REU Site: Frontier Physics & Astronomy Research with Technical Presentations

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in physics at the University of California - Los Angeles. The focus of the REU program is to convey to the student participants the full range of activities involved in the research process. The core of the program's activities consists of a 10-week research project under the supervision of a UCLA faculty member. The full gamut includes carefully defining the project in a realistic way, actually carrying out the planned research activities (a mix of data acquisition, data analysis, theoretical exploration, and final interpretations), and finally the written and oral presentation of the final results. The projects span the various fields represented in the department, such as plasma physics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, accelerator physics, cosmic ray physics, high-energy physics, astrophysics, and biophysics. All students are required to submit a paper written in a professional format and must give a 20-minute oral and graphical presentation at the end-of-program symposium. These research experiences are supplemented by other auxiliary training such as a machine shop workshop, a physics GRE prep course, a weekly faculty seminar series, an ethics workshop, and a how-to-apply-to-graduate-school seminar. Social activities supplement the academic activities in an effort to foster a sense of community among the group and within the department.