NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program
in "Engineering Tomorrow""

Project Director:        Dr. Carlo Montemagno, Dean College of Engineering
Co-Project Director:  Dr. Anant R. Kukreti, Associate Dean for Engineering Education Research and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
NSF Grant No.:         DUE 0756921

UC REU Introduction

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, "Engineering Tomorrow," in the College of Engineering (CoE) at the University of Cincinnati (UC) is designed for engineering undergraduates who are US citizens or permanent residents. Preference will be given to underrepresented ethnic minorities and women students. The Goal of the REU program is to provide an eight-week summer full-time in-residence research training and seminars and workshops on the use of modern technology in conducting and disseminating cross-disciplinary research in Sustainable Urban Engineering (SUE), Nano-Scale Science and Technology (NSST), Emerging Energy Systems (EES), and Emerging Intelligent Autonomous Systems (EIAS). The Objective is to encourage talented undergraduates to enroll in graduate school by exposing them to research.

Undergraduate students who are finishing their freshmen, sophomore, pre-junior or junior year from all engineering disciplines are encouraged to apply. No prior knowledge in the research project to be pursued in the REU program is expected. The basic approach used is discovery through actual experimental testing and/or computer simulations, observing and recording, synthesizing the data collected, and generalizations. This approach provides an opportunity for individual growth and challenge to the young and inquisitive mind.

Twelve to fourteen engineering students will be recruited annually with a focus on providing research opportunities to women and underrepresented ethnic minorities. Teams of two will be guided on a research project by faculty member(s) and a graduate student. Students will participate in a seminar series to train them to conduct research and participate in interactive workshops to provide the research skills to disseminate their findings. Thus, participants in the program will be encouraged to engage in co-authored presentations and publications that make significant contributions to their field of research.

This REU program will provide a "total" experience of: learning, researching, report writing, and presentating. The REU participants and faculty members will disseminate their findings as papers/presentations in journals, and regional and national conferences.