From its inception in 2016 to 2019, the Baltimore SCIART Consortium offered an annual 10-week summer research program during which undergraduate students worked in the laboratories of scientists, engineers, and art conservators at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), and the Walters Art Museum (WAM) in Baltimore to explore the intersection of science and art. Preparations for the 2020 program were underway when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the education and undergraduate research paradigm. An in-person, laboratory-based program was no longer an option, and this challenge led the SCIART team to investigate new ways to offer a high-quality undergraduate research program in a fully virtual setting. What resulted was an intensive, 3-week research program in which the SCIART students successfully learned about and then used periodic density functional theory (DFT) methods to study the interactions between small molecule adsorbates and mineral-based surfaces relevant to cultural heritage. This case study serves as a promising example in which educators and research leaders were able to successfully pivot and adapt their curriculum to provide a unique interdisciplinary undergraduate research experience using a fully virtual platform.

Baltimore SCIART: A fully virtual undergraduate research experience at the interface of computational chemistry and art

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.