REU Site: Sustainability of Horizontal Civil Networks in Rural Areas

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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.