Summer REU Site on Cellular Engineering

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EEC-0649041Surita BhatiaThis award for an REU site at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will engage 10 undergraduate students each year for three years in research experiences in the area of Cellular Engineering. The specific objectives of the program are to: 1) encourage and motivate students to pursue graduate studies in cellular engineering; 2) train students to transition from dependent to independent researchers; 3) enable students to communicate effectively across disciplines through active participation in "supergroup" research projects and meetings involving faculty and students from life sciences and the engineering/physical sciences; and 4) provide students with strategies for professional success, including activities centered on career guidance, ethics, identifying mentors, and honing "soft skills". Understanding cellular function and manipulating cells/tissues to perform in a particular manner is the basis for many ventures in the biomedical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.Recruitment efforts will be targeted to undergraduate students majoring in chemical engineering, bioengineering, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry, with special emphasis placed on recruitment of students from underrepresented groups. Students will be recruited with the assistance of the Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NEAGEP). NEAGEP includes ten research-extensive and six minority-serving institutions that actively collaborate to increase the number of domestic students who receive doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. NEAGEP places particular emphasis on recruiting and retaining underrepresented students and encouraging their entrance into the professoriate.