REU Site in Information Technology at the Baskin School of Engineering

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

Institution: University of California - Santa Cruz Proposal Number: EIA - 0244016 PI: Richard Hughey Title: REU Site in Information Technology at the Baskin School of Engineering The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Information Technology (SURF-IT) program provides an intensive and personalized summer program for 12 underrepresented (women and minority) and disadvantaged undergraduates. The students are drawn primarily from institutions that do not have strong, personalized research opportunities. SURF-IT is a 10-week summer program that includes research directly supervised by a faculty member in computer engineering, computer science, or electrical engineering. Students also have weekly meetings on graduate school preparation, research ethics, and research presentation, as well as field trips to local neighboring Silicon Valley research laboratories. The summer program concludes with a research poster presentation by the SURF-IT students, coordinated with other undergraduate summer programs within the institution. The goal of the program is to promote diversity in engineering by assisting motivated students in obtaining graduate degrees to then become positive role models for future generations of college students throughout the nation. Thus after the summer program, the faculty maintains continuing contact with SURF-IT alumni to assist them in applying to and succeeding in graduate school, as well as in their eventual careers.