REU Site: Interdisciplinary Research Experience for undergraduates interested in Materials Science and Engineering

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK

Investigators

Abstract

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site at the Helmerich Research Center at Oklahoma State University (OSU) offers research experiences in materials science and engineering research to a diverse group of talented students over a period of three years. The student research projects focus on materials processing, testing and characterization for interdisciplinary applications in energy storage, energy generation, biomaterials, combustion, and aerospace. In addition, students are introduced to entrepreneurship and commercialization to transition research from the lab-scale to the real world, thus enhancing U.S. competitiveness. Students are recruited from Oklahoma colleges and universities that have limited STEM research facilities and large populations of students underrepresented in STEM. The program is leveraging existing OSU's partnerships with Tulsa Community College, which is a feeder program for Native American students transferring to undergraduate engineering programs at OSU and the Oklahoma Louis Stoke Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) to identify a diverse pool of student applicants. The REU Site offers opportunities to undergraduate students to engage in in-depth research experiences in several areas of advanced manufacturing in aerospace, energy and biomaterials. During the 9-week experience, students are mentored by experienced faculty to conduct materials engineering and science research projects in: 3-D printing and direct digital manufacturing, materials processing, and materials testing and characterization. The students are also: learning about cutting-edge materials characterization methods (through web-based participation in the two-day national workshop on Advanced Materials Characterization offered by the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); exposed to entrepreneurial routes to commercializing research (in collaboration with the Riata Center of Entrepreneurship); participating in a professional development program that includes training in communications skills and graduate school preparation and career information sessions; presenting their research results at a research symposium at the end of the summer; and being provided with opportunities to interact with local industry partners (in Tulsa, OK) that are engaged in materials research. This REU Site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.