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

该REU网站旨在为德州农工大学金斯维尔分校的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）本科学生提供无线传感器网络领域的独特研究和实践实验室和部署经验。具体来说，这个新站点通过一个真正的多学科环境，着重于加强计算机科学和凸几何之间的协同作用。该REU站点包括一系列定义良好且具有挑战性的研究项目，这些项目与各种现实世界的应用紧密相关，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。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一些有价值的研究工具和经验，从而成为他们这一代的科学和工程政治家。这个新的REU网站将帮助招收来自美国各种研究机会有限的机构的本科生，更多地关注代表性不足的学生，包括黑人、西班牙裔、女性、残疾人、低收入和第一代学生，这些学生传统上在科学和工程领域的代表性不足。这些都是有才华的本科生，他们对计算机科学、凸几何和无线传感器网络领域的研究以及动手实验和部署经验感兴趣。这个夏天的研究经历对这些学生在他们的学术生涯早期肯定会有很大的好处。事实上，本科生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，如学生的独立性和自信心，职业兴趣的增强，融入他们所选择的领域；进行实验;分析数据;沟通结果;并且像团队一样与他人合作。此外，这种类型的研究经验提供了教师和学生之间的互动，这反过来又促进了他们之间的个人联系；提高学生的记忆力和学习经验；提高本科课程质量。REU网站的调查结果可以通过地方、国家和国际会议进行传播，也可以在知名期刊上发表。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。

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.