2010 NNIN REU Convocation Expectations

Your Convocation Abstracts are due FRIDAY, JULY 30TH!

THIS PAGE IS ONLY ABOUT OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CONVOCATION! GO TO UMINN FOR THE FULL AND CORRECT SCHEDULE, AND DETAILS ON THE CONVOCATION LOGISTICS! (http://www.nano.umn.edu/nninreuconvocation2010/)

but.... read these expectations first! 

 

Dear NNIN REU Interns:

Thank you for participating in our program! In a few short weeks, you'll be attending the network-wide convocation. In order for the convocation to be a positive experience for everyone involved -- staff, student and mentor alike -- please read and follow these expectations:

2. The presentation sessions are professional technical meetings. Therefore, respectful and appropriate attire is expected every day, i.e., t-shirts and shorts are NOT appropriate. "Business Casual" = dress slacks and dress shirts or blouses, dresses or dress skirts, and appropriate footwear. Suit jackets and ties are optional. (After the presentations end each day, there will be time to change into comfortable clothes, if appropriate, for the evening events.)

3. Each site has different abilities / activities in their labs and on campus. Some are at a different stage of their program. Therefore, it behooves us to listen to each report with an open mind, resisting the tendency to compare.

4. If applicable: It is CRITICAL that you save SEM and AFM images at the HIGHEST RESOLUTION possible! Then use those high rez images!

5. Each intern will have TEN minutes to present their research findings and take questions, so make sure you can give your report in 8 minutes, which then gives you 2 minutes for questions at the end. (Practicing your presentation with your site group is a good idea. Ask you site coordinator to set that up, if they haven't already.) Keep in mind that your audience is other NNIN REU interns who may have never heard of your "brand" of research! At the same time, lots of interns have followed basic processes--like spinning resist and getting rid of it--so keep these steps to one or two slides. Spend your time talking about your results, good or bad, so far!

6. There will be a Poster Session for the host site community to come and see what you've been up to over the summer. The Poster Session will be long enough for you to answer questions on your work and also look at other posters. Poster specifics are on the REU convocation web site at http://www.nnin.org/nnin_reuposters.html. Please bring your completed poster to the convocation site (or have your site coordinator mail them to us).

7. IMPORTANT 1: Your Principal Investigator or Mentor MUST proofread and approve your presentation!! We will be video-taping and live web-casting the convocation, and we require an electronic copy of your presentation when you are done. So it is critical that your presentation be a correct and accurate accounting of your research--and one for which you have permission for public viewing and web archiving!

8. IMPORTANT 2: Bring a complete PowerPoint presentation to the convocation!! Have everything you need, all set to go. We will preload presentations the first night during the Pizza Party. So NO changes can be made after that! Please name your presentation "YourLastNameREUsiteInitialsPresentation.ppt" so it's easy for us to identify later. (I.e., MallisonCNFpresentation.ppt)

9. IMPORTANT 3: BRING TWO COPIES of your presentation on TWO CDS or MEMORY STICKS. If one gets corrupted (or lost) in travel, perhaps the other one will work. Presentations have not occurred because an intern only brought one copy and that one didn't work! BRING TWO COPIES!!

10. IMPORTANT 4: Scientific talks are a form of dialogue. Therefore, view your talk and poster presentation as a way to get helpful feedback on your project, and also sharpen your approach to research in general. Don't miss out on the benefit of the expertise of your audience!

11. If your parents or friends are interested, they are welcome to attend the convocation. You must let the host site know to expect them. Email Becky von Dissen (vondi001 at umn.edu).

12. Email your project abstract to Ms. Melanie-Claire Mallison by Friday, July 30th. Your abstract is meant to be a very simple, straight-forward summary of what you are doing and why. (See the sample below.) It should not contain diagrams, complicated formulas or excessive symbols. At the same time, your abstract should reflect what makes your research different. It is critical that your PI or mentor proof-reads your abstract! Please send as a Word attachment. Name the file "YourlastnameREUsiteInitialsAbstract.doc" and send to mallison at cnf.cornell.edu.

VERY IMPORTANT #1:
The Email Subject Line MUST read: "Yourlastname / NNIN REU Abstract"

VERY IMPORTANT #2:
Your PI or mentor MUST proof-read and 'ok' your abstract

VERY IMPORTANT #3:
Send the abstract by FRIDAY, JULY 30th as an attached Word file named YourlastnameREUsiteInitialsAbstract.doc, i.e., MallisonCNFabstract.doc

Your abstract must include the following information FIRST:

PLEASE DO NOT ABBREVIATE ANYTHING IN THIS SECTION! SPELL OUT "ENGINEERING" ETC!

REU Project Title:
REU Intern, Major, Home Institution:
NNIN REU Site:
REU Principal Investigator, Department, Institution: (Full Name, I.E. "Robert" Not "Bob")
REU Mentor, Department, Institution: (Full Name, I.E. "Katherine" Not "Kathy")
Email Addresses for INTERN, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR and MENTOR: (In that order)

THEN:
* Text of Abstract * (200 WORDS ONLY please, including any references if used)

The Spin Dependent Tunneling (SDT) effect provides a way of making non-volatile magnetic memory. In an SDT device, the mode of electron transport is by quantum-mechanical tunneling across a thin dielectric barrier. Due to a ferromagnet-dielectric-ferromagnet architecture, the tunneling current is polarized in spin, and consequently magnetoresistive effects are observed. The focus of the project is to fabricate submicron SDT's so that we can (a) study their switching properties and (b) observe the area-dependence of the MR effect to explore the possibility of memories with high-densities. A bilayer photoresist process compatible with e-beam patterning was developed in the first part of this project. The junction features desired essentially require the presence of sufficient undercut in the bottom resist layer. We have used PMGI and SNR200 deep-UV photoresists to achieve this bilayered structure. Resist features as small as 0.2 micron in size and with a sufficient undercut have been achieved. Currently, actual SDT junctions are being fabricated using this process.