The research program for undergraduates at Florida International University is designed to stimulate and promote interest, curiosity, creative and critical thinking of undergraduate students in environmental science and engineering during their early years in undergraduate program. This work involves students in a comprehensive research program relative to movement of oil spills and treatment of contaminated media to minimize potential damage to the environment. The program engages students with different areas of research relative to movement and treatment of oil spills. The areas of research are in the following areas: environmental biology, environmental physics, environmental chemistry, environmental modeling, and process design. The research goals follow: formulate a detailed mathematical model to study the movement of oil spills and develop innovative treatment processes to minimize the potential impacts of the oil spills in the environment; conduct experiments to evaluate the significance of physical, chemical, and biological parameters in containment and treatment of oil spills; evaluate the relative significance of time and length scales for analyzing dynamics of oil migration and study effectiveness of containment options and treatment processes.
