REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas

内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校的本科生研究经验（REU）项目“农村地区水平民用网络的可持续性”将为三组10名学生提供跨学科研究机会，重点关注农村地区可持续民用基础设施，这些学生主要来自研究机会有限或没有研究机会的机构和/或在STEM中代表性不足的学生。尽管农村地区占整个美国土地面积的大部分，并且以其独特的资源和粮食生产能力对生活结构至关重要，但从研究的角度来看，农村地区往往资金不足。农村地区约占美国人口的20%（4900万人），占美国土地面积的80% (EPA 2011)，对农村和城市地区的人类福祉都至关重要。在美国，低密度农村地区，即每平方英里人口少于25人的地区，提供了美国食品和生物能源生产的基础设施，以及从内陆城市中心到港口的交通基础设施等资源。尽管农村和城市区域之间民用基础设施网络的性质有所不同，但很少注意到农村地区可持续性的独特挑战和机会。这个REU网站将利用内布拉斯加大学林肯分校历史上强大的民用基础设施研究，为本科生提供研究和发展机会。每年夏天，这个REU网站将为本科生提供研究经验以及一系列专业发展机会，包括口头和书面研究交流的演讲，行业实地考察，以及通过与内布拉斯加州大学林肯分校研究生研究办公室合作，为研究生院做准备的演讲。将为每个学生创建个人发展计划（IDP），以帮助将REU计划活动与他们的最终职业目标联系起来。本课程的目标是为本科生提供研究经验，并为他们提供进一步探索工程研究职业和/或工程研究生学习的机会。通过该项目，将培养一批受过高等教育、专注于解决农村地区土木工程基础设施问题的研究人员。

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site program, Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will provide interdisciplinary research opportunities focusing on sustainable civil infrastructure for rural areas to three cohorts of ten students, primarily from institutions with limited or no research opportunities and/or students underrepresented in STEM. Although rural areas comprise the majority of land area throughout the United States, and are crucial to the fabric of life with their unique resources and food production capability, they are habitually underfunded from a research perspective. Rural areas, which contain approximately 20% of the U.S. population (49 million people) and 80% of the land area in the United States (EPA 2011), are fundamental to human well-being in both rural and urban areas. Within the United States, low density rural areas, defined as regions with less than 25 people per square mile, provide resources such as the infrastructure for U.S. food and bioenergy production as well as the transportation infrastructure from inland urban centers to ports. Despite differences in the nature of civil infrastructure networks between rural and urban regions, little attention is paid to the unique challenges and opportunities for sustainability in rural areas. This REU site will leverage the historically strong research on civil infrastructure at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to provide research and development opportunities to undergraduate students.Each summer, this REU site will provide undergraduate students with experiences in research as well as a series of professional development opportunities including presentations on oral and written research communications, industry site visits, and presentations on preparing for graduate school through collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Graduate Studies. An individual development plan (IDP) for each student will be created to help link the REU program activities to their ultimate career goals. A goal of this program is to provide research experiences to undergraduate students and provide them with opportunities to further explore engineering research careers and/or graduate study in engineering. A more diverse group of highly educated researchers focused on solutions to problems in civil engineering infrastructure in rural areas will be created through this program.