The proposed U.S./Africa Materials Institute will focus on the development of collaborations between materials scientists in Africa and the counterparts in the U.S. The Virtual Materials Institute will provide a Princeton setting for research collaborations in the areas of materials design, synthesis and characterization. However, the center will also coordinate interactions with other universities in the U.S. These include: Harvard, Brown, Case Western University, The Ohio State University, the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Concordia University. A total of 8 African scientists and their students will be supported (per year) to spend between 3 months and 6 months interacting with their counterparts in the U.S. Half of these scientists will be based at Princeton University, while the other half will be based at participating U.S. universities. The institute will focus on research and education in the area of materials design. It will work on areas that can promote economic development in Africa and the U.S. This will include: materials research on organic thin films for the next generation of light-emitting devices and solar cells; micro-electro-mechanical systems for switching and biomedical applications, and heterogeneous materials for affordable housing and materials production/synthesis.
The U.S./Africa Materials Institute will use web-based tools to provide access to materials journals, virtual laboratories and classrooms, and web-cast symposia and workshops. Teaching modules will be developed to support the education of African and U.S. materials scientists and engineers in materials selection and design, structural materials, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and materials characterization. The web-based teaching modules will be developed in conjunction with Internet 2, and made freely available on the world-wide-web.
In an effort to promote the interactions between U.S. and African scientists, the Institute will work closely with the African Materials Research Society and the Materials Research Society in the U.S. to organize joint symposia/workshops in Africa and the U.S. One major workshop will be organized in the U.S. during each year of the program. The Institute will also provide financial support for at least 10 U.S. materials researchers and graduate students to attend Africa MRS Meetings. A similar number of visiting African collaborators will be supported to attend the Materials Research Society meetings in the U.S. During these visits, the Institute will organize information sessions designed to expose a wider range of U.S. and African researchers to emerging U.S./Africa collaborations in materials research and education.
The Institute will be guided by an Advisory Board that will include representatives from Africa, South America, Europe, Canada and the U.S. The Advisory Board will meet once a year to evaluate the performance and future needs/directions of the Institute. The Institute will be directed by Prof. Wole Soboyejo at Princeton University. Prof. Soboyejo will be supported by an Administrative Manager and a secretary, who will help to coordinate the activities of the Institute. The other participating collaborators at Princeton University include Prof. David Srolovitz, Prof. Zhigang Suo, Prof. George Scherer, Prof. Tim Baker and Prof. Antoine Kahn. At other universities, the collaborators will include Prof. Arthur Heuer (Case Western), Prof. Anthony Evans (UCSB), Prof. Tianjin Lu (Cambridge), Prof. John Hutchinson (Harvard), Prof. Alan Needleman (Brown), Prof. Clyde Briant (Brown), Prof. Alfred Soboyejo (The Ohio State University) and Prof. Primus Mtenga (FAMU/FSU).
In an effort to expose more U.S. students to the process of international collaboration, the Institute will support 4 graduate students and 4 undergraduate students per year to work on various aspects of the proposed research. The students will work closely with the African visitors during visits to their respective universities in the U.S. They will also be funded to attend the symposia/ workshops that will be organized by the Institute in Africa and the U.S. The students will include minority and non-minority students from under-represented groups, as well as women under-graduate/graduate students. All the U.S. collaborators will meet by teleconference once a month. The meetings will provide a forum for discussions on emerging collaborations. A center newsletter will also be issued once every six months to provide highlights of the activities of the Virtual Institute. As usual, the outcomes of all the outreach and education activities will be recorded using the metrics provided by the NSF. %%% The U.S./Africa International Materials Institute will develop strong collaborations between materials scientists in Africa and the U.S. The scientists will work on group projects that can impact global economic development. These include: infrastructure materials for affordable housing; materials for lining the walls of furnaces and kilns that are used in the trillion-dollar metal melting industry; organic electronic materials for future light-emitting devices and solar cells, and reliable small structures that are relevant to microelectronics and micro-electro-mechanical devices. Each year, 16 African scientists will spend 9 weeks working with their collaborators in the U.S. The visiting scientists will include professors, research scientists and graduate students from African universities and research institutes.
About half of the scientists will visit U.S. collaborators at Princeton University, while the other half will visit U.S. collaborators at Harvard University, Brown University, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, the University of California-Santa Barbara, and Florida State University/Florida A&M University. During the visits, the scientists will work on experimental or theoretical components of group projects. They will also be trained in the use of modern materials characterization or computational facilities. Following the visits, the scientists will return to Africa to continue with the aspects of the work that can be done in Africa. Each scientist will return to the U.S. over a multi-year (2-5 year period) until a significant body of research is done and published in international journals.
The program will also integrate education and training of U.S. undergraduate/graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in the process of international collaboration. Each, at least four U.S. graduate students, four U.S. undergraduate students and one post-doctoral research will be supported by the program at Princeton University and the Ohio State University. These students will participate in future U.S./Africa workshops and conferences. They will also be involved in international exchange visits, during which they will interact with collaborators and students at African universities.
In the area of materials education, the program will develop web-based modules on materials design and characterization. These will include teaching modules on: materials selection and design; advanced structural materials; mechanical properties of engineered materials, and materials characterization. The modules will be made widely available on the world-wide-web. They will also be integrated into the teaching of undergraduate and graduate courses at Princeton University and collaborating African universities. Finally, annual that will develop increased interactions between the U.S. and Africa in the areas of materials research and education. The workshops will also provide an opportunity to disseminate the new knowledge and educational tools that will emerge from the program.
