UF engineers win NSF grant to support student research abroad

April 21, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A handful of engineering students will soon have the chance to get a fresh and different perspective on their research — not from a new textbook or different experiment but from working in another country.

Two materials science and engineering faculty members have won a competitive National Science Foundation award to pay for undergraduate and graduate students to conduct research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The project, titled “U.S.-Swiss International Research Experience for Students: Science and Engineering of Piezoelectric Materials,” will begin in May, when materials science and engineering student Abhijit Pramanick heads to Switzerland for research on his doctoral dissertation.

“We think it’s critical for students to develop a broader perspective,” said Jacob Jones, principal investigator on the initiative. “Often, people on the other side of the globe are working on very similar problems, but they may have unique solutions or ways of approaching challenges. Our students need to be exposed to that diversity.”

Jones and Juan C. Nino, co-investigator and an assistant professor of materials engineering, tailored the program with the goal of having students work with the Swiss institution’s Dragan Damjanovic, a worldwide expert in piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric materials convert electrical energy into mechanical or acoustical energy and vice versa. Applications include sonar, ultrasound and memory devices.

Besides tapping international expertise and perspectives, participants also get access to equipment and unique capabilities that are complementary to facilities available at UF, Jones said.

The NSF grant totals $133,539, to be administered through April 2011. As many as six students are expected to travel to Switzerland in the first year.