2018 REU Program Comes To A Close
As the summer draws to a close, so does the 2018 REU Program at Northwestern University.
The REU Program, short for Research Experience for Undergraduates, is a nine-week program that runs from June to August and gives undergraduates the opportunity to participate in a research project at Northwestern. In addition to working on a project, the students in the REU program are also included in interdisciplinary research group meetings, in order to expand and diversify their STEM experience into a variety of different fields. The program ends on Friday, August 17th, and a symposium for the students was held on Wednesday, August 15th.
Jillian Rix, an undergraduate student at Grinnell College in Iowa, is one of the students who participated in the program. She enjoyed her experience in the program, and was thankful to have had the opportunity to participate in it.
“This summer, I’ve been working in the VPD Group studying the effects of spark plasma sintering on the microstructure of thermoelectric materials,” she explained. “I’m very thankful to Professor Dravid, my mentors Xiaomi Zhang and Karl Hagglund, and the VPD group for this wonderful opportunity. Coming from an undergraduate-only school without an engineering or materials science program, this opportunity helped me explore a new field that I intend to pursue further in graduate school. Sharing my research at the end of the summer and interacting with the graduate students helped me prepare for my own graduate school applications and explore my professional ambitions.”
We hope our REU students enjoyed their time at Northwestern, and we wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
REU student Jillian Rix (center) with her mentors Xiaomi Zhang (left) and Karl Hagglund (right)
