NSF Award
9820538
9820538<br/>The Cleveland Clinic Foundation <br/>William A. Smith<br/><br/>This program will recruit advanced undergraduate engineering students from colleges and universities <br/>across the United States, to provide the students with realistic, hands-on research experiences. One <br/>group of eight students per year will be recruited for nominally six month employment terms at the <br/>CCF. Each will select an individual faculty mentor at the CCF, in addition to the PI. They will also <br/>have a home school faculty sponsor. Hiring will be staggered, so that students will have a three-month <br/>term as a junior engineer, and a term as a senior engineer. Upon completion, the students will return to <br/>the homes school, and in collaboration with the faculty sponsor, recruit two students to complete a two-<br/>quarter senior project growing from the CCF experience. Consequently, the participant will <br/>consistently advance in independence and responsibility through three stages, culminating as a project <br/>leader. The CCF will loan hardware, instrumentation, software, and computer access as necessary, to <br/>conduct the home research. The stimulation of the research activity will extend into the home colleges <br/>engineering environment. A total of 114 students will be supported, over the proposed five year <br/>program. Interactions will be among the CCF-based students, with the CCF staff, postdoctoral and <br/>graduate students, with the home faculty, and with home students in and out of the program. An ethics <br/>training component is included. An aggressive recruiting program will increase the participation of <br/>under-represented groups in the program. Similarly, emphasis will be placed on recruiting from <br/>"teaching" rather than "research" oriented institutions. Educational assessment and feedback is also a <br/>significant component. Because of this effort, the CCF will have technology to quantitatively improve <br/>and extend its work, and the students will have been exposed to research in a world class facility. The <br/>participants in the program will model research activity to other members of the student body at the <br/>home school.
