This Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site's objective is to actively involve 8 undergraduates in frontier physics research by matching them up with experienced faculty for 10 weeks during the summer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The research projects include topics in astrophysics and astrobiology, condensed matter and optical physics, terahertz science, particle and nuclear physics. The program features are: hands-on projects carefully designed by experienced faculty by using existing facilities, building simple instruments and interfaces, programming for data acquisition, or using computer modeling and performing data analysis. In addition to daily contact among participants, faculty, postdocs, and graduate students, there are weekly group activities such as seminars and field trips. Each research group will hold weekly group meetings to discuss technical issues regarding experiments or modeling. At the end of the first week, there are presentations of focused goals. In the 6th week, each participant will deliver an oral progress presentation and a written progress report. In the 10th week, each participant will prepare a poster, make a presentation, and submit a written final report. The projects and activities are designed to allow students to experience the challenge, the excitement, and sometimes frustration involved in physics research outside the classroom as well as nurturing them to become creative thinkers, life-long learners and team players. The broader impact of the proposed activities is to attract, encourage and prepare talented students especially underrepresented groups for a career in the sciences. This project is co-funded by the Divisions of Physics and Astronomy.
