This award supports an REU Site at the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center (AMPAC) at the University of Central Florida (UCF) which engages ten undergraduate students per year for ten weeks of research and other educational experiences in nanotechnology. The primary emphasis of these programs is placed on encouraging talented undergraduate students, in particular women, minorities and persons with disabilities, to pursue graduate studies in the fields of nanoscience and engineering. Experienced faculty serve as research supervisors in this program. The program includes: (1) Introductory coursework on the basic principles of nanotechnology; (2) Research seminars for undergraduates led by the faculty; (3) Bi-weekly industrial visits to the numerous heavy industries in the Orlando area; (4) Seminars, workshops, and discussion sessions on issues of ethics in engineering research; and (5) Continuous monitoring of the students' progress by the principal investigators via weekly discussion groups. The summer program concludes with a poster session in which the REU students present their research results to the AMPAC, Nanocenter, and UCF communities.
Research reports are bound into an REU yearbook, which the students and PI compile. The program follows up by helping students to obtain admission and scholarships for graduate school. The REU site staff track the career progress of former participants. A new feature of the REU site is the formation of an External Oversight Committee, which evaluates annually the quality of the students' experiences and the Site's overall success in meeting its and NSF's goals. Another novel dimension of the program is the participation of several students from England and Japan.
Intellectual Merit: Worldwide research has clearly demonstrated that many benefits can be derived from the dynamic discipline of nanoscience/nanotechnology. Knowledgeable UCF faculty, combined with the availability of extraordinary resources, have created an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, educators to advance their own talents in nanoscience and nanotechnology through their individual and combined research activities. The participating students are incorporated into this stimulating intellectual environment.
Broader Impact: The curriculum of this program provides new learning opportunities in nanoscience and nanotechnology and aids the participants in formulating their career paths (scientific, academic, or industrial). Special emphasis is placed on practical and hands-on experience. Minorities and women and especially community-college students, who traditionally have little opportunity to become involved in research work, realize immediate benefits through broadened perspectives on career opportunities. Thus, an important result is the retention of these students in advanced study of science and engineering disciplines. This interdisciplinary effort contributes to the professional growth of the STEM faculty involved and provides the PI's with an opportunity to investigate new teaching paradigms and teaching collaborations. The outcomes of the program will be disseminated further to inform K-12 teachers through a related NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program.
