REU Site: Summer Undergraduate Program for Engineering Research at Berkeley (SUPERB) in Nanoscale Science and Engineering

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Abstract for REU Site: Summer Undergraduate Program for Engineering Research at Berkeley (SUPERB) in Nanoscale Science and Engineering Johnson, 0552948The multidisciplinary Nanoscale Science and Engineering (NSE) Program and the Center for Underrepresented Engineering Students (CUES) at the University of California at Berkeley will support 10 undergraduate students each year for three years as part of the ongoing Summer Undergraduate Program in Engineering Research at Berkeley (SUPERB). SUPERB offers undergraduate students the opportunity to gain research experience by working with a faculty member and graduate student mentor on a research project in their area of interest. In addition to the research work, participants will be involved in a number of other activities. Weekly academic support meetings will be held for SUPERB students, providing information on graduate school admissions and fellowships, time management, research methodology, presentations and technical report presentations on other related topics. Also, field trips are planned to local industrial facilities and national laboratories. The program culminates in a daylong forum in which students make presentations to their faculty and graduate student mentors, and other members of the engineering community. Written reports are required of each student and are compiled for dissemination. The proposed research focus in Nanoscale Science and Engineering was chosen as it is becoming increasingly popular with undergraduate students and is strategically important to both academia and industry. Unprecedented technological advances in the past decades have impacted our daily lives, including communications, computation, energy, transportation and medicine, to name a few. These advances result from an ever-improving ability to create and tailor micrometer-structured materials and devices. Theory predicts that dramatic changes will continue when structures are scaled down to nanometer size. However, existing scientific and engineering principles are inadequate for this challenge. In order to address this challenge, the program focuses on nanostructure synthesis and processing of novel functional devices and systems, nanoscale characterization and modeling. Each of these components facilitates the integration of these nanostructures into engineered systems that can be broadly characterized into five categories: nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, nanobiology, nanomagnetics and naomechanics.SUPERB aims to increase the number of underrepresented student who pursue advanced graduate degrees by exposing students to the excitement of research in the cutting-edge field of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. SUPERB has proven itself to be a critical program for developing competitive graduate candidates in research areas of national need.