Student Project Abstracts 2005 - Pluto - University of Washington

Welcome to the Second Edition ofCMDITR Review of Undergraduate ResearchThis volume of the Reviews features extended abstracts of students who participated in the National Science Foundation (NSF)Center on Materials and Devices in Information Technology Research (CMDITR) Summer 2005 Research Experiences for Undergraduates(REU) program.The REU experience often acts as a launching point or catalyst for entry by undergraduates into technical fields of study. The REUexperience is symbiotic in nature as it supports not only the undergraduate participant who experiences research first-hand prior to committingto graduate study, but also the students mentors, be they faculty members, research scientists, post-doctoral fellows, or graduatestudents. While working with REU students graduate students and post-doctoral fellows learn teaching and mentoring skills neededto manage labs they will be responsible for in the future. Faculty members and other researchers, who share their expertise with theseenthusiastic learners, also benefit as they reflect on the excitement upon which their careers have been built.The CMDITR REU Summer Program placed undergraduate students from across the United States in CMDITR state-of-the-artresearch labs at the University of Washington, University of Arizona and Georgia Institute of Technology. The 2005 program expandedon the previous year’s program with a doubling of the number of undergraduates to 32 participants. Several of these undergraduates inthe 2005 program were part of a new, collaborative exchange program between Norfolk State University and Georgia Tech. All of theseundergraduates worked on authentic interdisciplinary research contributing to advancements in information technology with researchersin the fields of chemistry, physics, optics, materials science and engineering. The REU Program emphasized the teamwork nature of scientificresearch and was supplemented by a collection of activities including ethics training and workshops in scientific communication.The role of the Review is to offer a forum for participants involved in the CMDITR REU to share their research with their REUpeers, future REU students, CMDITR graduates students and faculty members, and others interested in the work of CMDITR. TheReview is also a forum that depicts the breadth and depth of CMDITR research.To learn more about the CMDITR REU program and opportunities please visit http://stc-mditr.org/REU.A special thanks to all the REU participants for their work, their mentors for their time and patience, and the REU program coordinators(Maggie Harden, Olanda Davidson Bryant, and Kristin Wustholz) for their efforts to make the program successful.The extended abstracts included in the Review are presented in alphabetical order by the participant’s last name.Sara Selfe, Ph.D., Editor