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Overview
Connecting Research and Education At TExas (CREATE) was founded in 2017 through a partnership established between Dr. Sean T. Roberts at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Dr. Shawn M. Amorde at Austin Community College (ACC) with support from the National Science Foundation. CREATE’s initial goal was to improve community college student retention in the physical sciences by fostering mentorship relationships between ACC students and UT faculty through research projects tied to green energy. Over time, CREATE’s managing team has been broadened to include Dr. Emily Que (UT), Dr. Samantha Soebbing (ACC), Dr. Purna Murthy (ACC), and Dr. Huilang (Evan) Wang (UT) which has allowed its scope to expand into a range of areas in chemistry, molecular biosciences, physics, materials science, and engineering. ​
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Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials (CDCM): an NSF MRSEC, CREATE:
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Provides competitive paid summer internships exclusively for Austin Community College (ACC) students with The University of Texas at Austin (UT)
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Hosts research seminars given by UT faculty on an ACC campus
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Offers an honors organic chemistry II laboratory course in which students develop new materials for application in UT research labs.​
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Impact
CREATE by the numbers:
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Internships
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79 ACC students have earned 90 paid summer internships in UT labs
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Over 20 UT faculty have accepted ACC students for intern positions.
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Seminars
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43 research seminars have been given by UT faculty at ACC campuses with an average of attendance of 40 - 50 students, faculty & staff.
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Honors Course
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64 ACC students have participated in honors course research
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~50% of students who took the honors course became summer interns.
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1 honors course alumnus earned the prestigious Jack Kent Cook Transfer Scholarship
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Research has produced 1 publication (with another pending)
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Publications/Presentations
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9 ACC students have had their CREATE work published in 10 scientific journal articles.
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ACC students have participated in 4 Poster Sessions in the 2024 academic year
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Alumni
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Where do our alumni go?
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Undergraduate Transfer: The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Rutgers, The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Texas at San Antonio, Southwestern University, University of Washington
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Graduate Institutions: The Pennsylvania State University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California, Davis, University of Pittsburgh, University of Washington School of Oceanography
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Industry: Samsung, Tesla, AustinPX, Chevron-Philips
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Personal Testimonial from a University Professor:
"... I am instructional faculty at Texas A&M University; specifically, I coordinate the Organic I and II Labs for our chemistry majors. I wanted to drop a line because this semester I have a third phenomenal student who transferred from your program... Each of them has made a point to express their admiration for you within our first few minutes of meeting (truly!). Given their aptitude for chemistry, as well as their facility in the lab, I have no doubt that you are training them well.
I am sure you know how much you have touched students’ lives but am not sure you realize that your reputation has spread this far. Since we have now shared several students, I wanted to thank you myself for your considerable efforts. May we all strive to impact our students as much as you seem to!"
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Justine N. deGruyter, Ph.D.
Instructional Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry | Texas A&M University
23 Aug 2024
CREATE Leadership Team
Contact CREATE at CREATE@cm.utexas.edu
Sean Roberts, Ph.D.
UT Austin
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Associate Professor - Department of Chemistry
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Fellow of the William H. Wade Endowed Professorship in Chemistry
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Dr. Roberts has served the Department of Chemistry at UT Austin since 2014. He co-developed the Honors Organic Chemistry Course at ACC and is the founder of Chemical Research at Texas, formerly known as Green Energy at Texas.​ ​
Shawn Amorde, Ph.D.
Austin Community College
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Professor - Department of Chemistry
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Dr. Amorde co-developed the Honors Organic Chemistry course at ACC with Dr. Roberts. It is a research experience module that introduces ACC students to chemical research by allowing them to design, synthesize, and characterize a library of organic dyes and pigments with potential utility for energy applications.
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Emily Que, Ph.D.
UT Austin
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Associate Professor - Department of Chemistry
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MSMLG Czarnik Emerging Investigators Award for 2021
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Dr. Que has served the Department of Chemistry at UT Austin since Summer 2014. She has developed a series of Gd-based contrast agents and was awarded the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Young Investigator Award (2010). Her research areas include bioinorganic chemistry and chemical biology.
Samantha Soebbing, Ph.D.
Austin Community College
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Adjunct Associate Professor - Department of Chemistry
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Faculty Mentor - Science, Engineering & Math Area of Study
Dr. Soebbing has served ACC students since Fall 2016. Previously, she was a faculty member at Nashville State Community College. Her research interests in graduate school and her post-doctoral fellowship were protein design and radiochemistry.
Huiliang (Evan) Wang, Ph.D.
UT Austin
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Assistant Professor - Department of Biomedical Engineering
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Dr. Huiliang (Evan) Wang has served the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin since 2021. His research is on the development of nanoparticles and wearable electronics for neural interfacing. He has won several awards such as NSF CAREER Award, NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award.
Purna Murthy, Ph. D
Austin Community College
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Associate Professor - Department of Engineering
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Purna Murthy has served ACC students since 2019. He has 25+ years of experience working in the aerospace and high-tech industries. His impressive background features roles such as a NASA engineer and Vice President of Engineering at Dell. ​
CREATE Sponsors
