This summer, the Center for Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE) held its 3rd successful Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. The 25 undergraduates in this program were selected from a strong pool of 120 applicants.

 

The 25 REU students were lived and worked at Princeton University and the partner universities, City College New York, Johns Hopkins University, Rice, Texas A&M, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The students carried out research at the forefront of mid-IR spectroscopy and engineering. The students attended seminars that examined the role of science and engineering in society and got to visit both academic labs and industrial labs in the area. They communicated with each other through weekly web-conferencing and finally met at the all-hands MIRTHE Summer Workshop.

The John Hopkins University, located in the heart of Baltimore, Maryland, was the host of this year’s MIRTHE Summer Workshop. The Workshop was a 5–day event that was attended by more than 135 students, teachers, and practitioners across a broad range of interests.

 

The Workshop highlighted the inter-disciplinarity and inter-institutionality of the MIRTHE team; it provided a forum for students to present their work; it also provided them with plenty opportunities to network and to learn. Altogether, there were 33 poster presentations from undergraduate and high school students, 34 oral presentations from graduate students, and 14 invited keynote speakers and tutorial presentations. Both invited speakers and attendees were encouraged to view topics from a variety of perspectives, from purely technical topics to the effects of the interplay of technological, commercial, policy and regulatory drivers and barriers on the transition of emerging technologies from the laboratory to daily use.

Click here to view the MIRTHE REU/RET/HS Students & Their Research Presentations

In addition to networking and exchanging ideas, student participants had the opportunity to explore other important research resources in the area. They visited the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Remote Ozone Monitoring Garden & Science on a Sphere. The students also had an opportunity to go Washington DC for an afternoon of fun and recreation and on another day, some attended an Orioles Baseball game.

We have already started planning for next year’s Summer Workshop which will be hosted by one of our partner institutions in August 2009. If you are interested in the MIRTHE REU Undergraduate program please contact Roxanne Zellin at rzellin@Princeton.edu or 609-258-7922 or click here to apply.