The UDC School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is serving up a slate of summer programs built to give students—from high school through college—impactful, job-ready training in STEM fields.
Among the professional growth opportunities is an eight-week biomedical engineering research program that focuses on aging-related issues, staffed by UDC faculty and graduate student mentors. The program is funded by a $1.9 million NIH National Institute on Aging grant and the National Science Foundation Alan T. Waterman Award, and serves Firebirds as well as students from universities outside the D.C. region.
“Our summer research experience program seeks to provide meaningful—and hopefully life-changing—exposure, professional training and research experiences for our student research scholars,” says Professor Lara Thompson, Ph.D., the principal investigator and UDC Biomedical Engineering Program’s founding director. In 2022, Thompson became the first principal investigator from an HBCU (Historically Black College or University) to win the Alan T. Waterman Award.
SEAS is also highly invested in outreach and engagement with prospective Firebirds. Multiple pre-college learning opportunities are on the SEAS summer menu, including the Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation Program, Apple Swift Coding Camp at Anacostia High School, a UDC civil engineering program on the water-energy-food-climate nexus, and a calculus-ready summer bridge program. The highly competitive program is offering 30 recent high school graduates intensive training in algebra and precalculus to help prepare them for STEM programs in college. Led by UDC Mechanical Engineering Chair Kate Klein, Ph.D., and SEAS Student Engagement Director Ann Lankford, the program is funded by the Special Competitive Studies Project.