REU Site: Utilizing Plants for Innovative Research (UPIR) - Cultivating the next generation of scientists and engineers

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This REU Site award to Kettering University, located in Flint, MI, will support the training of ten (10) students for eight (8) weeks during the summers of 2017-2019. The REU Site focuses on the use of plants and plant products in innovative scientific and engineering research, and faculty from the biological, chemical, and physical sciences as well as math and engineering will be involved in mentoring and conducting directed research with participants. In addition to undertaking research during the eight-week program, students will participate in seminars and journal clubs, including training in ethics and responsible conduct of research and field trips to other research institutions. Participants for the REU site will be widely solicited, to include students enrolled in schools on the quarter-system and those who are from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering. A committee of faculty members from Kettering University will select REU participants based on academic performance, interest in research, and phone interviews. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities will be trained in the program. The interdisciplinary approaches employed in the REU research projects to tackle real-world issues will help to foster the students' ability to collaborate with people from across STEM fields, allowing participants to better engage with and solve 21st century problems. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences.A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine student career paths. Students will be asked to respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information about the program is available by visiting http://TBD, or by contacting the PI (Dr. Lihua Wang at lwang@kettering.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. James Cohen at jcohen@kettering.edu).