Tag: MRSEC

Sprout pre-application deadline is 3/29


The Sprout Program is back!

Funded by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), Sprout is designed to encourage and support translational research activity within the Brandeis community for faculty, postdocs, and student researchers (graduate and undergraduate) in the Division of Science. The awards (up to $25,000) are intended to help advance early-stage technologies to industry adoption.

Pre-applications are due by March 29. Successful pre-applicants will be invited to submit a final application, followed by a final pitch to a panel of industry judges.

3MT Info Session to be held Jan. 24

The 3rd annual Brandeis 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) competition is fast approaching!

The 3MT is a spoken word competition designed to showcase graduate student research in three minutes using only one slide with the idea of appealing to a general audience. This competition is open to all graduate students who are working on a thesis/dissertation for the sciences, social sciences, and humanities/arts. Winners can win up to $1000! Learn more about the Brandeis 3MT competition.

The Preliminary 3MT competition will occur on Wednesday, March 27. The Finals are scheduled for Friday, April 5 from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. There is also a remote competition for Brandeis graduate students who live outside of Massachusetts on Tuesday, April 2. 

You can learn more details about the competition during a virtual information session. Details about the info session are available here:

3MT Information Session
Wednesday, Jan 24, 2024, 12 -1 pm
Register to get Zoom link

In the past, Brandeis has had a very strong showing at the 3MT competitions. Liz Mahon, a PhD student in Psychology, received the top prize at the 2023 3MT Competition at Brandeis with her presentation “Armed Against Alzheimer’s: How Your Voice Could Save Your Mind”. She also won first place at the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools (NAGS) Regional 3MT Competition and went on to compete nationally at the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) 3MT Competition in Washington DC. 

SciFest XI to be held on Thursday, 8/11/22

Save the Date for SciFest!

SciFest, the Division of Science’s annual celebration of undergraduate research, is a poster session featuring work done by undergraduates in Brandeis laboratories each summer. This is a capstone event for the undergraduate researchers where they can present the results of their research to peers, grad students, and faculty.

Join us for the SciFest XI which will be held on Thursday, August 11, 2022 in the Shapiro Science Center.

MRSEC & RTI Hosts Science Outreach to Waltham Teachers

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The Brandeis Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the Brandeis Research Technology and Innovation (or MakerLab) hosted a day of science and technology outreach on November 5, 2019. In the morning and for the fifth straight year, 23 Waltham High School Science teachers participated in a professional development workshop with 15 Brandeis scientists called, “Brandeis Scientists in the Classroom.” The teams of scientists and teachers visited laboratories and developed curriculum for the scientists to make future classroom visits to the High School to increase awareness of Brandeis science and to encourage WHS students to pursue STEM careers. In the afternoon, the teams were joined by more than 60 Brandeis students, staff and members of the greater community for a public event called, “Watch:City Science and Technology Forum.” This event celebrated Waltham and Brandeis as hubs of technology and discovery and promoted SciLinkR.com as a way to connect with professionals and promote science. There were short talks about public engagement with science by Waltham High School teachers Marisa Maddox and Ellen Stanton and by Brandeis scientists, Professor Avi Rodal, Dr. Anique Olivier-Mason, Dr. Vivek Vimal, and Raul Ramos. Participants also networked with each other during the poster session (20 posters by Brandeis scientists) and explored the gallery of Brandeis contributions to the Journal of Stories in Science. The organizers’ goal was for attendees to gain new perspectives in science and technology.

The event was sponsored by the Brandeis MRSEC, Research Technology & Innovation, Library, Hassenfeld Family Innovation Center, Nova BioMedical, AstraZeneca, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

 

 

Alumni and Student Researchers Wow Crowd at 2019 SciFest

With a new alumni symposium in the morning and a poster session filling three floors of the Science Center atrium in the afternoon, this year’s SciFest IX set a new standard for Brandeis Science’s annual celebration of undergraduate research.

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Photos: Heratch Ekmekjian

Since 2011, a poster session featuring the results from ongoing projects belonging to undergraduates doing science research has been the high point of summer in the Division of Science at Brandeis. This year, for the first time, we invited Brandeis alumni scientists to speak in a morning symposium entitled “A Celebration of Brandeis’ Undergraduate Science Education”, including:

Students and faculty in the audience were treated to a history of Brandeis and reflections on many of the Brandeis professors and courses that set them on their career path and whose influence persists to the present in how they approach their science, and on lessons they learned that continue to guide their work.

After lunch in the campus center, the crowd climbed up to the Shapiro Science Center for the poster session. 123 students presented 117 posters on topics from high-energy physics to biomaterials and from quantum chemistry to fruit fly behavior. As President Ron Liebowitz noted in an email to the Science community after the event:

The energy in Shapiro during the poster session was electric.  The students’ confidence and excitement over sharing their research can only give us great optimism about the future: they are “all in” when it comes to doing basic research, but also seeing how such research can be applied in the name of helping others.

Many of the posters can be found in the hallway in Gerstenzang – look for them when classes start again in a few weeks!

SciFest IX by the numbers

  • 117 posters
  • 123 student presenters (out of approx. 210 summer student researchers)
    • 105 Brandeis students
      • 99 presenting research done on campus
      • 6 presenting work done over the summer off-campus
    • 18 visiting students
  • 45 Brandeis faculty advisors from 7 departments
    • Biochemistry (7)
    • Biology (18)
    • Chemistry (8)
    • Computer Science (1)
    • Physics (6)
    • Psychology (5)
    • Sociology (1)

Undergrad summer research funding, 2019

The Division of Science announces the opening of the Division of Science Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship competition for Brandeis students who will be doing undergraduate research in Summer 2019.  These fellowships are funded by generous alumni donations and by grants. Winners will get $5000 stipends for the summer.

Some funding programs have changed since last year; please see the Div Sci website for details of the programs which fund students across all the sciences. We expect to fund about 30 students this summer.

The due date for applications  is February 27, 2019  at 6:00 PM EST.

Students who will be rising Brandeis sophomores, juniors, or seniors in Summer 2019 (classes of ’20, ’21 and ’22), who in addition are working in a lab in the Division of Science at the time of application, are eligible to apply. A commitment from a Brandeis faculty member to serve as your mentor in Summer 2019 is required.

The Division of Science Summer Program will run from June 3 – Aug 9, 2019. Recipients are expected to be available to do full time laboratory research during that period, and must commit to presenting a poster at the final poster session (SciFest IX) on Aug 8, 2019.

Interested students should apply online (Brandeis login required). Questions that are not answered in the online FAQs may be addressed to Steven Karel <divsci at brandeis.edu>.

SciFest VIII wrap-up

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The Brandeis University Division of Science held its annual undergraduate research poster session SciFest VIII on August 2, 2018, as more than one hundred student researchers presented summer’s (or last year’s) worth of independent research. We had a great audience of grad students and postdocs (many of whom were mentors), faculty, proud parents, friends, and senior administrators.

SciFest VIII by numbers

  • 105 posters
  • 105 student presenters out of approx. 175 summer student researchers
    • 84 Brandeis students
    • 2 international students (from India)
    • 19 visiting domestic students
  • 41 Brandeis faculty advisors from 7 departments
    • Biochemistry (7)
    • Biology (17)
    • Chemistry (5)
    • Computer Science (1)
    • Mathematics (1)
    • Physics (7)
    • Psychology (4)
  • 12 different Brandeis undergraduate majors represented

SciFest VIII will be on Thursday, Aug 2

Scifest VIII, our annual Poster Session featuring undergraduate researchers, will be held on Thursday, August 2. The poster session will be 1:00 to 3:00 pm in the Shapiro Science Center atrium.

SciFest features undergrads who have spent their summers working in both on-campus and off-campus labs doing scientific research, usually alongside grad students, postdocs and faculty members. It an opportunity for these dedicated students from across the Division of Science, including summer visitors and Brandeis students, to present their research for peers and the community.

As of today, 107 students have registered to present.

The public is invited to attend and to discuss research with the students. As always, refreshments will be served.

Introduction to Microfluidics Technology Course Offered June 25-28

Microfluidics courseThe Brandeis Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) has announced that the annual Introduction to Microfluidics Technology summer course will take place at Brandeis University from June 25th-29th 2018. This is a week-long course that runs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm each day. Graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and industrial scientists and engineers are invited to apply. Registration closes March 31, 2018.

The hands-on course was developed for scientists and engineers interested in utilizing microfluidic technology in the physical and life sciences. Students enrolled will have the opportunity to learn different microfluidic fabrication techniques and create custom-made microfluidics devices relevant to their research or work.

Course details and application instructions can be found on the MRSEC site.

Waltham Teachers Meet with Brandeis Scientists

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On Tuesday, November 7th, 32 science teachers from Waltham Public Middle and High Schools visited the Brandeis science labs as part of the Third Annual Brandeis Scientists in the Classroom Workshop. The workshop is designed to be an opportunity to connect middle and high school science teachers with Brandeis scientists. The teachers were grouped and matched with 14 Brandeis graduate students, postdocs and faculty who shared their Brandeis science research directly with the teachers to help them understand what we do, so they can better integrate science into their classroom lessons.

This event was an extension of an ongoing partnership between Brandeis and Waltham High School and was sponsored by the Brandeis MRSEC. The Waltham school district has a high percentage of students from backgrounds underrepresented in the sciences. Brandeis offers several on-going programs with Waltham teachers and students in an effort to broaden their participation in STEM.