Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Rural Transportation Engineering

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9619786 Butler ABSTRACT The University of Arkansas (UofA) has become a primary rural transportation research center through the existence of the Mack-Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center (MBTC). The MBTC is a collaborative effort of several colleges and departments at the University of Arkansas and other colleges and universities, corporations, and government entities. The MBTC focuses on education, research and technology transfer to improve the quality of rural life through transportation. The primary engineering departments involved with the MBTC at the University of Arkansas are Industrial, Civil, and Computer Systems. The aforementioned departments have utilized undergraduate researchers in numerous research projects and would like to be able to involve more undergraduate students in research projects. Thus, it is proposed that a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site be developed at the University of Arkansas which will focus on rural transportation engineering research. The proposed program will increase the participation of undergraduate researchers on rural transportation research projects and will facilitate significant interaction between faculty and graduate and undergraduate students. The MBTC has sponsored many research projects which examine the various aspects of rural transportation. The projects have involved social, economic psychological, technical, managerial, logistical and operational issues and thus have facilitated interdisciplinary studies. The proposed REU will incorporate projects from several different engineering departments with each project having as its central them rural transportation. This REU is unique in that a rural transportation research focus is taken that involves faculty advisors from several disciplines working together to find the most effective and economical methods of transportation to benefit rural living. ***