Two areas of increasing national importance, namely Information Assurance and Computational Science, are the foci of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Houston. Each year, ten students will be recruited from institutions that offer limited research opportunities. Emphasis will be placed on attracting underrepresented groups in Science and Engineering. The program emphasizes steering non-traditional students into research, reinforcing their interest in computer science, and preparing them for graduate school. The specific program objectives are to: 1) provide students the opportunity to develop competency in scientific research through meaningful undergraduate involvement in strong research projects; 2) enable students, in collaboration with mentors, to produce research results during their summer program and follow-up interactions, which will be written up in a format acceptable for conference or journal publication; and 3) help participants sustain and increase their interest in research careers after their on-campus summer, through continuing contacts and research participation as well as presentation of research results. These activities will be integrated with social activities appropriate for a diverse group of undergraduates and with seminars on career development, ethics in computer science, methods of literature search, and practical advice on questions related to graduate school, which foster the professional development of the students, thereby making a lasting impact beyond the 10 weeks they spend at the University of Houston.
The broader impacts of this project derive from actively recruiting ten students from colleges and universities with high minority enrollment and those that offer limited research opportunities. Many talented students in such institutions are unaware of the possibilities for a research career or lack accessible opportunities to explore them first hand. Emphasis is on attracting underrepresented minorities and females, a cohort increasingly underrepresented in computer science. The program should attract new, non-traditional students into research, reinforce their interest in computer science, retain these students in their academic programs, and prepare them for graduate school. The University of Houston is a comprehensive research university and one of the most ethnically diversified in the nation. This REU site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
