Our research group is actively involved in community outreach and dissemination activities at several levels:
K-12 and After School Programs
The Cornell Center for Materials Research CCMR reaches underserved youth by collaborating with the Ithaca Youth Bureau (IYB). Located in Ithaca, NY, the Youth Bureau serves primarily African-American and low socioeconomic children in the Ithaca area. The CCMR runs Saturday afternoon programs as part of the One to One program of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ithaca and Tompkins County. The Mission of One to One program is to establish and nurture friendships between caring, responsible adults and children with special need for such friendship. Through these friendships “One to One” seeks to improve the lives of children and their families, enable volunteers to themselves benefit from their relationships with children and families, and bring community members together. During these sessions students and their mentors (Big Brothers and Big Sisters) are exposed to basic science concepts such as buoyancy, magnetism, electrical circuits, state of matter, etc. The modules are created and presented using a hands-on approach that require active involvement of the students and the concepts can be easily assimilated.
Senior Citizens
We incorporate a service learning component into FSAD 4660 Textiles Apparel and Innovation. This intergenerational effort, teaming up groups of undergraduate students with local community senior citizens, is aimed at using emerging technologies to improve the quality of living among local elders. The elders interact with the undergraduate students and in a collaborative way provide feedback and guidance on the students’ designs. Several innovative products aimed at senior citizens including head protection gear, multifunctional walkers, smart medical textiles, and many others have been designed and featured in The Cornell Chronicle.
Examples of these projects can be found here
- Senior citizens collaborate with textile students to develop high-tech products that help the elderly
- Students devise magnetic ‘snaps,’ nerve-stimulating shoes
- Students design pill-filled watch, heated shoes and other innovations for elderly
- Students design zip-off jeans and jackets with headphones for wheelchair users
- Coat that cushions falls, machine to put pants on: Students cook up concepts to help elderly
- Textile students partner with seniors to design electronic pillbox, multipurpose walker with GPS
Small Businesses
We work with the JumpStart Program and INVEST programs of the Cornell Center for Materials Research. These programs allow small business to work with a faculty member and to have access to Cornell’s research facilities for short periods of time to work on a specific problem. JumpStart is part of the Small Business Outreach Program to allow companies in the State of NY access to Cornell resources and to build productive relationships with a research-intensive university. Our group worked with small businesses in Canandaigua,NY, Victor, NY and Binghamton, NY
REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates)
Our group has always welcomed undergraduate researchers. Some of the undergraduates are supported by individual grants and are integral part of our research work . In addition we participate in the CCMR REU Summer Research Program.
School Teachers
Our group participates in several teachers’ program including the Microworld Festival and the Materials Science Workshop. We have also participated in the NY State Fair and outreach efforts in New York City aimed at students and high school teachers serving underrepresented students. We have hosted also high school physics teachers in our laboratory
Public Media
Our group has participated in the production of several TV segments for PBS Kids, Reuters, SkyNews, and NHK as well as radio segments for Earth & Sky, NPR, Science Friday, and BBC. We also have worked with journalists in articles published in the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Popular Science, ABCNews, NPR News, and many others venues in the USA and overseas.
Some of those video segments can be seen here: