Hands-On Research Program Prepares Scientific Leaders in Developing Countries

In 2005, Raj Roy, director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST), was attending a conference at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics when he realized that most of the conferences he attended focused on theoretical training and research.  “There was very little content on experimental measurements and physics demonstrating how we can produce first-rate scientific research with cost-effective instrumentation and table-top small scale experiments,” says Roy, who began searching with colleagues Ken Showalter from the University of West Virginia and Harry Swinney from the University of Texas-Austin for funding sources to offer such a program.

At an airport in Mexico later that year when he was returning from a conference, Roy connected with the dean of a large national laboratory in India, who offered to host such a program. The Hands-on Research Complex Systems School was up and running with its initial session offered at the Institute for Plasma Research in Gandhinagar, India, in 2008.  The two-week school offered young scientists and doctoral students from developing countries the opportunity to participate in hands-on research, including real-time computer data acquisition and associated computational modeling. 

In late July, 2010, Raj Roy, Math Professor Brian Hunt, and three Maryland graduate students (Adam Cohen, Bhargava Ravoori and Shelby Wilson) headed for Cameroon and the University of Buea (Buea is the provincial capital of the South West Region of Cameroon). They expanded Maryland's Global Community by taking part in an international "table top research" program on the frontiers of science.  

Math Professor Brian Hunt went on his first trip with the program, and said that beyond the adventure of it all, he looked forward to the program as a real learning experience. "I hope the participants are able to learn as much from me as I am from them," he says. Hunt is an expert in MATLAB – a high level computer language and interactive platform that's been used by Maryland math students for a decade - and he'll be bringing that experience to Cameroon as well. "The material will form the basis for what we'll be doing," he said. But added it will have a different focus because of the hands-on approach to cutting edge research.

The 2009 session was offered in July at the Universidade Federal do ABC in Sao Paolo, Brazil.  CMNS faculty led a number of sessions for the 60 students from 16 countries who attended the event, which included lectures and interactive experiments on complex systems in the physical and life sciences and frontier research that can be conducted by individuals or small groups using modern yet inexpensive digital instrumentation.  Laboratory work was complemented by mathematical modeling and data analysis using MATLAB.

Roy along with Physics Graduate Students Adam Cohen and Bhargava Ravoori conducted a session on “Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos in a Time-delayed Electro-optic Feedback System.”  Participants had an opportunity to experiment with an electro-optic system and to observe the route to chaos.  Michelle Girvan, Physics, along with Kimberly Glass, Graduate Student in Physics and Karl Schmitt, Graduate Student in Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation, presented “Complex Networks,” simulating and analyzing systems with a crucial pattern of connectivity between interacting elements.  Erin Rericha, Burroughs Wellcome Fellow at the University of Maryland, and Woody Shew, Ph.D. in Physics and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National institutes of Health, presented a session on “From Single Cells to Groups:  Exploring Cell Response to Stimuli.”

“Many of these students may never have seen their experiments working at the research level,” says Roy. “They have never participated in research that uses today’s computer technology integrated with modular instrumentation such as digital and analog converters, sound cards and image processing.”

Faculty and student interactions in the laboratory often lead to subsequent exchange visits and further scientific collaboration, according to Roy. Participants are also able to introduce new tools and demonstrations into their classrooms and teaching laboratories and to use the newly acquired tools in research.

“We can help them in analyzing the data and collecting additional data over the coming months and years,” explains Roy. “We all come away with new ideas for experiments and research.”

Equally important is the long-term effect of the school. “Many of these students demonstrate scientific and intellectual excellence,” says Roy. “They will become leaders with tremendous influence on science development in their countries.”

The 2012 program is planned for June at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, and is sponsored by the Abdus Salam International Centre for theoretical Physics and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.  To learn more, visit www.handsonresearch.org.