REU Site: Wireless Technologies for Health Applications

该项目的更广泛意义：REU网站的这项工作将吸引10名本科生，主要是在他们的一年级或二年级结束时，到弗吉尼亚大学进行为期八周的、有凝聚力的、积极指导的暑期研究体验。它旨在促进这些学生的专业、社会和认知发展，鼓励他们考虑从事工程方面的职业，并帮助创造一个更加多样化的劳动力。为了确保申请者的多样性，招生工作将集中在HBCU、女子学院、残疾人机构和研究能力不高的机构（即社区学院、文理学院）。这个REU网站有潜力让学生参与解决21世纪的主要挑战之一：提高医疗保健的质量，同时使其更容易获得和负担得起。此外，这个REU网站将有助于在科学和工程领域创造更多样化的劳动力，为女性、少数族裔学生和残疾人提供形成性的研究经验，并将他们与社会和专业网络联系起来，作为在这些领域就业的途径。无线健康REU网站将扩展学生的科学知识，更广泛地说，教会学生如何构建问题、设计实验、协作、观察、得出适当的结论，并将结果与他人交流。项目描述：无线健康REU站点，在美国国家科学基金会工程教育和中心部门的支持下，将接待弗吉尼亚大学10名即将升学的二年级和三年级本科生，进行为期八周的密集研究项目，重点研究无线技术在健康应用领域的跨学科研究。利用无线网络、集成电路、传感、信号处理、通信、数据挖掘和数据库方面的进步，无线健康技术将实现对健康和保健应用的连续、纵向、远程监测，范围从早期疾病诊断和就地老龄化支持到慢性护理和一般健康管理。REU参与者将参与多平台学习，包括在线课程和实验室技能“训练营”，然后参与由教师、博士后学者和研究生导师设计和积极指导的前沿研究项目。在三年的时间里，学生们将共同开发一个身体传感器网络测试平台，涵盖从低级设备设计到高级网络协议的技术。项目将与总体年度主题协调，以建立群组凝聚力，并允许更复杂的合作，如下：第一年-家庭健康监测系统；二年级-基于智能手机的传感器；三年级-健康相关行为改变。除了研究活动外，本科生参加者还将参加专业发展系列活动、期刊俱乐部和实地考察，了解正在开发和在现实世界中使用无线保健技术的领域。这次经历的高潮是一个研讨会，每个学生都要口头和海报展示他或她的研究成果。该大学旨在为处于本科职业发展战略阶段的学生提供有凝聚力的研究和职业发展经验，以培养更多元化的21世纪工程人才。

BROADER SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT:This REU Site effort will bring 10 undergraduate students, primarily at the end of their first or second year, to the University of Virginia for an eight-week, cohesive, actively mentored, summer research experience. It is designed to promote the professional, social, and cognitive development of these students, to encourage them to consider careers in engineering, and to help create a more diverse workforce. In order to ensure a diverse applicant body, recruitment efforts will be focused on HBCU's, women's colleges, institutions for individuals with disabilities, and institutions with less than very high research capabilities (i.e. community colleges, liberal arts colleges). This REU Site has the potential to engage students in the quest to address one of the key challenges of the 21st century: improving the quality of health care while making it more accessible and affordable. In addition, this REU Site will help create a more diverse workforce in science and engineering, providing women, underrepresented minority students, and persons with disabilities formative research experiences and connecting them to the social and professional networks as pathways for careers in these fields. The Wireless Health REU Site will expand the students' scientific knowledge and, more generally, teach students how to frame problems, design experiments, work collaboratively, make observations, draw appropriate conclusions, and communicate their results to others.PROJECT DESCRIPTION:The Wireless Health REU Site, with support from NSF's Division of Engineering Education and Centers, will host ten rising second and third year undergraduate students at the University of Virginia for an intensive eight-week research program focused on the interdisciplinary field of wireless technologies for health applications. Drawing on advances in wireless networks, integrated circuits, sensing, signal processing, communications, data mining, and databases, Wireless Health technologies will enable continuous, longitudinal, remote monitoring for health and wellness applications, ranging from early disease diagnosis and aging-in-place support to chronic care and general wellness management. REU participants will participate in multi-platform learning, including online coursework and a lab skills "bootcamp", before they engage in cutting edge research projects designed and actively-mentored by faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate student mentors. Over the three years, students will work collectively to develop a body sensor network testbed that spans technology from lower-level device designs to higher-level networking protocols. Projects will be coordinated with overarching yearly themes to build cohort cohesion and allow for more sophisticated collaborations as follows: Year 1- Home Health Monitoring Systems; Year 2- Smartphone Based Sensors; and Year 3- Health Related Behavior Modifications. In addition to research activities, undergraduate participants will take part in a professional development series, journal club, and field trips to areas where wireless health technologies are being developed and used in the real world. The culmination of this experience is a symposium where each student presents oral and poster presentations of his or her research findings. This REU aims to provide a cohesive research and career enhancement experience for students at a strategic point in their undergraduate careers in order to develop a more diversified and prepared for 21st century engineering workforce.