This Chemistry Division award supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at the University of North Dakota (UND) for the summers of 2009-2011. The site is implemented by the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education (SUNRISE) program. It is coordinated by program director Evguenii Kozliak of Chemistry assisted by co-PI Wayne Seames from the Department of Chemical Engineering. SUNRISE science and engineering faculty will serve as REU mentors to at least eight NSF-supported students plus additional students supported by other sources conducting chemistry-focused undergraduate research that contributes to the advancement of sustainable energy technologies. The ten-week summer program includes weekly sessions with an emphasis on publication-quality research projects and the improvement of oral and written communications skills. An ethics component is designed to motivate participants to learn, and more importantly, to practice ethics. SUNRISE is committed to training individuals who will develop the necessary innovative solutions to these problems and who can speak to the impact of these issues to diverse populations. Native American students will be recruited from two feeder programs, SUNRISE's Native American Freshman Experience and UND's American Indians in Engineering. SUNRISE partnerships with two minority serving non-doctoral California State University schools will be utilized to recruit students who otherwise would be unlikely to consider research as a career, including Hispanic, women and other underrepresented group students. Other participants will be recruited from non-research colleges and Universities in the upper Midwest. Students will conclude the program with a university-wide poster session.
The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site was implemented by the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education (SUNRISE) program as a joint program of the University of North Dakota’s (UND) Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Departments. The scientists and engineers of SUNRISE, a faculty organized, student-centered research group centered in the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments at UND, hosted this REU site based on chemistry-focused undergraduate research that contributes to the advancement of sustainable energy technologies. As the number of issues related to energy proliferates, the next generation of scientists and engineers will be required to understand, develop, and improve sustainable energy technologies. With 17 core faculty in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (ChE) plus supporting faculty from 5 additional disciplines at UND, SUNRISE was able to offer a rich program that combined mentored research with programmatic elements, in a socially relevant interdisciplinary environment. For three years, a 10-week summer program was implemented where at least eight NSF-funded students plus additional students supported by other sources conducted chemistry-focused undergraduate research that contributes to the advancement of sustainable energy technologies. The summer program included publication-quality research projects and weekly sessions that covered oral and written communications skills, laboratory safety, an introduction to graduate school, career opportunities through research, and sustainable energy research. An ethics component was designed to motivate participants to learn, and more importantly, to practice ethics. Students concluded the program with a university-wide poster session. SUNRISE was committed to training individuals who will develop the necessary innovative solutions to tomorrow’s energy and environmental impact problems and who can speak to the impact of these issues to diverse populations. Outcomes met our aggressive target metrics for all objectives except NA participation, which was also close (13% achieved vs. 15% target). Publications based on REU student work includes three fully published peer-reviewed journal articles with 12 planned for future submission. To date, 50% of the participants have been identified as co-authors on published or planned peer-reviewed publications. Usually, the work of an REU student requires significant refining and continuation, which may take years. Based on our experience from previous REUs, we expect the fraction of participants co-authoring peer reviewed papers to increase to the target level (80%) due to the inherent and significant lag in REU publications. Ca. half of the published papers have multiple faculty co-authors, thus showing the success of the multi-mentor strategy. Eleven presentations were made at National/International Symposia associated with REU research. Native American students were recruited from two feeder programs, SUNRISE’s Native American Freshman Experience and UND’s American Indians in Engineering. SUNRISE partnerships with two minority serving non-doctoral California State University schools was utilized to recruit students who otherwise would be unlikely to consider research as a career, including Hispanic, women and other underrepresented group students. 33% of the program participants were from these schools, one out of three being Hispanic. Other participants were primarily recruited from non-research colleges and Universities in the upper Midwest.
