{"id":8799,"date":"2023-08-15T11:02:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T15:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/?p=8799"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:54:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:54:04","slug":"reu-summer-program-23-concludes-with-packed-poster-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/2023\/08\/15\/reu-summer-program-23-concludes-with-packed-poster-session\/","title":{"rendered":"REU\/RET Summer Program ’23 Concludes with Packed Poster Session"},"content":{"rendered":"
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REU students Madison Nieves (inner left) and Akhila Johny (inner right) with their research mentors, postdoctoral associates Jess Teo (far left) and Terry Ching (far right) (Chen lab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last Thursday (8\/10), the 2023 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)<\/a> and Research Experiences for <\/span>Teacher<\/span>s (R<\/span>ET<\/span>) <\/span><\/span><\/a>summer programs came to a successful close with the annual poster session, in which each REU\u2013\u2013ranging from rising sophomore to rising senior students\u2013\u2013 and RET was able to display and demonstrate their last few months worth of research and achievement. With over 40 posters displayed in the Photonics Center 9th floor atrium, some topics included polymeric materials, soft rigid hybrid robot simulations, “Faster Imaging via Spatio-Temporal Transformations,” “Enhancing Biosensor Sensitivity Using Magnetic Nanoparticles,” a “Soft Robotic Platform for Beating Heart Procedures,” and more. The “Making Heart Tissue Dance,” presented by Maxwell Barrueta, even included a physical test model!<\/p>\n

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REU Danielle Joubran with her PI Professor Will Boley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston University community came out in stride to support these future leaders in STEM, with over 100 faculty, staff, and students walking throughout the 9th floor to check out the progress the REUs and RETs<\/span>\u00a0made this\u00a0<\/span>summer<\/span>. Professors\u00a0<\/span>Will Boley<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Jerome Mertz<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Siddharth Ramachandran<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Tom Bifano<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Keith Brown<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Masha Kamenetska<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0were just some of the faculty to inquire about the REU and RETs\u2019 research. Several\u00a0<\/span>BICsters<\/span>\u00a0were also seen among the crowd, admiring the researchers\u2019 work and experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

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REU Maxwell Barrueta with his PI Professor & Photonics Center Director Thomas Bifano<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Photonics Center\u00a0manage<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Summer Programs include\u00a0<\/span>the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site\u00a0and\u00a0NSF Research Experiences for\u00a0Teachers (RET) Site\u00a0in Integrated Nanomanufacturing, REU\u00a0and RET\u00a0<\/span>placements from\u00a0<\/span>the NSF ERC in Cellular Metamaterials, and the BU-funded Photonics and Materials Science programs. In total, the Photonics Center hosted 16 REU students and nine high school and community college science teachers this past summer.<\/span><\/p>\n

For some <\/span>of <\/span>students, and most teachers, this program serves as their first <\/span>laboratory <\/span>research experience. <\/span>The students and teachers are mentored in their labs as they conduct research that directly supports the goals of their labs while also engaging in professional development activities throughout summer. In total, the two groups spend a lot of time learning collaboratively, forming strong bonds not only with those in their labs, but with each other<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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REU Majeste Kyei-Amponsah presenting her research to graduate student Nolan Vild<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After this experience, explained Associate Director of Summer Programs & Outreach\u00a0Brenda Hugot, the teachers\u00a0<\/span>are<\/span>\u00a0well-prepared to present topics in engineering to their students. They<\/span>\u00a0understand firsthand the process of engineering design and will be able to share their new skills and knowledge with their students.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0As for the REUs, she had this to say<\/span>:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cAll\u00a0<\/span>the REUs\u00a0<\/span>plan to continue in science and engineering, and most are now considering graduate school as they map their possible careers.\u00a0<\/span>They are a great group of students and we\u00a0<\/span>are sad to see them go — but it will be exciting to follow their careers and see where everyone goes from here!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday (8\/10), the 2023 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) summer programs came to a successful close with the annual poster session, in which each REU\u2013\u2013ranging from rising sophomore to rising senior students\u2013\u2013 and RET was able to display and demonstrate their last few months worth of research and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6988],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8799"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12531,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799\/revisions\/12531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}