Robotics is an extremely multi-disciplinary field that incorporates ideas from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and beyond. Roboticists must consider aspects of systems from mechanical design to planning to understanding the needs of people who interact with robots; as such, the broad range of skills needed to be a roboticist makes it both a challenging and enriching field for many undergraduates. Despite this appeal, certain obstacles often interfere with undergraduate participation in robotics research, including lack of robotics infrastructure at home institutions and pipeline challenges for groups of students who are underrepresented in engineering. This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site renewal project particularly aims to address the above diversity and inclusion topics and improve program evaluation while preserving past successful aspects of the Site.
Undergraduate students at this REU Site will work on active research projects, contributing to new findings in a wide range of robotics research areas, from modeling robots to understanding human psychology as it applies to interactions with robots. The summer project work will fall under the domains of Oregon State University robotics faculty and affiliates, and all projects will focus on robotics research contributions that involve physical robots deployed in real-world settings. These projects involve autonomous robots to explore extreme ocean environments, telepresence robots, and next generation social robots. The REU student experience will involve formulating and pursuing robotics research questions under the supervision of leading faculty in one of the highest-ranked graduate robotics programs in the country. Historically, approximately 20 program participants have co-authored peer-reviewed academic papers that advanced the state of knowledge in the field based on their summer research.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
