Greetings!

We are celebrating the end of a successful year for Engineering and the Sciences at UCSB. Most importantly, the Materials Research Laboratory received its sixth consecutive multimillion-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation. Secondly, the new Bioengineering building, which will house a wide range of departments, from Physics to Mechanical Engineering, has completed construction. The faculty, students and staff, over 200 people, have already moved in.

There are two industry-related events coming up in January and February that we encourage you to attend: the Materials Research Outreach Program Symposium (MROP) and the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) West Regional Conference. Finally, for some tips on winter recruiting and more details on the subjects above, read on!
MRL MRSEC Renewal
UC Santa Barbara’s  Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) has received its sixth consecutive multimillion-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund another six years of operation as an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). The $23.1 million grant will go towards funding research into hard magnetic intermetallic materials and their microstructures, chemistry and engineering of novel polymer materials, and biomaterials and bioinspired processing.
 
“We had anticipated that the competition would be intense, and the successful outcome is really a testament to the hard work put in by all of the proposal participants,” said Ram Seshadri , UCSB’s Fred and Linda R. Wudl Chair in Materials Science and Director of the MRL. “The renewed center reflects the collaborative spirit and the pride in collective success that define UCSB faculty.”
 
New BioEngineering Building
After a decade of planning, a complex fundraising effort and three years of construction, the new $86 million Bioengineering Building has finally opened its doors. The building will be home to 15 faculty who, College of Engineering Dean Rod Alferness said, “will mentor and guide some 165 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers on a journey of problem-solving and discovery in a shared 21st-century laboratory space.” The state-of-the-art research facility is now home to the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB)  and the Center for Bioengineering (CBE) .
 
“Buildings like this are crucial in that they allow people to come together from many different departments in order to talk and learn from each other, which provides a source of ideas and creativity and applications that wouldn’t happen otherwise if people are in their respective silos of isolation,” said Brad Chmelka , Co-Director of the ICB . “The future is brighter for a broad range of shared research because of this investment.”
 
“When we sat down to plan this building,” said Kevin Plaxco , Director of the CBE , “we challenged the architects to design a building that would play an integral role in bringing us together, a building that wouldn’t be a bunch of separate floors where no one sees one another, but a building that feels like a whole organic edifice. A building that forces people to encounter each other in the hall, and when they do, there are appealing places to sit down and talk about scientific problems.”
 
Materials Research Outreach Program Symposium (MROP 2018)
Wednesday, January 31, 2018 - 9:00am to Thursday, February 1, 2018 - 7:00pm
UCSB Corwin Pavilion
 
The MROP 2018 program will focus on research efforts concerned with the science and engineering of organic-based macromolecules and polymers as well as inorganic materials. The symposium is designed to stimulate collaborative research between faculty groups at UCSB and industry scientists and engineers under the auspices of our Materials Research Laboratory. Several UC-industry joint research efforts have been initiated as a result of this program. As befits the interdisciplinary nature of this effort, participating faculty represent a number of departments and many have joint appointments in more than one department.
 
The scientific program will feature talks by UCSB faculty, students, and industry representatives that will showcase the scope of materials research at UCSB and will offer attendees the chance to enjoy one-on-one contact with graduate students and faculty. Highlights will include the  Cheetham Lecture and a poster session. We hope that you will be able to join us!
SASE West Regional Conference
The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE)  at UCSB has been chosen to host the annual SASE West Regional Conference (WRC) on February 10, 2018. SASE WRC brings together 200 STEM students from SASE Chapters at schools in Washington, Nevada, Arizona, and California. The conference is a day dedicated to networking and professional development and gives students the opportunity to network with industry professionals. In the past, students found this to be a rewarding experience as many have landed dream jobs and internships through connections made at this conference. This event has also given companies the opportunity to recruit these students for internship and full-time roles.

If you are interested in attending or would like more information regarding the conference, please reach out to  ucsbsase@gmail.com . 
Winter Recruiting
Recruiting events are one of the best ways for students to explore jobs, gain industry knowledge and meet hiring decision makers. We hosted over 40 different companies during the Fall quarter, so make sure to schedule your recruitment event today!
 
Classes start Monday, January 8th and the UCSB Winter Career Fair  is set for Wednesday, January 24th. We already have a number of info sessions booked in January and dates are filling up. If you would like your company to host an info session please contact Ashley Antoon , the Student Recruitment and Internship Manager for Engineering and the Sciences, at (805) 893-5676 or at  antoon@engineering.ucsb.edu . 
We always appreciate any input you may have on how we can improve, so please don't hesitate to send us your feedback. Thank you for your continued interest in our program. For further information, please visit the Industry Center website at:  www.industry.ucsb.edu

Sincerely, 
Corporate Programs