BIN-RDI Educational Programs

BIN-RDI is shaping a teaching environment for bio-info-nano best practices and techniques that will generate a next-generation workforce for NASA, Silicon Valley, and the nation. This proving ground for new educational approaches and curricula will include inter-segmental models, lab practicum, and internships.

BIN-RDI Summer Internship Program: Undergraduates work closely with the BIN-RDI and NASA researchers in focused three-month programs. At the end of the summer, the students present the results of their work to a wider audience. The aim is to get students interested careers in research.

California/Denmark Summer School in Renewable Energy: The BIN-RDI jointly sponsors this one month summer school. It is a bi-national program which admits about a dozen students from California and a dozen students from Denmark. The program consists of a series of lectures by Danish and California professors, field trips to renewable energy enterprises, talks by venture capitalists on starting companies, and team based conceptual design projects aimed at tackling critical problems in renewable energy implementation. The students come from technical areas as well as the social sciences, economics and political science. The rationale for the mix is that for technical solutions to work, they need eventually to be implemented by society. The program is held in alternate years in California and Denmark.

Outreach to the Schools: In cooperation with the Collaborative of Higher education (a consortium of UCSC, San Jose State and Foothill-DeAnza Community College), the BIN-RDI supports the development of “nanokits” to be used in the middle schools. It provides modest stipends to community college students to work with teachers/mentors in the schools to take these kits (that teach concepts about the nanoscale) into the schools as part of a curriculum plan. The goal is to get these students interested in a career in STEM teaching.

Graduate Education: the BIN-RDI members also teach short courses in nanotechnology at the UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley as well as graduate courses in Nanotechnology, Nanocharacterization and Reliability Engineering taught at the UCSC Silicon Valley Center at NASA-Ames. The goal is to enable a smooth transition from the community college to the university and enable working professionals to upgrade their science and technology skills to maintain a competitive edge.