Student-led Africa program solves problems, creates network

A chance to make a major global impact reached third-year Ph.D. student Alexia Popescu, part of The Grainger College of Engineering’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, when she happened to notice a poster at the Materials Research Laboratory facility. It advertised the Joint Undertaking for an African Materials Institute (JUAMI) organization, and specifically a summer school in Kenya.

“I was super excited about international science outreach in general,” she said. “(After) receiving encouragement from my PI, I hopped on the opportunity.”

She made the journey in 2023 and witnessed the organization’s focus on building collaborations in materials research between Africa and the United States. During tea times between workshop seminars, Popescu had numerous discussions with African students in Kenya and learned eye-opening truths about some of the barriers they face while conducting their scientific studies.

“The recurring theme that stood out to me was the challenge of finding access to the right (materials) characterization equipment in a timely and affordable manner,” Popescu said. 

For example, researchers at one African university may initially have the necessary equipment to conduct their proposed projects, but complications can arise as the work evolves to require new technologies or maintenance updates. In those cases, the nearest equipment might only be found in a neighboring city or country. Students also face academic bureaucracy roadblocks, which put them in positions where they have to track down what they need on their own. In some situations, university websites lack clarity about the equipment inventory available. 

Specific examples of areas in which African students need equipment include transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction.

Students face another barrier when samples need to be shipped. African students told Popescu they often need to pay for shipments themselves – something she said clashes with her experience at Illinois, where she has grant money obtained through her PI to cover the cost. 

Once she became aware of each of these issues during her summer trip, Popescu knew action was needed. She gathered a group of new friends she made in Kenya and began a new program called JUAMI Charz. 

The founding team had a total of 11 members and has since continued to expand. The original group featured three other American students from the University of Virginia, Indiana University and Northwestern University; five students located in Africa; and two students originally from Africa who are studying in Europe. There are five affiliated faculty, including Mauro Sardela, who serves as director of research facilities for the U of I Materials Research Laboratory.

Popescu is a co-founder of JUAMI Charz and serves as the chair. Group members work to help people find characterization equipment through a network that has been building since the program’s inception. The organization assists with the sample shipment problem by offering scholarships. Going further, education is a factor in what they want to offer. 

“That (effort) was highlighted through our workshop where we recently partnered with MRL,” Popescu said. “It was actually great, both for spurring on ideas and also expanding the network.” 

On June 4-5, 2024, the Advanced Materials Characterization Workshop brought together 220 people from various backgrounds, 20 percent of whom attended virtually as part of the JUAMI Charz initiative and received scholarships covering registration costs. The crowd was diverse and involved 20 institutions spanning across 10 countries. Participants were from a range of different academic positions, including professors, graduate students and a few laboratory managers. 

Grainger Engineering scientists offered practical tutorials covering mainstream characterization techniques, including ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, Raman and many others. There were walkthrough examples, presentations and instrument demonstrations. It was a roaring success, but Popescu sees some room for improvement. She sees value in getting more facility directors from Africa involved because their authority could mean greater collaborative impact. 

“It could involve using funds to bring (the directors) together and host hands-on trainings. That kind of in-person experience might be more conductive to establishing long-term collaborations,” Popescu said. 

Other room for growth in the organization could come in working to make collaboration easier for everybody involved. The case-by-case basis through which JUAMI Charz currently helps people find equipment is intensive and done manually, with a team member doing the work to check with university contacts and facilitate the partnership to make sure it runs smoothly.

“In the long term, we would love for international equipment inventory and connections to be accessible on the website for members of the network to peruse themselves and set up collaborations more independently,” Popescu said. “But right now it’s an in-between point. We want to be sensitive to the current culture and infrastructure that’s in place.” 

The good news for JUAMI Charz is their funding situation will allow them to take on some of their ambitious plans.

JUAMI as a whole operates using funding from the National Science Foundation, but Popescu’s group has a separate $7,000 grant from the Materials Research Society to help them out with their greatest needs: building the network, continuing to grow educational opportunities and providing scholarships to ship samples. 

As the program chair, Popescu believes it’s critical to make investments with real thought behind them, both in finances and time.  

“Our goal is for this to be long-term,” she said. “We don’t want to just throw some money in for now and just let it go on its own. We want to be carefully tailored and intentional.”