December 16, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

The third year of the Digital Heritage of West African Monuments Field School — the Ghana field school studying historical forts along that country’s coastline — was particularly eventful this past summer. The Ghana Museum and Monuments Board requested a last-minute engineering analysis of Fort Amsterdam. Read more here about this remarkable, multidisciplinary school and how its student participants — led by faculty members Renato Perucchio and Chris Muir of mechanical engineering, Mike Jarvis of history, and Christopher DeCorse of Syracuse University — met the challenge.

Congratulations to:

Mechanical engineering graduate Suman Kumar ’19, from Lalitpur, Nepal, and chemical engineering major Junior Beauclaire Mbanya ’20, from Douala, Cameroon. They are among the 145 Schwarzman Scholars selected this year from a global applicant pool. Both will begin a multidisciplinary one-year master’s degree next August at Schwarzman College, located at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, as part of the program.
Chemical engineering alumnus Shawn D. Rochester ’97, who has been selected as one of the International Human Rights Commission Relief Fund Trust’s (IHRC-RFT’s) top 100 Human Rights Defenders, who will be listed in the IHRC-RFT’s 2019 Almanac. Shawn, the CEO of Good Steward LLC, was recognized for his efforts to educate people on the financial costs of discrimination and for his efforts to stimulate jobs and economic growth within the Black community. You may recall that Shawn gave a fantastic talk last April on “The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America” as part of the AS&E Discussions on Topical Challenges lecture series.

Last week we mentioned Shagun Bose ’20 of computer science and psychology and her augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) project called “awARe.” The project, featured in a Campus Times article, involves distributing digital art installations across campus, so people can hear an audio clip describing someone’s experience of discrimination and bias at that location. Shagun points out that she has been working on the project with Emma Strauch ’20, also a computer science and psychology major, whose contributions should be recognized as well — which we are more than happy to do. Congratulations to both Shagun and Emma!

Continuing our look at recent grants received by our faculty for cutting-edge research:

Jaime Cardenas, assistant professor of optics, is chasing a “unicorn” – something that is “super hard to find and maybe doesn’t even exist,” he says. In this case, he’s searching for a material that would both increase the efficiency of silicon photonic devices and be compatible with the existing CMOS technology that dominates the electronic device industry. Thanks to an in-person, one-on-one talk with an NSF program manager, Jaime now at least has funding – a $150,000 NSF EAGER award — to pursue this risky line of research.

The fundamental problem is that the best materials for controlling light in a photonic device – such as lithium niobate – are not compatible for CMOS fabrication. Existing silicon photonic devices, which can be made compatible for CMOS, unfortunately absorb much of the light, making them relatively inefficient.

Jaime is hoping his lab can use electrical poling to engineer silicon nitride as a more efficient electro optical material that would reduce the loss of light that occurs in current silicon photonic devices — and be CMOS compatible.

“It’s a long shot, but if we are successful, we hope this would become the way to do photonics on a chip. It would have the same advantages of lithium niobate and the advantages of being CMOS compatible,” Jaime says. “We are very cautiously optimistic.”

Kudos to Jaime for adopting an important “best practice” in his grantsmanship. He first became acquainted with his program manager by serving on a review board. When he attended a CAREER award workshop in D.C. he had an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the program manager for 15 minutes. Jaime described several of his promising, but risky projects that probably wouldn’t survive a traditional NSF review board. However, the program manager suggested submitting the silicon nitride project for 18-month EAGER funding – specifically designed for risky projects — which can be approved by a program manager without going through a traditional review process.

Cultivating program officers can be time consuming. But it has paid off again and again – especially in LLE’s recent successes in obtaining funding for its high energy density physics program. And as Jaime notes, “one of the nice things about Rochester is you can fly out at 5 a.m., have your meeting (in D.C.) and if it’s only one meeting be back by 5 p.m. Or you can spend more time meeting with people and still get back at midnight.”

All Hajim School researchers, please take note: New guidelines for international research engagement are now available. The guidelines include sources of assistance to facilitate these interactions and help faculty avoid running afoul of University policies or federal regulations. The University’s Committee on Science and Security developed the guidelines in response to mounting bipartisan concerns at the federal level about the security of the nation’s research and intellectual property, particularly at research universities like Rochester. Members of our research community are encouraged to continue to reach out and engage with international colleagues, but in doing so, to be sure to use the resources outlined in the new guidelines to identify and avoid potential pitfalls.

Applications for 2020 University Research Awards are due February 3, 2020. The Request for Proposal and application are now available here. Questions and completed applications should be directed to adele.coelho@rochester.edu.

Here’s a fellowship of special interest to computer and data science students. The US Department of State is seeking to attract top tech talent that reflects the diversity of the United States, including women, members of minority groups underrepresented in the Foreign Service, and students with financial need. The Foreign Affairs Information Technology Fellowship offers:

funding for junior and senior years of undergraduate study or a two-year master’s degree program in an IT-related field.
stipends, housing, and travel allowances for two summer internships (one in Washington, DC; one abroad).
employment in the Foreign Service upon successfully completing the program.

This fellowship is open to US citizens enrolled in programs related to IT (or planning graduate study related to IT); a 3.2 minimum GPA is required. The UR Fellowships Office is ready to offer advice and support your application. To schedule an appointment, call 585-276-5869. Application deadline: February 14, 2020.

Have a great week, and I hope you all enjoy a wonderful, safe holiday season! Hajim Highights will resume on January 6.

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman