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

Non-Technical Summary 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 will occur 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, spanning next-generation computing, separations, and electrochemical systems. Technical Summary The REU site addresses the Materials Genome Initiative within the context of energy materials. Students are gaining experience in the generation, curation, and analysis of large materials science datasets. Research projects span experiment and computation and are quite diverse, ranging from porous materials for selective separations, to battery materials discovery, to multiferroic and quantum materials for next-generation computing. 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. NSF Award ID: 2548396 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Annalise Maughan | Institution: Colorado School of Mines, GOLDEN, CO | Award Amount: $538,427 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2548396 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2548396.html