REU and RET Site in Physics at UTRGV

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This award supports the renewal of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) site in physics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The site will support twelve undergraduates and two teachers per year in research projects in gravitational wave detection, lasers and optics, radio and optical astronomy, blue energy, or materials science. The projects can be theoretical, computational, experimental, observational and/or oriented towards applied physics. As the students' research experience grows they will come closer to being independent, self-reliant scientists. The site will incorporate two high school teachers from the Rio Grande Valley area who will develop smaller subprojects to be carried on with their students during the school year. The research projects in this REU and RET site will focus on research in frontier areas of phenomenological, experimental and applied physics at state-of-the-art facilities. In gravitational wave detection students will be given a unified view of the field, and learn the scientific value of the potential wealth of astrophysical information to be obtained from this new astronomical window - along with the challenge of developing the technological expertise necessary to open it. In laser and optics science they will learn of challenges and promises for new communication technologies. The Radio and Optical Astronomy topics will expose participants to state-of-the-art techniques to see and listen to the farthest reaches of the universe and the entanglement with astrophysics. The program will have a close mentoring and guidance system from the faculty in place during the entire duration, fostering interaction and active participation by students and teachers through seminars, lunch meetings, colloquia and presentations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.