This three year REU Site program will engage 10 undergraduate students for 10 summer weeks each year in meaning and timely research focused on automotive and energy-related problems that have a direct impact on U.S. energy consumption, climate change issues and related national security issues. A special emphasis will be placed on technologies that aim to improve efficiencies of internal combustion engines, automotive manufacturing processes, automotive materials, alternative propulsion systems and lubrication and wear. In addition, another focus area will be on research that aims to improve the reliability of gearboxes in general and wind turbine gearboxes in general.
Key features of this REU Site program include: 1) a unique three-tier mentorship program, that involves faculty, industrial mentors and graduates; 2) a strong commitment from several automotive and component manufacturers (General Motors, Chrysler, SKF USA) and individuals with extensive industrial experience to provide mentorship to the students and access to laboratory and industrial facilities; and 3) learning, networking and peer support opportunities through coordinated professional activities such as, industry and lab tours, seminars, interactions with professionals from industry, oral presentations and the opportunity to attend and/or present research findings at a conference.
What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? In order to promote the participation of women and minorities in engineering, this REU program will recruit at least four of the ten students from underrepresented groups, with a particular focus on recruiting women into the program. Efforts will also be made to increase the number of minority student applicants and specific efforts will be made to recruit minority students from southeastern Michigan, as well as from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) nationwide. Research and outreach results will be disseminated at conferences and through peer-reviewed journal articles. Also, information about the program activities will be placed online and made available to the entire community.
"This REU site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program."
The Automotive and Energy Research and Industrial Mentorship (AERIM) REU site at Oakland University, supported by the NSF Division of Engineering Education and Centers and by the Department of Defense ASSURE program, engaged between 8 and 12 undergraduate students for ten weeks each summer in 2006-2008 and 2010-2012 in automotive and energy-related research projects. A total of 60 undergraduate students - 31 of them female – from 45 different universities across the United States have participated in the program since 2006. Each summer, student participants worked in teams of 2-3 on automotive and energy research projects under the guidance of faculty, graduate students and often industry mentors, and also took part in other activities such as industrial research lab and facilities tours, meetings with working engineers, conferences and seminars. The primary automotive focus of this program was a natural choice given Oakland University’s close ties to and location near the world headquarters and engineering centers of the Big-Three automakers, as well as over one hundred automotive suppliers in southeast Michigan. Our close proximity to so many companies and our long running partnerships and collaborations with many automotive companies and individuals and executives within these companies has allowed us over the years to tap into a resource for our REU program that we felt was often under-utilized: working and retired engineers and researchers from industry. Over 50 professionals from industry, varying in rank from senior vice presidents to researchers, to program directors, to young engineers, have assisted the program at different levels since 2006. These industry mentors have volunteered to assist the REU students in a number of different ways; some provided guidance or materials for the research projects; others organized laboratory/industrial tours, gave seminars, found speakers, or simply had informal discussions with the students on a variety of topics including the automotive or energy industry, technology and career choices. This involvement of industry professionals has been one of the key features of the AERIM program as they bring with them a wealth of knowledge, recent and past experiences working in the automotive and other industries, and are able to provide the students with a "real world" perspective that carries a lot of weight in the eyes of students. As a result of their research experience, AERIM REU student participants reported that they learned more about mechanical engineering topics related to automotive and/or energy applications, developed a sense of how their research contributes to scientific knowledge, developed a mentor relationship with faculty on whom they can call for guidance in the future, developed their experimental and analytical skills, improved their oral communication skills and self confidence. Many of the students have gone on to co-author conference or journal papers and to give conference presentations, hence assisting in the dissemination of their research findings to the engineering community. The REU experience has also played an important role in motivating the students to pursue graduate degrees and careers in science and engineering, hence contributing to the development of a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally-engaged science and engineering workforce, an NSF priority.
