****Non-Technical Abstract**** The PENN-UPR PREM will further advance knowledge in materials science with new research efforts that will lead to the development of more efficient, cheaper and environmentally friendly electronic devices for health, environmental, domestic and industrial applications. A diverse group of faculty researchers from three undergraduate campuses of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR): Humacao, Cayey and Bayamon, and the University of Pennsylvania (PENN) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center will work in multidisciplinary teams with significant participation of HS and undergraduate students. The program will sustain a successful collaboration between UPR and PENN that began in 1998 with the NSF CIRE program and has continued with PREM support since 2004. It will further increase the participation of minorities, women, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds (low income families, first generation in college, and from isolated rural areas) into materials research through a well-orchestrated education effort that starts with informal community science activities and with the participation of Middle and HS teachers, identifies and guides talented and motivated HS (and K-8) students through undergraduate schools focused on PREM research. This guided experience through a stimulating education, participation in competitive materials research, training in state-of-the-art research facilities and contact with role models, will promote high rates of students continuing graduate studies and joining the science and technology workforce.
The PENN-UPR PREM research and education efforts will be centered on two Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs): 1) Multi-functional nanodevices from optoelectronic materials, and 2) Nanoscale interactions of macromolecules at soft and hard interfaces. IRG 1 will synthesize, characterize, and manipulate optoelectronic materials to gain fundamental understanding of transport mechanisms in these materials for potential device applications. The projects include the study of new device structure combinations of single-atomic-layer materials (MoS2, etc.) and nanofibers of electro-active polymers that hold potential for transformative discoveries in chemical detection and energy harvesting. IRG 2 will explore nanoscale interactions of macromolecules with soft and hard interfaces with the long-range goal of assembling nanomaterials into macroscopic structures with designed properties and functionality. The study of nanoparticle-protein interactions represents both a fundamental problem, as well as a research area for which the PENN-UPR team is uniquely poised to attack in terms of nanoparticle synthesis, protein chemistry, spectroscopy, and theory. The multidisciplinary research teams of UPR and PENN faculty will integrate undergraduates and HS students into extended research experiences that will lead to publishable results. Importantly, faculty will also integrate their research topics, techniques, and results into laboratory experiences, courses, and outreach activities. Finally, with support from an external Evaluator, the effectiveness of the program and the short and long-term impact on minority undergraduate institutions will be assessed.
