Spartan students showcase EAV sustainability solutions
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EmailMSU undergraduates presented research and novel consumer-based applications at annual Plastics in Electric and Autonomous Vehicle Conference
EAST LANSING, Michigan – Undergraduate students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) represented Michigan State University (MSU) at the 2025 Plastics in Electric and Autonomous Vehicle Conference last month in Troy, Michigan.
CANR students Zhanyla Coley, Corey McKenzie and Kayla Young, presented research and served as student ambassadors for the conference, sponsored by the Society of Plastics Engineers Automotive Division, which brings experts from a wide range of plastics applications in electric or autonomous vehicles together to explore innovation in EAV development and materials.
Coley, McKenzie and Young are alumni of Detroit-based Ecotek Lab – a science research organization dedicated to supporting the interest of young student scientists. Ecotek Lab creates opportunities for middle and high school students to participate in international science research ventures.
Ecotek Lab in Detroit partners closely with MSU to provide middle and high school students access to STEM programming and faculty, allowing them to observe and participate in ongoing grant-funded research and providing them hands-on experience to build basic skills.
Students graduate with an associate’s degree on a pathway toward their chosen fields. During their time with Ecotek Lab, the students participated in various MSU research projects, including Dr. Mojgan Nejad’s research on developing lignin-based bioproducts.
“I started looking at lignin as an alternative polymer to collagen in high school, and I did that for my entire senior year after seeing some of what Dr. Nejad is studying,” said McKenzie, a first-year student research assistant at MSU, majoring in Forestry. “I came to MSU because I already had a network and connections with the faculty. Having that community in the Department of Forestry has been extremely helpful. Participating in the bio-products lab with Dr. Nejad and her graduate students has been an incredible opportunity to learn high-level organic chemistry concepts as a first-year student and then apply them to polymer science.”
McKenzie gave a “Genius Talk” at the conference focused on lignin-based material for seating and airbags in EAV vehicles, which earned him a third-place honor at the conference. His interest and creativity in applied research as a first-year student has impressed Nejad, who met McKenzie as a high school student attending her lab once-a-month as part of his program at Ecotek.
“Corey is an exceptional and uniquely driven student. As a first-year student he has already gained valuable experience working in my lab, while maintaining a very heavy course load. He is a self-motivated student with a genuine passion for research in the green chemistry field. It’s amazing for a first-year student to have the knowledge and understanding to take on a unique opportunity to present at a conference like this,” Nejad said.
Ecotek introduces students to a wide range of STEM research and real-world impact, allowing them to develop their interests at an early age and over time introduce them to how those interests can be applied to solving emerging issues and creating employment opportunities.
“I formed Ecotek 20 years ago to provide research opportunities and access for young folks in Michigan – and now that expands outside of Michigan,” said Keith Young, CEO and founder of Ecotek Lab. “Today, we have labs in Detroit, Orlando, Baltimore, Houston and Philadelphia. So, we have young folks in those parts of the country that are doing research and STEM workforce development. Ecotek is an independent research lab that collaborates with universities and researchers across the country, and so the outreach done by MSU Extension and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has been essential to build this partnership.”
Young said the MSU chapter of MANRRS has played a pivotal role in connecting aspiring students to STEM fields and supporting those students on their academic journeys. MANRRS is a national organization with chapters around the country that welcomes people of all backgrounds interested in agriculture and natural resource-related careers.
Keith Young’s daughter Kayla started attending Ecotek programming as a second grader. She visited MSU on several occasions and developed an interest in packaging. She enrolled in the MSU School of Packaging (SoP) in 2020 and started working with faculty on various research projects.
Kayla Young, now a senior, is currently working under the guidance of Dr. Muhammad Rabnawaz to help develop best practices for analyzing and testing the recyclability of cardboard paper materials. In her freshman year she worked as a research assistant with Dr. Laurent Matuana, and Dr. Linda Hanson, to learn about the benefits of sustainable plastics and sugar beet crop management.
“MSU has provided me with so many opportunities to learn under a variety of faculty members and explore my interests,” Kayla Young said. “It’s been extremely rewarding to get to work beside these researchers. I also have a close mentor relationship with Camille Chism. She has been such a big help to me through everything that I've done in school. She's been the one that's always supporting me and helping me with what to do and where to go. I wouldn’t have made it through MSU without her help.”
Chism is an instructor for automotive packaging and SoP undergraduate outreach coordinator. She is designing and implementing new ways SoP can enhance its collaboration with Ecotek to provide interested students access to packaging research and outreach. Kayla Young is the first Ecotek graduate to attend the SoP, but Chism is hoping to see more Ecotek alumni enroll as the collaboration grows.
“We have a long-range, long-term plan to partner with Ecotek to continue to provide opportunities for students,” said Chism, who has 30 years of diverse packaging experience including over 15 years in the automotive industry. “As the School of Packaging grows, partnerships like this will provide a great pipeline of students that are interested in packaging, interested in the future and sustainability of packaging, and already have the technical background and skills ready to hit the ground running when they get on campus.”
It is critical for students to have access to STEM research before they get to college, and Nejad said the students in her classes and labs who participated in Ecotek come to MSU with the fundamental skills necessary to contribute to a research lab.
“I'm really excited about getting more of Ecotek students in our programs, because these are students who start working in STEM fields at an early age, some of them even at age 7 or 8,” Nejad said. “They already know some of the techniques and during their visits to my lab, they get the experience of working with a lot of advanced instrumentations that prepare them to do complete, full characterization of biopolymers. They get experience measuring performance and product development. These are unique skill sets that many graduate students don't even have.”
Kayla Young is a veteran of the EAV Conference. She presented previously and her project on developing a foam-based material to create packaging for EV batteries for overseas shipping was recognized as the top student presentation for the conference. This year, Young served as Student Ambassador for the event, providing previews of the presentations, introducing speakers, and assisting first-time student speakers with their presentations, like Coley and McKenzie.
“Zhanyla and I were both preparing our ‘Genius Talks’ for the conference, and we reached out to each other to share our projects and our concerns, and of course we were both kind of nervous,” said McKenzie, who also serves on the E-Board of MSU MANRRS as the CANR Student Senate Representative. “This was our first time presenting at a conference, not like a poster presentation, but an actual presentation. So, we decided to meet with Kayla, who has a lot of experience presenting, and ask for some pointers and share our ideas. We had some time to meet up and practice our presentations and get feedback from each other.”
Collaboration allowed the students to explore and build off their respective areas of expertise to apply toward the common goal of a more sustainable EV industry. Nejad said that cross-discipline collaboration and the ability to communicate with experts in different fields is vital to novel solutions to emerging issues.
“I have a joint appointment in the Department of Forestry and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. My students have diverse backgrounds, including Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Biochemistry. When they work together, each student brings a unique perspective and skillset, and they learn a great deal from one another. This kind of interdisciplinary research is essential for both scientific discovery and new bioproduct development,” Nejad said.
Coley is a pre-veterinary medicine student in the MSU Department of Animal Science. She presented a “Genius Talk” on the importance and process of developing pet-safe carriers for travel in EV vehicles, “an area often overlooked in the design of cars,” she said. Coley has focused her early academic research on how to safely transport domestic animals on airplanes, trains and cars. Her presentation earned her first place in the “Genius Talk” competition.
“From a very early age, I knew that I wanted to go into veterinary medicine. I started working with Ecotek Lab after I graduated high school, so later than my peers at MSU,” said Coley, who spent her time with Ecotek researching canine diabetes and developed a yogurt probiotic treat, that could be dehydrated to have a longer shelf life, which provides missing probiotics in dogs with diabetes to help balance their immune systems.
“I was a little nervous about presenting at the EAV Conference,” she said. “I think a lot of people in that position might doubt themselves, but my experience and teachers at Ecotek and now MSU have given me the confidence to say, ‘you know the information, you’ve done the research, you just have to be confident in yourself and be open to sharing what you've learned.’”
Coley will participate in the Biomedical Research for University Students in Health Sciences (BRUSH) Summer Research Program at MSU this summer. The program, for undergraduate and veterinary students interested in the biomedical sciences and research-related careers, provides hands-on research exposure and graduate or professional school preparation opportunities.
