As part of the continuous improvement of the ’s educational experience, Amit Agrawal, the John E. and Patricia Breyer Professor in Electrical Engineering, and Professor Dacheng Ren will receive this year’s Faculty Excellence Awards. The awards provide summer funding for faculty to develop innovative new educational student experiences.
Amit Agrawal, left, and Dacheng Ren
Agrawal’s award funds the creation of an optics teaching laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment for hands-on research experiments and demonstrations in optics, nanoscience and nanofabrication. It will be used in graduate optics courses and in the freshman gateway course, “Introduction to Engineering and Computer Science.” In this cutting-edge facility, students will be trained on the fundamentals of these technologies and prepare them for careers in contemporary optics and nanophotonics research.
Ren’s award supports work to integrate the new ϲ Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Core Facility into the biomedical and chemical engineering curriculum. In the Biological Principles for Engineers course, students will conduct laboratory exercises using a cell sorter and flow cytometer, providing them with first-hand experience in molecular cloning, DNA isolation and antibiotic resistance. Additionally, Ren will promote outreach activities that give K-12 students and other key groups access to the advanced facility.
The results of their work will be presented at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Engineering Education.
The Faculty Excellence Awards are made possible by the generosity of chemical engineering alumnus and department advisory board member Brian Beals ’64 and his wife, Emily.
