SUNFEST08
Summer UNdergraduate Fellowship in Sensor Technologies
SUNFEST is a unique program that provides talented undergraduate
students with hands-on research during the summer in the area of
sensor technologies. Each year an average of 10 students, ending
their sophomore or junior year of college, are selected from various
universities nationwide based on their academic record and attitude
towards research. The program is open to students in engineering
and the physical sciences. The purpose of this program is to expose
the students to real, in-depth research in the area of sensor technology
and to motivate them to go on to graduate school. An application
package can be downloaded from the homepage. A list of former SUNFEST
students and a brief description of their research are given further
in this document. This program is sponsored by the National Science
Foundation as a REU
Site (Research Experience for Undergraduates) and the Center
for Sensor Technologies at the University of Pennsylvania.
SUNFEST Overview
- Summer research experience with a stipend of $4,400
- On-campus housing is provided at no or minimal cost
- Partial travel support for non-Penn students
- Opportunity to work on an interesting interdisciplinary topic
- Work under the mentorship of a faculty member and a graduate student
- Participate in workshops on how to give effective presentations, how to write technical reports, how to apply for graduate school
- Learn about ethics in engineering and science
Sample Projects
Areas of Research
- Micro and Nano Electromechanical Structures and Sensors
- Nanotechnology and materials for Sensors
- Robotics and Control oriented projects
- Wireless Sensor Networks
- Sensors for Medical and Biomedical Applications
- Optical and Vision Sensors
Sunfest Faculty
- Haim
Bau (Mech. Eng. - Microstructures)
- Kostas Daniilidis
(CIS - Tele-immersion, Robotics, Vision)
- Andre' DeHon (ESE - Physical implementation of computation)
- Dawn
Elliott (Biomechanics of soft tissue; Dept. of Orthopedic
Surgery and Bioengineering)
- Nader Engheta
(ESE - Optics, Polarization Imaging)
- Viktor Gruev (ESE - Smart Vision Sensors)
- Charlie Johnson
(Physics - Nanostructures)
- Cherie Kagan (ESE - Nanostructures and Materials)
- Dan Lee (ESE
- Machine learning, Robotics)
- Jennifer
Lukes (Mech. Eng. - thermal, fluid, and mass transport phenomena at the nanoscale)
- Dan Koditschek (ESE - Dynamical Systems, Robotics)
- Vijay Kumar
(Mech. Eng and Robotics)
- Rahul Mangharam (ESE - Wireless Sensor Networks, Medical Devices)
- Robert L. Mauck (Dept. of Orthopedic
Surgery and Bioengineering)
- Gianluca Piazza (Electrical and Systems Eng, micro- and nano-systems)
- Jorge J. Santiago-Aviles
(ESE - materials, ultrasound sensors)
- Camillo
J. Taylor (CIS - Robotics and Imaging)
- Jan Van der Spiegel
(ESE - Neural nets, microelectronics)
- Shu
Yang, (Nano-technology; Dept of Materials Science and Engineering)
- Mark Yim (Mech Eng. - Modular reconfigurable robots and locomotion, PolyBot)
- Jay Zemel (ESE - Fluid
sensors and MEMS)
Sunfest in the News
- An Nguyen, 2005 SUNFEST Student, wins the first price in the Undergraduate Research Category at the 2006 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Amelia Island, Florida, June 21-25, 2006. She presented a paper on "QUANTIFICATION OF GENIPIN CROSSLINKING WITH FREE AMINO RESIDUES", An M. Nguyen, Sounok Sen, Wade Johannessen,
Charles C. Clark, Dawn M. Elliott.
- What's new at Engineering: Giving
Students Hands-on Experience this Past Summer
- SUNFEST write-up
in the Penn Engineering Newsletter. Fall 2003
- A student's perspective on doing Research (by Ian Gelfand -
SUNFEST Alumnus 1999): "Two
Months in the Basement - Research Opportunities for Undergraduates,"
J. Young Investigators, Oct. 2001).
- SUNFEST Program Encourages
Students to Choose Research, The Compass, Univ. of Pennsylvania,
1993
- SUNFEST: Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, Frontiers
in Education Conference, 1997
Application deadline: March 2,
2008
The application needs to be done online (see below).
The application consists of the following:
- Personal data, educational background, Research interest (see sample projects)
- Names and emails of two references (recommendation letters need to be sent separately; see below)
- One page research statement explaining your interest in the program and career goals.
- Your resume
- Your transcript
- NOTE: These three files need to be uploaded as pdf files at the time of your application. (1) your resume; (2) one page research statement and career goals; (3) if available as pdf your transcript.
If you don't have a pdf file of your transcript you can mail it directly to the address below (attn: SUNFEST Program).
The letters of recommendation can be mailed
directly by the recommender in a sealed/signed envelope, or can
be emailed directly to sunfest@seas.upenn.edu, with (Subject heading: Recommendation SUNFEST:
Your name). If the letters are sent by regular mail, send them to the following address: Jan Van der Spiegel, SUNFEST Program; Dept. of Electrical and Systems Eng, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 200 S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6390. Ask the recommender to use one of these form letters:
All applicants must be a U.S. citizens or have permanent residency status.
A minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 is required.
Successful applicants will be notified during the 1st week of April.
Click here to enter your application [the online application is now active]
Links:
If you have questions, please contact Delores Magobet at 215-898-9241
or sunfest@seas.upenn.edu. |
