REU Site: Research Experience in Utah for Sustainable Materials Engineering (ReUSE)

非技术描述：这个新的本科生研究经验（REU）网站的目标是培养冶金和材料科学与工程本科生的可持续工程。这是通过可持续发展基础知识的教育，以及材料科学与工程教师导师的深入学习经验来实现的。学生将接触到能源、资源和水领域的可持续发展研究，利用犹他州独特的地理优势。选择参与者是为了最大限度地提高多样性，重点是拉丁裔、太平洋岛民和难民学生，因为这些学生与盐湖城县的少数民族人口相当。高比例的参与者贡献学术产品，如手稿或会议摘要和演讲。正在使用独立评估来持续监测和改进本网站的有效性。通过美国工程教育学会的出版物和演讲，与更广泛的工程教育界分享最佳实践、经验教训和积极成果。技术细节：每个参与者花费夏天嵌入一个研究小组与10名参与教师导师之一工作。项目涉及开发替代材料、技术和加工路线，以在三个关键子领域实现更可持续的工程成果：水、能源和资源。能源重点放在用更可持续的替代品取代关键的、有毒的或昂贵的元素，以实现可再生或低碳能源技术。对于水，重点是通过海水淡化、水净化和水和土壤中潜在毒素的建模来提供清洁水。在资源方面，重点是通过开发可生物降解的包装和通过回收电子废物捕获稀有金属来回收和减少垃圾填埋量。除了研究活动外，参加者还参加每周的科学和职业发展研讨会。所有参与者在每年夏末的研讨会上展示他们的科学发现。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: This new Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site has the goal of training metallurgy and materials science and engineering undergraduates in sustainable engineering. This is accomplished through education in sustainability fundamentals followed by deeply embedded learning experiences alongside faculty mentors in Materials Science & Engineering. Students are exposed to sustainability research in the areas of energy, resources, and water taking advantage of the unique geography in Utah. The participants are selected to maximize diversity with an emphasis on Latino, Pacific Islander, and refugee students since these match the high minority populations present in Salt Lake County. A high fraction of participants are contributing to scholarly products such as manuscripts or conference abstracts and presentations. Independent evaluation is being used to monitor continuously and improve effectiveness of this Site. Best practices, lessons learned, and positive outcomes are shared with the broader engineering education community through publications and presentations at the American Society for Engineering Education. TECHNICAL DETAILS: Each participant spends the summer embedded in a research group working with one of 10 participating faculty mentors. Projects involve the development of alternative materials, techniques, and processing routes to achieve more sustainable engineering outcomes in three key subareas: water, energy, and resources. The energy emphasis is placed on replacing critical, toxic, or expensive elements with more sustainable alternatives in order to enable renewable or low-carbon energy technologies. For water, the emphasis is on providing access to clean water through desalination, water purification, and modeling of potential toxins in water and soil. In terms of resources, the emphasis is made on recycling and reducing landfill mass by developing biodegradable packaging and capturing rare metals via recycling of e-waste. In addition to research activities, the participants are also involved in weekly scientific and career-development seminars. All participants present their scientific findings at a symposium at the end of each summer.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.