Building upon the salient accomplishments of IDEALS I, the Phase II CREST Center for Interface Design and Engineered Assembly of Low-dimensional Systems (IDEALS II) addresses the need to strengthen the nation's leadership in materials capabilities in the frontier areas of quantum materials, bioinspired reconfigurable materials, and photonic materials and technologies, elevating CCNY as a premier research institution in these fields.

IDEALS I advanced the state of the art in materials research producing over 120 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals and over 200 presentations at national and international conferences. It helped develop the future science and technology leaders by building a diverse community of researchers comprising 27 doctoral students (44% from underrepresented minority (URM) groups), with 11 PhDs awarded (27% URM), and over fifty undergraduates (77% URM) involved in academic year and summer research.

The innovative IDEALS II research activities are organized into three synergistic interdisciplinary subprojects entitled: (1) Emergent Quantum Materials and Functions; (2) Bioinspired Reconfigurable Materials to Scale; and (3) Frontiers in Photonics: Materials, Phenomena and Devices.

IDEALS II researchers are poised to discover and design new materials, develop sophisticated probing techniques, introduce applications and generate intellectual property with profound scientific impact. IDEALS II aims to have far-reaching societal impacts by growing a diverse community of scientists and engineers that will help transform the materials landscape of the US and the world.

In IDEALS II, we will continue to apply the proven interventions developed and implemented in IDEALS I, and introduce new ones, with the goal of producing a talented and diverse work force capable of leading the materials research endeavors in the 21st century. The new evidence based interventions, organized according to three overarching goals: enriching the educational experience, augmenting diversity through recruitment, retention and mentoring, and transforming the institution. These are summarized in the Figure below.

Three long-term transformative institutional outcomes are being pursued: expanding the diversity of the doctoral student body across CUNY science and engineering disciplines, implementing schemes to promote diversity among the Chemistry, Physics and Engineering faculty ranks, such as the creation of a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and elevating CCNY's research standing and leveraging IDEALS II resources and accomplishments to successfully compete for a large Center grant.

IDEALS II Research Partner Institutions:

IDEALS PHASE I

The CREST Center for Interface Design and Engineered Assembly of Low Dimensional Systems (IDEALS) addresses the national need for "accelerating the pace of discovery and deployment of advanced material systems" as stated in the Materials Genome Initiative. A diverse multidisciplinary team of researchers with complementary interests has come together to design and discover materials with new and enhanced functionalities that culminate from the control of the salient unique properties of surfaces, interfaces and defects in self-assembled nanomaterials; and to further technology, energy and health applications. Scientists and engineers from the City College of New York (CCNY) and their partners at Lehman College, the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, and Virginia Tech employ experimental, analytical and numerical modeling tools to design and discover complex novel materials with new and enhanced functionalities and integrate education and research to enhance these enterprises within IDEALS.

The research activities of IDEALS are organized into three interdisciplinary, synergistic Subprojects entitled: (1) Low-Dimensional Functional Materials and Nano-Heterostructures (2) Bio-inspired Re-Configurable Materials; and (3) Novel Materials Probes and Design Formalism. They are schematically depicted by the three circles in Figure 1.

IDEALS Research Partners:

The research activities of IDEALS rest on an Integrated Research and Education Platform (Figure 2) that supports a range of programs intended to interact with the research process and enhance the student experience to produce a highly skilled, successful and diverse student body at the doctoral level in Science and Engineering.

The overarching goal of IDEALS is to transform the doctoral and postdoctoral student experience in order to engender global and interdisciplinary Materials Science and Engineering leaders of the future, as delineated in the Strategic Plan of the Materials Genome Initiative, whose ranks will benefit fully from our society's diverse population. The Center implements both innovative and proven Integrated Research and Educational Training practices that transform the experience of all graduate students and postdocs enabling them to develop leadership skills, a global perspective, and the skills for success in academic and industrial environments.

IDEALS Outreach and Education Partners: