An Interdisciplinary Approach for Involving Undergraduates in the Materials Science and Engineering Program
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AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH FOR INVOLVING UNDERGRADUATES IN THE MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PROGRAM Reinhard Bruch1, Natalia Afanasyeva1, Leslie Welser1, Satya Gummuluri2, Stan Showers2, Angelique Kano3 1 Physics Dept., University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, U.S.A. 2 Electrical Engineering Dept., University of Nevada Reno, Reno, NV 89557, U.S.A. 3 Physics and Chemistry Dept., Technical University of Dresden, Germany ABSTRACT The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Physics Department has a successful history of involving undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research, including the fields of materials science and engineering. The group directed by Prof. Reinhard Bruch has given a number of undergraduates the opportunity to work on professional-level research projects early in their career development. In our Physics Department at UNR, it is common to have a high percentage of undergraduates involved in research projects. Therefore, we suggest that the Materials Science and Engineering Program could explore the potential opportunity for spawning inter-disciplinary research programs involving undergraduates. INTRODUCTION The continued rapid increase in the U.S. economy demands very skilled professionals. For instance, a Silicon Valley study has found that the lack of skilled workers is costing Silicon Valley companies $3 to 4 Billion a year. Therefore, it should be a major goal to expose students to professional research and technology environments at an early stage of their education and career development. This enables them to mature within the scientific/academic community and they will be well prepared to work in academia, industry or national laboratories. We at the Physics Department at UNR have currently 35 undergraduates and 29 graduate students enrolled. Despite this small size, and in fact because of it, all undergraduate students are afforded a unique opportunity to participate in scientific research and professional activities, including writing peer-reviewed professional papers and presenting their results at national and international conferences and workshops. Over the last five years, our group has had undergraduate involvement in several interdisciplinary projects, which in many cases fall under the auspices of materials research. Specifically, our recent research involves extreme ultra violet (EUV) spectrometry and polarimetry for various surface applications, nanotechnology, and diode-pumped solid state laser development in conjunction with fiber optical probes, surface and subsurface sensing such as fiber optic evanescent wave Fourier-transform infrared (FEW-FTIR) spectroscopy of various materials, including normal and cancerous skin, breast tissue, polymers, and agricultural products. In this paper, we present a short overview of undergraduate research activities and experiments in which they were involved over a period of the last two years. EXPERIMENT Undergraduate students in our group normally begin with routine research activities and their achievements in the projects lead them
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