REU SITES: Virtual Environments REU Site

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0097688 Van Scoy, Van L Baker, David V West Virginia University Research Corporation REU Sites: Virtual Environments REU Site The focus of this NSF-REU program to be hosted at West Virginia University is "virtual environments." The objectives of the program are (1) to give undergraduate students practical skills in advanced visualization techniques where "visualization" has the extended meaning of "presentation of information to the ears, or the fingers, or even the nose"; (2) to give undergraduate students practical experience in multidisciplinary research applying virtual environments (VE) technology to problems in physical science, health science, and social science; (3) to help undergraduates discover the excitement of a career in research; and (4) to provide a cross cultural experience, by bringing together students primarily from the Appalachian region and from Puerto Rico and by giving some students the opportunity to work in an academic research lab in Japan. Our recruiting goal is to have 3 students from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, 6 students from four year colleges in West Virginia and the Appalachian region, and 3 students from WVU each summer. These students are expected to come from a variety of majors, including biology, computer science, geography, and physics and will be divided into teams to work with faculty and graduate student researchers on problems in computer science, geographic information systems, materials science, and pharmacy. Each week except for the first and last week of the summer program, students will work on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays with researchers on specific disciplinary research projects. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they will attend half day training sessions on specific VE technologies and tools, work in the VE Lab, and participate in a weekly research seminar involving all participants, undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. After each summer program in 2001, 2002, and 2003, three students will be selected from that year's participants to work in the Virtual Systems Laboratory at Gifu University in Japan during the following summer. The program will provide Japanese language and culture training for these selected participants during spring before their summer experience in Japan.