Students get early career opportunities from IMPRINT

Eric Rivera, a soon-to-graduate senior engineering student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, works on the COUPP experiment (pictured above) as part of the IMPRINT program.

Last summer, Eric Michael Rivera designed the optics and lighting system for COUPP, a bubble chamber experiment searching for dark matter.

"I was introduced to how real world research works, a lot of people don't get that kind of hands-on experience," said Rivera, a senior mechanical engineering major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Rivera is one of two students from the UIUC each year who come to Fermilab as a part of the Illinois Minority Precollege Internship program, or IMPRINT. Rivera said it was rewarding to give his input on projects. After graduation in May Rivera will return to Fermilab as a GEM Fellow, a National Consortium for Minorities in Engineering and Science fellowship program.

The IMPRINT program gives undergraduate students majoring in engineering and information technology the opportunity to gain real world experience in engineering and information technology.

Fermilab gets a chance to prepare the next generation of engineers and information technology professionals, some of whom may stay at the laboratory.

"It gives us the chance to really transition them into full-time entry-level employment," said Shelley Krivich of the Fermilab Employment Department.

IMPRINT Program student salaries come from the division/section that select the student for hire. This year, UIUC has recommended two civil engineering students and one mechanical engineering student. The program is in need of divisions/sections to support these students.

"Over the summers Eric has been returning to Fermilab, he has contributed more and more to our science and engineering effort," said CD's David Ritchie about the student he first mentored in 2005.

Michael Alvarez, a sophomore civil engineering major, started the program in 2007 and has constructed and executed 2008 FESS operations computing plan. He hopes to apply for his civil engineering degree towards construction management or consulting. He believes the program is a unique opportunity and a great addition to his resume.

"This program does open a lot of doors to members of underrepresented minorities," Alvarez said.

-- Tia Jones

Famed architect to speak at Fermilab at noon on Thursday

Architect James Carpenter will speak in One West at noon on Thursday.

Famed architect James Carpenter has been invited to give some insight on how light and glass can empower architecture.

Carpenter will give a noon talk at Fermilab titled "Constructing the Ephemeral" on Thursday, April 16, in One West.

Fermilab Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim invited Carpenter to talk at Fermilab after seeing him give a presentation a few months ago at the University of Chicago.

She hopes to gain wisdom from Carpenter and Steve Wiesenthal, chief architect at the University of Chicago, on how to continue to create aesthetically welcoming areas on Fermilab's campus.

Carpenter and Steve Wiesenthal will tour the laboratory and learn about the laboratory's architectural and scientific history prior to the talk.

In "Constructing the Ephemeral" Carpenter will highlight the 30 years of experience he and his New York City-based studio, James Carpenter Design Associates, have had in synthesizing the phenomena of light into architecture.

Carpenter will examine how these strategies have resulted in his studio's current work designing complete architectural projects that respond to both the experience of light and the need for sustainability.

Carpenter has won numerous awards including the National Environmental Design Award from the Smithsonian Institution and the MacArthur Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation.

New employees

Alexander Netepenko, guest scientist, APC; Paul Ranieri, engineer, FESS; Steve Hentschel, contractor; LaDerrick Honeycutt, systems administrator, CD; Emmanuel Branlard, guest scientist, AD; James Chee, database administrator analyst, CD.

FY 2010 Budget Update

From FYI AIP, April 14, 2009

It is expected that the Obama Administration will send Congress its much-anticipated FY 2010 budget request by early next month. The Administration has been successful in keeping a tight lid on this request: except for the budget overview issued in February, and an April 6 statement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, no further information has been released.

The preparation of a budget request usually takes many months. As an example, President Bush's Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget distributed a memo to department and agency heads outlining that Administration's FY 2008 R&D budget priorities 224 days before the request was sent to Congress. It has been only 85 days since the inauguration, and John Holdren was confirmed as the new Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy less than a month ago.

Read more