CEE Faculty Participate in Engineering Program for Teachers

Article by Diane Kukich; photos by Doug Baker

Three CEE professors are hosting high school math and science teachers in a unique summer immersion program called “Nature InSpired Engineering” (NISE).  Pei Chiu, C.P. Huang, and Paul Imhoff are among the seven College of Engineering faculty participating in this summer’s program.

George Hildabran works in Paul Imhoff's lab on the development of biologically active soils to reduce methane emissions from landfills.

Led by Ken Barner, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NISE is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program.  RET grants support the active involvement of K-12 teachers and community college faculty in engineering research.

According to Kathy Werrell, Assistant Dean and Director of Engineering Outreach, the program is aimed at fostering technological innovation in the classroom, facilitating the establishment of long-term collaborative partnerships, and providing teachers with an intellectually invigorating experience. 

Adria Hughes is assisting Prof. C.P. Huang with assessment of the effect of manufactured carbon nanoparticles in the aquatic environment.

The fourteen teachers participating in the first year of the NISE program range from students who are just completing degrees in math and science education to individuals with more than two decades in the classroom.

Year 1 projects are addressing materials for natural energy capture, natural fiber composites, environmental engineering, and nature-inspired drug delivery, while projects in the second year will focus on bio-imaging, sensors for disease management, biomimetic flying robots, and biomedical tissue engineering.  The third-year program will focus on the four areas that were deemed the most successful in the first two years.

Chiu is working with Matthew Messick from Sun Valley High School in Pennsylvania on the development of a novel and cost‐effective approach to removal and inactivation of viruses in drinking water; Huang is advising Adria Hughes, also from Sun Valley, in assessing the effect of manufactured carbon nanoparticles in the aquatic environment; and Imhoff is guiding George Hildebran from Rising Sun High School in Maryland on the development of biologically active soils to reduce methane emissions from landfills.

Matt Messick is working with Pei Chiu on the development of a novel approach to removal and inactivation of viruses in drinking water.

Online tools, including a wiki platform and video conferencing, will enable the interactions among the faculty and teachers to be continued during the school year and will also facilitate international collaborations.  “We want the benefits and the relationships to go far beyond the six-week summer program,” Barner says.

“This is a wonderful program,” says Michael Chajes, Dean of Engineering, “and it meshes perfectly with the milestones identified as part of UD’s recent strategic planning initiative—in particular, the goal to ‘strengthen public education in Delaware and beyond’ as part of The Engaged University milestone.”

“In addition,” he continues, “individual projects within the NISE program are addressing issues associated with other strategic milestones—for example, our energy, materials, and environmental engineering projects are all congruent with The Initiative for the Planet.  And we’re very pleased to have faculty participants from all five of our engineering departments as well as teachers from three states.”