REU Sites: Research Experiences For Undergraduates in Virtual Reality, Robotics and Visualization

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Title: REU Site: Research Experiences For Undergraduates in Virtual Reality, Robotics and VisualizationPI: Sharon Stansfieldinstitution: Ithaca CollegeThe goal of this program is to encourage students enrolled at non-research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions to pursue graduate study and research careers in Computer Science. The eight week summer program provides an opportunity for students to work on research projects that give them the "real world" experience of working in collaboration with their own research team (led by a faculty mentor,) as well as with researchers from other disciplines. The research projects include developing virtual reality software for education, therapy, and basic research into human motor control; exploring robotics as an assistive technology to aid the disabled and elderly; and analysis and visualization of three-dimensional fractal trees, with an eye toward their use as a modeling tool within disciplines such as biology, economics, medicine. In addition to working on the research project itself, students in the program participate in a number of other activities aimed at providing information and experiences that will be helpful in their pursuit of technical careers. These activities include presenting an oral proposal for their project toward the middle of the program and disseminating results through a final poster session to which members of the academic community are invited. Participants are also encouraged to present their work at other venues after the program ends. Other activities include presentations on choosing and applying to graduate school, research methods, and using library research databases. Research-oriented presentations and demonstrations by faculty and others are also scheduled. The program will encourage a diverse group of undergraduates to consider attending graduate school and embarking on research careers. This addresses the important national need of attracting a diverse group of students to research-oriented science careers.