This award provides funding for a 3 year continuing award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site program at the Tennessee Technological University (TTU) entitled, "RET Site: Research Experience for Teachers in Manufacturing for Competitiveness in the United States (RETainUS),"under the direction of Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman.
This Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering Site hosted by the Center for Manufacturing Research at TTU will provide a total of 30 math and science high school teachers (10 per year for 3 years) with a 6-week multi-disciplinary summer experience in manufacturing research with an academic year follow-up plan. This proposed program will contribute to retaining and advancing the manufacturing base in the U.S. through meaningful changes in the teachers' understanding of manufacturing and how it relates to the Math and Science Curriculum. This program aims at improving the teachers' comprehension of the research and development process through hands-on experience and real world problems that relate to: a) advancing the state of the art in conventional manufacturing processes such as metalcasting; b) new trends in manufacturing such as rapid prototyping, c) emerging technologies such as nanomaterials and manufacturing of fuel cells and special coating materials, and d) enabling technologies serving manufacturing processes in general such as intelligent optimization. Special attention will be given to counties and schools where minorities and underserved populations are concentrated. In addtion to working with in-service teachers, RETainUS will expose pre-service teachers to the exciting world of engineering research and how to uniquely incorporate it into the learning environment.
