REU Site: Biomedical engineering Research for Active military and Veterans (BRAVe)

德克萨斯州的圣安东尼奥被正式命名为“美国军事城”，拥有超过25万名退伍军人和8万名现役军人，支撑着美国最大的军事基地集中地之一。四个中央军事基地共同为当地经济贡献了500亿美元，德克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥（UTSA）校园的快速发展吸引了全国最具种族多样性的学生。为了支持圣安东尼奥社区的高危学生，USTA的现役军人和退伍军人生物医学工程研究（BRAVe）REU网站计划将通过提供结构化的生物医学研究经验，指导和支持小组，重点关注直接影响军事和退伍军人健康的问题，促进学生在工程教育的关键过渡点期间的保留。该计划将支持以下目标：（1）在UTSA-UT-Health联合圣安东尼奥生物医学工程项目中，为教师监督的学生提供引人入胜的，具有挑战性的工程研究项目;（2）为学生研究人员制定指导计划，其中教师和同行导师反映了学生群体的多样性;（3）向学生介绍圣安东尼奥军事和医学研究社区和新的职业机会;（4）让学生了解生物医学工程研究对军事和退伍军人社区的影响;以及（5）将伦理培训贯穿于学生研究经历和专业发展的各个方面。为期10周的夏季BRAVe REU计划将通过开发多层次的学生辅导计划，促进与圣安东尼奥军事社区的接触，并支持专注于对当地社区至关重要的问题的研究项目，来支持尚未决定学术道路的风险本科生的职业生涯。学生可以选择在12个UTSA实验室实习，这些实验室提供应用生物医学工程原理解决与军事和退伍军人健康相关问题的研究项目。研究项目通常解决以下目标之一：（A）确定工程解决方案，以实现受损组织的再生，修复和控制（例如，脑细胞移植，无线神经调节）;（B）非侵入性地监测分子、细胞和组织恢复（例如，神经血管修复建模、细胞相互作用的光声成像）;和/或（C）治疗战场上的士兵。BRAVe的项目将使许多应用受益，包括改善每年被诊断患有创伤性脑损伤的约20，000名美国军人的治疗（来源：DoD）。BRAVe的学生体验受益于研究具有重大社会影响的挑战，并为参与研究具有特殊相关性的代表性不足的学生群体量身定制。REU导师积极与陆军，海军，空军和VA设施合作，作为联合UTSA-UTHSA联合生物医学工程研究生课程的一部分;而REU学员反映了当地本科生人口的日益多样化。合作伙伴（南德克萨斯退伍军人医疗保健系统，退伍军人和军事事务，Trinity学院，化身世界大学）还通过一系列协调活动帮助支持BRAVe。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

San Antonio, Texas, which is officially named "Military City USA", has more than 250,000 veterans and 80,000 active-duty military personnel supporting one of the largest concentrations of military bases in the United States. Four central military bases collectively contribute $50B to the local economy and the rapidly growing University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA) campuses are attended by one of the most ethnically diverse student populations in the nation. To support at-risk students in the San Antonio community, the USTA's Biomedical engineering Research for Active military and Veterans (BRAVe) REU Site program will promote retention of students during critical transitional points in their engineering education by providing structured biomedical research experiences, mentoring, and support groups with a focus on issues that directly impact military and Veterans health. This initiative will support the following objectives to: (1) provide engaging, challenging engineering research projects for students supervised by faculty in the joint UTSA- UT-Health San Antonio Biomedical Engineering program; (2) develop mentoring programs for student researchers, where faculty and peer mentors reflect the diversity of the student population; (3) introduce students to the San Antonio military and medical research communities and new career opportunities; (4) expose students to the impact of biomedical engineering research on military and Veterans communities; and (5) integrate ethics training throughout all aspects the student research experience and professional development. The 10-week summer BRAVe REU program will support the careers of at-risk undergraduate students who have yet to decide an academic path by developing multi-tiered student mentoring programs, promoting engagement with the San Antonio military communities, and supporting research projects focused on issues critical to the local community. Students will have a choice of interning in twelve UTSA laboratories, which offer research projects that apply biomedical engineering principles to solve problems related to military and Veterans health. The research projects typically address one of the following objectives: (A) identifying engineering solutions to enable regeneration, repair and control of damaged tissue (e.g., transplantation of brain cells, wireless neuromodulation); (B) non-invasively monitoring molecular, cellular and tissue recovery (e.g., modeling neurovascular repair, photoacoustic imaging of cell interactions); and/or (C) treating soldiers in the battlefield. BRAVe's projects will benefit many applications, including improved treatment for the ~20,000 U.S. service members diagnosed yearly with traumatic brain injury (Source: DoD). BRAVe's student experiences benefit from working on research challenges that have significant societal implications and are tailored to engage population of underrepresented students for whom the research has particular relevancy. The REU mentors actively collaborate with Army, Navy, Air Force and VA facilities as part of the joint UTSA-UTHSA joint Biomedical Engineering graduate program; while the REU mentees reflect the growing diversity of the local undergraduate population. Collaborating partners (South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Veterans and Military Affairs, Trinity College, University of the Incarnate Word) additionally help support BRAVe through a number of coordinated activities.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.