Nanoscience Research Internships in Illinois

Kronshage, Alisa¹ 

[1]Executive Board

关键词: nanoscience;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1091520
RP-ID  :  Final Technical
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1091520

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

NanoBusiness Talent Project Summary Report The NanoBusiness Alliance created the NanoBusiness Talent Program to ensure the future vitality of domestic scientists and entrepreneurs by engaging advanced high school students in cutting-edge nanotechnology development. This program commenced on September 1, 2008 and ran through August 31, 2010 with a very successful group of students. Several of these students went on to Stanford, Harvard and Yale, as well as many other prestigious Universities. We were able to procure the cooperation of several companies over the entire run of the program to voluntarily intern students at their companies and show them the possibilities that exist for their future. Companies ranged from NanoInk and Nanosphere to QuesTek and NanoIntegris all located in northern Illinois. During the 9-week internships, students worked at nanotechnology companies studying different ways in which nanotechnology is used for both commercial and consumer use. The students were both excited and invigorated at the prospect of being able to work with professional scientists in fields that previously may have just been a dream or an unreachable goal. All the students worked closely with mentors from each company to learn different aspects of procedures and scientific projects that they then used to present to faculty, parents, mentors and directors of the program at the end of each year???s program. The presentations were extremely well received and professionally created. We were able to see how much the students learned and absorbed through the course of their internships. During the last year of the program, we reached out to both North Carolina and Colorado high school students and received an extraordinary amount of applications. There were also numerous companies that were not only willing but excited at the prospect to engage highly intelligent high school students and to encourage them into the nanotechnology scientific field. Again, this program increase was highly received and the students were thoroughly engaged. Our program ended August 31, 2010 with our last class of students and their final presentations. From the pilot year to the end presentations, we received hundreds of applications from students excited for the opportunity to work in a scientific field. With our goal of inspiring the newest generation of potential scientists and mathematician, we not only found ourselves overwhelmingly impressed but encouraged that the greatest minds of the future will come from this next generation and many more generations.