REU Sites: Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0139576 Pless, Robert Washington University TITLE: Summer Undergraduate Research Program The department has a long history of supporting undergraduate summer research opportunities, and these opportunities will exist with or without external support. However, external support does further particular NSF objectives having to do with the size of the program, the quality of the student experience, and the balance f student recruiting. In particular, the requested funding would: oMaintain an efficient size of the program, sixteen summer students. In addition to summer research projects funded from their research funds, this gives a critical mass of students that improves the overall student experience. oFoster a broader range f student projects. oClearly separate the objectives of the program from individual faculty research agendas. Faculty who support students from individual research grants tend to be conservative in hiring and must choose projects that serve the objectives of their funding sources. This may negatively impact both the student experience and the student selection. There are three explicit goals for this REU program. First, to give undergraduates from many backgrounds the opportunity and training to participate in frontier research. Second, to foster and extend the undergraduate research culture already present at Washington University. Third, to create a supportive and encouraging environment to do research. This first goal will be met with a targeted advertising campaign. This campaign will not exclude any source of potential students, but will focus n (a) predominately teaching colleges, (b) historically minority schools, (c) non-computer science departments. Second, a coherent program involving a designated group of summer research program students gives a reason to organize events, a social group, and a critical mass for which it is appropriate to offer programs which aid all undergraduate students involved in research. Finally, we propose a program that includes an explicit training component to teach students the tools t attack research problems effectively. A set of defined check points during the course of the summer will allow program coordinators to identify and solve potential problems.