REU Site: Materials and Devices for Sustainable Technology Applications

Non-Technical Summary

To advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, and to promote the progress of science in the United States, the objectives of the proposed REU site, which is funded by the Division of Materials Research at the NSF, are to increase the retention and graduation rates of underserved populations in the STEM disciplines, and furthermore, to encourage these students to pursue post-graduate degrees in science and engineering. These objectives are achieved by focusing on recruiting students attending two- and four-year primarily undergraduate institutions and non-Ph.D. granting institutions, and then identifying talented prospective participants, based on their academic record, letters of recommendation, and short essays, who should be encouraged to attend graduate school at a later stage.

The program participants engage in interdisciplinary research of materials that could be used in low-power electronics, the health sciences, and other technological fields where sustainability (especially energy efficiency) is important. The research projects will be carried out under the auspices of the Materials Science and Engineering Initiative at the University of California, Santa Cruz, culminating with participation in a Research Symposium at the end of the program.

Professional development activities include safety training, responsible conduct of research, impostor syndrome, graduate school application planning workshops, and sexual harassment/harassment workshops and training. The program will be augmented by a partnership with the UCSC Cal-Bridge program. Technical Summary

The objectives of the proposed REU site are to increase the retention and graduation rates of underserved populations in the STEM disciplines, especially Hispanics from low socio-economic backgrounds and women, and furthermore, to encourage these students to pursue post-graduate degrees in science and engineering. These objectives are achieved by focusing on recruiting students attending two- and four-year primarily undergraduate institutions and non-Ph.D. granting institutions, and then identifying talented prospective participants, based on their academic record, letters of recommendation, and short essays, who should be encouraged to attend graduate school at a later stage.

The program participants engage in interdisciplinary research of materials that could be used in low-power electronics, the health sciences, and other technological fields where sustainability (especially energy efficiency) is important. The research will focus on methodologies to study the fundamental properties of materials that in the future may be used in energy-efficient electronic and optoelectronic devices, bioelectronic devices, and new ways of storing and using renewable energy.

The research projects will be carried out under the auspices of the Materials Science and Engineering Initiative at the University of California, Santa Cruz, culminating with participation in a Research Symposium at the end of the program. Professional development activities include safety training, responsible conduct of research, impostor syndrome, graduate school application planning workshops, and sexual harassment/harassment workshops and training. The program will be augmented by a partnership with the UCSC Cal-Bridge program.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.