Education, Human Resources, & Outreach

Professor Kent Kirshenbaum, MRSEC Investigator has been profiled in Time Magazine for his ongoing contributions to the Experimental Cuisine Collective, a soft materials approach to cutting edge cooking techniques, pastries and presentation.

Summer 2009 NYU MRSEC Faculty - student Team Research Fellowships

The NYU MRSEC awards Faculty-Student Team Research Fellowships to undergraduates and an accompanying faculty member from the same institution. This ten-week program, offered during the summer months, is designed to provide unique research experiences for faculty and students from four-year colleges and minority-serving institutions. The program is intended to provide opportunities for enhancement of undergraduate-based research efforts and fresh exposure to specific areas of materials research. Faculty have the option of being in residence for 2-10 weeks. This program strengthens the bond between the college instructor and undergraduate, prepares students for informed career decisions, creates permanent faculty contacts at participating colleges, and provides a vehicle for introducing MS&E into college curricula. Each team performs research in a NYU MRSEC research group.

Faculty members of these teams often extend their mentorship to undergraduates in other teams and the REU participants through weekly seminar meetings and informal group sessions. In addition to their individual research with MRSEC groups, the team students join the other undergraduates in summer program activities, including those affiliated with the REU for the Science and Engineering of Soft Materials and Interfaces (SESMI), a joint effort between the NYU MRSEC and the City College of New York. These activities include exercises aimed at heightening student awareness of science and engineering careers and enhancing skills, including practical ones that are often overlooked, but important for their professional development. This is achieved through weekly workshops and courses offered during the ten-week program, including:

• laboratory safety and handling hazardous waste
• how to keep a laboratory notebook
• how to prepare a research abstract
• how to present a research seminar
• how to construct a research poster
• how to search the scientific literature
• ethics of publication
• how to prepare a curriculum vitae
• oral presentations to the MRSEC investigators and summer participants and a poster at the annual Summer Undergraduate Poster Symposium

Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis. Criteria for the awards include the quality of the proposed work, the appropriateness of the proposed work to the activities and capabilities of the MRSEC, and the endorsement of the team by a MRSEC faculty collaborator. Monthly stipends are provided to the student and accompanying faculty member, and both are provided with housing in the Palladium dormitory on Union Square, within walking distance of the NYU campus. Housing subsidies are offered as an option. Fellowship recipients also receive research funds and travel expense reimbursements.

Please note that the National Science Foundation (NSF) restricts support for undergraduate student participants to citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions.

Applications for Student/Faculty Team Fellowships should be submitted to Mr. Nathan Blouin at mrsec.info@nyu.edu. Each member of the Student/Faculty Team must submit an application by February 15, 2009:

Students must provide a cover letter, a statement of research and career interests, the MRSEC research group of interest, a one-page description of the research project, and a scanned copy of their current transcript and the names of two references, including the accompanying faculty member. The accompanying faculty member must be identified in the cover letter.

Faculty must provide a cover letter, a statement of research and career interests, the MRSEC research group of interest, a one-page description of the research project (identical to the student's version, a current Curriculum Vitae, and a candid evaluation of the accompanying student. The accompanying student must be identified in the cover letter.

All other application materials should be sent by email as .pdf attachments to mrsec.info@nyu.edu.
Please include your name in the file name of any attachments.

Summer 2009 MRSEC REU Program

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) fellowships are awarded to undergraduates from four-year colleges and universities for participation in a ten-week summer program designed to provide unique research experiences, professional development, and increased awareness of materials science and engineering. Each student performs research in one of the innovative research projects that probe fundamental aspects of experimental and theoretical colloid science to develop principles for the fabrication of materials – from the colloidal to macroscopic scale – through manipulation of shape and choice of processing protocols, or, from one of the seed areas. The program is interdisciplinary, combining chemistry, physics and chemical engineering to examine forefront topics including:

• Ordered Non-Crystalline Materials and Dental Applications
• Processing and Packing Protocols
• Particle Assembly with Controlled Interactions
• Particle Assembly with Controlled Geometrics

MRSEC REU Students have access to state-of-the art facilities, and they participate with students in the NYU CCNY SESMI REU Program in professional development workshops for science writing and presentation, as well as ethics of research and publication. And they do so in the most exciting city in the world!

• Cutting - edge research experience
• $4,000 living stipend + travel expenses
• Dormitory housing provided on vibrant Union Square
• Organized group activities
• Program dates are June 1 to August 7, 2009

Please send a Resume, Statement of Career Interests, Statement of Preferred Project/Advisor, an unofficial transcript andto Nathan Blouin, MRSEC REU Coordinator, by February 15th, 2009.

NYU MRSEC Outreach

The NYU MRSEC operates a comprehensive multi-faceted E&HR program that encompasses K-12, undergraduate, graduate students, and college instructors and is aimed at broadening the participation of groups largely underrepresented in Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics (STEM), widening the pipeline of scientists and engineers, and developing the talent of emerging scientists at all levels. Dr. Andre Adler, currently the Director of Educational Outreach for the Department of Physics, is responsible for the operation and oversight of the program. The E&HR program includes an Education Advisory Committee (EAC), which comprises at least one representative from the industrial sector, an NYU MRSEC graduate student, an NYU MRSEC undergraduate, two four-year college instructors, with at least one from a minority-serving institution, and Dr. Deb Szybinski, the Director of the NYU-centered Faculty Resource Network. This group ensures representation at many levels and from many sectors, with an interest in student training and professional development.

K-12 Outreach

With support from Con-Edison, New York City’s primary energy utility, Professor David Grier recently established the Scientific Frontier Program (SFP), a multifaceted educational enrichment activity designed to introduce students, teachers, parents and administrators from selected schools in New York City to forefront scientific research in the classroom environment. Through direct interaction with NYU scientists, the SFP offers competency-matched content spanning three educational tiers - elementary, middle and high school. Located in the largest and one of the most ethnically diverse school districts in the U.S., the SFP has the potential to substantially broaden the participation of groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM. Currently in its pilot phase, the SFP includes NEST+m, a public magnet school located in New York City's Lower East Side (Dr. Olga Livanis, Principal) that serves students from all socioeconomic backgrounds with an institutional focus on science, technology and mathematics, and the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School (Mr. Darryl Rock, Principal), a public high school in the Clinton Hill district of Brooklyn that largely serves minority students from lower-income families, emphasizing the development of mathematical skills and an appreciation for science. The MRSEC strengthens the SFP and expands it beyond its Physics-centered pilot phase to the other MRSEC-affiliated departments, with the aim of introducing K-12 students to an interdisciplinary mix of the core areas of MS&E. We added the Spence School (Scott Wade and Scott Godson, Program Coordinator), a K-12 school for girls located on New York’s Upper East Side, to the SFP program.

Through a rotating schedule of four content areas – Physics/Math, Chemistry, Biology, Biomaterials – each of the MRSEC-affiliated departments from NYU, Polytechnic, and Princeton conduct the equivalent of 9 full-day exercises each year, introducing grade level-appropriate modules to the K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 groupings at these schools. Select high school juniors and seniors, chosen by their high school instructors, serve as apprentice teachers/demonstrators for the K-4 and 5-8 groupings. This format makes the younger students more receptive while providing the apprentices with valuable experiences in communicating science. Modules include the Spider Silk, Science of Milk, Energy and Environment, and How Stuff Fills Space. The content of each subject is configured for curricular integration across all grade levels, with each exercise designed to introduce, at an age-appropriate level, the scientific principles underlying the demonstration and hands-on activities associated with the module. Each module includes (i) a curriculum enrichment packet for the school instructor that contains a full description of the scientific principles and the materials used for the lesson, largely drawn from household items, (ii) the materials used for the lesson, (iii) a preview packet for each student to share with their parent(s) or guardian(s) before the lesson, containing questions to better prepare the students for the lesson and a log book to record observations during the lesson, and (iv) post-demonstration packets for the students, including suggestions for safe, family-friendly home science projects, again using household items, designed to encourage knowledge sharing with each student’s parent(s) or guardian(s).

At the conclusion of each event, each student is asked to submit their log book with an explanation of their experience in writing and, for the lower grade levels, to conceptualize the demonstration through a hand-drawn picture. These responses are used to gauge the students’ interest and comprehension of the lesson, which is then used as feedback for the program. Because the program is offered to the same students in consecutive years throughout their school careers, their responses provide a basis for evaluating the impact of the program and the evolving interest level of the students, particularly during the critical transitional junior high years where interest in science often wanes. The NYU MRSEC works with Dr. Susan Kirch of the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development to formulate reliable metrics and assessment methodologies – in the form of both ongoing formative evaluations during the program and a summative evaluation in Year 5. The School has extensive connections with the NYC school district, and Dr. Kirch, who has a degree in biology, has a special interest in science education in the K-12 sector. As such, Dr. Kirch also serves on the Education Advisory Committee, providing an important perspective from education research specialist. In addition to evaluations, the extent of module integration with the school curriculum will serve as a key metric for this E&HR component. Once the modules have been refined and proven effective, they will be disseminated broadly as downloadable files, in Power Point format, on the NYU MRSEC and Steinhardt School websites. Links to these materials will also be supplied to the mrsec.org web site.

MRSEC outreach to the K-12 sector is expanding through the “Smiling Faces, Going Places” Mobile Dental Care Van, sponsored by the NYU College of Dentistry and involving MRSEC investigators from the Biomaterials and Biomimetics program. The Dental Van examines more than 5,000 patients annually, principally at K-12 public schools in federally designated, medically-underserved NYC communities that contain substantial numbers of underrepresented minority students. The MRSEC capitalizes on the considerable community trust cultivated by the Dental Van program to deliver science demonstrations - drawn from the SFP modules - as part of these excursions.

MRSEC investigators reinforce their connections to NYC schools by participating in the Physics Club/Chemistry Teachers' Club of New York which meets monthly in the Silver Building (the home of NYU Chemistry). These sessions provide a forum for K-12 science educators in New York City metropolitan area to hone their classroom skills and to learn of new scientific discoveries. Meeting activities include science demonstrations by K-12 teachers that have proven effective in the classroom and colloquia presented by University researchers.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Ward is the PI on award REU grant (DMR-0648788), operated jointly with the City College of New York, a minority-serving institution in Harlem. This REU, which encompasses the Science and Engineering of Soft Materials and Interfaces (SESMI), introduces emerging young scientists and engineers to cutting-edge research in NYU Physics and Chemistry and CCNY Chemical Engineering during a 10-week summer program that includes professional development exercises. The SESMI participants are drawn from a national base of four-year colleges and universities, with an emphasis on four-year colleges, where students often are not aware of REU opportunities.

The MRSEC integrates the SESMI REU into its E&HR program, adding four additional REU students and continuing the focus on four-year colleges. The MRSEC also supports Four-year College Faculty-Student Teams, each comprising a faculty member and an accompanying undergraduate from a four-year college. This program (i) strengthens the bond between the college instructor and undergraduate, (ii) reduces the barrier for students who are reluctant to venture alone to conventional REU programs, (iii) creates a permanent faculty contact at the home undergraduate institution, and (iv) provides a vehicle for introducing STEM content into college curricula. The MRSEC also works with its industry partners to arrange industrial summer internships for its REU students in the year following the REU experience.

Developing Communication Skills of Graduate Students

MRSEC graduate students participate in Communicating Science to the Public, a program designed to equip graduate students and other participants with the enabling skills for communicating science and its relevance to the general public in a clear and engaging manner, thus addressing the need for a society that is well informed about complex technical issues.

Diversity

The supply of highly skilled scientists and engineers represents one of the most critical challenges facing the U.S., and it is widely recognized that sustaining the technological base increasingly relies on attracting individuals to science and engineering who traditionally have been underrepresented in this fields. As such, the NYU MRSEC strives to ensure that its strategies (i) are effective in broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities within the Center as well as science and engineering as a whole, (ii) are capitalizing on diversity initiatives within the university, and (iii) are consistent with societal needs, particularly with regard to cultivating the next generation of scientists and engineers.