AWARE-Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong: Materials Science and Engineering Research Experiences for Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students & Teachers

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

0224929 Thadhani This award supports a three-year collaborative international research experience program for faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students and science teachers to conduct research in the multi-disciplinary field of materials science and engineering at sites in Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong. The principal investigator for the project is Naresh Thadhani at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Five faculty/student/teacher groups will be participating each year. The teachers will be selected from Atlanta area high schools. The program will provide the opportunity for students to experience hands-on participation in materials research for up to eight weeks during the summer months. The research projects will be designed in a manner that allows promotion of research interactions between faculty from both the U.S. and the East Asian countries while ensuring that there are specific benefits for each of the team members in addition to their gaining an international research experience. The graduate students will be able to enhance the quality and/or scope of their thesis work while also learning to be mentors. The undergraduate students will gain a sense of what graduate research is about, and an international perspective to the field of research that they may eventually become interested in. The teacher participants will become knowledgeable with the culture of baccalaureate education in East Asian countries and also learn about the field of materials science and engineering. This award is made under NSF's AWARE (American Workforce and Research and Education) program. The challenges of the twenty-first century require a new cadre of graduates in science and engineering who are broadly educated and are ready to effectively contribute to difficult technological problems requiring a multi-disciplinary, teamed, and global approach. This materials education project, with an underlying theme of structure and properties correlation across length scales, is of vital importance to users as well as developers of materials. Recent developments in quantitative microstructural characterization techniques, approaches for real-time testing of properties, and novel methods for synthesizing and processing materials, allowing microstructural control, provide a unique opportunity to cost-effectively design materials with desired electronic, magnetic, mechanical and optical properties. In addition advancements in computer technology make it possible to model and simulate process conditions and allow predictions and simulations of structures that are directly linked to properties. The participants will undertake studies of various materials and their applications, focusing on the common theme of linking and correlating material properties with structure across nano-, meso-, micro- and macro-length scales.