2022 Young Scholars Program: Week 1

Last week marked the first week of the 2022 Young Scholars Program in person! After being virtual for the past two years, we are excited to finally have high school students engaging in research on campus. Students are working with their mentors to define their research goals, learn new software, understand research procedures, and more. 28 students were selected out of many bright applicants from across the Boston area.

This year, there are 14 participating professors: Rouzbeh Amini (MIE/BioE), Mahshid Amirabadi (ECE), Ambika Bajpayee (BioE), Christian Cassella (ECE), Sijia Dong (Chemistry), Eno Ebong (ChemE/BioE), Sara Hashmi (ChemE), Josep Jornet (ECE), Ryan Koppes (ChemE), Lara Milane/Mansoor Amiji (Pharmacy), Muhammad Noor E Alam (MIE), Hari Parameswaran (BioE), Robert Platt (CS), and Aatmesh Shrivastava (ECE). For more information about the students, projects, and participating labs, take a look here.

In addition to their lab work, the students are participating in a variety of activities to supplement their STEM learning experience. This includes, but is not limited to: engaging in interactive research seminars with Northeastern faculty and students, learning about the college application process, going on field trips, and talking to alumni about their career pathways.

On the first day, the YSP scholars were introduced to the program and the Northeastern campus through a series of morning presentations. These included introductions led by the Center for STEM staff, a public safety presentation led by Anika Crutchfield, a lab safety presentation led by Christopher Bingel, and an interactive “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” seminar led by Luis Frias. Afterward, the students spent some time building paper towers before eating lunch with their lab professors and mentors.

Students try to build the tallest towers in the “Paper Towers” activity

Students share their backgrounds in Luis Frias’ “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” presentation

In the mornings, students will attend hour-long homeroom sessions to learn about various topics on engineering, research, college/professional preparation, poster presentations, and more. Homerooms in Week 1 included Pam Mabrouk‘s presentation on “Research Contracts”, and the Center for STEM workshops on “College Essays/Common-App” and “Financial Aid”.

Every Wednesday for lunch, students will attend a seminar hosted by a Northeastern professor who will present their research. This week’s lunch seminar was hosted by Carol Livermore (Origami-Based Human Liver Models) and was joined by REU-POWER and REU-PATHWAYS students. Students were very interested in the process behind how Dr. Livermore developed her liver models and her unique path to engineering.

YSP and REU students listening to Carol Livermore’s presentation on “Origami-Based Human Liver Models”.

To wind down the week, on Thursday afternoon, students were involved in on-campus activities to get themselves acclimated to campus life and engage with each other through STEM-based hands-on learning. They participated in a fun and competitive “Catapults” activity and went on an extensive campus-wide scavenger hunt to further explore Northeastern.

Students use the Engineering Design Process to create accurate and powerful catapults

Exploring Northeastern on the “Campus Scavenger Hunt”

In the future, we are looking forward to engaging with more Northeastern faculty, students, and alumni from a wide range of STEM fields discussing their research and industry experience as well as field trips to Amgen and the Marine Science Center.

This year’s program is co-coordinated by two Northeastern undergraduate students: Katherine Aristizabal (Computer Science ‘26), an UPLIFT 2021 scholar, and Franklin Ollivierre III (Civil Engineering ‘25), a YSP 2020 alumni and UPLIFT 2021 scholar, with additional support from our Center for STEM staff and work studies. At the end of the six-week program, the participants will be showing their final posters and presentations on Thursday, August 4th to faculty and their family and friends.

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