REU Site: Research Experiences for American Leadership of Industry with Zero Emissions by 2050 (REALIZE-2050)

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The REU Site Research Experiences for American Leadership of Industry with Zero Emissions by 2050 (REALIZE-2050), hosted by the University of Cincinnati (UC), will build an interdisciplinary research training program to accelerate technology innovations for meeting the U.S. net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050. Climate change is the defining issue of our time, and CO2 emissions are a major catalyst of climate change that cannot be mitigated by any single strategy alone. This ten-week program will expose 30 undergraduate students with diverse backgrounds to cutting-edge research in energy efficiency, industrial electrification, energy storage, low-carbon fuels, renewable energy, and carbon capture/utilization. Students will work closely with 12 world-class faculty mentors across five departments and two colleges and in UC’s state-of-the-art research facilities to address fundamental research challenges in decarbonization of energy generation, manufacturing, infrastructure, and transportation and gain a holistic understanding of the global challenge of mitigating climate change. The REU experience will significantly impact students’ overall development and career trajectory. This impact can be more substantial for students from underrepresented groups and institutions that are not research-intensive. Students will bring their knowledge, expertise, and connections to their home institutions to positively impact their broader community. The REU Site hosted by the University of Cincinnati (UC), REALIZE-2050 (Research Experiences for American Leadership of Industry with Zero Emissions by 2050), will build an interdisciplinary research training program to accelerate technology innovations for meeting the U.S. net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050. The REALIZE-2050 project introduces student participants to convergent research approaches to meet the U.S. decarbonization targets, leveraging major transformations in domestic manufacturing, human-technology interfaces, and the new energy economy. In this learner-centered program, students will research multiple facets of the decarbonization technologies and assess the technological maturity, feasibility, and impacts of emerging alternatives. The research activities will be supervised by faculty mentors who are decarbonization experts, ensuring that students gain skills, knowledge, and awareness of critical technologies to achieve net-zero emissions. Leveraging UC’s location near the center of U.S. manufacturing investments, the integrated cohort activities are designed to raise students’ awareness of industrial decarbonation efforts through manufacturing innovations. Participants will report their findings through podcasts designed to broaden public understanding of the role of scientific research in decarbonization. An emphasis on recruiting from minority-serving institutions will enable the REALIZE-2050 REU to showcase the diversity of voices in STEM while creating a lasting contribution to the national dialogue in a time of rapid change in manufacturing, energy, security, climate, and the economy. Results from the assessment activities will be critically evaluated and disseminated in the engineering education community and thus contribute to innovation in undergraduate research programs nationwide.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.