West Virginia UniversityWVU HomeA-Z Site IndexCampus MapDirectoryContact Us
WVNANO

» Prtintable Version

Overview       

            Education, Human Resource Development, & Outreach (EHRDO) is an integral component of WVNano.  WVNano envisions a comprehensive effort to not only to enhance formal education but also informal education to foster public awareness, engagement, and understanding of nanoscale science, engineering, and technology.   A challenge associated with the promise of nanoscale science and engineering is the needed training the workforce must have to support its advancement and implementation.  The inherent interdisciplinary nature of this training is not well addressed by traditional academic, discipline-based programs.   WVNano strives to provide opportunities for integrating students’ educational experience across diverse areas including microfabrication, electromagnetics, nanotechnology, pharmacology, microfluidics, biometrics, physics, and chemistry.  WVNano initiates, partners with, builds upon, and extends other NSF-funded EHRDO projects and University-supported initiatives. 

            Threaded throughout WVNano activities is a heightened awareness of the need to diversify our workforce by providing increased access to individuals underrepresented in STEM and, in particular, the emerging field of molecular biometrics.  The EHRDO goals are: (1) to help STEM students make the transition from studying science as isolated fields to developing knowledge and skills that enable them to thrive in an interdisciplinary research environment, (2) to better integrate research and education, (3) to transform academic culture in order to increase retention and graduation rates of STEM students, and (4) to reach out to recruit promising students, including underrepresented (UREP) minorities, women, persons with disabilities, the economically disadvantaged, and first generation college students.

            Based on the premise that it is more effective to work to retain and enhance existing human resources than to recruit replacements, WVNano will focus its primary EHRDO efforts on undergraduate and graduate students and early-career faculty who are making the transition from individual research investigators to interdisciplinary educators and research cluster leaders.  WVNano uses principles, best practices, and components used by these nationally recognized programs including:

  • NSF funded University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s (UMBC) Meyerhoff Scholars Program for undergraduate and graduate students from UREP groups;
  • Kent State University’s Undergraduate Mentoring Program;
  • CGS and AACU Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program; and,
  • National Post-doc Association’s Policies and Practices