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Informal Undergraduate PolymerResearch Program at Koc UniversityChemistry DepartmentIskender Yilgor a & Emel Yilgor aa Koc University, Chemistry Department , Sariyer, 34450, Istanbul,TurkeyPublished online: 17 Nov 2008.

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Journal of Macromolecular Science R©, Part C: Polymer Reviews, 48:633–641, 2008Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1558-3724 print / 1558-3716 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15583720802445557

Informal Undergraduate Polymer ResearchProgram at Koc University Chemistry Department

ISKENDER YILGOR AND EMEL YILGOR

Koc University, Chemistry Department, Sariyer 34450, Istanbul, Turkey

Koc University (KU) is a private, non-profit university established in 1993 and is lo-cated on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. The Chemistry Department accepts 12freshmen every year, 8 with full, 4 with half merit-scholarships. Students accepted rankin the top 2% of Turkish high school graduates. Students participate in research activ-ities starting their freshman years. Polymer research group accepts 3–5 new studentsevery year. Fundamentals of polymer science (synthesis, characterization, morphology)are discussed on Friday Group Meetings, followed by research presentations. New-comers start working with experienced undergraduate and graduate students. As theygain experience, they work independently on their own projects. Juniors and seniorshave “independent” research projects, which involve polymer synthesis, characteriza-tion, structure-property behavior, surface modification, and theoretical modeling. Sofar about 50 students were involved in the program, 30 graduated, and 26 were ac-cepted to Ph.D. programs of Va Tech (6), UMass-Amherst (4), U. Akron (2), USM (2),Carnegie-Mellon (3), VCU (2), and other American institutions. Research carried outby undergraduates resulted in 9 journal papers in Polymer and Macromolecules, 2chapters in ACS Symposium Series, and 14 ACS (Polymer or PMSE) preprints.

Keywords undergraduate, polymer, research, chemistry, Koc university

1. Introduction

Koc University (KU) is a private, non-profit institution, founded in 1993 and located inIstanbul, Turkey1. The University is supported by the financial resources of the Vehbi KocFoundation and is committed to the pursuit of excellence in both teaching and research.The educational philosophy of KU can be summarized as: “student-centered participatorylearning and creative teaching.” In 1993 Koc University started its undergraduate educationwith 200 students, 10 in the Chemistry Department. Now in 2008 the student populationhas reached 3800 with 3500 undergraduates, and with about 50 students in the ChemistryDepartment.

Although Koc is a Turkish University, the medium of instruction is English. Studentswho are not proficient in the English language are required to enroll in the language programoffered by KU English Language Center (ELC). Upon the successful completion of theprogram, which includes passing the international TOEFL test, students are admitted to

Received June 1, 2008; Accepted July 26, 2008.Address correspondence to Iskender Yilgor, Koc University, Chemistry Department,

Rumelifeneri yolu, Sariyer, 34450, Istanbul, Turkey. Tel.: (90) 212-338-1418; Fax: (90) 212-338-1559, E-mail: iyilgor@ku.edu.tr

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the freshman class. KU has a liberal arts curriculum with strong emphasis on science andmathematics. At KU we strongly encourage students to get actively involved in hands-onresearch early in their undergraduate years.

This manuscript focuses on the unique features of our informal undergraduate polymerresearch program at KU Chemistry Department. It also discusses critical issues and thelessons learned which may be helpful to other such programs. Important points regardingits successful and effective operation, benefits to students and the impact on their careersare highlighted.

However, before going into the detailed discussion of our undergraduate polymerresearch program, we would like to provide brief information about the quality of ourundergraduate students and various scholarships and support programs offered by KU,which we believe have a strong influence on the success of our undergraduate polymerresearch program.

1.1. Scholarships and Student Selection

Koc University offers merit, support, and need-based scholarships. About 25% of all stu-dents have scholarships. Merit based scholarships are only granted to top-notch studentswho are placed in KU undergraduate programs based on their performance in the NationalHigher Education Entrance Examination. These students are usually ranked in the top 1%of about 1.5 million high school graduates in Turkey. Merit scholarships are provided forfive years to students who start their education with the English Language Center program.It includes tuition waiver (about $20,000 annually) and provides a monthly allowance ofabout $220 for 9 months. Details of other scholarship programs can be found at the KUweb site1.

1.2. Work-Study Program

The work-study program gives students the opportunity to work at various jobs on campus,such as in the library, the student center, or at the computer center. Although the programcovers all students, priority is given to those who are admitted to the scholarship programs.These students are expected to work for a maximum of 10 hours per week (or 40 hours permonth) and earn $4 per hour ($160 per month) or get no payment but stay in the dormitoriesfor free, which on the average costs about $350 per month.

For chemistry majors we modified this program and offered research assistantship inpolymer or other research laboratories for 10 hours per week. In return students were ableto stay in the dormitories free of charge. We believe this was instrumental in the successof our undergraduate polymer research program at the KU Chemistry Department. In factthe program was so successful that after a short while most of the students were effectivelyspending more than 10 hours per week in research laboratories, doing research, literaturesearch, working on their homework, or mentoring other students. Many students also spenta large part of their summer breaks working in the polymer research laboratories.

2. Koc University Chemistry Department

Chemistry is a field of science that deals with the fundamental concepts and practicalapplications related to the structure, properties, and transformation of matter. In orderto establish the best possible foundation/background for chemistry students, two main

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emphasis of the KU Chemistry curriculum are (i) to provide a strong background in thetheoretical foundations of chemical principles, and (ii) to create a hands-on, researchoriented environment in order to foster the creativity of the students. To implement this,in addition to regular chemistry courses we have two “independent study” courses, onein junior and one in senior years, and an “honors project” course, where students workon research projects in their subject of choice under the direction of a chemistry faculty.“Honors project” is only offered to students with a GPA of higher than 3.00. In order topromote undergraduate research activities no regular courses were offered to Chemistrymajors on Fridays and as a result Fridays were designated as the “research days.”

For a small Chemistry Department, both in terms of the number of students and facultymembers, such as the one at KU, it is not possible to excel in many different fields. As aresult, from the very beginning it has been decided that research efforts in the KU ChemistryDepartment would be concentrated on two main areas. These were (i) materials sciencewith a strong emphasis on polymer science and (ii) computational chemistry.

3. Efforts to Establish an Informal Undergraduate Polymer ResearchProgram

When we joined KU in the Fall Semester of 1994, one year after its opening, the ChemistryDepartment had a total of 20 students, 9 in the English Language Program, 8 freshmen, and3 sophomores. Since there were no graduate students, we decided to get the undergraduatestudents involved in polymer research with the aim of generating new knowledge pub-lishable in leading peer-reviewed journals. Each sophomore was given a different researchtopic. These topics were (i) synthesis and characterization of segmented elastomers, (ii)toughening of epoxy resins with phosphorus containing aromatic diamine oligomers and(iii) recycling of PET through alcoholysis and glycolysis. During the Fall 1995 and Spring1996 semesters these students continued their work in polymer research laboratories astheir “independent study” and then two of them as their “honors project.” After graduationfrom KU, two students were accepted to Ph.D. programs at the Polymer Engineering andScience Program of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at the Chemistry De-partment of the University of Chicago. The student at UMass-Amherst became the first KocUniversity graduate who was awarded a Ph.D. degree. We believe getting them involved inpolymer research very early in their undergraduate chemistry education strongly influencedtheir education, personalities, and career decisions.

3.1. Freshmen are Accepted to Polymer Research Laboratories, Group Meetings Start

In the Fall semester of 1995, together with 3 juniors (discussed above), 3 sophomores, and3 freshmen also started working in the polymer research laboratories as research assistants.To accommodate all 9 students we formed 3 research teams, with 3 students in each, wherejuniors were the group leaders, sophomores the apprentice, and freshmen the observer. Inthe Fall of 1995 the department hired another faculty member whose background was inquantum chemistry. We started a very successful cooperation with him, which also involvedundergraduate students. This collaboration involved the investigation of hydrogen bond-ing between model compounds using simple quantum mechanical calculation programsavailable from different sources and their experimental verification.

Since none of the students have taken a formal polymer course, in order to effectivelyprovide them with basic knowledge on the fundamental principles of polymer chemistryand polymer synthesis, we also started group meetings on Fridays. The following topics,

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typically covered in an “Introduction to Polymer Science” course, were discussed in thegroup meetings which took about 1.5–2 hours each.

(i) What is a polymer? What is its importance in our everyday lives? Why studypolymer chemistry?

(ii) Important parameters influencing polymer properties (chemical composition, aver-age molecular weight and molecular weight distribution, stereoregularity, topology,morphology),

(iii) Polymer synthesis (step-growth and chain growth polymerization methods),(iv) Basic techniques for polymer characterization (FTIR spectroscopy, dilute solution

viscosity, GPC, DSC, DMA, TGA, tensile tests),(v) Segmented thermoplastic copolymers (raw materials, synthetic methods, mi-

crophase separation, hydrogen bonding, structure-property behavior),(vi) Investigation of hydrogen bonding by FTIR spectroscopy,

(vii) Sample preparation (solvent casting and compression molding) for testing,(viii) Advanced techniques for polymer characterization (X-ray scattering, electron mi-

croscopy, AFM, XPS),(ix) Structure-morphology-property behavior in polymeric materials.

Following the tutorial on polymer science students made short, 15–20 minute presentationsabout their research projects and discussed their results. Sometimes guest lecturers fromacademia or industry (usually visitors from abroad) also gave lectures during group meet-ings. Other research and group related matters (important seminars, participation to variousnational meetings, deadlines for proceedings, new research projects, etc.) have also beendiscussed in the group meetings. Students were also strongly encouraged to participate inthe weekly departmental seminars.

In addition to the group meeting presentations, students also prepared bi-monthlyprogress reports and a final report at the end of each semester and made an oral presentationto the department. In order to improve the quality and the scientific content of the reportsprepared, special emphasis was given to effective literature search through internet andvarious other databases available through the university. Each student was trained oncritical aspects of scientific literature search using Web of Science, SciFinder, Scopus,Google Scholar, US Patent database, and others.

In the Fall Semester of 1995 (our second year at KU), the polymer research projectsin which undergraduate students were involved included:

1. Synthesis and characterization of model urethane compounds. In this project studentsinvestigated the reactions of diisocyanates with large excess of alcohols, recovered theproducts, and characterized them by FTIR and DSC. Model urethane compounds werethen blended with polyether oligomers at different ratios to determine the extent ofintermolecular hydrogen bonding, which was investigated by FTIR and DSC.

2. Quantum mechanical calculations (QMC) on the investigation of hydrogen bondingon model urethane, urea, ester and ether compound pairs. By using package software,students were able to learn how to find the most stable configurations (geometries)of interacting dimers through energy minimization by QMC. They were also able todetermine H-bond energies and H-bond distances between different compounds. Inaddition they were also able to plot theoretical IR spectra and compare them withexperimental spectra.

3. Preparation of homologous silicone-urea and polyether-urea copolymers and compari-son of their structure-property behavior. The main idea of this project was to understand

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the effect of competitive hydrogen bonding between hard and soft segments in polyureason the morphology development and properties of homologous segmented polyureasmade of PEO and PDMS soft segments.

Through these projects students learned many critical concepts and techniques to inves-tigate and conduct research on reaction kinetics, organic synthesis, product recovery andpurification, yield optimization, structural identification, and thermal characterization. Al-though most of these topics are studied in basic organic and physical chemistry laboratorycourses, coverage is usually fairly simple.

These research efforts, which involved the authors and undergraduate students gener-ated interesting results and lead to the publication of 4 ACS proceedings, 2 refereed papers(both in Polymer) and 1 book chapter (ACS Symposium Series). These efforts also helped toget a large number of chemistry undergraduates involved in hands-on polymer research andapply what they learned in various classes to the solution of critical technological problems.Involvement in undergraduate research early on further helped these students to gain selfconfidence and influenced their career decisions.

For an undergraduate student, as we all know, being able to synthesize a new polymer,make a film out of it, and feel its strength is incredibly exciting. It is an unforgettablemoment when they see their names on a publication for the first time, regardless whetherit is on a paper in a major journal or on a proceeding. This is also a very satisfyingachievement for us, the research supervisors; because we can feel that we influenced thelife of a young scientist in a positive way. However, although it is a lot of fun to workwith high quality undergraduate students, it is more than a full-time job for the researchsupervisors to organize and monitor the activities of the group, help the students with theirendless number of questions, problems, experiments, reports, and research presentations.

3.2. Sponsored Research Projects and Participation to Summer UndergraduateResearch Programs (SURP) Abroad

As the group started getting larger and productive we started getting the most successfulundergraduates engaged in fairly demanding sponsored research projects. During theseprojects they had a chance to experience (i) how to approach solving technological prob-lems of industry through fundamental research, (ii) how to organize and perform researchwith specific deadlines, (iii) how to go from lab-scale to a 10 liter pilot plant, and (iv)the importance of having a broad vision and knowledge base and using it effectively tosolve problems. They also learned many important concepts, such as the importance ofkeeping knowledge generated through research proprietary or confidential, meaning of theintellectual property rights, process of a patent application, and many other characteristicsof technology-oriented research.

Students who were involved in such demanding projects and performed well wererewarded by participating national and international conferences and/or Summer Under-graduate Research Programs (SURP), mainly at US Universities, all expenses paid. Therewarding process also helped to create a friendly competition within the group and im-proved the performance of the students and also the overall performance of the PolymerResearch Group. Through SURP or other means, we were able to establish effective co-operation with Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University ofAkron Polymer Engineering Department. These interactions also helped the US Institutionsbecause most of these extraordinary students ended up choosing the same institution wherethey spent the summer, for their Ph.D. studies. We also had an effective cooperation with

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BASF, Turkey, for about 5 years (1999–2004). They accepted 2 undergraduate studentsevery year to participate in 3–4 week long summer training programs at their researchcenter and production plant in Ludwigshaven, Germany.

3.3. Moving Into the New Campus and State-of-the-Art Research Laboratories

In the Fall Semester of 2000 the university moved from its temporary campus in centralIstanbul to the new campus which is located about 20 miles to the northwest. New state-of-the-art polymer research facilities included (i) a meeting room, (ii) a computer roomfor theoretical modeling and on-line literature search, (iii) a small polymer library withreference books, journals, magazines and catalogues, (iv) a synthesis laboratory with 6hoods for 12 students, (v) a polymer characterization lab, (vi) a polymer processing lab,and (vii) a lab for optical microscopy and surface characterization.

In the new campus the group got much larger (14 undergraduates from freshmen toseniors in 2001) and so also the number of research projects. Not very surprisingly, allof these students were accepted to the Ph.D. programs of various top tier US Universitiesafter graduating from KU. Six of them have already completed their Ph.D. studies and gotindustrial or academic positions in US and Europe.

4. Chemical and Biological Engineering and Graduate Programsin Materials Science

In the Fall Semester of 2006 we also started accepting undergraduate research students fromChemical and Biochemical Engineering Department. These students usually have higherscores in Turkish National Higher Education Entrance Examination than the chemistrymajors. This we believe was also an important decision in terms of (i) to increase the poolof high quality students from which we select members of our research group, and moreimportantly (ii) to get engineering majors directly involved in basic chemistry throughpolymer synthesis, polymer characterization, and structure-property behavior.

Following the establishment of a fairly productive and successful undergraduate poly-mer research program, all new faculty members joining our department also followed thesame idea and established their own undergraduate research groups. We believe our ap-proach at KU Chemistry Department is unique, where the scientific research is to a largeextent carried out by undergraduates under the close supervision of faculty. More impor-tantly this opportunity is not given to a select few students. Any chemistry or chemicalengineering undergraduate interested in research is accepted to one of the research groups.

As the university kept growing with new departments and faculty members, a graduateprogram in Materials Science and Engineering (MASE), which involved chemistry, physics,chemical engineering, and mechanical engineering faculty, was established (MS program in2004 and Ph.D. program in 2007). Nevertheless, our commitment to a strong undergraduateparticipation in polymer research is still continuing. As of May 2008, we have 20 studentsin the Polymer Research Group. Two students are in MASE MS program, the remaining18 students are undergraduates from Chemistry and Chemical and Biological EngineeringDepartments.

As the number of students and research projects increased, our list of publicationswith undergraduates also kept growing. During the 2004–2008 period we published 6 ACSpreprints and 6 journal papers (in Macromolecules and Polymer) bringing the total number

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of publications based on undergraduate research to 14 ACS preprints, 9 refereed journalarticles, and 2 book chapters.

5. Students Accepted to Ph.D. programs in US

In addition to leading edge research activities and many scientific publications generated,we believe one of the most important results of our informal undergraduate polymer researchprogram at Koc University has been the number of participating students who decided to gofor a Ph.D. degree. Since the first undergraduates started working at KU polymer researchlaboratories in Fall Semester of 1994, we had a total of about 50 students involved in theprogram in the past 14 years. Five students were asked to leave the program because oftheir poor performance, 30 students graduated, and 26 were accepted to Ph.D. programsof leading US universities. Table 1 gives the list of the US Institutions where participants ofKU undergraduate polymer research program were accepted for their Ph.D. studies. We alsohave two students who are continuing their Ph.D studies in Turkey. Interestingly, among 26students accepted to US Universities 20 students decided to continue their doctoral studiesin polymer science, 4 in biological sciences, and 2 in computational sciences. After gettingtheir Ph.D. degrees two students returned to Turkey and got faculty positions.

In general only about 5% of KU graduates go for a Ph.D. degree. This increases toabout 30–35% for KU Chemistry graduates. On the other hand, as can be seen from thenumbers provided above, this ratio reaches to about 90% for those involved in undergraduatepolymer research. This is a remarkable ratio and we believe clearly demonstrates the powerof well organized and monitored undergraduate research programs in affecting the careerdecisions of students involved in hands-on research early in their undergraduate years.

Table 1US Universities where participants of KU undergraduate polymer research program

were accepted for their Ph.D. studies (1997–2008)

US University Students accepted for PhD

Virginia Tech 6University of Massachusetts – Amherst 4Carnegie Mellon University 3University of Akron 2Virginia Commonwealth University 2University of Southern Mississippi 2University of Missouri – Rolla 1State University of New York – Stony Brook 1New York University 1University of Pennsylvania 1University of Pittsburgh 1University of Chicago 1North Dakota State University 1

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6. Benefits of Undergraduate Polymer Research to Students Involved

Involvement in undergraduate research contributes strongly to overall education of studentsin many different ways and helps them to become better chemists, scientists, intellectuals,and more successful human beings. Incorporation of undergraduate research in a liberalarts curriculum has also been the focus of a study by Harvard University in 2004 and wasreported in the New York Times2, which said: “For the first time in 30 years, HarvardUniversity has reviewed its undergraduate curriculum, concluding that students need moreroom for broad exploration, a greater familiarity with the world that can only be gainedfrom study abroad, and a deeper, hands-on understanding of science.′′ Interestingly webelieve all of the activities indicated in italic letters in the Harvard University report havebeen implemented in our undergraduate polymer research program, established in 1994.

In addition to learning fundamental aspects and techniques of conducting hands-onscientific research, other specific benefits of undergraduate research to the students involvedinclude;

(i) being able to relate/use what they learn in different courses and classes to theirresearch projects or solution of everyday problems,

(ii) improving their knowledge base and analytical thinking,(iii) building self confidence and making better career decisions,(iv) understanding the importance of having a broad vision but at the same time being

able to focus on specific problems,(v) preparing better reports and effective presentations, giving high quality talks,

(vi) learning time management, deadlines and being more efficient,(vii) building a strong CV for a successful career.

7. Conclusions

Informal undergraduate polymer research programs can effectively be established withinChemistry Departments. We believe our efforts and achievements at Koc University, anewly established institution with limited faculty resources and research infrastructure,clearly support this idea. Our experience shows that in order to establish a successfulundergraduate polymer research program, several critical issues need to be satisfied. Someof these are:

1. It is very important to have research projects which are based on simple but importantfundamental chemical principles that can be easily grasped, understood, and analyzedeven by a freshman. As the students gain experience and learn important theoreticalprinciples and practical aspects of organic, physical, and polymer chemistry, they areusually able to work independently on more complicated research projects.

2. For the success and motivation of the group it is very important to create a friendly butcompetitive environment between students through a reward program. We accomplishedthis by sending the best performing students abroad (e.g. participation to SURP) andasking poor performers to leave the group, after a one semester warning. One of the mostimportant rewards is getting an acceptance from US or European Universities for Ph.D.with assistantship. Of course the ultimate reward is being a co-author in a proceedingor a paper. We believe all of these help to keep the drive and motivation of the studentshigh and dramatically contribute to the success of the program.

3. For the establishment of a successful undergraduate polymer research program, a criticalrole for the faculty is to closely monitor and supervise the students and help them with

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their problems, questions and difficulties they face in the laboratory with their projects.Face to face contact and discussions with undergraduate students at least once a week,in group meetings or otherwise, helps them to get excited, work harder, and be moreproductive.

References

1. Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey, Website: www.ku.edu.tr (accessed June 2008).2. Sara Rimer, “Committee Urges Harvard to Expand the Reach of Its Undergraduate Cur-

riculum”, The New York Times, April 27, 2004. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E6DC113AF934A15757C0A9629C8B63, (accessed June 2008).

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