REU Site in Environmental Engineering

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This three-year REU Site program at the University of Colorado, Boulder is focused in the broad area of environmental engineering. Over the ten-week summer program, nine or ten undergraduate students per year will conduct research on a broad range of topics in environmental engineering emphasizing multimedia approaches (water, air, soil) and long-term drivers of environmental systems such as energy, climate variability and hydrology. An interesting feature of this program is that, three or four of the students per summer will work for five weeks on research projects with affiliated programs in Puerto Rico. Cohort activities will include a seminar series and field trips highlighting research careers. The REU program will introduce the participants to career options in research by organizing tours of local research laboratories, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A variety of social activities are also planned to build a sense of community and develop professional networking skills among the REU students and their mentors. During the final week students will prepare a written report of their project and make an oral presentation summarizing their findings at the final research symposium. The students in Puerto Rico will participate in the final research symposium via video conferencing (WebEx). Recruitment efforts will be targeted to groups historically underrepresented in engineering and at universities will less research focus. The PI will target recruiting at a network of minority-serving institutions that will be coordinated with existing programs at the Boulder campus: The Summer Multicultural Access to Research and Training (SMART) program and the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP). The students will be encouraged to present the results of their research at a professional conference such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting and other conferences.