Research Experience for Undergraduates in Micro Mechatronics and Smart Structures

This paper describes an ongoing Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 2002 at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). The goal of the program was to bring students from around the United States and Puerto Rico to campus for an eight-week summer program and provide them with a multidisciplinary research experience in the areas of micro mechatronics and smart structures. The program objectives, recruitment strategies, organization and evaluation are summarized. To date, 54 students including 11 minority and 10 female students from 27 different institutions from around the United States and Puerto Rico have participated in the program