This REU award for a Site supports 12 engineering students each year for three years in an 8-week summer research experience at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.
The objective of this program is to immerse students in advanced research topics within sustainable technologies in civil and environmental systems. The program provides not only stimulating research opportunities, but it also offers a variety of professional-development training. Student activities include orientation seminars, ethics in engineering and science seminars, Friday luncheons devoted to development of research questions, quality assurance and control, safety training, graduate school options, practice presentations, field trips to research facilities, and social functions.
The program provides the opportunity for undergraduates to integrate research into their education as well as increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering. Also, the research problems that will be addressed within the overall theme of "Sustainable Technology for Infrastructure and the Environment" are critical to our nation's well being. Finally, the involvement of these students in exciting research enhances the likelihood that they will consider post-graduate study and broadens the base of the Nation's technical manpower.
