REU Site: Undergraduate Research Integrating Computation and Experiment to Create Revolutionary Materials

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The Colorado School of Mines will host a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site focused on training the next generation of scientists and engineers with expertise at the intersection of materials science and data analytics. With the goal of providing cutting-edge research to students with limited research opportunities at their home institutions, students are actively recruited from community colleges and primarily undergraduate institutions. Training is occurring through formal instruction, hands-on research, engagement with data-intensive local laboratories and businesses, and preparing and delivering public presentations of research results. The research projects focus on developing transformative materials that enable new technologies and applications ranging from carbon capture to photovoltaics to batteries. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The REU site addresses the Materials Genome Initiative within the context energy materials. Students are gaining experience in the generation, curation, and analysis of large materials science datasets. Across the structural and electronic materials space research projects are quite diverse, ranging from designing porous materials for carbon capture to thermoelectric material discovery to the combinatorial growth of semiconductor films. The research projects are inherently interdisciplinary, involving faculty members from different departments and their affiliated graduate students. Many of these projects involve strong collaborations with national laboratory and associated user facilities or industry partners. Beyond technical skills development, significant effort is devoted to enhancing students’ professional skills and self-identity as a scientist. Together, these training objectives culminate in the final week with preparing a poster and associated presentation for a national conference. 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.