IDEAs in STEM Ed: Recent Episodes
Darren Lipomi
IDEAs in STEM Ed is a production of the IDEA Engineering Student Center at UC San Diego, which works to promote community, success, and inclusion at all levels. My name is Darren Lipomi, professor of nanoengineering and chemical engineering, and Faculty Director of the IDEA Center. The purpose of this podcast is to provide a forum for the discussion of innovative and inclusive approaches to teaching and mentoring, and to support the personal and academic flourishing and success of students in science and engineering. To learn more about the IDEA Center, visit jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/idea
My guest today is Neil Thompson: author, speaker, engineer, and host of the teach the geek podcast. Neil is an advocate of science and engineering education, a children's author and a educator in the area of improving the speaking skills of technical professionals. In particular, Neil founded the teach the geek to speak platform which contains many helpful materials, including videos and other resources to help you as a technical professional, including scientist and engineer, make your ideas come to life to technical and non-technical audiences alike. I got to know Neil a few months ago when I was a guest on his the teach the geek podcast, and I almost feel that I have to give him a producer credit for ideas in stem Ed, because he has actually connected me with the last few podcast guests. It is my honor to speak to him today.
My guest today is Jennifer Swanson. Jennifer is an author of science books for children as well as a public speaker and podcaster. She got her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the US Naval Academy, and has a masters degree in K thru 8 science education. She is the author of over 40 books, including Save the Crash-Test Dummies and Outdoor School: Rocks, Fossils, and Shells, which won the Kirkus Best Nature Book in 2021. In addition to her writing career, Jennifer is also a middle school science instructor for the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth. And also co-hosts a weekly podcast, Solve It! For Kids. She is also involved in a million other initiatives that would take me a full hour to list, which you can find on her website, jenniferswansonbooks.com.
In this episode, host Darren Lipomi sits down with Maynard Okereke, the Hip Hop MD. Maynard is a trained civil and environmental engineer who has developed a second career in scientific communication for young people and particularly young people of color. He arrived at this interest from previous careers in engineering and then acting and music. He is also a seasoned entrepreneur, forgive the pun, with his own line of flavoring salt which are vegan and number one selling brand on Amazon. He is the host of hip-hop science as his alter ego, Hip Hop MD. He is a renowned public speaker and advocate for diversity in STEM, He is a true Renaissance human being, and it is my honor to check in with him today.
Irene Reizman is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute Indiana. Irene obtained her bachelor’s of engineering degree at the University of Michigan in 2008 and her PhD at MIT in 2015. She has industrial experience at LS9, Whirlpool, and Schott AG. Her research interests include biochemical engineering, including metabolic engineering of microorganisms for renewable chemical production. Her teaching interests largely parallel this focus, with additional interests in chemical process and product design, and biotechnology. Dr. Reizman has many honors and awards, including the German Ministry of Research and Education “Green Talents” Award, and recently was named the Alfred R. Schmidt Endowed Chair for Teaching Excellence.
In this episode, I sat down with Shantanu (SK) Sharma, Chief Analytics Officer at Ingrooves Music, a music analytics company working with some of the world’s top artists. Ingrooves was recently acquired by Universal Music Group. Here, SK—who is a computational chemical physicist by training—talks about his unusual trajectory from gifted teenager in an underresourced neighborhood to grad school to finance to investing to engineering entrepreneur. I certainly learned a lot from this conversation and I hope you find it inspiring and helpful.
Dr. Wendy Marie Ingram is a molecular biologist, psychiatric epidemiologist and advocate for mental health among academic researchers. She is the Founder and CEO of Dragonfly Mental Health, a nonprofit that develops individualized programs for institutions to address the mental health needs of their researchers. In this conversation, Wendy and I discuss the personal circumstances that led her to found Dragonfly, why researchers are especially prone to poor mental health, the differences between stress, distress, disease, and crisis, resources for students, resources for institutions, and the connection between biology and psychiatric epidemiology.
Please enjoy this conversation with biomedical engineer turned cardiologist, Roy Arjoon, MD. Roy and I discuss many things, including learning strategies, memorization, studying for difficult exams, and how his undergraduate engineering degree helps him in his daily work as a cardiologist.
13 - Scientific Writing: Getting Papers Accepted and Grants Funded
By: Darren Lipomi, PhD, Faculty Director, IDEA Center
In this episode, I'm speaking with one of my all-time favorite people, Dr. Brandon Marin. Brandon is a highly decorated engineer in the area of semiconductor packaging at Intel, and someone who has a virtual phonebook of patents to his credit. Those of you who listened to Episode 8 know some of Brandon’s backstory. An addiction to drugs and alcohol that made him homeless and frequently jailed. And then, through hard work and determination, an escape from despair to complete not only his undergraduate degree at USC, but his PhD at UC San Diego. If you haven’t listened to Episode 8, it’s not necessary to go back, since we cover new ground here. I’m going to start by playing Brandon’s Keynote Address at the 2021 engineering Ring Ceremony. Then, he and I sat down to talk about second chances, explaining blunders on your resume, and how to persist in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The Zoom audio is a little iffy at times, but Brandon’s wisdom shines through.
In this episode, I sat down with my colleague, Prof. Tod A. Pascal, of the Department of NanoEngineering and Chemical Engineering at UC San Diego. Tod developed an interest in computational materials science at a young age while growing up on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean. During his schooling, he spent significant time in Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Pasadena, South Korea, Japan, and Berkeley, before starting his lab at UCSD. In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about how he became a computational materials scientist, what it was like to do research in such varied environments, and how computation can be used to expand access to technical education in underserved communities.
In this episode, I sat down with Prof. Jillian Buriak of the University of Alberta and Executive Editor of ACS Nano. Until recently, she was the Editor-in-Chief of Chemistry of Materials. We spoke to each other about her life in chemistry, her journey as an editor, the role of impact factor, inclusion in science, and integrating work and life, especially with children.
Studies show that engagement in undergraduate research is one of the surest predictors of retention and success of students in science and engineering. Unfortunately, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars assigned to mentor these students rarely receive training. In this episode, I discuss strategies you can use to mentor undergraduate researchers effectively. I draw from my own history as an undergraduate researcher, and my experience mentoring undergraduates at Harvard, Stanford, and UC San Diego.
UC San Diego MS/PhD graduate Brandon Marin shares his harrowing tale of addiction, arrest, and street living and his rise to successful R&D engineer at a leading semiconductor firm.
In this episode, I sat down with Rafael D. Alvarez, science & engineering educator and Director of the MESA Program at San Diego City College. Rafael is the Founder and Director of the Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement program (that is, the MESA program) at San Diego City College. Rafael grew up in the community of Encanto in east San Diego and was a first generation student. He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering at Harvey Mudd College and his MS degree in electrical engineering from USC. He worked as a professional engineer before returning to academia in the 1990s at San Diego City College. He founded the MESA program in 2000, and recently published the book “Turning on the Lights: Using Learning Culture to Increase Student Success,” which is available on his website, turning on the lights dot com, with hyphens between each word. The MESA program now includes an alliance of partner institutions in the western US. In recognition of his achievements in using learning culture to increase student success, Director Alvarez was awarded the 2012 John & Suanne Roueche ROOOSH Excellence Award from the League for Innovation in the Community College and the 2021 Outstanding Engineering Educator Award from the San Diego County Engineering Council.
In this episode, IDEA Center Director Darren Lipomi sat down with Prof. Raychelle Burks of American University to discuss her career as a crime scene investigator, new approaches to field analytics, her side gig as a script consultant for movies, and approaches to inclusive teaching and mentoring.
Lilo Pozzo is the Boeing-Roundhill Professor for Excellence in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. She is also a professor and the Interim Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She earned her BS degree in chemical engineering at the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez in 2001 and her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006. She obtained her current position at UW after a postdoctoral stint at the National Institute for Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research from 2006 to 2007. Her research concerns the development, measurement and control of self-assembly processes for soft materials over nanometer and micrometer scales. Current projects include high-throughput experimentation and data science for materials design, functional emulsions, and materials for energy storage and conversion. She is known for her excellence in teaching and mentoring, scientific and technological outreach to Puerto Rico in recovery after hurricane Maria, and advocacy of LGBTQ scientists and engineers, especially trans and Latinx communities. We spoke in this episode about a wide range of topics.
Zhigang Suo is the Allen E and Marilyn M Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Professor Suo obtained his BS degree from Xi’an Jiaotan University in 1985 and PhD in mechanical engineering from Harvard University in 1989. He began his independent career at UC Santa Barbara, moved to Princeton in 1997 and to Harvard in 2003. It was during this period that I became aware of Zhigang’s work, when he attended some of our more mechanics-oriented group meeting. Zhigang has been a leader in the thermomechanical reliability of semiconductor devices, and did some of the first mechanical analyses on soft matter devices critical to haptics, robotics, adhesives, and human-machine interfaces. He is an engaging public speaker and storyteller, and his talks generate standing-room-only crowds at conferences. In this episode, we talked about his trajectory in his career and life and challenges facing Asian and Chinese American scientists and engineers.
My guest today is Eric Mazur, professor of physics and applied physics at Harvard University. He is also a creator and entrepreneur in the area of technological resources for classroom teaching. He is known for his research in ultrafast optics and condensed matter physics, and also for his extensive work in the teaching methodology known as Peer Instruction. Attending one of his lectures on teaching as a graduate student was one of the formative experiences of my professional life. He is a true pioneer in active learning in science and engineering education, and was practicing and espousing the benefits of “flipped classrooms” long before the word came into common usage.
Malika Jeffries-EL is a professor of chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, and associate Dean of the graduate school, at Boston University. She is an organic materials chemist and polymer engineer focusing on organic semiconductors. That is, the type of materials used in organic light-emitting displays, biosensors, solar cells, and other next-generation thin-film devices. She is well known on social media and in the community for her work on equity in academia and in the sciences. I first got to know Malika through her work on conjugated polymers when I was a graduate student, when one name kept appearing over and over. Her early work on molecular engineering of semiconducting polymers and their combination with nanostructured materials was an inspiration to me during my grad school and postdoc days. She is joining me today to talk about her work, her mentoring, and her new role in university leadership, and what she has learned.
In this episode of IDEAs in STEM Ed, Darren Lipomi sits down with Professor Andrea Armani. Andrea Armani is the Ray Irani chair in Engineering and Materials Science and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. Her laboratory uses a mixture of tools from chemistry, physics, engineering, and biology, and bridges the disciplines of materials science, medical imaging, and nano photonics. Among many awards she has earned over her career, she is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2010, and recognized as a World Economic Form Young Global Leader in 2015. Andrea is perhaps known as much for her scientific work as she is for her advocacy of students, young faculty, and women in science. She regularly organizes events stressing the importance of mentoring, careers in and outside of academia, and equity issues in science. We’re honored for her to join us today.