Our REU Site focuses on the most fundamental and foundational elements of creativity: creative thinking and creative expression. This REU Site is designed to address the urgent need for innovation in materials research in the U.S. by interweaving a proven creativity training program into the framework of the traditional research and professional development activities.

This REU Site fills a critical gap in workforce development in materials design and manufacture, and address a national need for researchers who can solve complex, interconnected problems by training researchers to think creatively from an early stage. This is particularly critical for advanced functional materials, which are often micro- or nanostructured, and built through either self-assembly or complex fabrication processes, due to their unique and complex structure-function relationships, and their potential use in applications critical to human health and security.

The projects of this REU Site focus on understanding and predicting these relationships for micro- and nano-structured materials across a wide spectrum of applications, including sensors, batteries, reactors, and implantable devices. Students in this program learn cutting-edge materials research approaches that include atomistic simulation, coarse-grain modeling, and a suite of materials design / fabrication / characterization techniques. This research will not only advance the science in each unique area, but will provide students with unique, measurable skills in computational modeling, materials science design, processing, characterization, and creative thinking.