REU RESEARCH PROJECTS

Program Goals: The goal of this program is to introduce and educate the participants about the basic difference between conventional Newtonian fluids and complex fluids by examples, show them the micro-scale devices in laboratory, teach them the tools (both experimental and analytical) for analysis of the behavior of these fluids, and then provide them research experience in applying those tools in independent research projects with assigned faculty members. All participants will choose a research topic that contributes to the goals of an on-going research project of one of the participating faculty, who will serve as the student’s advisor. The REU students will be integrated into their advisor’s research group, typically consisting of other undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral associates, and visiting faculty. The more experienced students and post-docs, will provide REU students with assistance in day-to-day activities, such as demonstrating typical laboratory procedures, and will provide feed-back on their research activities (e.g., results, experimental design) on a regular basis. The faculty advisor will explain the research objectives to the student about his/her project, help the student outline a research approach, and assist in the design of initial experiments or solution approach (including the use of software) that will achieve those objectives. The faculty advisor will encourage the student to become more independent with respect to research planning, data interpretation and analysis of results while insuring that the student makes progress toward his/her specific objectives. The research projects will be designed to give the REU students an opportunity to apply the principles of experimental design, data collection, and data analysis from experiment as well as computational software that are formally introduced in various workshops. Although the workshops and research projects are expected to reinforce each other, most projects will not place equal emphasis on all topics covered in the workshops. Nonetheless, all students will be exposed to various aspects of both experiments and theory behind data collection and analysis throughout the summer, and they will obtain a deeper understanding of the subject matter related to the behavior of complex fluids and their applications by combining these complementary activities. Examples of potential REU research projects are given below.

Faculty:

1. Ramesh K. Agarwal, William Palm Professor of Engineering, department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (analytical & computational modeling of Newtonian and complex fluids in micro-devices, computational & experimental study of nano-fluids)

2. Da-Ren Chen, Associate Professor, department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and

Environmental Engineering Program (nanoparticle transport in microscale systems and their formation in chemically reactive flow systems)

3. Elliot Fried, Professor, department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (nematic-isotropic phase transitions in micro-channels, volumetric phase transitions in hydrogels)

4. Rohit V. Pappu, Assistant Professor, department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for

Computational Biology (folding and self-assembly of proteins)

5. Amy Q. Shen, Assistant Professor, department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (transport & interfacial dynamics of complex fluids in microfluidic devices)

6. Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, Associate Professor, department of Chemical Engineering (nonlinear rheological behavior of complex fluids, turbulent drag reduction)

Research Projects:

Transport and Interfacial Dynamics of Complex Fluids Inside Micro-fluidic Devices (A. Shen) Microfluidics and nanotechnology has fueled a lot of research recently. Micro- and nano-devices have found widespread applications in almost all engineering disciplinies and materials synthesis. Improvements in these new technologies seek a better fundamental understanding of how the materials behave at small length scales. Complex fluids comprise a wide array of fluids that cannot be treated as a single component system. These fluids generally have microscopic structures or components which effect their flow behavior on the macroscopic scale. The transport of complex fluids involve a wide range of time and length scales and make it difficult to probe the flow and interfacial dynamics. Microfluidic devices can provide unique perspective to study the transport and interfacial dynamics of complex fluids at a quick time scale and small length scale.

REU Project #1: Critical Determinants of Droplet Formation for a Lipid Solution inside a Microfluidic Network

Droplet formation is a commonplace occurrence and has been studied for hundreds of years. Despite this fact, it is, in many instances still hard to characterize and predict. Droplets can be formed through many different means. The system examined in the current study is that of a stream of one fluid shearing or pinching off the flow of another fluid. The two competing forces involved in the formation of these droplets are the shear stress, caused by the flow of the outer or shearing fluid and capillary stress, which is a result of the interfacial tension trying to minimize the surface area between the two fluids. The capillary stress resists the deformation of the inner fluid, until the point where it is overcome by the shear stress. Once the shear stress is larger than the capillary stress, the inner flow pinches off into droplets. For flows of a complex fluid in shear, this problem may become increasingly complicated. One undergraduate researcher will perform experiments to find the critical regimes where lipid solution can pinch off and form droplets inside an aqueous solution by varying the viscosity ratio, flow rates ratio and interfacial tension between two fluids. We will collaborate with Proctor and Gamble on this project.

REU Project #2: Making Liquid Crystal Droplets inside Micro-fluidic Channels

Based on a recent paper on crystal structure in nematic emulsion with temperature dependence and formed chemically, one undergraduate researcher will perform the experiment to create liquid crystal droplets inside a silicone oil reservoir inside a micro-fluidic channel with flow-focusing geometry. This study will develop a more efficient technique to form and control liquid crystal emulsions. The student will perform systematic studies by varying temperature, viscosity ratio of the two phases (liquid crystal and silicon oil with different viscosities), and ratio of flow rates of two phases to build a phase diagram for the conditions where liquid crystal droplets can be formed.

REU Project #3: Interplay of Biosensing and Locomotion in Confinement

With the recent discovery of an oxygen-sensing mechanism (in addition to usual chemo- mechano- thermo-sensors) in the nematode (Caenorhabditis elegans), a putatively free-living soil roundworm became available as a new paradigm for the designer of robotic systems. This project will study C. elegan's motility and sensing because it offers a minimalist realization of an organism capable of versatile sensing, graceful movement, and rudimentary learning: all this with only 302 nerve cells.

Application of Micellar Fluids in Fire Fighting (R. Sureshkumar)

Polymers and surfactant assemblies offer tremendous potential as additives to the fire hose streams to enhance the range and throughput, to delay the jet breakup and to produce larger drops that are less susceptible to entrainment and can sustain evaporative losses, and to enhance the fire extinction capabilities of the aqueous solutions by suppressing rebound from, and by improving the wettability on hydrophobic surfaces. Presently the sole criterion for the selection of surfactant additives used in fire fighting systems is the ability of the surfactant to reduce the surface tension of the aqueous phase to promote wetting and foaming based on research that reached a mature state in the 1950s. Since then, there has been tremendous progress in our understanding of rheology, physical chemistry and non- Newtonian fluid mechanics of polymeric and surfactant systems, especially on the influence of additives on jet breakup and drop formation. This understanding presents us with unique opportunities to reevaluate the selection criteria for additives as well as to develop novel product designs that will help enhance the present capabilities to combat catastrophic urban fires in an efficient and safe manner. The goal of the REU project described below is to exploit these opportunities.

REU Project #4: Experimental Investigation of the Role of Drag Reducing Surfactants in Fire Fighting Equipment Design

Systematic experimental studies will be conducted by an undergraduate researcher to understand the role of solution rheology, chemical composition, and flow rate on the reduction in pressure drop, jet breakup, and the size distribution and rebound characteristics of the drops under conditions of turbulent flow in test sections equipped with nozzles that simulate the single bore and fog nozzles used in municipal fire fighting. Different designs for the application of the additives such as the use of homogeneous solution and the use of periodic injection to overcome polymer degradation effects will be explored. Calorimetric studies will also be performed to evaluate the influence of the additives on the specific heat capacity of the aqueous solutions. A well-characterized flow system equipped with flow control valves, flow meters, and high speed camera (1000 Hz) will be used to carry out the experiments. Two drag reducing surfactant systems will be used. The first one is cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC), a drag reducing cationic surfactant, with 2-, 3-, or 4-chloro benzoic acid (CB) as the counter ion. We have used CTAC/CB systems in our earlier investigations to identify the role of surfactant additives on turbulent mixing flows and have found that even at small concentrations below the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the self assembly into rod-like micelles can occur in the presence of flow [9]. In the proposed project, the surfactant concentrations will be of O(10³) ppm. This will reduce surface tension of water to values of 30 dynes/cm or below required in fire fighting applications to promote wettability. The second surfactant system that will be selected for this study is Ethoquad T/13-50 (a C₁₆ hydrocarbon based surfactant available from Akso chemicals) with sodium salicylate (NaSal) that has been found to produce up to 80% drag reduction when used in12:5 molar ratio of Ethoquad to NaSal with 2000 ppm of Ethoquad concentration. By performing experiments by using surfactant formulations with different molar ratios of surfactant and the counter ion, we will identify chemical compositions that are optimal not solely based on the drag reduction percentage but also based on the other criteria relevant to fire fighting, namely the breakup length of the jet, drop size and drop rebound characteristics. This project will also be used for outreach to K-12 students and for public demonstrations.

Protein Folding and Self-Assembly (R. Pappu)

Pappu’s research group focuses on unfolded proteins and their role in folding, self-assembly, post-translational modifications, and protein function. The main goal is to understand the interplay between information encoded in amino-acid sequences and the role of aqueous mixtures in influencing conformational equilibria and hierarchical self-assembly processes. These interests are pursued using tools based on a combination of molecular simulations and theories adapted from fields such as polymer physics and the theory of liquids, and spectroscopic approaches pursued through collaborations with experimentalists within and outside Washington University.

In the past, undergraduate students in Pappu’s group have focused on answering specific questions pertaining to sequence-structure relationships and conformation-dependent hydration structure of proteins and peptides. A brief description of two REU summer research projects is given below.

REU Project #5: Spectroscopic Signatures Generated by Short, Disordered Peptides

Short peptides are model systems to study local conformational preferences in unfolded proteins. The main spectroscopic tool used in the study of disordered peptides and unfolded proteins is ultraviolet circular dichroism (UV-CD). A CD spectrum corresponds to an average over an ensemble of conformations and does not allow one to extract quantitative information regarding conformational propensities. Conversely, detailed information is available using molecular simulation, especially using novel methods for rapid and efficient sampling of conformational space developed in Pappu’s lab. One possible way to connect theory and experiment would be to predict CD spectra generated using the simulated ensemble of conformers. In this project, the REU student will use software made available to us by Professor Robert Woody of Colorado State University. Calculated CD spectra will provide a way to test the accuracy of conformational ensembles generated using molecular simulations, a necessary first step towards the development of a model for the experimentally observed conformational preferences of unfolded proteins.

REU Project # 6: Consensus Sequences of Peptides that are Likely to Inhibit Aggregation

Genetic mutations that lead to expanded polyglutamine tracts in specific neuronal proteins are the main cause for at least eight different progressive inherited neurological disorders including Huntington’s disease. Pappu’s lab is studying ways to stabilize the soluble monomeric form of polyglutamine to prevent aggregation as a possible route to therapeutic intervention. This is a difficult task in light of experimental evidence suggesting that polyglutamine monomers behave like disordered random coils in solution. However, recent work in the lab has shown that individual polyglutamine chains are an ensemble of conformations where segments of the chain fluctuate about left-handed, three-residue-per-turn, polyproline II (P_II) helices connected by flexible bends. Chain solubility increases when the polyglutamine chains are in P_II-like geometries. The goal is to conceive of ways to increase the P_II propensity of polyglutamine chains. This requires the design of peptides that will bind to polyglutamine in P_II-like conformations. Numerous instances of these putative ligands are available in protein-protein interaction domains. The undergraduate student will identify consensus sequences for putative peptide ligands using relational database. Molecular docking simulations will allow the prediction of binding affinities of peptide ligands to polyglutamine peptides in different conformations.

Nanoparticle Formation and Transport in Micro-scale Systems (Da Ren Chen)

Nanoparticles are considered a building block in nanotechnology applications, therefore their formation and characterization has acquired a great importance in recent years. Nanoparticle transport in micro-scale systems and their formation in chemically reactive flow systems provide special research challenges. Dr. Da Ren Chen has several funded research programs in this area from NSF, NASA, and DOE. A brief description of two REU projects is given below.

REU Project # 7: Nanoparticle Transport in Microscale Condensation Particle Counter

Condensation Particle Counters (CPCs) are one of the primary tools for counting particles in sizes down to 3 nm. They play an important role in the study of nanoparticles, which are now considered a building block in nanotechnology applications. The operational principle of CPCs is to grow the size of sampled particles into a larger size so that they can be easily counted by light scattering technique. To achieve the goal, a particle carrier gas is passed through a vapor-saturated chamber (called saturator) and then introduced into a cooling chamber (called condenser) where the temperature is reduced to the level such that the supersaturated vapor condition is achieved. When particles enter the condenser, the extra vapor quickly condenses on the particles and the size of particles is thus increased. By the time the particles reach the condenser exit, their sizes have “matured” to the super-micron range. Particles in the matured size range can be easily detected with the light scattering technique using a low cost light source. Although many applications of CPCs have been evidenced and CPCs are considered as the standard tools for sub-micron and nanoparticle studies, the commercially available CPCs cost more than $25K. The high cost of the instrument prevents its use in monitoring network applications. To overcome this problem, Dr. Chen and the researchers at NASA Glenn have been working together to develop a micro-scale CPC using the MEMS manufacturing technique. The use of MEMS manufacturing process reduces the production cost of each micro-CPC to the affordable level that makes the networking application of CPCs viable. Although the prototype device has been tested and has provided promising results, the fundamental understanding of the entire process is necessary for further improvement of the device. The device is the first MEMS device, in which a two-phase flow at micro-scale is involved. In the device, the working fluid (alcohol-based solvent) is introduced into the micro-scale saturator by the effect of surface tension. In the micro-scale saturator, the fluid evaporates into the vapor. The vapor saturated environment at micro-scale is thus established. In the condenser, the supersaturated vapor environment is set up by the temperature control. Due to reduced temperature, the extra vapor will condense on particles as well as on the walls of the micro-scale condenser. The management of this liquid condensation is of importance in the device operation. The details of liquid-vapor motion under such micro-scale environment are largely unknown. Furthermore, the details of transport behavior of nanometer particles in such a micro-scale two-phase flow environment remain unexplored. A REU student will be recruited every summer to set up the experiments for investigation of the complex two-phase fluid behavior in the micro-scale CPC.

REU Project #8: Nanoparticle Formation in Chemically Reactive Flow Systems

Nanoparticles are often produced using the so called aerosol reactors. The reactors could be in a closed system e.g. tubular furnaces, or in an open system e.g., flames. In the laboratory setting, both systems are used to synthesize the nanoparticles. For example, funded by NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Program and led by Dr. Chen, magnetic nano- and nano-composite particles for medical applications are produced at Washington University using both types of systems. In the industry setting, the flame synthesis is the most popular approach to generate powders in different size ranges. To well control the process for producing the desired nano- or nano-composite particles, it is important to understand the details of the process and the mechanisms involved. In many systems a large quantity of the so-called “undesirable” aerosols are produced at high temperatures. Municipal waste incinerators, hazardous waste incinerators, welding systems, automobile, diesel engine and aircraft jet engine exhausts, coke ovens, smelters, nuclear reactor accidents, and utility boilers are some examples of such systems. Among different systems mentioned above, one common characteristic is that the nanoparticle formation occurs in a chemically reactive flow involved in these systems. To perform well-defined experiments to investigate the fundamental phenomena involved in chemically reactive flow systems, we will focus on the tubular furnace system in this project. The selection of this type of system allows us to gain greater control of the chemically reactive flows. The flow conditions including the flow velocity, turbulence, and chemical-composition distribution can also be precisely controlled in the system. Nanoparticle formation in such a chemically reactive flow system is typically initiated by the nucleation process (homogeneous or heterogeneous) and is followed by the coagulation, sintering and condensation processes, depending on the time scales of different processes. Although many studies have been performed to investigate the quality of nanoparticles produced under different operational and precursor injection conditions, the fundamental interactions among nanoparticles, turbulence, chemical reactions and temperature are not well understood and characterized. The interactions are believed to occur at the micro-scale and are even possible at nano-scale due to the complex molecular motions in the nanoparticle formation process. In this project, REU students will be asked to design different simple reactive flow systems using the furnace reactor and to systematically investigate the nanoparticle formation under different flow conditions using the flow and particle instrumentation available in Chen’s lab.

Analytical,Computational, and Experimental Study of Flow and Heat Transport in Micro-Devices & in Nanofluids (R. Agarwal)

Fluid flows in micro-devices, e.g. micro-sensors, micro-ducts, micro-actuators, micro-valves, micro-pumps etc. are significantly different than those in macroscopic devices due to their small characteristic sizes. The inertial forces, for example tend to be quite small and surface effects tend to dominate their behavior. Friction, electrostatic forces, and viscous effects due to the surrounding air or liquid become increasingly important as the devices become smaller. Agarwal and his group have developed analytical models and computational codes to study the gas flows in micro-devices using Navier-Stokes and Burnett equations with slip flow. They have also developed Lattice-Boltzmann codes for studying these flows. More recently, they have also been studying the problem of convective heat transport in nanofluids. The concept of nanofluids has been advanced by Choi, who showed substantial augmentation of heat transported in suspensions of copper or aluminum nanoparticles in water and other liquids. A nanofluid is more or less a uniform dispersion of very small particles held in suspension by Brownian motion. This allows us to consider the solid-liquid mixture in a nanofluid as a composite fluid with properties like viscosity and thermal conductivity dependent upon the properties, concentration and size of the suspended particles. Thus we study the convective heat transport in a nanofluid experimentally as well as by solving a set of continuum equations for a composite fluid.

REU Project #9: Gas Flows in a Micro-Devices

For gas flows in micro-fluidic configurations, the Knudsen layer close to the wall can comprise a substantial portion of the entire flow field and has major effect on quantities such as mass flow rate through micro-devices. Additionally the Maxwell’s slip boundary condition needs to be modified for curved boundaries and moving surfaces. We will include the latest developments in treating the slip velocity and temperature conditions on curved/moving walls including the wall- function approach in our Navier-Stokes and Burnett codes. This project will be coordinated with the experimental work being performed in Prof. Amy Shen’s lab. The principal investigator will work closely with the student to complete these tasks. Other project of PI in this area involves the application of magnetic field on flow in micro-channels. These flows occur in magnetic thin films and other electromagnetic micro-scale devices. It has been shown that the integration of magnetic field in micro-fluidic MEMS design can enhance the performance of these devices in a variety of applications. This project will involve the development of a simple analytical model for the MHD slip flow in a micro-channel and use of an existing Lattice-Boltzmann based simulation code.

REU Project # 10: Natural Convection in a 2-D Cavity Filled with a Nanofluid:

The convective heat transport due to buoyancy in a 2-D cavity filled with a nanofluid will be studied by numerical simulation. UDF functions in the CFD software “FLUENT” will be modified for this purpose. A small scale experiment will also be designed by modifying the existing experimental set up in the heat transfer laboratory. Computations will be compared with the experimental data to validate the modeling of a nanofluid as a composite fluid and to investigate the augmentation of heat transport in a nanofluid. The undergraduate student will work closely work with the PI in designing the experiment and taking the data.

Nematic-Isotropic Phase Transitions (E. Fried)

When quenched from a high-temperature isotropic phase to a low-temperature nematic phase, a liquid crystal undergoes a first-order phase transition. Such transitions proceed via the nucleation, growth, and coalescence of droplets. Experiments involving free- and directional-growth show that the nematic-isotropic-phase-interfaces exhibit a host of interesting morphological instabilities, which are manifested by the formation of dendrites and periodic cellular patterns resembling those that occur during crystal growth.

REU Project # 11: Simulations of Nematic-Isotropic Phase Transitions in Micro-channels

These simulations will be based on a sharp-interface theory developed recently by Cermelli, Fried and Gurtin. This theory provides a generalization of the Ericksen–Leslie theory for uniaxial nematics which (a) allows for phase transitions, (b) models a nematic-isotropic interface as a sharp surface across which bulk fields may suffer discontinuities, and (c) accounts for localized interactions between phases by endowing the interface with excess properties. The theory yields evolution equations for the bulk phases and for the interface. In addition to the standard equations enforcing momentum and energy balance on the interface, the theory involves an ancillary equation that enforces configurational momentum balance on the interface. The configurational momentum balance provides a generalization of the Gibbs–Thomson relation (familiar from sharp-interface theories of solidification) appropriate to the description of nematic-isotropic phase transitions. The simulation effort will require the extension of a computer code by Dolbow, Fried and Ji, recently developed for the study of volumetric phase transitions in hydrogels. This code combines the eXtended Finite-Element Method (XFEM) and the Level-Set Method (LSM) to provide a robust, accurate, and efficient tool for the simulation of phase transitions. The investigator will work closely with the students to complete that extension. The simulations will be tied closely with experimental observations performed in the laboratory of Prof. Amy Shen.

Workshops: During a typical 10-week REU summer program, four workshops and a series of seminars on research projects will be held. The duration of each workshop will be about a day long (9:00a.m-12:00p.m, 1:00-4:00p.m). The seminars will be about one-hour long and will focus on the work of a student. The workshops will involve a combination of formal lectures and lab tours by the assigned members of the participating faculty on a focused topic. The lectures and the lab demonstrations will introduce the student to the background material needed to get started in their research projects. The research projects will be defined by their supervisor and the student may work as member of the supervisor’s research group so that he/she will receive needed help and direction on a continuous basis. Examples of potential workshop topics are given below.

Workshop #1: Introduction to Complex Fluids (Shen, Sureshkumar, Fried)

This workshop will introduce the students to basic difference between complex fluids and normal fluids by examples. It will describe some of their applications in everyday life. The fundamental mathematical relations that characterize them will be introduced. The experiments and software employed in the study of these fluids at Washington U. will be described.

Workshop #2: Introduction to Microfluidics (Agarwal, Shen)

It will introduce the students to fabrication of micro-devices in the lab. It will introduce them to the measurement techniques and instrumentation. It will describe the special physics that occurs even in normal Newtonian fluids due to micro-scale. The analytical, computational, and experimental tools to characterize the fluid behavior at micro-scale will also be introduced.

Workshop #3: Behavior of Complex Fluids in Micro-devices including Protein Folding & Self Assembly (Shen, Fried, Pappu)

The students will be introduced to the special dynamics of complex fluids and interfacial phenomenon that occurs in complex fluids at micro-scale, in contrast to normal Newtonian fluids.

They will also be introduced to the problems of protein folding and self-assembly. Both the experimental set up and software used in these studies will be explained.

Workshop #4: Nanoparticle Formation & Transport in Microscale Systems including the Behavior of Nanofluids (Chen, Agarwal)

The physics of nanoparticles formation and their transport will be introduced. The instrumentation and software used at Wash U. to characterize the nanoparitcles will be described.

The basic concepts behind nanofluids will be introduced. The software and the experimental apparatus employed in the study of nanofluids will be described.

Workshop #5: Ethics Workshop

An ethics workshop will be conducted. The workshop will include lectures by ethics professors at WU, presentations by outside speakers from industry and academia, case studies, group discussions among students and faculty on concepts and skills for resolution of ethical issues, etc. The goal of the workshop will be to make students aware of the importance of ethical conduct in everyday life, be it in personal or professional environment.

Additional Activities (Industry Visits, Social Activities, Seminars etc.):

In addition to research and participation in workshops, a variety of additional activities will be included in the program to broaden the students’ exposure to practical applications of their research and to build their technical communications skills. An orientation meeting will be held on the first day of the program to introduce all the participating students and faculty to each other, to familiarize the students with Washington University facilities (e.g., the libraries, computing facilities, laboratories, gym etc.), and to discuss laboratory safety. The exposure to practical applications of their research in complex fluids, micro-fluidics, and nanotechnology will be accomplished through visits to local engineering companies, e.g. Boeing, Monsanto, MEMC, Applied Materials, Cross-link Polymers etc. Finally, the students’ communications skills will be developed through submission of biweekly reports and oral presentations on their research projects. All REU students will be required to submit biweekly written reports and make several oral presentations on the progress of their research. All written reports will be reviewed by at least two participating faculty—the student’s research advisor and one other—who will provide the student with written feedback designed to help the student improve their report-writing skills. In addition, each student will review and provide feedback on the progress reports submitted by another fellow student. Making students review the reports of other students is expected to teach them to be more critical when they edit their own work. All students will also be required to submit a final report summarizing their research goals, methods, results, and conclusions. All biweekly and final reports will be posted on the REU Program’s web site. An archive of these reports will be accessible to prospective REU students in subsequent years. Oral presentations will be made during weekly meetings that will be attended by all the participating students and faculty, as well as others who may be interested. In general, each REU student will make three 20-minute presentations on their research during the course of the 10-week program. During the first week of the program, the weekly meeting will focus on the fundamentals of oral presentations, including examples of good and bad habits. One faculty member (not the student’s advisor) and one REU student will be assigned to provide written feedback to each student on his/her presentation, especially focusing on organization, quality of visual aids, and whether the results that were presented provided adequate support for the conclusions.

Washington University Undergraduate Research Symposium:

At the conclusion of the 10-week program, all students will make formal final presentations at the

which is normally attended by a large number of undergraduate students and faculty in science and engineering. During 10 weeks of the program, several organized social events (e.g., introductory barbeque, group lunches/dinners, evening at sporting events etc.) will be held periodically to facilitate the development of lasting collegial relationships among the students and the faculty.