MSE Leads New Frontiers of Sound Program

A new Research Experience and Mentorship program is granting six Wildcats the opportunity to spend the next year researching the behavior of sound waves and working with mentors as they prepare to pursue related careers and graduate degrees. The New Frontiers of Sound program involves a summer of research at the University of California, San Diego, followed by an academic year at the University of Arizona with mentors in the colleges of Engineering and Education. The program is focused on providing opportunities for students from populations underrepresented in STEM, such as women, first-generation college students, and individuals from racial and ethnic minorities.

“It provided me an opportunity to do a line of work, and live in a specific kind of way that hadn’t really been available to me or anyone in my family before,” said MSE sophomore Trevor Lata, who was in the 2019-2020 cohort. “I wanted to do engineering because I feel like there’s just such a fantastic myriad of things that can and will eventually be.”

Program leads at the UA are MSE department head Pierre Deymier; MSE professor Pierre Lucas; Sara Chavarria, assistant dean of research in the College of Education and assistant director of the STEM Learning Center; and Kasi Kiehlbaugh, director for Health Sciences Design and assistant teaching professor in biomedical engineering.

Previous REM students say that while they initially were attracted to the research experience, the mentorship has proven invaluable. A one-unit UA course in the fall provides guidance on resume writing, job interviewing, and delivering “elevator pitches” about research. Students also get coaching on how to write a scientific paper about their research, which they present at the spring Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM.