REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Smart & Connected Communities

Texas State University - San Marcos, San Marcos TX

Investigators

Abstract

This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site engages students in research in the emerging area of Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC), the essential building blocks of smart cities. Through a nationwide recruitment process, cohorts of 10 undergraduate students will participate in a 10-week summer research program, for three summers, hosted at Texas State University. Special efforts are made to recruit students from primarily teaching universities and colleges while ensuring the participation of women, veterans, and minorities. The project includes mentoring by experienced computer science faculty members, technical seminars and workshops, student presentations, and professional development opportunities. These activities are carried out in an intellectual environment that develops the students' professional careers through enhancing their technical, communication, and social skills. The research component in this REU Site falls along three main thrusts in building the next generation of information and communication technologies supporting the development of S&CC: (1) models, mechanisms and tools for smart human-environment interactions to monitor and protect smart infrastructure against accidental failures and malicious attacks; (2) new methods for collecting and analyzing various types of data ranging from human biosignals to activity and crowd-sourcing data, to promote health and well-being of citizens in urban settings; and (3) novel scheduling and monitoring methods for intelligent transportation systems that would decrease congestion, promote safety and reduce adverse environmental impacts in urban settings. Evaluation of the proposed methods is done through theoretical and numerical analysis, simulation experiments, and real implementations with various devices, sensors, and robots. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.