An undergraduate mentor program for minority students
The goal of the Conjunto Project is to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities in the fields of science and engineering at the undergraduate level and to encourage them to continue their education in graduate programs.
This year we piloted the project by recruiting three Hispanic rising sophomores from Rice University into the NSF IGERT Research Undergraduate Experience program. The students are working in IGERT Faculty laboratories in multi-disciplinary areas. The students are encouraged to take classes in Physics and Mathematics in order to strengthen their knowledge in these foundation courses. Tutoring is available to the interns as needed by IGERT trainees or other graduate students in the nanophotonics research laboratories.
Next year, in addition to Rice, we will recruit students from UT El Paso and UT Pan Am which have high populations of Hispanic students.
Faculty
Naomi Halas
Jason Hafner
Michel Wong
Rebecca Richards-Kortum
