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Matthew
Bishop goes to school full time and “tinkers” with “ideas” in
his spare time.
His ideas include coming up with a design for an electric
vehicle, creating fast charging battery technology, and the list
goes on and on.
The 18-year-old second-year student has teamed up with another
Dalton State student, Max Heres, to form EV Industries, short
for Electric Vehicle Industries, an entrepreneurial enterprise
aimed at converting combustion vehicles into electric vehicles.
“I’ve always liked building things,” says Bishop, who expects to
complete his associate degree in chemistry by summer’s end.
“I love to weld, to paint, to build – to do anything that
involves physically creating something.”
But coming up with inventions is not his only passion. Since he
arrived as a first-year college student at the age of 17, Bishop
has begun a love affair – with chemistry.
“When I came here, I just fell in love with organic chemistry,”
says Bishop, who was able to spend what would have been his
senior year at Calhoun High School as a Post Secondary Option
(PSO) student at Dalton State.
“Everything can be defined in a chemical sense. I love how
organic chemistry can be applied to everyday processes.”
“It’s kind of like modern-day ‘Legos’ on a molecular level,” he
explains. “Every living organism is made up of different
arrangements of carbon atoms. In chemistry, you learn how to
arrange or alter chemical compounds using mechanisms to change
chemical structures.” |
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That’s just what he did last summer when he worked on a research
project with Dr. Tricia Scott, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
Their five-month research project was to take different types of
oil, convert them to fuels using various chemical processes, and
to then compare their effectiveness to diesel fuels.
“Dr. Scott and I took different plant oils and used a process
called ‘transesterfication’ to create biodiesel fuels, and we
analyzed the methodologies that could be used in producing those
fuels,” he says.
“We found that corn and canola oils produced a slightly greater
energy efficiency than some of the others. Peanut oil, for
example, is not as effective as #2 diesel oil – the comparison
fuel.”
Their research findings were presented to Southeastern Regional
American Chemical Society Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, in
November.
“Many of the professors from other universities came up to me
and were interested in using our research as a teaching tool in
their classes,” he recalls.
Bishop credits Scott with being instrumental in helping with all
areas of the research project.
“She’s very insightful, very encouraging. I don’t think you
could ask for a better research professor than Dr. Scott.”
Likewise, Bishop has been pleased and somewhat surprised by his
experience at Dalton State.
“I came here with the mindset that I would only stay for a year
and then transfer to another school. I was surprised to find out
how rigorous Dalton State was, and liked it so much here that I
decided to stay another year.”
Bishop plans to transfer to West Georgia College and State
University next fall to complete a bachelor’s degree in physics
followed by a degree in engineering from Georgia Tech. His
ultimate goal is to earn a Ph.D. in Physics and to become both a
professor and an inventor.
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