REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Smart Computing and Communications

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The goal of this Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) site in Smart Computing and Communications is to increase technical awareness, intellectual curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking of undergraduate students in smart computing and communications. This project will contribute to the preparation of a diverse workforce of scientist trained in the multi-disciplinary area, which promises to impact most every sector of society such as healthcare, natural disasters, energy, transportation, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, and national defense. Students from predominantly undergraduate and community college institutions will have the opportunity to be engaged in cutting edge research. The program will bring together a cohort of ten undergraduate student researchers per year to participate in a 10-week full-time research program. Each student will select a research project and will be immersed in an active research group, led by a faculty mentor and a senior-level graduate student, committed to actively guiding undergraduate researchers and providing a high-impact educational experience. The students will participate in weekly professional development seminars and short courses on topics including, but not limited to, technical writing, public speaking, and ethics in science and engineering. At the end of the 10-week program, students will conduct a poster presentation as part of the campus-wide Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF). Students will also have the opportunity to continue their research throughout the academic year and submit papers to peer-reviewed venues with faculty advisors.The REU research projects will be conducted in three interrelated thrust areas of smart computing and communications: (i) security and privacy protection, (ii) novel applications and (iii) sensing and adaptive networking. Proposed projects will include a mix of theory and hands-on work and will leverage enabling paradigms (e.g., cloud computing, Internet-of-Things, high-speed wireless) to design, model, and implement novel techniques and solutions for smart computing and communication applications, encompassing algorithms for artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, edge analytics, signal processing and big data. Some projects will also include building functional prototypes for demonstration. The program will expand the minds and capabilities of each participant, including faculty mentors and graduate students to help them become better teachers and communicators. The research results will be disseminated through data releases, conference publications and presentations in scholarly venues.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.