REU Site: Advanced Processing and Materials Characterization

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NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This is a 10-week summer program whose main objective is to provide a research and education experience to 10 undergraduate students in the broad area of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas. This program will involve faculty in three different departments, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics, with an emphasis on training undergraduate students in designing, fabricating, and testing a wide variety of materials. These activities have the potential to influence these students by providing them with real-life experience conducting research in materials science and engineering. Each summer, the Site will recruit 10 undergraduate students to be part of this mentoring program provided by a diverse group of faculty members. The focus will be on providing research opportunities for minorities, women, underrepresented groups, and students from non-PhD granting and/or non-research intensive institutions. During the course of this program, the students will develop skills characteristic of scientific researchers in literature review, materials design, hands-on laboratory skills, problem solving, experiment planning and design, and writing and presenting technical papers. The program will also provide students with relevant information regarding graduate school. This will include helping students to identify suitable programs, to understand the available financial resources, to complete the application process, and to recognize the job prospects after completion of a graduate program.TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The specific materials design, preparation, and characterization techniques that the students will learn include coating processes, arc melting, wire drawing, rod and plate rolling, sintering, X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam techniques, Raman spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, wear testing, mechanical testing, density functional theory, and molecular dynamics. Major goals of this program include: (1) improviing students' communication skills through reports/papers, presentations, and posters and through working within the research team involved in their specific project, (2) performing research effectively under the supervision of a faculty mentor and from undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and other research colleagues, (3) developing students' ability to ask scientific questions, (4) developing analytical and computational skills to answer scientific questions, (5) inspiring students to pursue careers in materials science and engineering and related STEM fields through a series of workshops, and (6) gaining familiarity with the role of each group member who is involved in a project to guide students' future performance in these roles.