The award provides support for a three-year REU Site at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UA). The program will engage 9 undergraduate students each year for three years in a 10-week summer program.
The REU Site focuses on Nanomaterials and Nanomechanics. The undergraduate students will be exposed to cutting-edge problems that will stimulate and challenge them. The overall objectives are: 1) to engage the participants in nanoscale engineering research; 2) to allow the undergraduate students to self-assess their interest in graduate school; 3) to increase the number of future professionals in nanomaterials and nanomechanics; and 4) to enable the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to become, and be recognized as, a nationally top tier undergraduate and graduate program.
The REU program includes seminars and workshops to expose participants to nanoscale engineering as well as professional development, with an emphasis on research and graduate studies. To enhance the participant's research experience there will be complementary social activities, such as, tours of regional research/industrial facilities, cookouts, and group outings to local areas of interest.
The Broader Impacts of this REU site arise from the recruitment of undergraduate students from institutions with a limited research base, minority institutions, underrepresented minorities, women and persons with disabilities. In addition, this program uniquely integrates with existing UA programs involving Afro-American and Hispanic students, Arkansas high school students and honors students. The involvement of these undergraduate students in exciting research in nanomaterials and nanomechanics enhances the likelihood that they will consider post-graduate study and broaden the base of the Nation's technical manpower.
This award is co-funded by the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EHR/EPSCoR).
