UMaine News

National Science Foundation’s Sensor Science and Engineering Program Summer Institute at UMaine June 21/22

Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571

ORONO — The University of Maine will host the second annual two-day sensor science and engineering summer institute on Thursday, June 21 and Friday, June 22.

Part of the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program in Sensor Science Engineering and Informatics at the University of Maine, the institute is scheduled for St. John Hill Auditorium on the first floor of the Engineering and Science Research building (attached to Barrows Hall) from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. each day.

The event’s theme is “The Need for Sensor Systems in Different Technology Sectors.” The program will allow participants an opportunity to explore possible needs and applications for sensor systems in different technology sectors – including the seven targeted sectors identified by the Maine Legislature for research funding through the Maine Economic Improvement Fund.

Several of UMaine’s interdisciplinary research centers and initiatives will be highlighted throughout the two-day event.

Featured speakers on Thursday include Robert Lad, director of the UMaine Laboratory for Surface Science & Technology (LASST), Erich Osterberg of the Climate Change Institute at UMaine, Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center (AEWC) and Nick Brown, operations manager at UMaine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research.

Friday’s agenda will include talks on environmental sensors in watershed management from John Peckenham of UMaine’s Sen. George Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research and the need for sensors in the forest bioproducts industry by Steve Shaler of the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute at UMaine.

A new component of this year’s institute will be student-led discussion panels. Pairs of IGERT students have been assigned to each of the program’s speakers. The students will serve as moderators for a discussion at the conclusion of each talk. Students will provide background on current sensors

and sensor system applications in their assigned field. Faculty members and other representatives from each area will also contribute to the discussion.

“I think it will be a very interesting and informative program, and will be a pivotal step toward initiating new collaborative work among several disciplines,” says Lad, one of the event’s organizers.

The Sensor Science Engineering and Informatics (SSEI) IGERT program is a Ph.D. training program in the multidisciplinary area of sensor systems: ranging from the science and engineering of new materials and sensing mechanisms to the interpretation of sensor data.

Funding for the Summer Institute comes from the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, designed to train Ph.D. scientists through interdisciplinary programs that address pressing global needs.