Category Archives: Seminars

Seminars and presentations pertaining to the Chemistry Department

Less Class Time, More Learning

Posted on by | 1 Reply

Instructors Margie Haak and Michael Burand will give a lecture on Less Class Time, More Learning at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, August 3-7 at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

A hybrid-format general chemistry course for science-majors was implemented in the winter term of 2014. Two sections of approximately 160 students each were included. This course was a “trailer” course insomuch as students began the sequence in the second 10-week term of the academic year. Students in trailer courses have historically been more at risk for poor academic performance.

The format of the course included short, topical videos which were custom-made for this course and were made available to students online. Students were assigned to groups of approximately four for the duration of the term and biweekly class meetings consisted almost exclusively of students working on solving problems within their groups. Generally two faculty members and four teaching assistants were present to assist student groups. Typically some time was reserved at the end of the class periods for student groups (selected at random) to come before the class and present their solution to a problem.

Preliminary data show that students in this hybrid course performed significantly better on exams than historical averages for the traditional lecture format. This result is especially noteworthy given that the students in the hybrid course have only 60% of the class time compared to students in the traditional version of the course. A survey of students’ views regarding this hybrid course format was also conducted and will be discussed.

James White Honorary Symposium Hugely Successful

Posted on by | Leave a reply
Prof. Paul Blakemore presenting plaque to Dr. Dale Boger
Prof. Paul Blakemore presenting plaque to Dr. Dale Boger

This year’s James D White Lecturer was Professor Dale Boger from the Scripps Research Institute.  He is a world-renown synthetic organic and medicinal chemist who has successfully taken multiple compounds into advanced clinical trials.  His talk was on the important anticancer compound vinblastine. Professor Boger’s lab has developed an amazing (and short) synthetic approach to make this compound.  Equally impressive, they have discovered an analogue that is active in vinblastine resistant cell lines. The afternoon before the seminar, we had a wonderful gathering at Jim’s house where all the students got to interact with Dale in a casual setting over some great food.  Dale is a wonderful, engaging individual and was a great choice for this event!

Dr. Dale Boger presenting his seminar at the White Honorary Symposium
Dr. Dale Boger presenting his seminar at the White Honorary Symposium

Letter Writing: A Pathway to Better Laboratory Comprehension

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Instructor Michael Burand will give a presentation titled, “Letter Writing: A Pathway to Better Laboratory Comprehension” at the 2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, August 3-7 at Grand Valley State University.

~~~~~~~~~~

General chemistry students in honors and majors-only laboratory courses are required to write a letter in lieu of a traditional laboratory report for one of their laboratory projects. The students use the letter to explain their results to a recipient whom they are told does not necessarily have background in science. This requirement to explain their laboratory results in nonscientific terms causes the students to think more thoroughly about the underlying concepts involved. Indeed, survey results indicate that 94% of the laboratory students polled felt they had gained a deeper understanding when they wrote the letter as opposed to a traditional laboratory report. The details of the assignment will be discussed along with students’ survey responses.

The laboratory activity chosen for this letter-writing project involved testing for lead contamination in urban soils via atomic absorption spectroscopy. This provided a viable means of incorporating a service-learning aspect into the project. Students indicated that they put forth a more substantial effort in writing the letter knowing it would be sent to an actual recipient, not only the student’s TA and/or laboratory instructor. Thus, this project combines the nontraditional laboratory pedagogical approach of letter writing with a service-learning component. How this leads to students attaining a deeper understanding and facilitates better student engagement and ownership will be discussed.

CSMC Webinar “Postgraduate Career Strategies: Start-up”

Posted on by | Leave a reply
CSMC Webinar “Postgraduate Career Strategies: Start-up”
Join us for a Webinar on May 1
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/432548911
Today’s graduate students have a valuable set of both technical and creative skills suited for many technological industries. There are many avenues in this area for graduate students to consider and pursue when entering the work force and start-up companies can be the ideal setting. However, marketing one’s self to companies, developing networking skills, and choosing the right company with which to pursue a career pose challenges.

What are the pros/and cons of working in a startup?  What are the right strategies to find, network, and land a job at a company?

The Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry (CSMC) will host a webinar titled: “Postgraduate Career Strategies: Start-up” as part of the ongoing series of Innovation Webinars. Panelists from start-up companies will discuss the current landscape of a start-up and the transition from working in an academic lab setting to working in a start-up company. Panelists will be available to answer questions regarding current expectations for recent graduates, points to consider when searching for jobs as well as alternative non-research opportunities within a start-up company.

Join our panelists, Dr. Bastiaan Driehuys (Duke University), Dr. Sean Muir (Amorphyx) and Dr. Calden Carroll (SupraSensor) as they discuss this important topic in a round table discussion.

 

Title: CSMC Webinar “Postgraduate Career Strategies: Start-up”
Date: Thursday, May 1, 2014
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM PDT

 

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

 

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 8, 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server
Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.6 or newer
Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

Materials Science Seminar

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Marie Krysak, Intel Corporation – Monday, April 21, 2014, 3:00pm, 212 Kearney

Investigation of metal-oxide based nanoparticle resists for EUV lithography

Abstract:
The semiconductor industry has been driven by Moore’s law, which states that the number of transistors on integrated circuits will double approximately every two years. A key factor in the continued scaling of transistors is the use of lithography to pattern various device features. The industry has consistently developed new lithographic exposure tools, using shorter wavelengths to achieve higher resolution patterns. One promising candidate for next-generation lithography and the extension of Moore’s Law is extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL). Resist materials innovation is required to enable the use of EUVL in production. This talk will focus on our efforts to assess metal oxide-based nanoparticles as novel EUV resists, and their potential advantages over organic-based chemically amplified resists. Spectroscopic techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Fourier-transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to probe the patterning mechanism of these materials. Resist formulations have been evaluated using EUV exposures. These results and the mechanistic insights they provide will be discussed.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Krysak is currently a process engineer in the Components Research department at Intel Corporation. She is in the novel materials group, focusing on research areas essential to pushing the limits of innovation for the semiconductor industry. She received her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 2007 from Rochester institute of Technology, and her masters and PhD in Chemistry in 2012 from Cornell University.

Mike Lerner attends 31st International Battery Seminar

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Guest Blogger: Mike Lerner

Dr. Lerner's booth before the other staffers arrived. (photo courtesy of Mike Lerner)
Dr. Lerner’s booth before the other staffers arrived. (photo courtesy of Mike Lerner)

I attended the 31st International Battery Seminars in March. One the one hand, I presented a short review of current academic research on graphene in energy storage applications. My conclusions were that “gen-2” graphenes, with tailored functional edges and basal surfaces, present a possible route towards dense, electrically and thermally conductive composite hierarchical structures for battery or supercapacitor electrodes. And also that this is no secret, there is a lot of research activity ongoing all over the globe.

On the other hand, I manned an OSU exhibitor booth extolling the virtues of our soon-to-be-offered online course called “Chemistry and Materials of Batteries and Supercapacitors”.  There was an encouraging level of interest from large and small companies, governmental agencies, and other academics. I hope we’ll get a mix of students from these sources; among other advantages it will make for interesting class discussions.

Finally, the conference itself was fantastic. One could feel, almost palpably, the pull from industry for better batteries to meet the demands of the electric vehicle and smart grid markets. At the same time, we heard from many contributors that the existing technology and its logical extensions will not likely get us there — that major and fundamental advances in materials and chemistry are needed. What does this all mean? For one thing, it’s a very good time to be a battery chemist!