible factors. Noticeably, it implies on-site catalysis enables modulating chemical landscape at direct biointerface without deleterious side-effects and thereby adjusting trajectory of physiological cascades.

11-11:30 am Nanoparticles as a Macroscopic Design Handle: From Structural Color to Magnetic Functionalization
Yun Hyeok Lee, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Nanoparticles offer a remarkably precise handle on matter, but their scale has long made them difficult to put to practical use: interactions that are exquisitely sensitive to spacing, light, and programmed assembly rarely translate directly into something a person can perceive or use. My doctoral research addressed this gap by working at the interface between nanoparticles and polymers, the length scale closest to nanoparticles themselves, to translate nanoscale interactions into macroscopically recognizable function.

In this talk, I will present two projects from my doctoral research that illustrate this approach. First, a single-ink structural-color platform that uses patterned, time-resolved UV exposure to tune nanoparticle–polymer interactions, enabling high-resolution (~1 µm), high-speed (~100 mm² s⁻¹) reflective color printing without pigments. Second, a magnetically reconfigurable dielectric-elastomer electrode built from a sol-gel, phase-transitional ferrofluid material: a solid-like operating mode enables actuation, while a fluid-like mode allows the electrode to be reconfigured in situ, on demand.

I will close by discussing how this design philosophy, using nanoparticles as a precise, minimally invasive handle on macroscopic material function, is shaping my current postdoctoral research at MIT and the independent research direction I am developing toward reconfigurable, nanoparticle-interaction-based materials.

11:30 am – 1 pm Networking and Lunch

Email NE Chapter president Hyunmin Yi at hyunmin.yi@tufts.edu for inquiries.