Engineering undergrads work in newest labs
ASU engineering student Bethany Smith is helping to develop nanoscale batteries in the lab of assistant professor Candace Chan at the new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building IV. Photo: Andy DeLisle/ASU
Posted April 30, 2013
Arizona State University’s newest and largest research building, the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4 (ISTB4), is designed to foster collaboration between faculty members in various areas of engineering and science, and to open opportunities for more students to get hands-on lab experience.
Materials science and engineering major Bethany Smith is among those working with faculty members who welcome aspiring young researchers into their new ISTB4 labs.
Only a sophomore, Smith is assisting in efforts to develop more efficient and powerful batteries at the nanoscale level. She’s working in the lab of Candace Chan, an assistant professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy.
Chan says of ISTB4, “Everyone loves it here and we get to interact with faculty from other departments that we normally would not have ever met.”
Says Smith, “I love the fact that everything is a bit more open. There are windows so that you can see what other labs are working on and the general public can look in on what you’re doing. Having these open labs can let other people say ‘Oh hey, there are real people working in there.’”
