This renewal of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site program, Aerospace Engineering Research Opportunities for Undergraduates (AERO-U) at Texas A&M University (TAMU) has at its overarching goal to encourage undergraduate students, especially underrepresented minorities and women, to pursue careers as researchers in aerospace engineering. Projects span a number of aerospace related research topics and will include new projects on the design of a bio-mimetic morphing wing, cyclocopters, and uninhabited autonomous vehicles. Continuing research activities include projects on modeling and testing of electromagnetic field effects on hypersonic vehicle scramjet inlet, wing, stability and transition to turbulence and plasmas in propulsion and other fields (e.g. bio-medical, materials synthesis. Many of the research areas are critical to national goals for leadership in space exploration, future transportation needs, and homeland security.
Over a three year period, this REU Site program will engage undergraduate students in a 10-week intensive, summer experience focused on conducting cutting-edge aerospace engineering research. The students will work on individualized projects, engage in community building activities with other REU students, TAMU undergraduates and graduate students, and TAMU faculty, receive professional development opportunities, receive tutoring concerning graduate school, and attend field trips which connect the research to real-world problems. Students to be recruited focus on underrepresented minorities and women nationwide and from the 18 universities in the TAMU Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and many are minority serving institutions. These include TAMU-Kingsville and TAMU-Corpus Christi, both Hispanic Serving institutions (HSI), and Prairie View A&M (PVAMU), an historically black college and university (HBCU). PVAMU and TAMU-Kingsville have established engineering programs, and other TEES institutions have emerging ones.
