This three-year REU Site program at the University of Texas at Arlington is focused in the area of Hazard Mitigation. The project will provide an excellent opportunity to integrate research and education. The objectives of the program are to: 1) recruit students into and retain students in four-year engineering programs through graduation; 2) encourage participants to pursue graduate degrees in engineering; and 3) expose participants to practical applications of engineering research. The undergraduate students will work on research teams with faculty and high school teachers participating in the ongoing NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site on Hazard Mitigation.
In addition to students being involved in computer or laboratory-based research, they will be engaged in other activities such as field trips, presentations and workshops, which are all designed to broaden the student?s educational experiences. They will have an additional opportunity to participate in the education process by performing demonstrations and/or giving demonstrations (based on their research) to K-12 students. The program is designed to ultimately inform students of and motivate them for the attainment of advanced degrees in engineering. It will additionally provide benefits to participants who decide not to attend graduate school by introducing them to practical applications of engineering research to real world problems. This is especially important with the increased occurrences of natural disasters (such as hurricanes and tornadoes), terrorist threats, cyber security breaches and infrastructure failures (such as massive blackouts) that the world has experienced over the past several years.
The Principal Investigator will recruit engineering and science students from local community colleges with which the university has established relationships, as well as other universities, with emphasis on minority serving institutions (MSIs). The program intends to recruit students into and retain students in four-year engineering programs through graduation. Students will be encouraged to pursue graduate degrees in engineering.
The UT Arlington (UTA) REU Site on Hazard Mitigation brought together 34 engineering bound undergraduate students from five community colleges and several universities, many with limited research opportunities. The common theme was "Hazard Mitigation". Five summer research projects, sub-sets of larger funded research projects at UTA, were developed for student participation. The projects were: Air Dispersion Modeling - Planning for Airborne Terrorism Releases in DFW; Effect of Extreme Event Wind Loads on Structures; Expansive Soil Heave Damage and Earthquake Research; Hacker Detection - Evaluation and Improvement; and Power Grid Failure. The projects were designed to recruit undergraduate students from engineering and related sciences and introduce them to engineering research. The effort was headed by Drs. Nur Yazdani and Yvette Pearson Weatherton (and later by Dr. Melanie Sattler) from Civil Engineering, and included five other faculty members, several graduate students/post-docs, and the REU student researchers. The multi-disciplinary faculty group came from civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering and education. The objectives of the REU project were to: (1) recruit students into, and retain students in, four-year engineering programs through graduation; (2) encourage participants to pursue graduate degrees in engineering, and (3) expose participants to practical applications of engineering research. The project objectives closely align to NSF’s strategic plan. The project focused on the training of under-represented groups of students attending institutions with limited ability to provided research experiences. In line with NSFs broader impacts criteria and strategic plan, it is important to broaden the participation of under-represented groups in STEM education and careers in step with demographic shifts and increased diversity. A total of 145 applications were received over the four project period. Overall, 77% of the participating students were from under-represented groups (ethnic minorities, females, persons with disabilities), and 65% came from schools with limited research activities. The very successful REU project met all stated objectives. The following student opportunities were generated: (1) Research on Hazard Mitigation; (2) Introduction to the profession and diversity of engineering fields; (3) Workshop on graduate studies/research; (4) Workshop on ethics in engineering; (5) Development of graduate and professional skills, such as posters, blogs, power-point slides, oral and visual presentations, field log/journal, networking and social skills; and (6) group work. Long term faculty-student collaboration and societal benefits in terms of better prepared engineers and solutions to critical problems were achieved. Students had the opportunity to conduct research in solving real-world hazard-related engineering problems with open-ended solutions. Such research is crucial for our complex and interconnected society and infrastructure. As researchers, students gained experience in designing, executing, and implementing research work. Students not only participated in inquiry-based learning, but also attended workshops and courses that provided instruction on their project content. The benefit to society is that the students worked on "real-world" scenarios which can help to mitigate crises that may potentially occur as they relate to technological, natural and man-made disasters. In a mutually beneficial mentoring opportunity, the students also had the opportunity to work with teachers participating in the past RET project at UTA in year 1. Student response to the pre- and post-summer, and academic year tracking surveys, is overwhelmingly positive, in terms of the lasting effect of the program, continued interest in engineering knowledge and research, continued contact with fellow students, faculty and graduate students, and the desire to participate again in similar programs. The UTA REU program was highly valued by participants at the end of the summer program, and still valued after they returned to their home institutions. All 8 female students, 13 African American students and all Latino/a students indicated that the program had a significant positive influence on their future education/career plans. This is also substantiated from supporting evidence from student blogs. The project helped expand and change student perception of engineering to include diverse populations. Students developed hands-on problem solving and research skills, and developed graduate and professional skills in a high support and low anxiety climate. Evidence from student blog posts reflects these skills. REU students are spreading the word about the benefits of the program on their social blogs. A dedicated web site for the REU project was established and has been maintained to date (www.uta.edu/ce/nsf/reu). Dedicated student blogs are linked to the master UTA website. They have been regularly updated by the students. The project to date has resulted in 13 journal/proceeding publications and conference presentations, with 14 REU students (41% of 34 total) as co-authors. Through outreach activities, students continue to document the influence of the project on their education and career choices. The students are being tracked post-REU through a once-a-year survey, and review of information on their blog posts; this will continue for four more years. Out of 34 students, 28 (82%) have enrolled in engineering programs, 22 have already obtained engineering degrees, 15 have enrolled in graduate programs, and five have obtained graduate degrees.
