Fund Raising Initiatives in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

As one of the preeminent Materials Science and Engineering departments in the country, we strive to provide a state of the art education and learning experience for our undergraduate and graduate students.  Unfortunately, State appropriated funds are insufficient to meet the needs for scholarships, equipment for undergraduate labs, the creation of new globalization opportunities, and our new materials design course.  We are infinitely grateful to the many wonderful alumni and friends of the department who have made gifts and created endowments to support the mission of the Department.

Current priorities include:

Undergraduate Materials Processing Lab: To modernize the undergraduate experience the department has allocated 2100 square feet of space to create a state of the art advanced Materials  Processing Laboratory.  The new facility will be located in a highly visible area on the ground floor of Steidle Building.  This cutting edge facility will provide a learning environment that will allow our students the opportunity to work with material processing in the areas of thin films, micro deposition, bulk forming, plastic deformation, powder synthesis, and thermal processing. This lab will introduce a taste of the industrial world including the newer processing techniques such as: spin coating, inkjet deposition, rapid prototyping, spray drying, and electrophoretic deposition. The student experience will span multiple disciplines, allowing our students to work strategically with our materials faculty.  This lab will be utilized to facilitate classroom experiences and give students a unique educational experience in materials processing.  The department has currently invested $250,000 toward this effort and expects it will take an additional $300,000 to equip the lab.

Undergraduate Scholarships and Awards: This past year, we gave a total of $167,000 in undergraduate scholarships from the department plus we received matching support from EMS of $104,150. We are outstripping the available scholarships we have.  Therefore, I’d like to encourage you to consider establishing a named Trustee’s Scholarship. The Trustees will match your contributions one to one for these scholarships.

Graduate Fellowships: Robert E. Newnham Distinguished Fellowship in Materials Science and Engineering serves to honor Dr. Robert E. Newnham dedicated services to Penn State and the materials community.  Dr. Robert E. Newnham is among the most widely recognized and honored faculty members at Penn State.  His career extends over 50 years.   In 2004, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering and is a member of the National Academy of Engineers.  In addition he was a stellar instructor throughout his career.  He has been a terrific ambassador for Penn State the world over.  He embodies the best of Penn State and is a role model for many. To honor Bob Newnham who has played an outstanding role as an educator and influenced so many, the creation of this fellowship will recruit and recognize outstanding doctoral students who exhibit academic excellence in the field of materials.

Materials Camps : We offer a summer camp to 10 – 12 grade students to open up the world of materials. Your contribution will assist in housing and materials needed for this project. Please watch here for details on the 2008 Materials Summer camp when they become available.

International Internship Program (IIM): The goal of the IIM is to enrich the learning experience of undergraduates by immersing them in an international research activity. Likewise, by providing reciprocal opportunities for undergraduates from host institutions at Penn State, our students benefit from international students’ perspectives and cultures. The students selected for the program will be offered research internships based on collaborations of MatSE faculty with faculty at host institutions like Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany; Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany; University of Leeds, England; National School of Industrial Ceramics, Limoges France; University of Padua, Italy; The University of Sheffield, England; and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich Switzerland; University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain. We are planning to expand the IIM program with a few Chinese, Korean and Japanese Universities.