An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Experience Program in Electrical and Computer Engineering - Lessons Learned through 6 Years of Program Operations

摘要

The NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program titled "Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Electrical and Computer Engineering (IREECE)" has run for 6 consecutive years at Oakland University. The 10-week summer program ran in 2010-2012, was renewed in 2013, and finished in 2015. During this time, many valuable lessons were learned in the areas of: recruitment, student empowerment/mentorship, faculty involvement, and assessment; to name a few. The program developed at Oakland University was focused on minority involvement and inspiring students in their first years of undergraduate pursuit. Ultimately, 65 students from 30 different universities participated, 45% were female, 35% were minorities, and 69% were lowerclassmen. These undergraduates were given an invaluable experience in research resulting in 17 conference papers, 10 poster presentations, and a design that lead, in-part, to an award-winning aerial/marine quad-copter. In this paper, we share our approach to running the 10-week summer program with an emphasis on techniques and tips for those seeking to start a new REU site at their institution.