This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The goal of this project is to provide American student participants with a global perspective and opportunities for professional growth through international cooperative research training, networking and mentoring in the BioMEMS research field. This project will provide high quality educational and research experiences for 12 graduate and undergraduate students at Florida International University through active research participation in collaboration with the Kawarada research team at Waseda University in Japan. Each student will spend three months in summer to work with the Kawarada research group. Typical research topics include functionalization of carbon-based surfaces, diamond-based DNA sensors, and carbon-based bio-fuel cells. The knowledge that will result from this project is critically needed for breakthroughs required for the development of carbon based BioMEMS for energy and biological applications. This project will foster interdisciplinary interactions with investigators and students at all levels. Research results obtained from this project will be presented at various conferences and published in various journals. This project will broaden the participation and impact the recruitment of underrepresented groups, especially women and Hispanic students.
