S-STEM scholars from Alfred University and Missouri S&T will spend two weeks at Mines during Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Field Session, a summer course that all metallurgical and ceramic engineering undergraduates take.
Advanced ceramic and glass materials are critical to aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing – including hardware for quantum computing – clean energy systems, healthcare and more.
Renowned for their ability to perform where other materials fail, ceramics are inorganic, nonmetallic materials offering perhaps the widest range of material properties to serve an equally wide range of environments. But there is a shortage of ceramic engineers in the U.S. with the skillset needed to take advantage of these essential material properties, and a new partnership funded by the National Science Foundation between Colorado School of Mines and two other U.S. universities aims to help fill that gap.
Led by Alfred University, the Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) program will provide scholarships, research and networking opportunities for undergraduate students studying ceramic engineering or glass engineering at Mines, Alfred and Missouri University of Science and Technology. These three universities currently offer the only undergraduate degrees in ceramic and glass engineering in the U.S.
“Those who focus on ceramics and glasses form such a tight-knit community within the already small profession of materials science that the friendships and professional networks last for decades,” said Geoff Brennecka, head of the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at Colorado School of Mines. “The time that these S-STEM students spend together on their summer rotations and interacting with faculty and professionals in the ceramics field will build strong foundations of valuable professional networks for the rest of their careers.”
Each of the three schools will receive approximately $1 million in NSF funding over five years to fund scholarships and undergraduate research. Need-based scholarships will be awarded to between 12 and 15 U.S. students total at the three schools each year, with students eligible to receive support for their sophomore, junior and senior years of study. Students will also receive a variety of professional development opportunities, including mentors, industry field trips and networking, and internship opportunities.
Over the summer, scholarship recipients will visit each of the three schools, for two weeks each time, working on a variety of projects. At Mines, these rotations will overlap with the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Field Session, a summer course that all MME undergraduates take, enabling even greater networking and industry visits.
“By removing financial barriers and elevating student experiences across three leading programs, this effort strengthens both individual student outcomes and the field as a whole,” said David Lipke, Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in Missouri S&T’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “It’s an investment with impact well beyond the classroom to strengthen the national pipeline to a discipline that underpins critical technologies.”
Alfred University is the lead institution for the S-STEM program partnership, with Gabrielle Gaustad, Dean of the Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred, serving as Alfred’s principal investigator. Lipke, Kelley Wilkerson and Charmayne Lonergan, faculty in the department of Materials Science and Engineering will lead efforts at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Brennecka, along with Professors Laura Carroll and Kim Scott, will lead the Mines efforts.
“I am most excited about the hands-on undergraduate research that these students will be able to do together,” said Gabrielle Gaustad, Dean of the Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred, explaining that students will work in teams—organized so that students from the different schools will work together on research—with faculty from the host universities serving as advisors for the projects. Projects will carry over from one school to the next. “My undergraduate summer research opportunity at Alfred University in Ceramic Engineering really set me on a fun and impactful career path so I’m thrilled to bring these opportunities to current students.”
About Mines
Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 research university focused on applied science and engineering, producing the talent, knowledge and innovations to serve industry and benefit society – all to create a more prosperous future.
