RSI in Full Swing at MIT

Online, July 2, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) announces top achieving U.S. scholars and international scholars, are attending the 31st annual Research Science Institute (RSI), jointly sponsored with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which began on June 22nd and will continue through August 2nd. RSI is a six-week intensive program that provides students with the opportunity to conduct original, cutting edge research in state-of-the-art university laboratories, hospitals and corporate research facilities.

The RSI Selection Committee, comprised of professional educators and RSI alumni, convened at the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) in mid- February 2014 to select high school students to attend the nationally recognized program. Students selected for RSI are exemplary as based on the following criteria: high school records, personal essays, standardized test scores, teacher recommendations, research experience, potential for leadership, and honors and awards in math and science.

RSI is offered cost-free by CEE to competitively selected top achieving students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). RSI scholars participate in college-level research under the mentorship of leading scientists, engineers, and researchers in the Boston area.

The students, dubbed "Rickoids" after the late Admiral H.G. Rickover, Father of the Nuclear Navy and founder of the Center with CEE President Joann DiGennaro, will study pure and applied mathematics, physical and biological science, economics, and humanities. "The Research Science Institute offers scholars the opportunity to experience graduate level research at MIT," said Joann P. DiGennaro, CEE President. "RSI has nearly 2,000 successful alumni with an 80% STEM career retention rate of the alumni."

Dr. Andrew Charman, RSI '86 alumnus and lecturer of physics at University of California, Berkeley, will lead RSI 2014. The RSI Academic Professors include:

• Dr. Steven Byrnes, RSI'02, Harvard University - Physics
• Dr. Steven Leeb, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Engineering
• Dr. Forrest Michael, RSI'90, University of Washington - Chemistry
• Dr. Sean Mulholland, Economics, Stonehill College
• Dr. Matthew S. Cain, RSI'97, Harvard Medical School - Biology
• Mr. Lance Rhoades, University of Washington - Humanities
• Dr. Christopher Skinner, RSI'88, Princeton University - Math

RSI is an annual, summer program consisting of one week of theoretical classroom work, followed by four-and-a-half weeks of research with a professor or research scientist in the students' respective areas of interest. In the final week, students demonstrate their work through written academic papers and present oral findings to their peers and a panel of judges.

The RSI scholars learn about the careers, achievements, and challenges of the STEM environment and participate in question and answer sessions during the RSI Distinguished Guest Lecture Series. Leaders in STEM will share knowledge with the RSI scholars and include:

• Dr. Phillip Sharp, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine 1993, Institute Professor (highest academic rank) at MIT and member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
• Dr. Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize in Physics 2001, D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT and Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, Director, MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms
• Dr. Tom Leighton, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Akamai.

Thirty-three international students have joined the U.S. students from Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom at RSI 2014.