The impact of the Paternership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) between the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao and the University of Pennsylvania will be substantial. The UPR-HUMACAO is the largest producer of undergraduate physics, chemistry, and computational mathematics majors on the island. Continuity from the B.S. level to graduate school will be sustained. Undergraduates at UPR-HUMACAO and other participating institutions will be given the unique opportunity to engage in undergraduate research and to interact with mainland students with the unavoidable consequence as motivation to pursue graduate school. The faculty sense of self-worth is greatly enhanced by participating as co-investigators with leaders in their fields. This has already led to multiple research projects (many of them NSF sponsored or submitted to NSF) that have increased faculty collaboration and made research at UPR truly multi-disciplinary in nature. The new instrumentation will enhance the research infrastructure and the quality of the academic program. The research and education activities will be centered on three main topics: Polymers, Sensors and Actuators Materials, and Mathematical Modeling & Simulation in Materials Science. These are the three areas that best exemplify the successful collaboration between UPR and PENN and the ones that resulted in the highest total scientific production and publications rates. New research capabilities will be made available which has the prospect of attracting even more faculty into research thereby increasing the pool of scientists on the island. By involving faculty from other units of UPR (UPRRP and UPR-CAYEY) the extent of the collaborative will be enhanced and the number of students that participate in this project will increase. This will serve two purposes; it will help establish a credible research environment in the southeast part of the island, and it will also serve as a motivating factor in inviting local high school students to campus and demonstrating the various research projects undertaken by undergraduates. Finally, this partnership will help start a new program to offer a Master's degree in the Physics of Materials Research, which at the moment is under consideration with the UPR Board of Directors. This collaborative, initiated under the NSF-CIRE sponsorship has shown a great deal of influence in the attitude, involvement, and level of scholarly endeavors of the undergraduates and faculty at UPR.
