In this REU Site program, 12 undergraduate engineering students will participate in research projects in the laboratories of members of the Biomedical Engineering Department. Opportunities are available for research on biomedical instrumentation, sensors, prosthetics, biomaterials, neurophysiology, and neural modelling, cardiovalsular physiology and modelling, mathematical modelling, and membrane and cellular physiology. Students will be selected for the program on the basis of their experience, the benefit to be derived from participation and a brief proposal. Participants will work under the day-to-day supervision of faculty members on research projects which the students have developed under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Students will discuss their research projects in a weekly seminar series which will give students experience in presenting research plans and results and in discussing their work with their peers. A limited number of students will be able to present results of their projects at national meetings. Examples of research and laboratory experiences that will involve the student in the following projects: (1) basic and applied research on the processing of speech by ear, eyes, and haptic (cutaneous and positional) senses, (2) polymer-based, ion- selective electrode technology for biological sensors, (3) representation of the acoustic environment and the information processing of the auditory nervous system, and (4) the investigation of the cellular basis for the electrical and mechanical properties of the heart.
