The first week of this year’s Young Scholars Program has concluded; the Michael B. Silevitch and Claire J. Duggan Center for STEM Education is delighted to welcome our 2026 cohort of scholars to campus!
The Young Scholars Program (YSP) is a free program that aims to provide rising high school seniors with the opportunity to enrich their education and explore future careers through meaningful hands-on research and projects hosted by Northeastern University.
Our 32 scholars, from 23 greater Boston towns and selected from 400+ applicants, spent this past week adjusting to a busy schedule, participating in team-oriented activities, and exploring each of their various labs across campus. This included presentations on key topics such as public safety from Northeastern’s Police Department (NUPD). As the YSPs are approaching their final year of high school, we’ve utilized morning homeroom to educate the scholars on such things as the Common App website, as well as introducing their personal essays for college. Professor Eileen McGivney joined us for lunch on Wednesday, where she gave an insightful presentation on “Using Extended Reality in Education.” Professor Pam Mabrouk also joined us to present on Research Learning Contracts, helping scholars understand expectations and goals for their lab experiences. Thank you to all our presenters!
Of course, the scholars met their faculty and graduate student mentors who helped them get accustomed to their labs and research projects. Their research ranges across many different topics of study within the College of Engineering and the College of Science:
- ‘Carbon Synthesis Water Treatment,’ Professor Akram Alshawabkeh [COE CEE]
- ‘Mechanical Behavior of Aortic Tissue,’ Professor Rouzbeh Amini [COE MIE]
- ‘Biomaterials for Drug Delivery,’ Professor Ambika Bajpayee [COE BioE]
- ‘Agriculture Nanoparticles,’ Professor Adam Caparco [COE ChemE]
- ‘Tissue Modeling,’ Professor Calina Copos [COS Bio]
- ‘Neurocognitive Development,’ Professor Juliet Davidow [COS Psychology]
- ‘Spectroscopy of Battery Electrodes,’ Professor Joshua Gallaway [COE ChemE]
- ‘Neuronal Shape,’ Professor Maijia Liao [COS Physics]
- ‘Image Processing Tools,’ Professor Francis Loth [COE MIE]
- ‘Dark Matter Mass Maps,’ Professor Jacqueline McCleary [COS Physics]
- ‘Interference within Circuits,’ Professor Marvin Onabajo [COE ECE]
- ‘Reasoning in Childcare Videos,’ Professor Sarah Ostadabbas [COE ECE]
- ‘Resilient AI / Wireless Networking,’ Professor Francesco Restuccia [COE ECE]
- ‘Renewable Energy Materials AI,’ Professor Peter Schindler [COE MIE]
- ‘Helpful Tabletop Robot,’ Professor Zhi Tan [Khoury CS]
- ‘Molecular Computations for CaCarb,’ Professor Moneesh Upmanyu [COE MIE]
We also made time for a few hands-on Engineering Design Process activities! In the images seen below, the Young Scholars had a lot of fun working in pairs to build paper towers, competing against each other to test the success of their designs. Students began to get closer to each other through lunchtime spike ball sessions, and chatting about progress in their labs. We wrapped up a successful week with a campus-wide scavenger hunt and screen printing designs onto T-Shirts and bags, splitting the students into two groups. We are so excited for the upcoming weeks and cannot wait to see what the YSP students will achieve this summer!
