Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Rural Transportation Engineering

摘要通过Mack-Blackwell国家农村交通中心（MBTC）的存在，阿肯色大学（UofA）已经成为一个主要的农村交通研究中心。MBTC是阿肯色大学的几个学院和系以及其他学院和大学、公司和政府机构的合作成果。MBTC的重点是教育、研究和技术转让，通过交通改善农村生活质量。阿肯色大学MBTC的主要工程部门是工业、民用和计算机系统。上述院系已经在许多研究项目中使用了本科生研究人员，并希望能够让更多的本科生参与研究项目。因此，建议在阿肯色大学建立一个本科生研究经验（REU）网站，该网站将侧重于农村交通工程研究。拟议的计划将增加本科生研究人员对农村交通研究项目的参与，并将促进教师与研究生和本科生之间的重要互动。MBTC赞助了许多研究项目，研究农村交通的各个方面。这些项目涉及社会、经济、心理、技术、管理、后勤和业务问题，从而促进了跨学科的研究。拟议的REU将包括来自几个不同工程部门的项目，每个项目都以农村交通为中心。这个REU的独特之处在于，农村交通研究的重点是涉及来自多个学科的教师顾问，共同寻找最有效和最经济的交通方式，以造福农村生活。＊＊＊

9619786 Butler ABSTRACT The University of Arkansas (UofA) has become a primary rural transportation research center through the existence of the Mack-Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center (MBTC). The MBTC is a collaborative effort of several colleges and departments at the University of Arkansas and other colleges and universities, corporations, and government entities. The MBTC focuses on education, research and technology transfer to improve the quality of rural life through transportation. The primary engineering departments involved with the MBTC at the University of Arkansas are Industrial, Civil, and Computer Systems. The aforementioned departments have utilized undergraduate researchers in numerous research projects and would like to be able to involve more undergraduate students in research projects. Thus, it is proposed that a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site be developed at the University of Arkansas which will focus on rural transportation engineering research. The proposed program will increase the participation of undergraduate researchers on rural transportation research projects and will facilitate significant interaction between faculty and graduate and undergraduate students. The MBTC has sponsored many research projects which examine the various aspects of rural transportation. The projects have involved social, economic psychological, technical, managerial, logistical and operational issues and thus have facilitated interdisciplinary studies. The proposed REU will incorporate projects from several different engineering departments with each project having as its central them rural transportation. This REU is unique in that a rural transportation research focus is taken that involves faculty advisors from several disciplines working together to find the most effective and economical methods of transportation to benefit rural living. ***