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Support Links: Union College Grant Support

Support for Converging Technologies at Union

Converging Technologies programs at Union College are supported directly and indirectly by a number of sources. The partial list below illustrates some of the sources of support for planning, teaching, and scholarship related to Converging Technologies.  Click here to view an online catalog of some of the research instrumentation available at Union.

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	NSF - Integrating Micro-Computed Tomography in Undergraduate Bioengineering Courses (2005) This project is integrating the use of a micro-computed tomography system into the bioengineering curriculum at Union College. The project is designed to foster interdisciplinary thinking and to excite students with the possibilities in bioengineering, and to address the widely-held belief that the next important breakthroughs and discoveries will most likely be at the intersection of disciplines, as represented by bioengineering.
	New York State Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) - Collaboration between Union and the Watervliet Innovation Center (WIC) (2005) This partnership between Union, U-Start (the Union-affiliated business incubator), NYSTAR, and WIC will provide approximately $150K to Union College to support faculty and students undertaking research projects in cooperation with companies located at the WIC in areas such as nanotechnology, optical and chemical sensing, and fire prevention and control.
	NSF-RUI (Research at Undergraduate Institutions) - Aerogel Gas Sensor Platform (2005) Professors Mary K. Carroll (Chemistry) and Ann M. Anderson (Mechanical Engineering) lead a research team that has developed a new rapid supercritical extraction method for fabricating aerogel monoliths. The team will apply this process to fabricate tailored aerogel platform gas sensors and compare these sensors with those fabricated using conventional supercritical extraction methods.
	NSF-RUI - Late Holocene Climate of the Central Andes Identified from Sedimentary, Stable Isotopic, Geochemical and Biological Proxies This project will create a spatial-temporal dataset of information regarding drought frequency, intensity and spatial variability across a region where millions of people live at a subsistence level, limited water-resources, and rapidly retreating glaciers that currently supply an important source of water during the winter dry season. This information is expected to be helpful for forecasting, preparing and planning for future droughts.
	New York State - Partnership between Union College, Schenectady County Community College, and SuperPower, Inc. (2005) The grant will provide Union with $1.7 million to fund mechanical, microscopy and quality control testing equipment; a clean room and characterization laboratory; and internship and professional development opportunities for Union students.
	NSF-MRI - Acquisition of Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence/Raman Imaging System The equipment purchased with this grant will provide capabilities to study the combustion processes occurring in internal combustion (IC) engines. Additionally, the equipment will enable a significant leap in the pedagogical capabilities of Union College's new internal combustion engine lab. and will foster cross-disciplinary collaboration.
	Semiconductor Research Corp. reaches out to Union undergraduates (2004) The SRC has funded seven undergraduate research projects in the broad areas of semiconductor design and fabrication. SRC, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is a research management consortium of technology companies including IBM, Intel, National Semiconductor Corp. and Texas Instruments.
	Hughes grant even more than expected (2004) As if we didn't already feel good enough about the $1.6 million grant received last week from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, we can read some of the comments from anonymous reviewers of the grant proposal
	Northrop Grumman Foundation - "EdGE - Educating Girls for Engineering" (2004) Northrop Grumman has agreed to underwrite the cost of running Union's summer experience for high school girls interested in careers in engineering.
	NSF - "Helping Promising Students Enhance their Future," a Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) Grant (2003) Union College will use this grant to establish a Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarship program for students with demonstrated need in these disciplines. Students from under-represented groups and women (CS and Engineering) will be given special consideration. Our goal is to enhance training in these fields so that more students graduate with a background (major or minor) in one of these disciplines. Also see report - Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science)
	NSF - "Converging Technologies: The New Frontier in Engineering Education" (2002) This planning grant allows Union to ".build on our strengths as an engineering and liberal arts college to enhance and expand our curricula in an interdisciplinary way, eliminating the 'silos' of traditional liberal arts and engineering programs. . develop plans to allow integration of CT components into existing programs as well as . developing new programs within CT. . increased opportunities for industrial internships . further weave internationalism throughout the curricula.."
	NSF - "Enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors" (2003) This grant, received in January 2003, is designed to attract and retain more students into the named fields.
	NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant - "Acquisition of Equipment to Establish an Aerogel Fabrication, Characterization and Applications Laboratory" (2002)  The Aerogel research team involves faculty and students from Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering. The project grew out of the senior research of Ben Gauthier, '02.
	NSF - Research at Undergraduate Institutions grant - "Multi-neuronal encoding of visual target information to direct flight in the dragonfly" (2002)  An understanding of prey interception by dragonflies, from neurons to behavior, could lead to the development of effective biomimetic guidance mechanisms. In addition, this project will give undergraduate students a cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary, research experience, providing a vehicle for recruiting talented, enthusiastic students from both biology and engineering into the field of neuroscience. . Research teams consisting of students and faculty members from different traditional disciplines, and focused on a common problem, such as the neural control of interception flight, could become a model for CT in an undergraduate institution.
	IBM Support for CT (2002)  In March, 2002, IBM announced a gift valued at $1 million in support of Converging Technologies. The gift included a Veeco Atomic Force Microscope, and a JOEL Scanning Electron Microscope. In the words of Roger H. Hull, President of Union College, the gift "builds on our groundbreaking Converging Technologies program and makes it possible for a larger number of undergraduates to gain classroom and laboratory experiences that exposes them to, and teaches them about, the impact of technology across multiple disciplines."
	Albany Molecular Support for CT (2002) Donation of a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer, Bruker AFX-500 to be installed in the Interdisciplinary Characterization in the F. W. Olin Building.
	NSF - Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education grant -  "Frontiers of Nanotechnology"  (2003)  Union College was one of the charter recipients of NSF's program to enhance undergraduate education in nanotechnology. "Overall, our approach incorporates several key features: 1) a highly interdisciplinary collaboration, reflected both by topic choice and faculty involvement; 2) early exposure to nanotechnology topics with a minimum of prerequisite coursework for a multidisciplinary student cohort; 3) development of modular format for ease of incorporation into other courses; 4) development of a web-based text for use at the undergraduate level; 5) evaluation of the course materials by both internal and external faculty; and 6) both formative and summative evaluation of the course."
	Hewlett Foundation grant - "Expanding the Interdisciplinary General Education Science Course Offerings"  (2001) "We plan to develop a series of new, innovative, interdisciplinary GenEd science courses, most with a laboratory component, and encourage faculty to design courses that explore the interconnections between and among disciplines, especially the lab sciences." - Union President Roger H. Hull. This grant includes support for course development; summer students; workshops and conferences; speakers; travel.
	NSF - Major Research Instrumentation grant - "Acquisition of a Laser Confocal Microscope for an Integrated Microscopy Facility at Union College" (2002)  The Confocal microscope will be "the centerpiece for a renovated Integrated Microscope facility.. Moreover, confocal technology as an innovative tool will be integrated into classroom laboratory training and individual student-faculty projects to enrich the research experience of undergraduates.
	Booth Ferris Foundation grant "New Integrated Imaging Center for the Biological Sciences" (2002) Booth Ferris funds along with those from the College will permit ". renovation of a large space in the basement of our Science and Engineering Building . [and conversion of] this space into a modern microscope and imaging facility appropriate for student and faculty research and for laboratory teaching."
	Mellon Foundation support for Converging Technologies (2002) "Converging Technologies draws together the study of engineering, the physical, biological, and social sciences, and the humanities by taking  advantage of the on-going technological revolution. ... We plan in time to coordinate courses, lecture, and distinguished visiting faculty through a new Center for Converging Technologies."  Letter from Roger Hull, President of Union College to Mary Patterson McPherson of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
	NSF - MRI - "Acquisition of Instrumentation Used for the Non-Contact Measurement of Strains and Displacements on the Surface of Composite Materials with High Strain Gradients"  (2001)  "The research equipment being acquired through this grant includes non-contact strain measuring apparatus that will provide all components of strain on complex geometric surfaces in the presence of high strain gradients. . The research equipment being acquired through this grant includes non-contact strain measuring apparatus that will provide all components of strain on complex geometric surfaces in the presence of high strain gradients." Note that while this equipment was originally acquired to support engineering projects, in 2002-03 it is being used in a bioengineering study in the stress in bullfrog hearts.
	Union College Internal Support for Converging Technologies Support for CT The College supports Converging Technologies directly in many ways including faculty and staff support, space renovation, and support for faculty and student research.