REU Site: Human-Centered Operations Research and Engineering (H-CORE)

Clemson University, Clemson SC

Investigators

Abstract

This three-year project Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Human-Centered Operations Research and Engineering (H-CORE) is hosted by Clemson University. Nine undergraduate students each year will engage in research experiences that approach problems at the intersection of humans, systems, and analytics. REU projects will span a variety of high-impact, emerging, human-centered applications including disaster response, resilience, healthcare delivery, individualized training, disrupting human trafficking, and equitable access. Students will work with Operations Research (OR) and Human Factors (HF) faculty research mentors. Traditionally, OR develops mathematical models for systems and HF assesses human performance to understand how humans are integrated into the system. The professional development component includes sessions on conducting a literature review, presenting research and writing papers, collecting human-centered data and considerations for working with humans, navigating graduate school and/or job search process and other topics. By integrating OR and HF, REU students will be prepared to conduct interdisciplinary, human-centered research to address complex social and technological problems. This three-year project Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site: Human-Centered Operations Research and Engineering (H-CORE) is hosted by Clemson University. This REU site will host nine students each year during a ten-week research program. Students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds can contribute to problems at the intersection of humans, systems, and analytics. Recruitment efforts include targeting students from biomedical engineering, computer science, human-centered computing, IE, and mathematics and from a range of universities and colleges with limited research opportunities. A brownbag meeting series will focus on critical research skills (how to think about interdisciplinary research and read papers from different areas; how to collect human-centered data and considerations for working with humans; effective research communications) and post-undergraduate job and research opportunities (how to navigate the graduate school and/or job search process; CV or resume preparation). By integrating OR and HF, REU students will be prepared to conduct interdisciplinary, human-centered research to address complex social and technological problems. This project is jointly funded by the EEC REU and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCOR). 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.