The goal of this REU Site program in Mobile Actuator Sensor Networks (MAS-net) is to provide eight undergraduate students an opportunity to participate in the ongoing research activities of faculty members in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Utah State University. This is a ten-week program starting from early June to mid-August. This early exposure to research activities will substantially enhance the students' learning process and research experience, actively promote their interests in MAS-net related research, and improve their research skills.
The proposed program will emphasize several MAS-net related techniques and their applications in some interesting and crucial projects that the REU participants will easily identify with. The main intellectual merit of this research is that it addresses a broad spectrum of challenging issues in the field of sensor networks using hands-on and stimulating research projects focusing on the development of (1) parsimonious signal and image processing algorithms and Ad-Hoc Positioning Systems (APS) in MAS-net; (2) consensus algorithms for coordination of multiple robotic vehicles; (3) a simulation platform to simulate distributed control of diffusion process, (4) non-model-based plume tracking algorithms with networked mobile sensors, and (5) design methods for emergent swarm behaviors in MAS-net.
REU students are encouraged to practice active learning and open exchange of ideas and to develop team spirit. REU students will participate in weekly individual meetings, weekly research group meetings, biweekly REU group meetings, bi-weekly "expanding your horizon" seminars, and social events. They will have opportunities to learn to assimilate the latest research, assess their own research, present their own work and experimental results, prepare publications, and prepare for admission to graduate school.
This program will directly help undergraduate students by exposing them to the intellectual excitement involved in research activities and professional meetings, and teaching them how to effectively assimilate latest research, critically assess their own research, cogently present experimental results, and effectively prepare publications. The enrollment will ensure that at least four of the eight participants are underrepresented students and at least four students are from other institutions, especially those institutions where research programs are limited.
URL: www.ece.usu.edu/REU/
