REU-Site: A Two-Summer Research Experience in Polymers

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9531507 Mathias This REU site award will provide a new type of educational opportunity for undergraduates that combines research experiences over two summers, first at an academic site and then at an industrial one. Rising juniors will first attend USM to receive broad training (first week short-courses) in polymer science, instrumental analysis, and safety followed by a research project carried out in collaboration with industrial partners. Two separate weekly meetings of students and faculty will involve: 5 minute student summaries of their projects combined with an industrial presentation on selected topics; and an introduction to molecular modeling combined with discussions on professional ethics. Final talks will be given to combined USM-industrial participants. Rising seniors will spend their summer continuing the projects at industrial sites (like a co-op or internship) but with project groundwork already established. Weekly teleconferences will be held with the faculty partner. Final presentations will be given at USM in the same summer-end meeting for the first-summer students. A total of 15 students are planned for the USM program each summer, 10 funded by NSF and 5 by industrial grants (10 X $2500 each). Second-summer industrial stays will be totally funded by industry, as will travel to USM for the final program. Each of 10 industrial partners will take 1 or 2 second-summer students, depending on attrition. Student recruitment will build on existing strong programs at USM, but will extend to include active participation by industry in finding local and regional participants. Minorities and women participants will be sought through USM's extensive network of feeder schools and the undergraduate recruitment office. Projects will be jointly developed by USM professors and industrial scientists, and will involve basic exploration of real-world problems (examples are included). By year four of this project, the 10 industrial partner s will be asked to increase their support (to $7500 each) to make this a self-sustaining program for training undergraduates for careers in the polymer industry and graduate school. ***