This three-year REU site program at the University of Maine will engage eight undergraduates per year in hands-on research experiences in sensor science and engineering. The REU program will be integrated with the PIs' Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs. REU participants will have the opportunity to interact with faculty research mentors, graduate students, post-docs, technicians, visiting scientists, and middle and high school teachers. REU students, GK-12 fellows, IGERT fellows, and RET participants will participate in field trips to Maine companies that perform sensor research such as The Jackson Laboratory and Spectral Solutions. They will also participate in weekly seminars in the area of sensors given by invited speakers, faculty research mentors, graduate students, and visiting scientists. Weekend recreational activities will be an integral part of the program and will enhance the REU students' sense of community and improve their research group dynamics.
In addition to the research experience, REU students will participate in two complementary courses, INT 398 Undergraduate Research Participation and ECE 465 Introduction to Sensors. Each student will receive three credits for each course. At the end of the research experience, students will present their research in conference format and submit a written report or co-author paper(s) for publication in peer-reviewed journals and/or symposia.
Recruitment efforts will be targeted to women and minorities and students at non-PhD granting institutions. Research results will be disseminated through campus presentations and more broadly through professional journals and symposia. Society will benefit as undergraduates, as a result of their participation in their research experiences, choose to continue in graduate school or to excel in technologically and scientifically challenging careers that advance such areas as homeland security, food safety, transportation, communications, and medicine.
at the University of Maine Electrical and Computer Engineering Department hosted a total of 37 undergraduate researchers over the three year period of the grant. Of these students, 10 were women and eight were minority students. The grant covered the stipends of 24 students, and 13 other students participated in the program through work study, REU supplements to other NSF grants, and other research funds. 15 of the 24 students supported by the grant were from other institutions, meeting our recruitment goal for external recruitment. Through the REU Site and its administration, we have established recruitment networks among four-year colleges and universities, with a particular emphasis on HBCU and other minority serving institutions and institutions which do not grant Ph.D.s. The REU fellows conducted STEM research projects on sensor materials and surfaces, sensor devices and sensing systems. The research projects covered a wide range of sensors, such as bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors for sensing explosives, red tide and high temperature/ pressure, metal oxide gas sensors for sensing trace amounts of gasses expelled during arctic drilling, passive wireless sensors for tracking small amphibians, microfluidic systems for lab-on-a-chip, and laser detection and ranging (LADAR) systems. Faculty in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Chemical Engineering, Food Sciences, Microbiology, Wildlife Ecology at the University of Maine mentored the REU fellows. The research projects involved collaborations with two national laboratories (Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM), four universities (Marquette University, South Dakota State University, University of Central Florida, and University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany), five small and medium Maine based companies, and seven other medium and large companies. The research has resulted in seven conference proceedings and one journal publication. This REU Site has contributed to the growth of a highly skilled U.S. scientific and engineering workforce. The NSF-REU program has provided a valuable boost to the student's motivation toward both present and future graduate study. It has given them the opportunity to apply advanced techniques in mathematics, physics and engineering as well as demonstrating the need for further course work to provide the necessary tools for more advanced research. The program has also caused some of the students to modify their ultimate educational goals. It has further demonstrated that highly qualified undergraduate students are capable of doing high-quality advanced work. Additionally, several of the NSF-REU students interacted with middle and high school teachers and GK-12 fellows during the summer. The middle and high school teachers were supported by an NSF-RET grant and the GK-12 fellows were supported by an NSF GK-12 grant all in the area of sensors. These interactions involved the development of curriculum modules which are being integrated into several middle and high schools in the state of Maine. REU students who graduated from schools involved in the RET and GK-12 programs also made presentations at their former schools. REU students acted as role models to high school and middle school students and helped to convince many of the secondary school students to follow careers in science and engineering.
