From its first summer in 2011 with only one program, with eight undergraduate interns, at its lead institution, UC Berkeley, the Center for E3S has grown to offer undergraduate internships at four member institutions and programs for community college faculty at its lead institution. This growth in programmatic efforts has been made possible through continuing and new campus partnerships. Beginning this weekend, the Center is welcoming 35 visiting scholars who are arriving at its member institutions to begin their 5 to 9 weeks of internships/ fellowships.
The E3S Research Experiences for Undergraduates (E3S REU) Program for upper-division undergraduates is welcoming 11 interns to UC Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The continuing partnership with the MIT Summer Research Program is enabling the Center to support two REU interns at MIT. For the first time, the Center is partnering with the UT System LSAMP Program to host an intern at UTEP.
Four rising juniors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are joining E3S REU interns at UC Berkeley. Jointly managed with the E3S REU Program, the new UC Berkeley HBCU Program is funded through a new grant from the Graduate Studies Division of the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) to Prof. T.-J. King Liu, who is Chair, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences (EECS) and also the Associate Education Director for E3S. – Learn more.
At UC Berkeley, the Transfer-to-Excellence (TTE) Program continues to host students from California community colleges as research interns, made possible by a new NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site grant to EECS Prof. Jeffrey Bokor, who is E3S Center Deputy Director and E3S Associate Director of Education. This new grant and the Center’s funding is enabling 14 students from community colleges across California to engage in Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Robotics research this summer. Besides joining EECS and MSE research groups, these community college interns are also with research groups in the Mechanical Engineering Department (ME), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (Chem. Biomol. Eng.), Physics Department (Physics), Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology (NST), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). – Learn more.
E3S further supports community college education through programs for community college faculty. Funded by an NSF grant to Prof. Eli Yablonovitch, E3S PI and Center Director, 5 Bay Area community college professors and instructors are spending 9 weeks at UC Berkeley as part of UC Berkeley Context-Based Research Experiences for community college Teachers (UCB RET) Program. In partnership with another NSF Science and Technology Center, TRUST, the program is offering research opportunities in Cybersecurity and Energy this summer.
The Context-Based RET program complements the established E3S Teacher Fellows Program, which is hosting one community college faculty member to engage in curriculum development at UC Berkeley this summer.
The community college professors/instructors in the UC Berkeley RET program are spending eight weeks in research and 1 week in curriculum development.
Scott Beaver, Chemistry Instructor at Merritt College, is hosted by MSE Prof. J. Wu and mentored by Dr. Hwan Sung Choe.
Miranda Braselton, Mathematics Instructor at Chabot College, is hosted by Drs. G. Friedland and S. Egelman, International Computer Science Institute, and mentored by Julia Bernd.
Carlos Rojo, Physiology Instructor at San Jose City College, is hosted by EECS Prof. R. Bajcsy and mentored by Daniel Aranki.
Hitesh Soneji, Engineering Professor at San Francisco City College, is hosted by Prof. D. Callaway, Energy & Resources Group and mentored by Michael Cohen.
Carol Stanton, Mathematics Professor at Contra Costa College, is hosted by EECS Prof. D. Song and mentored by Dr. Gilad Katz.
Through the E3S Teacher Fellows Program, Artemio Navarro, Assistant Professor, Los Angeles Trade Technical College, is spending five weeks at UC Berkeley to develop a new electrical engineering course. He is hosted by EECS Prof. T.-J. King Liu, and mentored by Indrasen Bhattacharya.