REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Fluid Power

NSF紧凑高效流体动力工程研究中心（CCEFP）是一个由研究人员、教育工作者、学生和工业界组成的网络，致力于改变流体动力行业。如何研究、应用和教授。CCEFP的研究项目分为三个重点，实现以下社会效益：创造新的流体动力技术，提高效率，将大大减少石油消耗，能源使用和污染;创造新的流体动力技术，提高效率，将使流体动力清洁，安静和安全，为数百万用户提供服务。以及创造新的流体动力技术，该技术具有改进的紧凑性，将在新一代人类规模的装置和设备中利用其属性。CCEFP？的教育和推广计划旨在将这些知识传递给不同的受众？所有年龄段的学生，流体动力用户和公众。通过其战略规划过程，CCEFP确定了未来五年的以下重要目标：将当前应用和新运输应用中的流体动力效率提高一倍，将流体动力能量存储密度提高一个数量级，并开发比现有任何产品小一到两个数量级的新流体动力供应。CCEFP填补了几十年来流体动力研究的空白。在该中心成立之前，美国没有主要的流体动力研究中心（欧洲有30个中心）。流体动力研究人员，谁是以前断开，现在通过CCEFP连接。对工程师和科学家的需求持续增长，但每年毕业的机械工程专业学生人数保持不变。在这一群体中，妇女和代表性不足的少数族裔工程师，包括残疾工程师的人数仍然很少。吸引和留住这些群体可以显著解决熟练工程师短缺的问题。工程教育和中心部（EEC）支持NSF紧凑高效流体动力工程研究中心（CCEFP），这将建立一个研究经验的本科生（REU）网站计划，将从事14名本科生在10-在流体动力研究方面有一周的暑期研究经验。CCEFP的目标是通过将不同的学生群体暴露于正在进行的液压和气动转型研究来改变流体动力的面貌，希望他们能够成为未来的学术和行业领导者。这个REU网站将利用CCEFP？的独特能力，利用其广泛的研究计划，提供的机会，在七所大学设备齐全的实验室，以及其教师的主题专业知识追求这些项目的权力和潜力。REU参与者的亮点包括：沉浸在CCEFP的24个跨学科和跨机构的研究项目之一，并在教师和研究生导师的监督下，获得最先进的流体动力研究设施，参加双周CCEFP关于流体动力研究和专业发展主题的网络广播，为期两天的强化流体动力靴子训练营，受邀参加下一届NFPA劳动力峰会和CCEFP年会，与CCEFP 55家成员公司的行业领导者互动。REU学生将有机会在各种内部，行业和专业活动以及电子媒体上展示他们的研究成果。 CCEFP努力改变流体动力行业的传统面貌，以更好地反映我国人口的构成。招聘工作将侧重于确定在科学和工程，包括妇女，种族和少数民族，残疾人，以及最近的退伍军人代表不足的学生。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:The NSF Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) is a network of researchers, educators, students and industry working together to transform the fluid power industry?how it is researched, applied and taught. CCEFP research projects are organized in three thrusts that achieve the following societal benefits: creation of new fluid power technology that, with improved efficiency, will significantly reduce petroleum consumption, energy use and pollution; creation of new fluid power technology that, with improved effectiveness, will make fluid power clean, quiet and safe for its millions of users; and creation of new fluid power technology that, with improved compactness, will exploit its attributes in a new generation of human scale devices and equipment. The CCEFP?s education and outreach program is designed to transfer this knowledge to diverse audiences?students of all ages, users of fluid power and the general public. Through its strategic planning process, CCEFP has identified the following important goals for the next five years: doubling fluid power efficiency in current applications and in new transportation applications, increasing fluid power energy storage density by an order of magnitude, and developing new fluid power supplies that are one to two orders of magnitude smaller than anything currently available. The CCEFP fills a void in fluid power research that existed for decades. Until the Center was established, the U.S. had no major fluid power research center (compared with thirty centers in Europe). Fluid power researchers, who were previously disconnected, are now linked through the CCEFP. The demand for engineers and scientists continues to grow, but the number of mechanical engineering students graduated each year remains constant. Within this group, the number of women and underrepresented minority engineers, including engineers with disabilities, remains small. Attracting and retaining these groups can significantly address the shortage of skilled engineers.NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) supports the NSF Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), which will establish a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site Program that will engage 14 undergraduate students in 10-week summer research experience in fluid power research. Goals of the CCEFP is to change the face of fluid power by exposing a diverse body of students to the transformational research underway in hydraulics and pneumatics in the hope that they will become the academic and industry leaders of the future. This REU site will take advantage of CCEFP?s unique ability to leverage the power and potential of its broad menu of research initiatives, the opportunities afforded to pursue these projects in well-equipped laboratories at seven universities, and the subject matter expertise of its faculty. Highlights for REU participants include: immersion in one of the CCEFP 24 cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional research projects and four test beds under the supervision of faculty and graduate student mentors, access to state-of-the-art fluid power research facilities, participation in the bi-weekly CCEFP webcasts on fluid power research and professional development topics, an intensive two-day fluid power training boot camp at the outset of the program, a guest invitation to attend the next NFPA Workforce Summit and CCEFP Annual Meeting, interaction with industry leaders from the CCEFP 55 member companies. REU students will have the opportunity to present their research results at a variety of internal, industry and professional events as well as electronic media. One way that CCEFP strives to change the traditional face of the fluid power industry to better reflect the composition of our country's population at large. Recruiting efforts will focus on identifying underrepresented students in the sciences and engineering including women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities, and recent war veterans.