REU SITE: Interdisciplinary Micro/nano/additive-manufacturing Program Addressing Challenges Today - Next Generation (IMPACT-NG)

University Of Louisville Research Foundation Inc, Louisville KY

Investigators

Abstract

This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program at the University of Louisville trains a diverse cohort of interdisciplinary STEM students in the field of Advanced Manufacturing, with a special emphasis on micro/nano-manufacturing and additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing). As described in the recent 2018 Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing Report to the President of the United States, “America’s global economic dominance in the 20th century was primarily due to our nation’s creative advances in manufacturing techniques and strategies. However, this century has seen dramatic changes with significant declines in U.S. manufacturing productivity starting in the 1990s and accelerating losses during the 2008 recession”. The report further emphasizes the need to reverse that trend by encouraging programs that educate and train our next generation of workers about new manufacturing technologies and strategies. This REU program does exactly that through structured hands-on micro/nano/additive training classes, personalized independent research projects, professional faculty mentorship, student professional development, and exposure to a wide variety of applications in the fields of health, medicine, defense, security, energy, wearables, and manufacturing. The two most disruptive technologies in the field of Advanced Manufacturing are micro/nano-manufacturing and additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing). Furthermore, with recent material and resolution advances in 3D printing, we are experiencing the convergence of the two technologies, which promises to open up a completely new set of applications and range of products never before thought possible. The IMPACT-NG REU program at the University of Louisville sits squarely in that interesting space. It addresses the national need to train the next generation of students about these converging technologies by formally educating them through intense hands-on laboratory experiences, followed by nine supervised weeks of personalized independent research involving an interesting interdisciplinary set of Advanced Manufacturing projects in the fields of health, medicine, defense, security, energy, wearables, and manufacturing. Projects range from diagnostic lab-on-a chip devices for the human health to advanced autonomous micro-robots for the environment to next-generation wearables for the Internet of Things. Finally, our program supplements their technical experiences with programs to improve their oral/written communication skills, opportunities to learn about graduate school, seminars about entrepreneurship, lunch meetings with technical and government leaders, tours of industry manufacturing facilities, ethics training, and a wide variety of organized social activities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.