Al-Aakhir Rogers, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, was one of only 150 chosen from a nationwide pool of applicants to receive a prestigious East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EASPI) fellowship award. Al-Aakhir will be working at the Instrument Technology Research Center (ITRC), National Applied Research Laboratories in Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan, R.O.C. His project will involve near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) measurements of nanostructures and nanolithography using a perfect lens.

The primary goals of EAPSI are to introduce students to East Asia and Pacific science and engineering in the context of a research laboratory, and to initiate personal relationships that will better enable them to collaborate with foreign counterparts in the future. The institutes last approximately eight weeks from June to August. Each year, the EAPSI program sends a select group of U.S. science and engineering graduate students to Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan, where they work side by side with professors and peers from leading universities and laboratories on science and engineering challenges in those locations.

These cross-cultural experiences exposes EAPSI students to the diversity of ideas that drives innovation, and it prepares them for leadership roles in the global research enterprise. EAPSI participants receive a $4,000 stipend along with airline travel and lodging.

Al-Aakhir, a member of the Bio-MEMS and Microsystems research laboratory group, is a NSF Bridge to the Doctorate and Sloan Minority PhD fellow in the College of Engineering. In addition to his PhD work focusing on the development of optical-based MEMS based sensors, he has been involved in several outreach activities, including the 2006 USF Micro/Nano Robotics K-12 Summer Camp, Florida-Georgia LSAMP Research & Career Expo, and the 25th Annual National Conference of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute.