REU/RET Site: Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Sustainable Energy

and Bioengineering

The REU/RET Site program at Stevens Institute of Technology provided research and professional development opportunities to 24 undergraduate students from various colleges in US and 10 high school teachers from New Jersey and New York area with diverse engineering and science backgrounds in 2021-23. The interdisciplinary project topics on sustainable energy, chemistry and bioengineering were offered to participants, that cultivated the interdisciplinary research environment and activities at Stevens research laboratories.

 Intellectual Merit:

The experimental and computational skills students gained in the projects were focused on implementation of innovative ideas in research projects on hybrid polyelectrolytes, hypersonic wind tunnel, solid-state electrochemistry for fast-charging batteries, Ni-based bimetallic catalysts, white-matter lesions in the aging brain, mechanics of human balance, antimicrobial complexation of polyelectrolyte gels, synthesis of rare organoboron compounds, computer simulations and machine learning for protein design. REU/RET participants were supervised and mentored by the Stevens faculty from engineering and science departments. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship workshop series provided entrepreneurial thinking skills. Seminars on scientific writing, presentation skills, literature search and library workshops; workshops on inclusive teaching, and effective mentoring networks; and Title IX seminar were organized. These professional and educational development activities complemented the preparation of participants to become independent researchers. A unique mentoring experience was formed between an undergraduate researcher and a teacher. The network of mentoring relationship among students and teachers supported their development in teaching and learning both ways. This mentoring experience model is published at ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings and was presented as a poster at the 2023 ASEE Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, faculty mentors gave research seminars to educate both teachers and students on sustainable energy and bioengineering and helped them create lesson plans focused on nanotechnology and engineering for high school curricula. The program offered engaging meetings such as Graduate Student Panel, Research Seminars, GRFP Application and Graduate School Workshop, and Chalk Talks by REUs.

 Broader Impacts:

Seminars on research techniques, literature searching, scientific writing/presentation, ethics, abstract writing, deep learning and chemical education and several library sessions were offered in addition to the professional development workshops on Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Inclusive Mentoring. 4 RET high school science teachers participated in the last 4 weeks of the program each year. Curriculum Development workshops were offered for teachers. Each RET worked with an REU student, their faculty advisor and teacher facilitator to create a lesson plan inspired from research projects. Students and teachers presented their research findings with their posters at the Research Symposium in the end of the program. All students wrote conference abstracts and several REUs gave oral presentations at the national conferences. Women made up 61% of the participants, while 41% were minority participants, including African American and Asian American individuals in our REU/RET program. 5 technical papers were published in peer-reviewed journals with the REU students and 3 students transferred from Community Colleges to research universities after attending our REU program. The REU/RET Site at Stevens was evaluated by an external evaluator and received highly positive feedback. The program successfully inspired all participants, providing valuable research experiences that helped them shape their career goals in science and engineering. The RET program will have a long-term impact on teachers as they plan to use their lesson plans in their courses and enhance the curricula in nanotechnology, science and engineering classes in their high schools.

Last Modified: 02/05/2025
Modified by: Pinar Akcora