Undergraduate Education & Outreach

We aim to build a more diverse science community and create new opportunities for talent generation. UD CHARM’s undergraduate programs include:

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)

UD CHARM offers a comprehensive Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, leveraging CHARM’s expertise and spirit of cross-cutting materials innovation. We specifically aim to improve the capabilities of undergraduate students who have interests in materials science-related research, especially among underrepresented groups. Our REU students are paired with a faculty member and their lab group within CHARM and assigned a graduate student mentor. The activities designed to meet this objective include:

    • Creating a cohort of sophomore and junior undergraduate students from Delaware State University, Claflin University, UD, and other universities with diverse representation involved in 10 weeks of summer research
    • Hands-on experience in a related laboratory (chemical engineering, materials science, chemistry, or physics)
    • Workshops dedicated to fundamental laboratory skills, effective mentor relationships, safety, human subjects training, innovation & entrepreneurship, applying to graduate school, available university resources, and other professional development topics
    • Research lab and industry site visits to broaden the scope of learning
    • Social events to promote communication among interdisciplinary students and mentors
    • Research symposium where students synthesize their summer research for a diverse audience
    • Systematically administered surveys and professional evaluations of program outcomes giving students a key role in program updates and improvements

** Applications for Summer 2024 are open. Click here! **

MRSEC Fellows

We’re providing immersive research, educational, and mentorship experience for undergraduates at Delaware State (DESU) and Claflin (CU) universities through a “Pathways to Graduate School” program. Our MRSEC Fellows program enhances exposure of HBCU undergraduates to materials science, expands their academic networks, and facilitates their transition to an R1 environment. This new pilot program is intended to become a fully functioning ‘pathway/bridge’ program in science and engineering that provides:

    • Fellowships to support HBCU student research and coursework at UD
    • Co-mentorship by UD and DESU/CU faculty members
    • Fellow Seed grant opportunities to fund DESU/CU mentors to conduct research at UD (UD providing facility access with mentee)
    • A joint seminar series between UD, Delaware State, and Claflin faculty and students
    • REU summer programming participation for increased networking
    • Planned certificate program development between UD-DESU-CU