Prof. Vittoria and Harris receive an additional $250K NSF Grant
NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The realization of single phase materials exhibiting a strong magnetoelectric effect will enable a wide variety of practical and advanced magnetoelectronic devices used in: wireless communication, radar, and sensing; storage, manipulation, and transmission of large data packets; and in building the framework for a new generation of multifunctional electronics that promises to impact a broad range of commercial and electronic systems and platforms. The project could lead to commercial payoffs, anticipated to be disruptive to existing global electronic markets ensuring U.S. companies early entry market share and significant job creation. The successful implementation of the project will significantly and positively impact society's science and technology (S&T) communities, as well as address important socio-economic challenges related to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The project's education and outreach goals are designed to address opportunities in establishing and implementing the STEM value pipeline. These goals are two-fold: i) to identify, recruit, retain, and educate students at the high school/middle school, undergraduate, and graduate levels in the fundamentals and applied aspects of magnetism, materials and technologies, and ii) to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in the science and engineering professions, and in particular, in the magnetic materials and technology communities. The project's specific broader impact activities include the establishing of the Summer Science Magnetism Camp for rising 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade middle school students of the Roxbury Preparatory Charter School of Boston: A middle school having an overwhelming minority population (nearly 100%). This project addresses one aspect of the STEM value pipeline often overlooked, that is, the identification, recruitment and education of pre-high school students for careers in science and engineering.