This awards supports an REU site, Research Experience for Undergraduates in Material Science and Engineering, at Tuskegee University, based on Tuskegee's PhD program in Material Science and Engineering (MSE). It funds eight student participants each year for three years in a 10-week summer program. The interdisciplinary nature of MSE makes this program open to students majoring in Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, or Physics. The main pool of students recruited for this summer program comes from science and engineering majors at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's), including Tuskegee University, attendees at LSAMP and AGEP conferences, and the HBCU-UP National Conferences. The objective is to increase the number of minority students involved in research and also to increase the number of minority students entering graduate programs in Material Science and Engineering or other areas of science and engineering.
The intellectual merit of the program arises from the students' involvement in advanced MSE research. The broader impact is the increase in minority undergraduates involved in this field and continuing to advanced degrees and related professional participation. While the primary recruiting effort is aimed at students in HBCU's, all interested students are welcome. Research in MSE at Tuskegee University is highly interdisciplinary but focused particularly on developing new materials. The individual research projects include use of natural/renewable resources for new materials, polymer and nanocomposite modeling, study of interfacial properties in adhesives andnanophased systems, thermal and mechanical characterization of materials, mechanical testing, new electronic materials, and manufacturing of composites.
Many of the researchers associated with this project are also participants in the Tuskegee University NSF CREST center in Nanocomposite Manufacturing. In addition to performing a research project, students will be exposed to seminars and be given training in searching of literature, and technical writing and presentations. A weekly seminar series includes five weeks of interactive lectures on research ethics conducted by a member of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care as well technical seminars on a variety of scientific and technical topics. Tuskegee University, through its HBCU-UP grant, has been providing a one-credit Introduction to Research course as part of another summer program (CReATE). This class is expanded to include the REU students, hence providing formal training in technical writing and presentations. Students complete their summer by submitting a final report and giving oral presentations in a research symposium.
