WISE REWU Program Seeks Faculty Mentors

The University of Cincinnati’s

WISE REWU Program

is searching for more UC faculty members who wish to encourage women undergraduates to take an initiative in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, math and medicine) research this summer.

Urmila Ghia, chair of the WISE Program, explains, “Participation in research projects is a significant factor in increasing student retention and in encouraging talented students to excel. It enhances the students’ overall educational experience and initiates a network with a faculty member and the associated lab personnel. These talented and dedicated young women are the bright future of STEMM fields. This summer will mark 19 years of WISE promoting research amongst women undergraduates.”

The WISE REWU Program is sponsored, in part, by the Offices of the

Provost

and the

Vice President for Research

, and the support and cooperation of several departments in the Colleges of

Arts & Sciences

,

Engineering and Applied Science

,

Allied Health

,

Pharmacy

,

Nursing

and

Medicine,

by way of their faculty’s participation and committing matching funds.

The 12-week program seeks to expose women undergraduates to diverse areas of research early in their education, and to encourage the pursuit of advanced studies in these fields.

Beginning May 8, each student gets the rare opportunity to work closely with an experienced faculty mentor/researcher on ongoing research projects. Additionally, the student will be involved in interpreting the results of the research, deriving conclusions, and preparing and presenting a technical paper. A stipend of $4,500 is provided to each student to carry out her research. The young researchers will share their research findings in a special presentation session (open event), in Room 427 ERC (Engineering Research Center), on Thursday, July 27.

In addition to the benefit of conducting research as an undergraduate, students may also opt to have the program constitute one of their normal co-op experience semesters. Students will need to commit one additional week (for a total of 13 weeks) to the project in order to meet the semester-long co-op requirement.

UC undergraduate women students are eligible to apply if they will have completed the freshman year by the end of the Spring 2017 semester and if they have a GPA of 2.5 or above in engineering, science and math classes. Previous research experience is not required. However, interest in research is expected. A limited number of slots are also available for non-UC undergraduate, STEMM-major female students. These applicants must state their plans for connecting with UC either during their undergraduate program, or subsequently for graduate/professional studies at UC.

Faculty mentors need to submit project proposals at https://www.wise.uc.edu/projects/. The deadline for proposal submission has been extended to

Feb. 16, 2017

.

For Faculty FAQs regarding the program, please visit:

https://www.wise.uc.edu/facultyfaq.php

For further questions, please contact:

Dr. Urmila Ghia

, Chair, REWU 2017 Program

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

683 Rhodes Hall;

University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, OH 45221-0072

Phone: 513.556.4612