The International Research Experience for Students
A 10-week research and training experience for students in collaboration with The University of Sheffield (UoS).
The program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to perform cutting edge research while becoming a part of the international materials research community.
Each participating student undertakes an individual research project related to the topic of Sustainable Materials Development in UoS research laboratories.
Examples of past projects
Na ion batteries
Accelerating the development of sodium-ion battery technology by seeking to improve understanding of key processes, from fundamental chemistry right through to scale-up and cell manufacturing. Of key importance is an improved understanding of the processes that occur inside batteries as they are charged and discharged repeatedly over time, and how these affect performance degradation during the lifetime of a commercially-relevant cell. In this project, students learn how to assemble Na-ion cells then collect X-ray diffraction data during cell cycling, using state-of-the-art facilities at the University of Sheffield.
Cold sintering of thermoelectric oxides
The Cold Sintering Process is a promising technique to improve performance in thermoelectric materials through control of grain size. Retention of sub-micron scale grains in chemically complex oxides can be used to reduce the thermal conductivity in sintered ceramics, something which cannot usually be achieved through high temperature solid state sintering. Cold sintering is one way that sub-micron structure can be retained in sintered ceramics, however complex or nonstoichiometric chemistries often require a tailored approach to achieve the best performance.
This project seeks to develop a new route to cold sintering for doped strontium titanate, which if successful, will produce nano-grained thermoelectric materials, and should be transferable to other quaternary or higher materials.
I found the conferences and networking opportunities very rewarding, and having freedom to explore different cities and countries in my free time cemented the experience as one I won’t forget.
Lukas Glist, MSE Student, 2022 IRES participant
Applicants must be
- US citizens or permanent residents
- Enrolled in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics degree program
- Enthusiastic, emotionally mature, self-driven, and an intellectual leader