Undergraduate Research Perspectives

1
Undergraduate Research Perspectives

• AAC U Workshop
• Janette Ruiz
• Lam Research Corporation
• April 19, 2007

2
Introduction

• I am currently employed at Lam Research
  Corporation in Fremont, California
• Lam Research is a top tier supplier of wafer
  fabrication equipment and services to the largest
  chip manufacturers in the world.
• Main product is etch tools Surface chemistry
  reactors and transport of wafers that results in
  chemical transformation of a Si surface used to
  produce microchips

3
Introduction

• Slices of solid silicon cylinder are made into
  wafers
• Circuits are patterned in reactors (gas reaction
  and liquid chemistry reactions)
• Wafers diced into chips used in everyday personal
  electronic devices.
• When computers, phones, etc get smaller and more
  powerful, it is because our company and others
  like ours have figured out how to make smaller
  circuits (chemically at the nano level) for the
  chip fabrication companies.

4
Importance of undergraduate research at companies
like Lam Research

• Active internship program
• Employ talented undergraduate students.
• Interns have become valuable employees at Lam and
  other companies in the semiconductor industry
• High-school students workshop
• one-month workshop for students at the high
  school level to learn and experiment with the
  semiconductor industry.
• Internships have been incorporated into
  experimental results for Masters level theses.

5
My Personal Pathto Higher Education
Level
Institution / Program
Research
High-School Community College Undergraduate Gra
duate
LLNL / Administrative Outreach Diablo Valley
College / SJSU / NSF REU UCLA / H. Hughes
(MARC) UC Berkeley / Lucent (Bell Labs) NSF
Applied Superconductivity Physics Physical
Chemistry Physical Chemistry
6
Overall Factors Involved in Undergraduate Level
Success

• Personal intervention from key people at all
  levels of students academic path.
• Professors
• Parents
• Administrators / Counselors / Tutors
• Private Industry
• Receptiveness of student
• Existence of established research programs

7
Factors helpful on a more individual basis

• Make the first move
• Solicit student researchers from those that you
  think have potential.
• Overcome the large classroom power differential
  between student and professor.
• Encourage students growth
• Show confidence in students abilities in
  research, despite students lack of experience.
• Expect the best from your students
• Be realistic about their schedules / commitments
• Celebrate small large victories
• a slide, a poster, an award, a paper, etc
• Completion of a thesis project is not necessary
  at this level

8
What is Addictive about Research?

• Growth! Growth! Growth!
• Piecing a picture together in an independent
  fashion
• Learning new field-specific terms / concepts
• Getting creative about what might be happening
  with the problem youve come to know
• Finding out if youre right about your theories!
• Receiving recognition for one-of-a-kind ideas
  (publication)
• Contributing to body of knowledge that is
  interesting and potentially applicable in
  exciting ways.

9
Importance of undergraduate research in graduate
school admissions

• Will refer to personal experience at UC Berkeley
  Chemistry Department
• Ranked 1st in nation
• Competitive student admissions
• The following are ranked in order of importance
• Letters of recommendation
• Research Advisor
• Classroom Professor
• Better than 3.0 grade-point average
• GRE Chemistry GRE

10
Other benefits of research experience

• In addition to learning how to think creatively
  about problem solving, research experience
  affords the following skill
• Learning how to recognize the difference between
  working on something that excites you and not.
• This skill can help people end up in
• work they love
• whether in academia or industry

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The Minority Angle

• The joy of discovery, creative thinking, and
  doing interesting work is not a matter of age,
  sex, or ethnicity.
• Nevertheless, access to this pathway can be
  precluded by many of lifes factors both
  socioeconomic and individual.
• These personal and external obstacles towards
  obtaining higher education are also not
  restricted to minorities and women, but we must
  acknowledge that their frequency is increased in
  these groups.

12
The Minority Angle

• Helping to foster the joy of research in women
  and minorities requires being conscious of
  external obstacles that can make the student
  emotionally / physically unavailable to
  participate on the path to growth through
  research.
• For example, it is helpful to share personal
  experiences or other references related to
• Accessibility to financial support for studies
• Grants, fellowships, actual cost of schooling
• Cultural / familial conservation and advancement
  in the academic / industrial path

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Conclusions

• Undergraduate research is key to either beginning
  or making the link to
• Further graduate education
• Undergraduate academic advancement
• Life training for choosing work in industry
• Obstacles towards inspiring and nurturing
  undergraduate research can be helped by a
  combination of personal and institutional
  approaches.