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1. US-Japan NSF IRES Program for Developing Portable Point-of-Care Testing Devices: Research Outcomes of Year 1

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2-113.1115.1139-49354  

   Janecek, Jonathan; Sunderland, Christian; Wagner, Laurel; Wagner, Rachael; Ryu, Sangjin; Nagai, Moeto; Choi, Yong-Joon; Kwon, Ik-Hyun; Chowdhury, Rifat H; Mibu, Ryoma; et al (September 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Supported by the International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program of National Science Foundation (NSF), this program aims to develop a portable point-of-care testing (POCT) device for detection of pathogens by integrating a filter-free wavelength complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) optical sensor and a microfluidic device in a portable platform. For the first year of the program, a cohort of four students successfully conducted their summer research with mentors at Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT) in Japan. This paper reports on the research outcomes of the first year of the program. 

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2. Development and contribution to students’ intercultural skills: A case study of an international collaborative site.

   Jalali, Y.; Lohani, V.; Müller, R. (January 2019, Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference)

   This work-in-progress research paper presents our experiences with a NSF-sponsored International Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IRES) program hosted by an a large land grant university in the United States. A major component of the program is implemented at an international laboratory in China. The lab has been established in 2010 as a collaborative research platform, for a large land-grant university in the U.S. and a public comprehensive university, to study the biosonar sensing and flight of bats from an engineering perspective. The lab has pioneered work on the diversity and dynamics of the structures (noseleaves and ears) that bats use to emit and receive ultrasonic pulses In addition, the lab has hosted research experiences for international (primarily U.S.) students and collaborative BS/MS and MS/PhD educational programs. In the last two years, two cohorts of IRES scholars completed the 10-week IRES program. In addition to research and technical experiences, the IRES students participated in several field trips and seminars and were exposed to Chinese culture. To better understand the impact of the program, students were invited to complete pre- and post-program surveys and a post-program interview. The surveys included cultural intelligence assessment, Global Competency Activity, and Sojourn Readiness Assessment. In addition, students answered a few open-ended questions about their technical and cultural experiences. In this paper, we first explain the history of the lab and its research and educational contribution to date. Then, we describe the IRES program and program evaluation measures. Finally, we focus on the influence of the program on students’ intercultural skills and present the assessment results. 

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3. Student Learning in International Research Programs: A Comparison Across Cultural Contexts

   Davis, K.; Jalali, Y.; Lohani, V.; Knight, D.; Müller, R. (January 2018, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Engineering work is becoming increasingly global in nature, making it essential that engineering students develop global competence [1], [2]. However, traditional global programs (e.g., study abroad) present challenges for engineering students who often have to fit such experiences within a highly structured curricular schedule. Further, study abroad can be a financial burden for many students who are already paying significant amounts to attend college [3], [4]. One type of global engineering program that has the potential to address these challenges are international research experiences, which typically take place during the summer and provide students with a salary. Research has suggested that such experiences can meaningfully influence students’ global competence [5], but few studies have explored how components of the experience may influence learning. This study compares two NSF-sponsored international research experiences for students (IRES) programs that send students to two different countries to identify differences in learning outcomes between the program participants. This work represents a collaborative effort among faculty members and graduate students from three engineering departments with the goal of creating research opportunities for students at various international sites using research-based educational practices. By understanding how context influences students’ learning opportunities, faculty developing such programs may select research locations more intentionally or offer supplemental programming for students to ensure they achieve all of the program’s intended learning outcomes. 

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4. Work in Progress: Development of a Training Program to Prepare Students for an Immersive Bioinformatics Summer Research Experience

   Chapman, MA (July 2021, 2021 American Society for Engineering Education Virtual Annual Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   The publication of the first human genome in 2001 transformed biomedical research. Since then, an explosion of new sequencing technologies has required engineers and computer scientists to invent computational methods to analyze and interpret the ever-growing data. Now, large-scale biological data encompasses many types of ‘omics’ datasets, including genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes and metabolomes, and each of these new datasets has created a new set of analytical challenges. To meet this need, the field of bioinformatics has expanded significantly, but there is still a large need for engineers and scientists to work in this inherently interdisciplinary field. Properly trained bioinformaticians have expertise in computer science/engineering and understand the biological and medical context underlying their work. Therefore, the development of robust bioinformatics training programs is critical to educate the next generation of bioinformaticians. Although undergraduate degree programs in bioinformatics exist, providing students with hands-on bioinformatics skills through immersive research experiences is necessary to prepare students for graduate work. Thus, this work describes a recently funded NSF – International Research Experience for Students (IRES) site: US-Sweden Clinical Bioinformatics Research Training Program targeted at training students from diverse educational backgrounds to prepare them for authentic bioinformatics research experiences. Given the inherent interdisciplinary nature of bioinformatics, it is extremely difficult to design a training program that prepares students from different backgrounds (computer science, bioengineering, computational biology, biology) to be successful in a bioinformatics research group. Therefore, this ‘Work-in-Progress’ describes the pre-departure training program developed for this IRES site and the initial lessons learned. 

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5. Work-in-Progress: Running an in-person NSF IRES Program in South Korea before and during COVID-19

   Kim, Gloria; Yoon, Yong; Choi, Jin-Woo (July 2022, ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings)

   The goal of the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program is to provide high quality educational experiences for small groups of U.S. students through active research participation in collaboration with foreign researchers at an international site and provide students with international collaborative research training and a personal network on which to build future collaborations. Interdisciplinary Research in Korea on Applied smart systems (IRiKA) is an NSF IRES Track I program that commenced in 2019. Over the lifetime of this 3-year project (2019 - 2021), a cohort of 5 students selected from three participating U.S. institutions are to be supported each year, making the total number of participants 15. In Summer 2019, the first cohort of five students completed their 8-week immersive research internship at Korea’s top-ranked university. COVID-19 affected most, if not all, in-bound and out-bound international programs. IRiKA was no exception. In late February 2020, the program was canceled altogether because no viable alternative could be offered for Summer 2020, as institutions world-wide were grappling with disruptive challenges the pandemic brought on. In Fall 2020, with contingency plans in place and an additional Korean host site aboard, the project team solicited applications. However, in early 2021, before the final selection of the 2021 cohort was complete, two of the U.S. participating institutions announced that international travel would not be permitted for their faculty and students. The project team went on to select a cohort from one U.S. institution only and continued to monitor the travel health notice level for Korea. While some modifications were made to the in-country program to comply with the COVID-19 regulations in Korea, the 8-week research experience was in-person and remained largely uncompromised for the 2021 cohort. In this Work-in-Progress paper, the three US-based lead investigators compare the two versions of the IRiKA program – before and during the pandemic – and share the lessons learned. The no-cost-extension will allow IRiKA to continue until Summer 2022. Selection of the Summer 2022 cohort will be complete by early March of 2022. 

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