Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) – Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program

2007 SURF/REU Program

In 2007, a diverse group of 18 science, math, and engineering students were recruited from across the country, ensuring participation of women and minority groups, and those from predominantly undergraduate institutions. The SURF fellows, including two minority and eight female students, were selected out of a pool of about 100 applicants. The overall group comes from 13 different institutions around the country including Alabama A&M (1), Bethune-Cookman College (1), Calvin College (1), Cal Tech (1), Emory (1), Georgia Tech (6), Ohio State Univ (1), Rice U (1), Spring Hill College (1), Univ. of Florida (1), Univ. of Pittsburgh (1), Univ. of Wisconsin Eau Claire (1) and VA Tech (1). Of these institutions, two are PUI (Primarily Undergraduate Institute) and two are HBCU (Historically Black College or University).  The majors represented include BioE (1), Biomedical Engineering (1), Chemistry (1), General Engineering (1), Math (1), ME (2), MSE (7), and Physics (4). The average GPA of this class is 3.8.

The REU students involved in research experience with faculty in Chemistry, Physics, ECE, PTFE, ME, and MSE. They worked on research projects and at the end of their term prepared a one-page report (attached) summarizing their work. They also made oral and/or poster presentations during the middle and the end-of-the term ceremony. Research training of REU students also included developing technical communications skills, exposure to ethical issues, and learning various tools/techniques of materials characterization. Weekly (Tuesday) lunch seminars were held in which two faculty mentors presented their materials related research work. Seminars on ethics, lab safety, and communications were also be presented. Each REU student was required to pass a lab safety test. Training in oral/poster presentation and report writing was provided by our communications expert, Dr. Lisa Rosenstein.   Social activities including group dinner, barbeque, movies, and visits to parks were coordinated across campus to encourage interactions among all REU participants from the five REU programs at Georgia Tech.

SURF 2007 Participants

NAME MAJOR/UNIVERSITY ADVISOR PROJECT Dylan Bayerl University of  Wisconsin, Eau Claire Bob Snyder Functionalization of 1D magnetic nanowires Daniel Chait Ohio State Chris Summers Atomic layer deposition for advanced photonic crystal fabrication Cortney Crane Emory Richard Neu High temperature fatigue of a directionally-solidified Ni-base superalloy Niklas Floyd VA Tech Preet Singh Performance of chromized and aluminized carbon steel samples in alkaline solutions Taylor Giddens Georgia Tech Jean-Luc Bredas Computational modeling of the electronic structure of organic semiconductors for solid-state lighting and solar cells Yasmin Jackson Alabama A&M Min Zhou Digital imaging of material deformation Adam Jakus Georgia Tech Seth Marder Materials for organic electronics and photonics Yanshu Huang Rice University C.P. Wong Synthesis of biocompatible polymer-capped quantum dots for cancer applications Yuchen Huo University of Florida Meisha Shofner Biodegradable polymer blend fibers Nicole Larsen Georgia Tech James Gole Nanostructures and porous silicon: Activity at interfaces in sensors and photocatalytic reactors Matthew McDowell Georgia Tech Ken Gall Testing the mechanical properties of silver nanowires under bending loads Rebecca Murff Georgia Tech Valeria Milam Comparing the mechanical sensitivity of normal and cancerous cells Patricia L. Nichols  Pittsburgh University Ian Ferguson Magneto-optical studies of GaN:Mn, Fe thin films David Lu Georgia Tech Vladimir Tsukruk Biological-inspired artificial hairs for ultimate sensing Graham Sanborn Spring Hill College Jud Ready Carbon nanotubes for electronic applications Andrew Strutzman Calvin College Hamid Garmestani Synthesis of fuel cell cathode materials using spray pyrolysis Karmethia Chantal Thompson Bethune-Cookman College Arun Gokhale Applications of digital image processing for mathematical representation of microstructures Jackson Wang Cal Tech Naresh Thadhani Dynamic mechanical behavior of structural energetic materials

For more information, contact SURF Coordinators:

Dr. Naresh Thadhani
Dr. Arun Gokhale
Dr. Chris Summers
Dr. Valeria Milam

School of Materials Science and Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0245
Ofc: 404.894.2888   Fax: 404.894.9140

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