Author Archives: Christof Teuscher

New NSF award funded: Diverse Internships for Semiconductor Careers in the Portland Metro Area

Portland State University received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish an innovative program aimed at preparing diverse cohorts of students for careers in the rapidly growing semiconductor industry.

The launch of the Diverse Internships for Semiconductor Careers, or DISC, program reinforces Portland State’s commitment to equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and its role as a key player in Oregon’s thriving Silicon Forest ecosystem. As the program develops, it aims to serve as a model for other institutions seeking to bridge the gap between academia and industry while promoting diversity in high-tech fields.

The DISC program will be led by Andrea Goforth, professor of chemistry, Christof Teuscher, professor in the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Jennifer Lindwall, associate director of the Center for Internships, Mentoring, and Research (CIMR). The trio brings a combined expertise in nanomaterials research, computational modeling, and student success initiatives that will guide the program’s development and implementation.

This program will provide 56 high-quality, paid internship placements over three years for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds in STEM fields. This effort directly addresses the critical workforce shortages and lack of diversity in the semiconductor industry, aligning with national goals of restoring American leadership in microchip development and manufacturing.

DISC will collaborate with major industry partners, including Intel, Siemens EDA, Andes Technology, Moses Lake Industries, and ams-OSRAM USA. These partnerships ensure that internships are aligned with current industry needs and provide students with real-world experience in cutting-edge semiconductor technology. DISC will be looking for additional partners as the program progresses.

Press release: https://www.pdx.edu/news/psu-awarded-nsf-grant-launch-innovative-semiconductor-internship-program

For more information about the DISC program and how to apply, please visit the program’s web page or email disc@pdx.edu.

Dr. Teuscher presents at the 2024 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)

Dr. Teuscher presents a paper on the altREU program at the 2024 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), which was held in Portland, OR, Jun 23-26, 2024.


M. Gray, E. Shortlidge, and C. Teuscher, altREU: An Alternative Online Research Experience Broadens Opportunities for Undergraduates, Proceedings of the 2024 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Portland, OR, Jun 23-26.

Abstract: 

Promoting undergraduate students’ persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields is critical for meeting national calls to strengthen the future STEM workforce. National data has shown that of all students who enter a STEM degree program, less than 40% earn a STEM degree within six years. Calls have been made to produce an additional one million STEM professionals to maintain the countries’ relevance in these fields, thus an annual increase in the number of students who graduate with a STEM degree is required to meet this demand. These calls also emphasize the need to increase graduation rates for students belonging to groups that are underrepresented in STEM, as they currently leave STEM majors at higher rates than their represented peers. Undergraduate research experiences are frequently implicated as a means for increasing interest in STEM fields and STEM graduate programs, and are correlated to students persisting to graduation. While research experiences can positively influence persistence in STEM fields, there are inequities in who gets to participate in these experiences. The limited number of undergraduate research opportunities available and the structure of the selection process can contribute to existing inequities.
In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced universities to quickly move to remote instruction. In response, we created the altREU program, a fully online research experience for undergraduate students to continue to provide students with opportunities to conduct meaningful research and develop critical skills during this time.
Here we describe the ‘alternative’ Research Experience for Undergraduates (altREU) model and report on student experiences in this online research program. In 2020, sixteen students from US institutions participated in the program. The altREU program was designed to attract research-interested students and to broaden participation in undergraduate research. To understand the student’s experiences, we collected observations and conducted exit interviews. Twelve of the sixteen students successfully completed the altREU program. Overall, the participants expressed that the online nature of the altREU program did not, to their knowledge, impact their ability to successfully conduct research. Our findings suggest that online research programs may provide a comparable experience to in-person research programs, with the added benefit of potentially reducing barriers that students may face to accessing in-person research opportunities. This paper summarizes the design of the program and gives suggestions for fully online research participation based on program assessment and student feedback. We believe that the altREU model can be relatively easily replicated across institutions.

Paper download: https://nemo.asee.org/public/conferences/344/papers/41908/view