REU site: Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experience

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The collaboration between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Los Angeles-area urban colleges will enable the Consortium for Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site to recruit approximately 18 mostly minority and women students per year for research experiences in cutting-edge projects in astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science. The scientific goals of CURE projects are part of the larger research projects as defined by the JPL research mentors, often within the context of ongoing or planned space missions. CURE students are immersed in science at the JPL Oak Grove facility, at the JPL Table Mountain Observatory, and, occasionally, at Caltech. They help to design and build experiments, take data, analyze data, and present results. The students have access to the research mentors and facilities that are beyond the reach of their home institutions, and are exposed to the science community at JPL and at professional conferences. This program will provide research experiences for minority students and women, who are underrepresented in the science workforce and in higher education, and to thereby encourage them to select science or engineering as a career. The students learn to work as part of a skilled and highly motivated team; operate in a nonacademic, professional environment; develop a professional attitude and become valued colleagues; develop responsibility to their projects, to their mentors and to themselves; think logically, critically and clearly to solve research problems; and learn good scientific communication skills.