|
How can we best educate and train graduate and undergraduate students to be effective in applying mutlidisciplinary knowledge and skills to solve complex real-world problems, while retaining significant professional immersion in their respective disciplinary fields? Given the broad interdisciplinary nature of our research program, students at LMST will have an outstanding opportunity to work in an area that bridges basic research and application.
We are always looking for talented and qualified researchers as undergraduate and graduate students, Post Docs and visiting scientists. Openings for such people appear regularly. Interested parties should email to Professor Zhang and include their CV and research interests.
Graduate Admission
LMST (Laboratory for Microsystems Technology) is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
students in LMST graduate with Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering. However, applicants do not
have to have the exact undergrad background. In fact, LMST welcomes all prospective graduate student
applicants who feel that they can contribute to our MEMS/NEMS research. Current LMST members do have
very diverse background such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering,
Manufacturing Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science, and Applied
Physics etc. We encourage applications from both MS and PhD students, although funding from the laboratory
is usually biased toward PhD students. Students who are interested in our graduate program are encouraged
to follow the general Boston University Graduate Admission. The College of Engineering Graduate Programs
website is at http://www.bu.edu/eng/grad. It is
important, however, to state in your application your interest to pursue MEMS and NEMS research in the
Mechanical Engineering Department with Professor Xin Zhang. Feel free also to contact any of the
students in the laboratory directly for a student's perspective on life in the laboratory and at
City Boston. Undergraduate Research Opportunities
We believe that involving undergraduates in research is an important
component of their education and maturation process. It is also well demonstrated that undergraduates
who are exposed early in their educational career to hands-on experiences in the processing of doing
research are quicker to develop motivation and more successful in continuing in the science and
engineering. Undergraduate students at BU are invited to arrange to meet Professor Xin Zhang during
her office hours to discuss possibilities for research openings. Typically, undergraduates are in
their junior or senior year of study, and spend 10-12 hours per week during the academic year in the
laboratory. A variety of research topics are usually available, ranging from computer analysis to
experimental testing. A strong ability to both work independently and collaborate with other students
is probably the most important element required for this research. Summer research opportunities also
exist, pending funding sources. For other research opportunities in this field of study, students
should apply to either SURF (Supplemental Undergraduate Research Funding Program) or
UROP early in the fall semester of each year.
For those students interested in MEMS/NEMS at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the
following courses are offered on a regular basis.
Women@MEMS (picture taken at Hilton Head Conference)
EK 130: Introduction to MEMS/NEMS
ME 555: MEMS/NEMS - Fabrication and Materials
ME 778: Micromachined Transducers
