The College has received nearly $450,000 in matching grants from the National Science Foundation's Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) program for three projects that will greatly enhance research and research training.
The grants will be used for:
- the development of an advanced multi-purpose laboratory for optical spectroscopy ($186,260);
- the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment for research in electrical engineering ($148,750);
- the relocation of research laboratories for the Psychology Department ($110,820).
The grants must be matched by contributions from alumni and friends
Linda Cool, dean of the faculty, said that three prestigious NSF grants in one year is unusual.
“This represents a tribute to Union's reputation as a premiere institution for undergraduate research,” she said. “Very few undergraduates in this country will have access to the facilities, equipment, or teaching that we have at Union.”
The grants will further strengthen Union's position as a leading institution for the education of future scientists and enhance the College's ability to recruit underrepresented populations into the sciences, she said.
The foundation's Academic Research Infrastructure program supports the acquisition of
state-of-the-art instrumentation and the modernization and renovation of research facilities. Here are details of the Union grants:
The Center for Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques is expected to have a major impact on faculty-sponsored undergraduate research.
The center will be the focal point for collaborative research among the sciences and will also make advanced optical equipment and measurement techniques available to students and faculty from across the College. Six faculty members from three
disciplines physics, chemistry, and geology-will lead research projects at the center.
Directors of the project are James McWhirter, John D. MacArthur Assistant Professor of Physics, and Mary Carroll '86, John D. MacArthur Assistant Professor of Chemistry.
A private manufacturer of scientific instrumentation, BOMEM Inc. of Newark, Del., has entered into a partnership with McWhirter to sponsor development of an instrumentation system capable of performing
time resolved spectroscopy. BOMEM will contribute eleven percent of the total cost of the project.
Equipment for high-level design of concurrent systems-The Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department plans to install twelve
high-performance workstations and a central server to provide computing power, rapid prototyping mediums, software, and test equipment to analyze new system design tools and apply them to complex design projects. The new equipment also will allow more student involvement in faculty research projects on computer network protocols.
The department graduates an average of forty undergraduate and twenty-five master's students each year; about one-third do research projects that would be supported by the new equipment. Project directors are David Hemmendinger and Cherrice Traver, associate professors of electrical engineering and computer science, and John Spinelli, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science.
The College will use the NSF grant to fund the relocation of research laboratories from the current Psychology Building to Bailey Hall, part of a
long range plan to provide more adequate teaching and research space for psychology.
Relocating to Bailey Hall will provide much needed space, first-class laboratory facilities, and proximity to other science departments. Faculty will be able to pursue research they cannot do in the current building, and students will have the work space and computer facilities that will enable them to conduct research in close contact with faculty members.
Director of the project is Suzanne Benack, associate professor and chair of the Psychology Department.