Guided Academic Industry Network (GAIN)

Left: Mandalina Kozicki, Summer 2019 | Right: Kossi Dohoho, Summer 2022

Purpose and Goals

GAIN is a two-year internship program that provides experiences in materials research and development (R&D) both in academia and industry for community college students. The twin goals of GAIN are to create opportunities for students and to enhance the workforce pipeline for materials-focused industries.

 

The role of materials R&D in the economy is enormous but it is not widely recognized. Pervasive technologies like efficient internal combustion engines are enabled by results from materials engineering such as sensors and nanostructured alloys. Future developments in many areas such as vehicle electrification, medical implants, and environmental remediation will depend on progress in materials R&D. However, recognition among the public of materials R&D as a career choice lags far behind that of other fields such as computer science and healthcare. GAIN is structured to address this gap.

 

Program Structure

Participants are selected from Boston-area community colleges. Since the summer of 2018, we have worked with one new participant each year. During the first summer, GAIN participants join the Jaramillo research group at MIT, to carry out research on semiconductor materials science. Participants then spend the second summer in an internship position at one of our partner local companies in the advanced materials industries. Each summer internship is expected to last for eight weeks. Beginning in 2023, we also offer academic internship experiences in the Department of Chemistry at Tufts University, in the laboratory of Prof. Luke Davis.

 

​Corporate Partners

  • CubicPV, (Bedford, MA)

  • Ambri (Marlborough, MA)

  • Saint-Gobain (Northboro, MA)

  • Veloxint (Framingham, MA)

  • Xtalic (Marlborough, MA)

Participants/Alumni

Bruce Quinn, Roxbury Community College | 2018 Summer Intern @ MIT: Synthesis and Sintering Sulfide Perovskites

2019 Summer Intern @ Veloxint

 

Mandalina Kozicki, Bunker Hill Community College | 2019 Summer Intern @ MIT: Tape Casting and Sintering of ZnS Thick Films | 2020 Summer Intern @ Xtalic

 

Tsedey Ayele, Roxbury Community College | 2020-2021 Intern @ MIT: Tape Casting and Sintering of ZnS Thick Films

 

Peter Ssemwogerere, Bunker Hill Community College | 2021 Summer Intern @ MIT: Tape Casting Chalcogenide Materials for Ifrared Applications | 2022 Summer Intern @ Saint Gobain 

 

Kossi Dohoho, Roxbury Community College | 2022 Summer Intern @ MIT: Investigating Optomechanical Effects in Zinc Oxide | 2023 Summer Intern @ Ambri

 

Lloyd Cayman, Roxbury Community College | 2023 Summer Intern @ MIT

 

Sponsorship
We are grateful to the National Science Foundation for supporting the GAIN program through awards #1751736 and 2224948.