This funding renews a Research Experience for Undergraduates site focused on interdisciplinary research incorporating the science of design at Humboldt State University. Via an experiential-based learning approach, students expand their understanding of creativity and design in the course of building their own design toolkits. They then use their toolkits to pursue open-ended research in the areas of software systems, embedded systems and mobile robotics, geographical information systems, mathematics modeling, industrial technology, and graphical and studio art. The project includes mentorship by experienced computer science faculty members, oral presentations and seminars, ethics training, and other professional development opportunities. The site emphasizes recruitment of groups traditionally underrepresented in computer science and related fields through a well-established institutional infrastructure. This site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
The intellectual merit of this project lies in strong research basis and the expertise of the team. The projects are in major current research areas that are of interest to the community at large and that have clear practical applications.
The broader impacts of the project include providing a quality research experience to undergraduate students, particularly women and students from underrepresented groups. Thus this project has the potential to produce new computer science graduate students and faculty members and to advance discovery and understanding while promoting learning.
The Research Experience for Undergraduates – Role Models in Science (REU-RMS) at Humboldt State University programs primary goal was to train a diverse group of students for careers in research. Cohorts of 8-10 undergraduate student interns participated in a nine week resident summer program each year from 2008 – 2010. Interns completed actual research projects under the advisement of one or more faculty mentors. Interns were taught research methods, emphasizing proper literature review, science ethics, and scientific presentation. Students gave oral presentations of their research progress to their faculty mentors and peers on a weekly or biweekly basis, and completed the program with a research symposium. The symposium was open to the public and students presented posters and gave oral presentations. Interns were also provided information on selecting and applying to graduate programs. The program was assessed using pre- and post-programs tests/surveys. Thirty students have participated in the Humboldt State University REU-RMS program since 2008. This report provides pre- vs. post-test comparison results for the 2010 REU cohort and results of an annual telephone follow-up interview with the 2008 and 2009 cohorts. Based on self-reported student outcomes via the telephone interview, REU students are largely on track toward the desired outcomes of the REU program, in terms of intention to go to graduate school and/or pursue careers in research. Fifteen out of 20 students have provided progress updates. Two students from the 2008 cohort and a 2009 REU student are in Ph.D. programs (two in Computer Science and one in Materials Science & Engineering). In addition to these three doctoral students, all but one of the remaining 12 REU students from the two cohorts who provided status updates, intend to obtain an advanced degree. Six of those students expressed an interest in graduate computer science/information technology studies (including one in bioinformatics and one in image analysis), and the remaining six in graduate studies in other fields.
