Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership
ESL Materials
Harriet Ross Tubman Academy#31
Lorraine Academy
Hutchinson Central Technical High School
Hutchinson Central Technical High School PS 304 (Hutch Tech) students visited the Professor Mark Swihart Lab in the Chemical and Biological Engineering department at the University at Buffalo 9UB) on May 8, 2012. It was a commendable and memorable trip initiated by PhD student Xianliang Wang (Ben).
The heavy rains in the early morning didn’t mar the enthusiasm and excitement among students. The trip started when nine students and a Hutch Tech teacher, Mr. Merkle, arrived at UB on a school bus at 8:20 a.m. Ben gave the students a tour of the UB campus, including the Oscar A. Silverman Library, Lockwood Memorial Library, the popular Common’s, and the Student Union.
After touring the campus for nearly a half hour, they visited Furnas Hall which houses both the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The students were greeted by Professor Swihart and graduate students in his lab. Ben showed them laboratories and gave an overview of exciting projects and ongoing research ranging from fancy semiconductors, high temperature reactor systems to carbon dioxide lasers. A few graduate students were able to present a brief summary of their research as well. Students looked extremely proactive and patient. They asked lot of intelligent questions and showed their interest in familiarizing themselves with the laboratory working environment. Mr. Merkle had an opportunity to express the importance of interdisciplinary research to high school students.
After touring the labs on the 5th floor, the students were taken to photo functional and green chemistry lab in Furnas Hall where students were shown various equipment and modern characterization techniques such as liquid chromatograph, infrared spectrometer, glove boxes, etc. At last, students and graduate students took pictures inside lab and exchanged well wishes. The Hutch Tech high school students and graduate students had a great time in Professor Swihart’s lab and all are looking forward to more of these informative trips in the future.
-Xianliang (Ben) Wang
Below are memorable pictures from the trip:
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