MRS Hosts Grad-Lab Learning Night, Awards MSE Students
By Amanda Campanaro
Gyuho Song, Ph.D. Student in Dr. Seok-Woo Lee’s lab and MRS Chapter President, answers questions from undergraduates after his presentation.
Dozens of students attended an MSE graduate lab and research session April 19 hosted by UConn MRS to learn about the opportunities available in graduate studies and compete for a number of prizes.
MSE graduate students Gyuho Song of Dr. Seok-Woo Lee’s group, Rohit Batra of Dr. Rampi Ramprasad’s group, Sumit Suresh of Dr. Avinash Dongare’s group and Kenneth Ogueri of Dr. Cato T. Laurencin’s group (tied) won prizes for their lab research presentations.
“It was so wonderful to see our colleagues giving witty presentations of their work,” Gyuho says. “We had a lot of fun together with the undergraduate students.”
The MRS chapter is currently led by MSE Ph.D. students Gyuho Song, Cain Hung, Sergey Galitskiy, and Kenneth Ogueri. Gyuho, Chapter President, conceived of the idea to host the event to help increase awareness of the work being done at the graduate level, and to inform undergraduates of the many IMS and MSE graduate research options.
Graduate and undergraduate students gathered to enjoy the lab group presentations and vote for the most entertaining three at the recent MRS meeting.
Six graduate students presented, five of them from MSE. Two MSE undergraduates who conduct research in Dr. Harold Brody’s lab also gave brief, impromptu presentations. The presentations lasted five minutes and were judged by the undergraduate audience by how well they expressed the research being done in a fun and engaging way.
The presenters competed for three gift cards to Price Chopper of varying amounts, awarded to the presentation that was the most entertaining for the undergraduates. Gyuho says “I wanted to show the undergraduates that lab life can also be fun.”
The undergraduate prizes included two $10 gift cards for the student who asked the best questions, which were judged by Cain, MRS treasurer.
“This year, we had great support from our MSE department and the overarching MRS,” Gyuho says. “The faculty advisor, Dr. Lee, gave a lot of advice which made the team work hard and ultimately made it more enjoyable.”
There are currently no solid plans for a similar event next semester, but the current president hopes to continue hosting informational events for undergraduates and increasing the MRS participation.
Published: April 26, 2017
Categories: news, undergraduate students
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