NEXTech 2023:
Nano Electrochemistry eXtensions to Technology
the Penner Group Highschool Outreach Program.
NEXTech 2023 has been canceled because of insufficient staffing to support this program. We apologize to those of you who expressed interest. We hope to sponsor this program in the future.
what is it?
NEXTech 2023 will continue a long-standing program of outreach to Orange County high school students in connection with our National Science Foundation grants.
NEXTech 2022 Students and Instructors, July 22, 2022.
Left to right: Heriberto Flores-Zuleta, Vy Tran (Fountain Valley HS), Minho Beak (Woodbridge High School), Lauren Van (Portola High School), Madeline Pinches (Los Alamitos High School), Nick Drago, Maria Gorodetski (University High School), Nick Humphrey, Tamar Figotin (University High School).
During summer 20122 we had six outstanding high school students working together with us (See above). This brings to fifty four the total number of high school students who have pursued independent research projects under the supervision of myself and senior graduate students. This web site has produced visibility for our program beyond the City of Irvine and since 2006 we have attracted students from Aliso Viejo (2), Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley (1), Fullerton (2), Los Alamitos (1), Mission Viejo, Newport Beach (1), Santa Ana (6), Valencia (2), and Villa Park (2). The map below shows the city of origin (as a blue dot) for each of our participants.
Map of Orange County indicating (as blue dots) the geographical distribution of participants in the Penner Group High School Outreach Program.
Students engaged in our outreach program often prepare posters for presentation at the Orange County Science Fair (OCSF). These presentations have been well received and as indicated in the Table, several have been selected at OCSF for presentation at the California State Science Fair (CSSF). Irrespective of the degree of success attained by each student in the laboratory, these students have all been enthusiastic and engaged in their research, which occurs under the direct supervision of a senior graduate student in the laboratory.
Two Penner Group High School Outreach Fellowship All Stars in Action:
LEFT: Ervin Meneses (Santa Ana High Schoool) examines an array of gold nanowires, summer 2010.
Ervin is a sophomore at Union College, Schenectady, New York this fall, 2012. Ervin was the first recipient of the Penner Group High School Outreach Fellowship sponsored and funded by National Science Foundation.
RIGHT: Johncarlo Mensa (Santa Ana High School) is aligning a lithographic mask on a sample to prepare it for the growth of nanowires, summer 2011. Johncarlo is presently (fall 2012) a freshman at Allegeny College in Pennsylvania. He was the second recipient of the Penner Group High School Outreach Fellowship sponsored and funded by the NSF.
They're Great!
Two students (Rei Wu and Swetha Kambhampati) competed in the Siemans-Westinghouse Competition (https://siemenscompetition.discoveryeducation.com). the most prestigious science competition for high school students in the U.S., and both were recognized as semifinalists. We have had a total of 50 participants to date, and of these, at least 42 of our ``alumni'' have already been accepted to, are currently attending, or have graduated from, colleges including: UC Berkeley (9 alumni), MIT (5), Caltech (3), Stanford (3), UCLA (3), Harvard (2), UCSD (2), Dartmouth (1), Upenn (1), UC Irvine (1), Union College (1), Wellesley (1), UC Davis (1), UC Merced (1), CSU Fullerton (1), Allegany College (1) (See table below for a complete list).
More about NEXTech 2023.
NEXTech 2023 will involve a 4 week course in Electrochemistry (dates TBD). You will attend a laboratory series Monday through Friday for 4 hours a day, from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm, for these four weeks. Laboratory experiments in electrochemistry will illustrate key concepts, leading to an understand of the research in the Penner lab. Over the 4 weeks you will explore the following concepts:
- electrical and ionic conduction in materials,
- understanding electrochemical cells,
- measuring current and potentials,
- electrodeposition.
- fabrication of a biosensor or nanowire catalyst.
You'll also learn the various types of instrumentation that is used in electrochemistry to gather data such as: a potentiostat, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy,and X-ray diffraction. As well as learning laboratory skills the students will attend bi-weekly group meetings where they will learn more details about the projects that are being researched in the Penner lab. Collaboration is very important in science and these meetings will teach you how to interact with fellow lab members and how to approach difficulties in research by interacting with other scientists.
In the last week and a half of the program you will design a mini electrochemistry experiment of your own, building your ability to think independently and allowing you the opportunity to explore a particular area of electrochemistry. This will involve conceiving of an electrochemical experiment, learning the background and setup of the experiment, collecting data, and compiling this information into a presentation that will be presented on the last day of the program. Graduates are encouraged to present a poster at the Orange County Science Fair (OCSF).
Still interested? Fantastic! Now, here are the...NEXTech 2023 Admission requirements:.
We welcome applications from students meeting the following criteria.
- you are a highschool junior or senior (in Fall 2023)
- ...or, an undergraduate student who is a junior.
- you have a 3.5 GPA or better.
- you have completed a high school chemistry or physics course. (Undergraduates must have completed all General Chemistry Laboratory classes with a 3.5 GPA in the series.)
- most importantly, you are interested in pursuing a Science or Engineering degree! (Undergraduates must be a Chemistry, Physics, or Engineering majors).
NEXTech 2023 Application Documents.
Please send the following to Ms. Vivian Chen: dragon@uci.edu by April 15, 2023.
- Resume (2 page max, flexible format)
- A one page essay on why electrochemistry is interesting, why you are interested in doing research, and what you hope to get out of this program. (Essay requirements: 1 page double spaced, Arial -12 pt Font, 1" margins, no title or author name in header)
- Students will be notified if they are accepted by May 1st.
Table. Students Participating in the Penner Group High School Outreach Programs: 2001-Present (reverse chronological order).
| Vy Tran | summer 2022 | 2023 | Fountain Valley HS, Fountain Valley | Senior at Fountain Valley HS |
| Lauren Van | summer 2022 | 2023 | Portola High School, Irvine | Senior at Portola HS |
| Madeline Pinches | summer 2022 | 2023 | Los Alamitos High School, Las Alamitos | Senior at Los Alamitos HS |
| Minho Beak | summer 2022 | 2023 | Woodbridge HS Irvine | Senior at Woodbridge HS Irvine |
| Maria Gorodetski | summer 2022 | 2023 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at UniHigh Irvine |
| Tamar Figotin | summer 2022 | 2023 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at UniHigh Irvine |
| Suryadip Bandyopadhyay | summer 2018 | 2019 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at UniHigh Irvine, fall 2018. |
| Juslyn Chan | summer 2018 | 2019 | Marina HS, Huntington Beach | Senior at Marina HS, Huntington Bch, fall 2018. |
| Youssef Kallel | summer 2018 | 2019 | Corona del Mar High School, Corona del Mar | Senior at CDM HS, fall 2018. |
| Alexandra Lai | summer 2018 | 2019 | Villa Park High School, Villa Park. | Senor at Villa Park HS, fall 2018. |
| Andrew Song | summer 2018 | 2019 | Yorba Linda HS, Yorba Linda | Senior at Yorba Linda HS, fall 2018. |
| Anivirit Subramaniam | summer 2018 | 2020 | University High School, Irvine | Junior at UniHigh Irvine, fall 2018. |
| Stephen Lantin | 6/13 to 7/13 and 6/15 to 7/15 |
2016 | University High School, Irvine | Junior at UC Santa Barbara, fall 2018. |
| Aurnov Chattopadhyay | 6/15 to 7/15 | 2017 | University High School, Irvine | Sophomore (Davis Scholar) at Columbia University, fall 2018. |
| Victoria Lee | 6/15 to 7/15 | 2016 | Fountain Valley High School | Junior at UC Berkeley, fall 2018. |
| Kristin Vagara | 6/15 to 7/15 | 2016 | Huntington Beach High School | Junior at Cornell, fall 2018. |
| Salvador Verduzco | 6/15 to 7/15 | 2016 | Godinez Fundamental School, Santa Ana | Junior at USC, fall 2018! |
| Andrew Liu | 6/14 to 7/14 | 2015 | Oxford Academy, Cypress | Senior at UC Berkeley, fall 2018. |
| Aviva Myers | 6/14 to 7/14 | 2015 | Laguna Beach High School | Senior at Stanford, fall 2018. |
| Jennifer Mendoza* | 6/14 to 7/14 | 2015 | Santa Ana High School | Senior at California State University, Fullerton, fall 2018. |
| Kelly Mendoza* | 6/14 to 7/14 | 2015 | Godinez Fundamental School, Santa Ana | Senior at UC Merced, fall 2018. |
| Eleni Andrikos | 6/13 to 7/13 | 2015 | Orange County School of the Arts Santa Ana |
Senior at UC Davis, fall 2018. |
| Kruthi Renduchintala | 6/12 to 7/13 | 2015 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at UC Berkeley, fall 2018. |
| Albert Tung | 6/12 to 7/13 | 2014 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at Stanford, fall 2018. |
| Joon Hee Lee | 6/13 to 7/13 | 2014 | Arnold O. Beckman High School, Tustin | Junior at Caltech, fall 2016. |
| Kimberly Venegas* | 6/13 to 7/13 | 2014 | Santa Ana High School | A senior at Santa Ana High School, fall 2014. |
| Daisy Andres* | 6/13 to 7/13 | 2014 | Santa Ana High School | Freshman at UCLA, fall 2014. |
| Erick Andres* | 6/12 to 9/12 | 2013 | Santa Ana High School | Sophomore at UC Berkeley, fall 2014. |
| Deven Patel | 6/12 to present | 2014 | Villa Park High School | Sophomore at UCLA, fall 2014. |
| Cliff Kao | 6/11 to 9/11 | 2013 | University High School, Irvine | 2nd place, International Chemistry Olympiad, 2012! Congrats Cliff! Sophomore at UPenn, fall 2014. |
| Melissa Huang | 6/11 to 9/11 | 2013 | Foothill High School, Tustin | Sophomore at UC Irvine, fall 2014 |
| Johncarlo Menza* | 6/11 to 9/11 | 2012 | Santa Ana High School | Freshman, Allegheny College , fall 2012. |
| Yash Desai | 6/11 to 9/11 | 2013 | University High School, Irvine | Sophomore at UC Berkeley, fall 2013. |
| Ashley Park | 6/11 to 9/11 | 2013 | University High School, Irvine | Sophomore at Wellesley College, fall 2013. |
| Felicia Hsu | 4/10 to 9/10 | 2011 | Valencia High School | Sophomore at MIT, fall 2012. |
| Ervin Meneses* | 6/10 to 9/10 | 2011 | Santa Ana High School | Freshman at Union College, Schenectady, New York, fall 2011. |
| Sam Kim | 9/09 to 12/09 | 2011 | Aliso Niguel High School | Sophomore at Harvard, fall 2012. |
| Catherine Dong | 6/09 to 9/09 | 2012 | Northwood High School, Irvine | TBA |
| Vivek Abraham | 2/09 to 8/09 | 2012 | University High School, Irvine | TBA |
| Jennifer Kadowlski | 5/09 to 8/09 | 2010 | Troy High School, Fullerton | Junior at UCLA, fall 2012 |
| Ayan Kusari | 8/08 to 3/09 | 2011 | University High School, Irvine | Sophomore at UCSD, fall 2012. |
| Pratiksha Thanker | 8/08 to 12/08 | 2010 | University High School, Irvine | Junior at MIT, fall 2012. |
| Chasen Stark | 6/06 to 8/08 | 2009 | University High School, Irvine | Senior at USC, fall 2012. |
| Jonathan Noguchi | summer 2008 | 2008 | Troy High School, Fullerton | Senior at Stanford University, fall 2012. |
| Aashish Varma | 5/07 to 8/08 | 2008 | Estancia High School, Costa Mesa | Sophomore at Cal Berkeley, fall 2012. |
| Adam Khan | 4/07 to 8/08 | 2008 | University High School, Irvine | Sophomore at Caltech, fall 2012. |
| Micca Hecht | 4/07 to 8/08 | 2008 | Tarbat V'Torah, Irvine | Junior at MIT, fall 2012. |
| Dat Hoang | 6/06 to 8/07 | 2007 | Trabuco High School, Mission Viejo | Graduated Berkeley 2011, grad. student at Columbia in Chemistry, fall 2012. |
| Johan Hoang | 8/05 to 6/06 | 2006 | University High School, Irvine | Graduated Harvard |
| Swetha Kambhampati | 10/04 to 6/06 | 2006 | University High School, Irvine | Swetha wins Merage American Dream Fellowship!. Graduated MIT in 2010 |
| Sherwin Doroudi | 6/04 to 9/04 | 2005 | Sage Hill High School, Irvine | Graduated Caltech. |
| Trevor Granger | 6/04 to 9/04 | 2004 | Sage Hill High School, Irvine | Graduated Dartmouth. |
| Keidi He | 8/03 to 1/06 | 2004 | University High School, Irvine | Graduated UC Berkeley, 2011. |
| Albert Linden | 6/03 to 3/04 | 2004 | University High School, Irvine | Graduated UC Berkeley, 2010. |
| Rui Wu | 6/02 to 8/03 | 2003 | University High School, Irvine | Graduated MIT. |
| Jeff Chen | 9/01 to 5/02 | 2002 | University High School, Irvine | Graduated UC Berkeley 2004, CEO of Mertex Technologies. |
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