Materials Education: Front Page
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Materials at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez: The Surge
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By O. Marcelo Suárez
Posted on:
6/3/2009 12:00:00 AM...
An alumnus who has not visited the tropical campus of the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) since 2000 would not believe his or her eyes when seeing the university’s materials research laboratories today. Crammed with state-of-the-art instrumentation and research workhorses, the labs are a testament to the growth of materials science on this campus. In the midst of the summer, a small army of researchers is occupied with materials experimentation, report writing, and preparation for formal oral or poster presentations. Likely, the visitor may be surprised at the age of those “researchers:” eleventh graders, seasoned public school science teachers, and dozens of college students, in addition to the expected masters and doctoral students. Every now and then, a professor comes to discuss pointed issues with any of them, while a box filled with recently purchased supplies circulates through the room.
So, what happened? How did this success story come to be? The answer bears many angles: competitive human resources, institutional context, accessibility to external funds, and the ever-expanding materials science global arena.
To Make It Short
By the end of the 1990s, scattered efforts had been devoted to materials science and engineering (MSE) and nanotechnology at UPRM. This changed when administrators, led by Dr. Ramón E. Vásquez, Dean of Engineering, and a handful of professors made MSE a key element of the UPRM’s strategic plan. Accordingly, new faculty members (including the author) with strong expertise in this strategic area were recruited to assemble a critical mass that would naturally come together to form robust materials research groups. More than 20 researchers from hard science and engineering departments are currently involved in a breadth of topics ranging from nanostructured semiconductors and nanoporous materials to advanced composites. This campus-wide materials and nanotechnology research network hinges on two successful departments—Engineering Science and Materials and Chemical Engineering—while encompassing every other department in the College of Engineering, as well as Chemistry and Physics.
Unquestionably this success was facilitated by the institutional context. According to Hispanic Engineer & Information Technology Online, UPRM “boasts the largest number of Hispanic engineering students in the United States.” With a total enrollment of 12,380 students, UPRM has the tenth largest engineering student body in the United States and grants 35.4 percent of its bachelor’s degrees in engineering to women—the sixth highest percentage in the nation. In addition, all engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). The University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez, the second largest of the eleven campuses of the University of Puerto Rico system and the only one that grants engineering degrees, including several doctoral ones, is located on the west coast of Puerto Rico.
The Turning Point
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(Click to enlarge image.) The growth of peer-reviewed publications within PREM at UPRM.
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Although some significant grants had been obtained in the prior two years, 2004 became a turning point for materials research in Mayagüez. It was then that the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded $2.7 million to UPRM to develop a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) for research and education on nanostructured and functional materials through the NSF Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) program. Led initially by a team of six professors from UPRM and one from UW, the five-year initiative impacted 100 undergraduate and graduate students, and resulted in more than 400 invited talks and oral and poster presentations, as well as a sizeable number of peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
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(Click to enlarge images.) Boris Rentería, a UPRM master’s degree graduate and lab technician, works on a vibrating sample magnetometer.
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David Mazuera, a master’s degree student in Mechanical Engineering, works on a thermomechanical analyzer used to study creep of aluminum matrix composites. He also used the dynamic mechanical analyzer in the background to analyze polyimide-based nanocomposites containing ferrite nanoparticles.
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Eric E. Hellstrom, a professor from Florida State University, was a co-principal investigator of this PREM grant has been a close collaborator with UPRM materials faculty ever since. He said about the impact of PREM, “I first became aware of the materials science work being done at UPRM when we wrote the NSF-PREM proposal in 2003. Then, there were several faculty members scattered in different departments . . . who saw the PREM as a way to build the core of a cross-campus materials program. At that time, the faculty members were working individually with little funding, few students, minimal research equipment, and almost no major pieces of shared equipment, and little impact on or inclusion in the curriculum. This has changed dramatically. Today materials science is a vibrant endeavor at UPRM with the core members of the PREM having reached out to include many other faculty members in the materials community. Their research has become world-class in forefront areas. . . UPRM students involved with the research at the undergraduate and graduate level . . . have bonded, forming a strong materials community that has actively helped make the K-12 outreach programs succeed.”
According to Hellstrom, external funding such as PREM has set the stage for external funding to support new shared instrumentation. In summary, as pointed out by collaborators, visitors, and external evaluators of the education and research projects on materials, PREM became a catalytic platform for other externally funded projects.
Research Experience for Undergraduates
In 2006, PREM faculty established an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) site on functional and nanostructured materials. Carlos Rinaldi, UPRM Chemical Engineering Department professor and a key player in MSE growth on campus, leads the project. In describing the growth of this initiative, he said, “Between 2007 and 2008, the NSF-funded REU has directly supported 20 undergraduate students, many of them female or underrepresented minorities, carrying out research in nanomaterials. Students have synthesized nanoporous materials for use as selective sorbents to purify gases and liquids, explored the use of nanoparticles as fillers in high-performance polymer liquid crystals, studied the effect of synthesis conditions on the physical and magnetic properties of nanoparticles, developed nanoparticle-based surface enhanced Raman scattering sensors, and have synthesized biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles for use as agents in the treatment of cancer, among other projects supported by this REU. Students have also benefited from the program through formal seminars on research skills and career options, through formal and informal training in the laboratory, and from the experience of visiting Puerto Rico, which . . . has a totally Hispanic culture. In turn, [UPRM], its faculty and students have benefited from the rewarding experience of mentoring students from all over the United States and from the hard work of these students, which has significantly contributed to ongoing projects at [our institution].”
In most cases, these research findings were presented in national and international congresses. One of the 2007 REU participants is Dominick Bindl, currently a graduate student in the materials science program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “My experiences with the . . . program . . . provided me with the necessary, first-hand exposure to research that I needed to commit to graduate studies,” he said. “Through this program, I was involved in first-class research in a challenging, autonomous, yet supportive environment. The lectures and programs of this REU answered many of the questions and addressed all of the concerns that I had with respect to graduate school. To supplement the lab and classroom, the personal embrace of all those involved (fellow participants, graduate students, and professors) presented an appealing view of academic life from all perspectives, and strengthened my resolve to pursue graduate studies.”
How to Build a Dream Brick by Brick
In parallel, UPRM materials researchers expanded their work, sponsored by a substantial number of federal grants. Some of these grants facilitated the acquisition of high-end materials instrumentation. Others were prestigious awards to UPRM faculty, such as the NSF Early Career Awards (CAREER) and a presidential award (PECASE) for Rinaldi. As a whole, these external funds helped sustain the continuing growth in several academic units with existing graduate programs incorporating materials-related components, including Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and Physics, among others.
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(Click to enlarge image.) Marisol Colón, a chemistry teacher affiliated with PREM since 2005, works on the synthesis of metallic nanowires.
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To crown all these accomplishments, in September 2008, the NSF awarded the university a collaborative agreement to establish a Nanotechnology Center under the Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program. This five-year endeavor is supported by a $5 million budget and involves 18 professors from UPRM, the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Center encompasses four interdisciplinary research groups, plus an education and outreach team, working on materials for biomedical and energy-driven applications and systems. In a way, the Center congregates many of the most successful materials researchers on campus from a breadth of academic departments, working on diverse topics ranging from functionalization of nanoparticles for therapeutic applications to nanostructured materials for gas sensors. The outreach component, led by Jeannette Santos, chair of the Department of Engineering Science and Materials, focuses on advancing awareness of nanotechnology among intermediate public school students and teachers.
In truth, this surge has not come about without challenges. Puerto Rico has been struggling with the economic downturn and, as a state institution, the University of Puerto Rico system faces similar challenges. The Mayagüez campus takes these adverse circumstances in stride, buttressed by stories of success led by the one of MSE. For instance, in May 2009, the university cut the ribbon of the very first Class 100 clean room built in the University of Puerto Rico system, which was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Major Research Instrumentation program. Two of the project leaders, Nelson Sepulveda, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor and principal investigator, and Agnes Padovani, Department of Engineering Science and Materials professor, also participate in CREST and work on the fabrication and testing of micrometer-sized structures and devices.
Impacting Undergraduate and Graduate Education
The lack of formal MSE and nanotechnology curricula has been a hurdle that the university intends to overcome. Nonetheless, more than 100 graduates have received intensive training during their undergraduate research or graduate education in MSE. Recent doctoral degrees conferred by the Department of Chemical Engineering are nanotechnology-oriented dissertations. Many externally-funded master’s theses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering were supervised by Engineering Science and Materials professors. These researchers also advise or co-advise graduate students in Chemistry, Physics, and Civil Engineering. All of these efforts demonstrate a dynamic academic environment that, in the end, benefits an expanding interdisciplinary student body dedicated to materials research.
In August 2008, the Engineering Science and Materials Department started offering an MSE Undergraduate Certificate. The main goal of the certificate is to provide students with a jumpstart on advanced MSE-related topics and a preflight of a graduate education in MSE. The curricular sequence, coordinated by Padovani, includes courses on characterization, synthesis and processing of materials, among other topics, as well as a seminar series. Undergraduate materials research is also a requisite. Twenty students are already participating, and the number is expected to increase.
At the time of this writing, the university expects to start offering a master’s of science degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2010, to be granted by the Engineering Science and Materials Department. This endeavor, coordinated by Oscar Perales, a leading UPRM nanotechnologist, will be followed by a doctoral program, which is being designed with strong administrative support by Dean Vásquez.
Broadening the Impact
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(Click to enlarge image.) Public school students enjoy demonstrations on light diffraction during one of the numerous presentations conducted by UPRM materials faculty and students.
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The PREM project has also impacted local public high schools, where eight Materials Science and Engineering clubs have been established and are mentored by teachers trained by UPRM faculty. More than 100 high school students are currently members of these clubs. A select group of them has worked on their scientific fair projects at UPRM research labs with outstanding results, including first prizes in several competitions and honor mentions granted by the Puerto Rican government.
With the additional funding from UPRM CREST, ten additional, mostly intermediate, public schools have been incorporated into these efforts through the establishment of MSE clubs. In March 2009, both PREM and CREST-supported club members gathered at UPRM’s Rafael Mangual Coliseum for a nanobiotechnology activity. During this educational event, with the help of their teacher/mentors and PREM and CREST students, a crowd of 200 teenagers used balloons to work on the construction of “functionalized nanoparticles” to “attack” a cancer cell. A few parents were also present to assist and photograph their children. “Did you see me, Mom? I was destroying that cancer cell with my red nanoparticle!” an excited eighth grader told his mother during lunch after the hectic event.
PREM and CREST students and professors also participated in the celebration of NanoDays 2009 in Western Puerto Rico. NanoDays events are organized by participants, such as UPRM, in the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network. To this end, instructive events and demonstrations were hosted by all the schools affiliated with PREM and CREST. In particular, at the Cristóbal Colón Plaza, the main square in Mayagüez, UPRM students and professors explained the vast possibilities of nanoscience to families, children, and adults amid the quiet surroundings.
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(Click to enlarge image.) More than 200 middle and high school students constructed “nanoparticles” (round balloons) functionalized with siRNA strands (tube balloons) to attack a cancer cell (cubic structure made of steel tubes).
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With the involvement of a growing number of teachers, high school, and middle school students in the MSE clubs and science fair projects, as well as informal nanoscience education and other outreach activities, UPRM materials professors have created a gateway to the future for the Puerto Rican community. Enhancing the chances of many Puerto Rican teenagers by exposing them to the wonders of materials science and turning many of them into first-generation Hispanic college students have been at the core of this outreach strategy.
One Impressive Cadre of Undergraduates
Under PREM’s umbrella, the UPRM Material Advantage Student Chapter was founded in 2004. This highly motivated group of students has been actively participating in raising awareness on materials science and nanotechnology within the campus community. Most of their members have also been involved in undergraduate research and presented their work in regional, national, and international venues. The team has won nine first prizes in the TMS Annual Meeting student poster competition and, received the 2008 Chapter of Excellence Award. The chapter also recently received a grant from the national organization to promote nanotechnology issues within the local community and public schools.
Nayomi Plaza, current chapter president, joined PREM as an 11th grade high school student to work on her scientific fair project. After graduating as one of the top high school students in Puerto Rico in 2007, she was admitted to the UPRM Mechanical Engineering program. Her continued work on materials research earned a first prize in the 2009 TMS student poster competition. She said about the impact of materials research on her life, “Being able to participate in the PREM program, to go beyond theoretical background by doing research in a materials science lab, completely transformed my life. In fact, ever since I entered that lab four years ago, I was enthralled by the wonders of everyday materials, which is why I wish to obtain a Ph.D. in this limitless field.”
More recently, under CREST, a university chapter of the Materials Research Society (MRS) was established. This is the only MRS Chapter off the mainland.
As a result of this enriching academic environment, this cadre of successful undergraduates has been receiving an increasing number of recognitions. Travel grants, competitive scholarships, and awards in national competitions, as well as support from private companies such as Boeing, BP, Raytheon, and Procter & Gamble, are reflected in their thickening curricula vitae.
The Human Side of this Story
As discussed earlier in this article, UPRM researchers have received a number of recognitions as a result of the university’s synergistic MSE platform. While these honors are appreciated, the greatest value of UPRM’s efforts in building a materials community is reflected in its alumni.
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(Click to enlarge image.) Ruth Hidalgo, (pictured with Ray Peterson, 2009 TMS President) who joined PREM at UPRM in 2004, was named a TMS Light Metals Division Scholar in 2006. Ruth holds a Bridge-to-Doctorate fellowship from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and is completing her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at UPRM.
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José R. Vázquez, a recent UPRM Mechanical Engineering graduate, PREM alumnus, and past winner of a TMS student poster competition, has been hired by Raytheon Missile Systems to work in the Division of Materials Processes. He said about his involvement in materials research: “There were two major decisions in my college life: studying mechanical engineering and doing research in materials science. The first one opened to me a whole new world and the second one gave me the tools to understand this new world made of materials. I decided to study materials science to get a thorough understanding of the physical phenomena that we see everyday. Everything is made of materials; devoting one’s life to further . . . this field of study will always place you at the cutting edge of technological advances.”
Amílcar Quispitupa, a co-founding member of the UPRM Material Advantage Chapter and 2007 Ph.D. graduate in Civil Engineering, is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Technical University of Denmark. He said his profound interest in the MSE field stemmed from “extensive research on materials science and solid mechanics.” In effect because of “the positive impact of materials science and engineering in [my] professional career” he was able to enter academia where he is currently involved in “materials characterization (composites and metals), structural and applied mechanics, experimental mechanics, and composite structures.”
And One Afterthought
In these very difficult times, the achievements of the UPRM materials community can shed a light on how to overcome tall hurdles. Competitiveness within a collaborative environment, a strong sense of commitment to society and its younger constituents, creativity, and a proactive desire of change can turn into an explosive mixture able to alter the course of things. The UPRM materials community still believes that the best is yet to come, because the best life projects never end.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants Nº 0351449 (PREM), 0547150 & 0546370 (CAREER), 0552673 (REU), 0609117 (NIRT), 0619349 & 0722534 (MRI), and 0833112 (CREST) among others as well as DoD grants Nº N000140310540 and W911NF-07-1-0611. Additional instrumentation donations by Boeing Co. helped improve the research infrastructure.
O. Marcelo Suárez is a professor and PREM and CREST project director in the Department of Engineering Science and Materials, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez.
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