REU Site: Gluing Computer Science and Convex Geometry: Research Experiences for Undergraduates from Community Colleges

该REU网站旨在为科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)本科生提供得克萨斯农工大学金斯维尔分校无线传感器网络领域的研究、动手实验室和部署经验的独特组合。具体地说，这个新网站专注于通过一个真正的多学科环境来加强计算机科学和凸几何之间的协同。该REU站点包括一组定义明确且具有挑战性的研究项目，这些项目紧贴各种实际应用，重点关注二维和三维无线传感器网络中的连接k覆盖、数据收集和地理转发问题。这个REU网站的主要目标是帮助招收的本科生接触到上述研究领域的几个有价值的研究工具和经验，从而成为他们这一代人的科学和工程政治家。这个新的REU网站将帮助从各种研究机会有限的美国机构招收本科生，更多地关注那些代表性不足的学生，包括黑人、西班牙裔、女性、残疾、低收入和传统上在科学和工程领域代表性不足的第一代学生。这些是有才华的本科生，他们对REU网站的计算机科学、凸几何和无线传感器网络领域的研究以及动手实验室和部署经验感兴趣。这些学生在学术生涯初期的这个暑假研究经历肯定会让他们受益匪浅。事实上，面向本科生的研究可以被视为一种高影响力的教育实践，能够为这些学生产生积极的结果，如学生独立和自信、职业兴趣增强、融入他们选择的领域、进行实验、分析数据、交流结果以及与其他人合作。此外，这种类型的研究经验提供了教师和学生之间的互动，反过来促进了他们之间的个人联系，改善了学生的记忆力和学习体验，并提高了本科课程的质量。该REU网站的发现可以通过地方、国家和国际会议传播，也可以在高声誉的期刊上发表。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This REU Site aims at providing undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students with a unique combination of research and hands-on laboratory and deployment experiences in the area of wireless sensor networks at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Specifically, this new Site focuses on strengthening the synergy between computer science and convex geometry through a truly multidisciplinary environment. This REU Site includes a set of well-defined and challenging research projects, which are tight to a wide variety of real-world applications, with an emphasis on the problems of connected k-coverage, data collection, and geographic forwarding in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional wireless sensor networks. The major goal of this REU Site is to help the recruited undergraduate students get exposure to several valuable research tools and experiences in the above-mentioned research areas so as to become science and engineering statespersons for their generation.This new REU Site will help recruit undergraduate students from various U.S. institutions having limited research opportunities with a more focus on underrepresented ones, including Black, Hispanic, female, disable, low-income, and first-generation students, who traditionally have been underrepresented in science and engineering. These are talented undergraduate students who are interested in research as well as hands-on laboratory and deployment experiences in the areas of computer science, convex geometry, and wireless sensor networks for this REU Site. This summer research experience for these students early in their academic career will certainly benefit them significantly. Indeed, research for undergraduates can be viewed as a high-impact educational practice that is capable of producing positive outcomes for these students, such as student independence and self-confidence, career interest reinforcement, integration into their selected field; conducting experiments; analyzing data; communicating results; and working with others as a team. In addition, this type of research experience provides interactions between faculty and students, which in turn facilitate personal connections between them; improves student retention and learning experience; and enhances the quality of the undergraduate curriculum. The findings of this REU Site can be disseminated using local, national, and international conferences, and also published in highly reputed journals.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.