Professor of Mechanical Engineering Ron Lumia is always looking for new ways of seeing and thinking. That’s what led him to become a Fulbright Scholar at the Indian Institute of Science in (IISc) Bengaluru, India, in quest of a new microgripper packaging technique using Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems or (MEMS).
Photo: Ron Lumia
“Primarily the goal was to be a researcher, and when we had our Fulbright orientation last summer, they said we know you all applied and had this very specific thing to do but don’t be too rigid,” Lumia says, “And I’m thinking what? Don’t do what we applied for? The goal was actually to be flexible enough to change as conditions came about because there might be different opportunities that might be better than the original proposal was…and you should be prepared to take them.”
Research Challenges
So Lumia set out to work on his research project, and to learn. His first surprise came immediately when he learned that the new MEMS facility he had hoped to work in hadn’t been completed. His second surprise came when he learned he could not actually walk into the current facilities to work. He had to collaborate with a technical staff member who actually did the processing. But it was interesting, and he and his collaborator started to work.
At UNM he had been working with an artificial muscle material called ionic polymer metal composite, but the problem was to package the tiny microgrippers so they had mechanical stability. There were some problems in getting good electrical contact in the microgripper fingers so they were able to perform reliably without crushing delicate biological samples.
Lumia and his collaborator at IISc began to come up with alternatives. They now have three possible ways to solve the problem and are working on a paper describing one of those approaches, and planning another paper on a different technique.
Learning How Engineering Students Think About Education
While Lumia was waiting for some of the technical processing to be complete in the laboratory, he began talking with students and learning about other universities in India. He found that the system for undergraduates who want to study engineering is very straightforward.
Lumia says, “The way you get into these universities is yo take a test. You are ranked from 1 to n. There are 450,000 students who take the engineering exam. The top 4,500 go to the Indian Institutes of Technology…all seven ITTs. That’s it. The top 1 percent fill up all the ITTs. Now what about 4,501?”
Lumia says there are a number of excellent schools in India for students who are not part of that top 1 percent, but he thinks UNM might also be able to attract top graduate and undergraduate students with a little effort and some scholarship money.
During his time in Bengaluru, Lumia taught a class in design for manufacturability for IISc, and he also judged an all India robotics competition. That opened his eyes to the way Indian students think about the U.S. There were 80 teams in the competition from 56 different universities. Each team built robots that could pick up objects and move them to different spots. There were a number of criteria for measuring each group’s performance and Lumia talked with each group about their designs as a part of the judging. He also asked them how they chose an engineering graduate school.
As students complete their undergraduate work and start to look for international experience in the U.S., they told him the first place they look are the school rankings for the top 50 engineering graduate schools listed in U.S. News & World Report.
UNM’s School of Engineering is 77 in the current rankings. Lumia said he found UNM isn’t on the students’ radar screen. That’s what worries him. He knows many of the Indian engineering students would have a great study and research experience at UNM, and the School of Engineering would certainly benefit from having more students who are looking for careers in research. But how do you reach the right students with the right incentives?
Lumia is already looking for a way to set up some kind of joint Master’s degree with an Institute in India. He says students could do one year at UNM or in India then complete the second year of the degree at the other institution.
Lumia says there are good schools in India that UNM could partner with. He says, “I think it could really help us do the research, when leads to high quality publications which starts the virtuous circle toward the top 50.” Lumia’s Fulbright Fellowship was a grant to help solve a specific research problem, but the experience gave him more than research answers, it lit a fire for ways he can help to improve the university.
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at June 23, 2009 10:53 AM