Cao Research Lab

The Cao lab organizes the annual Women in Manufacturing Day in collaboration with mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center focused on physical product development and manufacturing, and support from the National Science Foundation. This event celebrates and convenes women in manufacturing, and inspires young women interested in STEM fields to discover new career paths and grow the talent pipeline of women in the industry.  This event also reaches a diverse group of participants by utilizing strategic and beneficial collaborations with mHUB, and other prominent local manufacturing and business organizations who work with manufacturing professionals from diverse backgrounds. The one-day event includes Keynote presentations from women leaders in Manufacturing, Panel discussions with women manufacturing experts, and valuable networking opportunities for the attendees, which include women at all stages in their manufacturing career, from high school students, to undergraduates and graduates, and to industry veterans.

The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP) is an initiative of Northwestern University to provide a high-quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students in Illinois in partnership with Oakton Community College and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). NPEP fills a vital need in Illinois by being the only degree-granting program in the state providing a full liberal arts curriculum—humanities, fine arts, social sciences, and STEM courses—to incarcerated students. NPEP is also the only postsecondary prison education program in Illinois that accepts applications from facilities throughout the state, including from medium- and maximum-security prisons. This enables NPEP to have statewide impact and to reach students at various stages of their incarceration, allowing the liberal arts degrees that are conferred to prepare students for success across a broad range of future pursuits.

 Science In your Community Center (SICC) pairs Graduate students with middle school students at Family Focus and together they work through a series of science and engineering challenges. Past challenges have included building/racing soap-powered boats, designing/making magnetically levitating cars, and programming Arduinos. Most recent projects included building custom arcade games and coding video games.

EvanSTEM works to engage underrepresented youth in STEM, via NU volunteers who mentor girls and students of color to participate in citywide STEM challenges. Students and mentors receive tool supply kits, equipment, and supplies to work together synchronously.  Skills learned include construction techniques and coding motors and sensors. 

Cao Research Lab members participate in a wide variety of outreach activities, in order to enrich the community, increase access to STEM resources, and strengthen the STEM field.