Yes it’s true! You, as a freshman, can participate with our outstanding faculty and graduate students in research. EMAC 125 allows you to do so. The Department of Macromolecular Science & Engineering (Polymer Science) has 24 openings (12 each semester) for freshmen interested in joining a faculty research team, contributing to cutting edge research in polymer science. Participating students will conduct research in the areas of polymer chemistry, physics and engineering, working along side graduate students and polymer faculty.
Expectations? You should be prepared to work in the laboratory an average of 5-6 hours per week. Some weeks (during mid-term exams, for example), you will not be able to make this expectation, whereas other weeks you’ll work a bit longer. You will be instructed in lab safety – safe work habits are of paramount importance. Most faculty will expect a short report at the end of the semester. Other expectations – approach this work with an open, inquisitive mind, and have fun!
Impact on your career! All researchers, where ever they are in their careers, are generating results that will hopefully be presented at conferences, and will be published in scholarly papers. Students from the 2003-4 EMAC 125 courses have already had made such a splash, and will become published authors. Others will attend conferences in the future (every year, EMAC undergraduates attend and present at conferences). This is an important opportunity to develop your professional credentials, and to test out whether a career in research is right for you.
What do students say?
“While doing undergraduate research, technically, I got to actually participate in the gathering of data and the analyzation of data according to hypotheses, but on a personal level, I got to experience the sense of accomplishment for completing an experiment that contributed notably to the big picture and the sense of disappointment when an experiment did not produce useable results or did not produce any results at all. What gets me most of all is that I got to dabble my feet in the great ocean that is research as a freshman! I could not believe they trusted the freshman so much so as to allow them to get lab and research experience. What a wonderful opportunity!”
Jessica Chen
Fall 2003
"As a freshman, one of the reasons that I chose Case was because of the many opportunities for research here. So I was interested in starting research as soon as possible. I heard about EMAC 125 from one of my professors, and so I contacted another professor, and he set me up with the research that I'm doing now. Currently, I am studying the rheological properties of a certain gel using both controlled stress and controlled strain rheometers. Even though I am planning on majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and the research that I am doing right now isn't the field that I plan on making a career out of, I am still highly enjoying the research that I am doing now, both as an introduction to research, and as a means of broadening my education by branching into other fields. Thus, I highly recommend getting involved in research as early as possible, and specifically the EMAC 125 course as one possibility to do this."
Steve Hudelson
Fall 2003
"I feel that getting involved with this research opportunity has been a good experience for me. The main goal of the area I'm working in is producing thin eye-glass lenses from polycarbonate films using a gradient of refractive indices. Upon hearing about this my first day, my initial thought was "Wow--that seems too high-tech for my understanding!" Yet being able to work directly with the polymers and the analyzing equipment has enabled me to get a greater sense of what actually goes into such projects as the thin lens. This research opportunity would be a good stepping stone for any student who is even remotely interested in research down the road, or who just wants to see
what polymer research is all about."
Greg Wile
Fall 2003
What do Faculty say?
“I've been most impressed with the quality of research conducted by the undergraduate students working with me. In some cases, it really has been only a relatively short period that it took us (graduate students + me) to train someone up to become quite independent.”
Christoph Weder
Associate Professor
Macromolecular Science and Engineering
“I am very excited about having freshman in the lab doing real research. Science and Engineering are very much experimental disciplines and I think a large part of their appeal and excitement comes from actually doing the experiments yourself. In my opinion the sooner you get a chance to do this the better. Both my freshman are doing really well and are currently producing great publishable results after only half a semester!”
Stuart Rowan
Assistant Professor
Macromolecular Science and Engineering
“Research and lab work are at the very heart of being a scientist or engineer. I started research after my sophomore year in college (I had an after school job as a lab tech while in high school) – the more I got into the lab, the more I loved it. My class work improved as well, as the research helped me understand the “big picture” of what was being covered in my courses. There is no reason why freshmen cannot make significant contributions to research. Case students are incredibly bright and hard working – we provide them with direction, a mentor, a little instruction, and let them invent in EMAC 125. What we find is many of those students then come back and continue their work in one form or another, which we support completely!
David Schiraldi
Associate Professor
Macromolecular Science & Engineering
EMAC 125 instructor and coordinator
Sign-Up Now! We would like to hear from interested incoming freshmen by the middle of August (earlier is fine). At that time, we will assemble two groups, one for fall semester and one for the spring. Students will be contacted in August about placement into EMAC 125, and arrangements will be made for an orientation session and safety training during the first week of the semester. Week two – your start your research!
For more information or to sign-up now contact:
Dr. David Schiraldi
Department of Macromolecular Sciences & Engineering
david.schiraldi@case.edu
(216) 368-4243
Source: Case Western Reserve University
