REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Smart Environments

本科生研究体验(REU)网站更新的目标是为本科生提供一个独特的培训机会，让他们在智能环境的多学科领域进行研究，例如通过信息技术增强的家庭，以复杂和有用的方式满足居民的需求。美国人口正在老龄化；因此，需要进行研究，以了解老龄化的影响，并找到允许老年人和残疾人在家中独立生活的方法。这个REU项目促进了计算机科学、电气工程、心理学和卫生保健等互补学科的研究和培训。由于一些学生将住在同时作为考点的公寓里，他们将完全沉浸在这个项目中。它还将为劳动力在多个互补学科中接受培训的一代人做出贡献。计划中的招聘工作和强大的指导部分将在目标人群中传播有关REU计划好处的知识，从而在未来许多年扩大对工程学和相关学科的参与。这个REU项目将延续专门针对女性和来自代表性不足群体的学生的传统。该项目将实现高质量的跨学科研究，将技术设计与基于健康的应用联系起来，并为本科生利用该技术研究健康和人类行为创造新的机会。学生不仅将接触到研究环境和技术，还将学习与其他领域的学生和教职员工合作。创建智能环境需要来自计算机科学、电气工程、心理学、医疗保健和其他REU项目的知识，因为如果不以完全交互的方式研究这些主题，就不可能充分设计有效的智能环境，因为创造性的智能环境设计反过来又打开了健康和科学研究的新途径。这种跨学科的努力对于本科生研究将对他们的社区产生重大影响的想法是有价值的。这个项目的结果，包括对学生项目的描述，所学到的课程，以及定量和定性的反馈，将通过项目网站(reueecs.wsu.edu)发布。

The goal of this Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site renewal is to offer a unique training opportunity for undergraduates to conduct research in the multidisciplinary area of smart environments, such as homes that are enhanced by information technology to meet residents' needs in a sophisticated and helpful manner. The American population is aging; therefore research is needed to understand the effects of aging and to find ways of allowing older adults and individuals with disabilities to lead independent lives at home. This REU project facilitates research and training in the complementary disciplines of computer science, electrical engineering, psychology, and health care. Because some of the students will be living in apartments that also serve as test sites, they will be fully immersed in the project. It will also make a contribution to a generation whose workforce is trained in multiple, complementary disciplines. The planned recruitment effort and strong mentoring component will spread knowledge of the benefits of the REU program among the targeted populations, resulting in broadening participation in engineering and related disciplines for many years to come. This REU project will continue a tradition of specifically targeting involvement with women and students from underrepresented groups.This project will enable high quality interdisciplinary research that links design of technology with health-based applications and creates new opportunities for undergraduates to study health and human behavior using the technology. Students will not only be exposed to research environments and techniques, but they will also learn to work with students and faculty in other fields as well. Knowledge from computer science, electrical engineering, psychology, health care, and from other REU programs, is needed to create a smart environment, because an effective smart environment cannot be adequately designed without researching these topics in fully interactive ways, and because a creative smart environment design in turn opens the door to new avenues of health and science research. This interdisciplinary effort is valuable for undergraduate students to research ideas that will have a significant impact on their community. Results of this program, including descriptions of student projects, lessons learned, and quantitative and qualitative feedback, will be disseminated via the program website (reu.eecs.wsu.edu).