April 15, 2005
Lilly Endowment funds undergraduate research at Discovery Park
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – About 50 Purdue undergraduates will get the chance to work with faculty on research projects that combine two or more academic disciplines when the university's Discovery Park Undergraduate Research Internship Program is launched in the fall semester.
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The program is funded by a $2 million endowment grant from the Lilly Endowment, which is part of a $25 million Lilly grant to start four new interdisciplinary research centers and to provide operational support for six existing centers at Discovery Park.
Two information sessions are planned on campus to give students details on how to apply for the internships. The sessions, both in Stewart Center, Room 218, will take place from 4-5 p.m. on Monday (April 18) and on April 27.
Purdue Provost Sally Mason said the new program will increase the university's ability to retain and attract students by offering a richer undergraduate experience.
"That the Lilly Endowment supports our priority for providing undergraduates with quality research experiences reinforces the university's commitment to ensure that Purdue students receive a well-rounded education," Mason said. "Discovery Park is the ideal environment to give our students a powerful laboratory experience while bringing together faculty from all over campus. "
The internship program is being administered by the Discovery Learning Center, which has been operational since March 2003 and already has funded projects and facilitated partnerships on campus. More than 300 faculty, representing 12 schools or colleges and 45 academic departments at Purdue, plus faculty from other universities as well as representatives from business and industry, teachers and professional organizations, are involved in collaborations and research in conjunction with the center.
Faculty members have submitted proposals to Discovery Park to provide these interdisciplinary research experiences for students. The projects are available on the Web. Students have until Aug. 22 to submit applications.
The internship program is open to sophomores, juniors and seniors with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Students may apply for up to three positions and participate in one or two semesters per year.
"While individual departments have had internship programs through National Science Foundation grants for undergraduates in the past, this is the first time Purdue has been able to offer a centrally structured experience that touches multiple areas of study," said Charles O. Rutledge, executive director of Discovery Park and interim vice provost for research. "These projects will give students a taste of different disciplines and help them decide if research is a possibility for a career choice."
During the first week of the semester, the student interns will receive safety and instrument training where appropriate before they start work in labs, Rutledge said.
"There's a cookbook to many of these procedures, and students have to learn how to read the recipes," Rutledge said. "What makes these internships different from simple lab experience is that the outcome is unknown. Students learn to add some variation to the basics, and that's what we hope will stimulate their creativity."
Rutledge said an example of a project that a student could work on could combine the fields of biology and engineering in experiments that look at how to identify cancerous blood cells. The student would spend time in a biology lab and learn how to isolate biological materials from cells and then move on to an engineering lab to put the cells on a chip in order to read traits that associate the cells with cancer.
Another example is a project that involves a joint effort in the fields of biological science and visual and performing arts. The student would work with faculty in the sciences to learn about the content area and then work with the artist as the art is developed. This gives the student a chance to work with faculty in multiple fields, from computer simulation to the visual and performing arts, political science, psychology and agriculture.
A semester may not be enough time for a student to generate publishable findings, Rutledge said, but the internships will give a student enough background to know whether she or he likes working in a lab.
Students will earn one credit for an internship core seminar and may qualify to earn additional credits in their major. They will receive a $500 scholarship per semester and the opportunity to participate in the undergraduate research forum and poster session at the end of the year.
Discovery Park, Purdue's hub for interdisciplinary research located on State Street on the west edge of campus, has attracted more than $200 million in capital and research funding, involves about 500 faculty members and has been a driving factor in forming eight startup companies and 40 patent filings, Rutledge said.
The 40-acre complex now includes five buildings. One, the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, is completed; and two more, the Birck Nanotechnology Center and Bindley Bioscience Center, are under construction and scheduled to be completed this summer. Ground was broken in October on the e-Enterprise Center, where the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering also will reside. The university's trustees also have approved building the Discovery Learning Center.
To date, the Lilly' Endowment's total commitment for Discovery Park is more than $50 million. In 2001, the endowment provided more than $25 million to help launch the park's first interdisciplinary centers.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Co.
Writer: Maggie Morris, (765)494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu
Sources: Sally Mason, (765) 494-9709, sfmason@purdue.edu
Charles Rutledge: (765) 494-7766, chipr@purdue.edu
Pankaj Sharma, Discovery Park Inter-Center Research Director, (765) 496-7452, sharma@purdue.edu
Wilella Burgess, Coordinator Discovery Learning Center, (765) 494-0668, wburgess@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Purdue University software development major Andrew Robinson III was one of the interns who gained field experience through the Lilly Interns for Indiana program, which is administered through Purdue's Discovery Learning Center. The Lilly Endowment is funding a new undergraduate research internship program through the Discovery Learning Center that will give about 50 Purdue undergraduates a chance to work with faculty on research projects. (Purdue Marketing Communications photo/Mark Simons)
A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2005/sharma-intern.jpg
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