Nanotechnology Summer Undergraduate Research Intern Program: Comprehensive Introduction to Life as a Researcher
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Nanotechnology Summer Undergraduate Research Intern Program: Comprehensive Introduction to Life as a Researcher M.R. Melloch and J. Lax School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT We have implemented a summer undergraduate research intern (SURI) program, the purpose of which is to give the undergraduates as real a picture as possible of what it is like to be a research scientist and what will be encountered in graduate school. Our first SURI class, the summer of 2003, consisted of a diverse group of 18 students from 9 different universities. Each student joined an ongoing cross-disciplinary research project team comprised of faculty and graduate students who have been working on research projects throughout the year. Coordinated with the students’ research project was a technical writing/presentation course. The SURIs also participated in professional development activities, short courses, and a molecular conduction workshop. The culmination of the students’ research and the technical writing/presentation course was a one-day conference at the end of their program in which all the SURIs presented the results of their summer research.
INTRODUCTION Our summer undergraduate research intern (SURI) program is jointly supported by two centers that started in the Fall of 2002 and directed by Purdue University—the NASA-supported, “Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing,” and the NSFsupported, “Network for Computational Nanotechnology.” Each program has a significant education and outreach component, of which the SURI program is one component. Our first SURI class, the summer of 2003, consisted of 18 students. This was a diverse group of students, with students from chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, and computer science. These 18 SURIs came from 9 different universities—Alabama A&M University, Morgan State University, National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, Purdue University, Norfolk State University, University of Michigan, University of Texas at El Paso, Vanderbilt University, and Washington State University. The SURIs also represented diverse cultures, with SURIs from Europe, Africa, Mexico, the Carribean, Asia, and the United States. Because 11 of the SURIs were new to Purdue, and for many Purdue would be a different cultural experience, it was important to get the SURIs interacting socially from the beginning. All the SURIs were housed together in a dormitory. On the first day we had a get-acquainted exercise so that the SURIs could learn a little about each other. We showed a movie every Tuesday evening in a conference room with the capability to project a DVD movie. Every Wednesday we had the SURIs together for a lunch in which
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we sometimes had general discussion of how things were going and other times discussed previously agreed-upon topics. We also held a cookout at a faculty member’s house. Finally, we employed several graduate student mentors from the School of Electrical and C
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