REU in the News
February 2021
MIT ALFRED P. SLOAN SCHOLARSHIP WINNER AND GEM FELLOW NAMED IEEE-HKN OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE YEAR FOR 2020
Alvaro Sahagun, who was instrumental in helping to re-establish the IEEE-HKN Iota Lambda Chapter at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), has been selected as the 2020 Alton B. Zerby and Carl T. Koerner Outstanding Electrical or Computer Engineering Student Award recipient. He currently is pursuing a master’s of science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Click here for the full article in THE BRIDGE: The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu.
May 28, 2019
A SWEET TALE: THE SON WHO REINVENTED SUGAR TO HELP DIABETIC DAD
Javier Larragoiti was 18 when his father was diagnosed with diabetes. The teenager had just started a degree in chemical engineering in Mexico City. So he dedicated his studies to a side project: creating an acceptable alternative to help his father and millions of Mexicans like him avoid sugar.
“It’s only when you know someone with this sickness that you realise how common it is and how sugar intake plays a huge role,” he says. “My dad tried to use stevia and sucralose, just hated the taste, and kept cheating on his diet.”
The young chemist started dabbling with xylitol, a sweet-tasting alcohol commonly extracted from birch wood and used in products such as chewing gum.
“It has so many good properties for human health, and the same flavour as sugar, but the problem was that producing it was so expensive,” he says. “So I decided to start working on a cheaper process to make it accessible to everyone.”
Click here for the full article by Senay Boztas.
June 26, 2018
ASPIRING TO INSPIRE
Nine-year-old Star Velasquez pulled a slip of paper from a container of water, her eyes lighting up with excitement as the black paper caught a glint of mid-morning sunlight and reflected a rainbow of color.
The experiment showcased the properties of super-thin films—nail polish dropped onto the top of the water spread into a nanometer-thick film that creates iridescent, rainbow colors on the paper.
Velasquez, a second grader at the Gardner Pilot Academy in Boston’s Allston neighborhood, and her peers learned about materials science during an outreach program conducted by students in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Click here for full article by Adam Zewe
March 23, 2018
HARTNELL STUDENT GOES FROM SLEEPING IN CAR TO IVY LEAGUE INTERNSHIPS
After eight years at Hartnell College, some personal challenges and a hefty amount of perseverance, Salinas native Louis Romero looks forward to contributing to the advancement of science after graduation.
It has been a long road, but 29-year-old Romero is proudly ending his tenure at the community college this semester with several unique academic accomplishments: an internship completed with Harvard, an upcoming internship at Yale and a recent first-place finish at a National Science Foundation's Emerging Researchers National Conference.
In February, Romero received first place in the Nanoscience and Physics Poster Presentation at the 2018 ERN Conference in Washington, D.C.
Click here for the full article by Cristian Ponce.
October 4, 2017
TWO STUDENTS USE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRANTS TO ADVANCE RESEARCH
Danielle Baik and Anthony DePinho gained valuable research experience in Massachusetts this summer.
Manhattan College students travel far and wide each summer. Some live and work in their hometowns, and some live and work on campus in Riverdale, while others take advantage of the College’s study away programs.
Danielle Baik and Anthony DePinho, two juniors in the School of Science, each received a summer research grant under the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. The NSF REU program provides students a prestigious research opportunity in their field of choice to work closely with faculty and other researchers at institutions across the country. Both students chose to pursue opportunities to continue research they had done on campus in the state of Massachusetts.
Click here for the full atricle by Pete McHugh.