Reu Site: Experiences In Neural Engineering

Intellectual Merit
This three year REU site program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)will engage ten undergraduate students each year in research focused in the area of neural engineering. The objectives of the REU program are: 1) to facilitate broad interaction, the program will have scheduled meetings with student researchers, faculty mentors, and graduate student coaches twice a week and 2) to ensure consistent interaction, the PIs will work with graduate student coaches to initiate impromptu meetings with student researchers in their laboratory environment. These interactions should ultimately facilitate more self-directed learning on the part of the student, as a level of independence is certainly critical to professional development. In addition, a schedule of seminars, workshops, and activities are planned to promote professional development in the areas of career plans and industrial research, graduate student research, ethics, prEnvironmental Protection Agencyring poster and manuscripts, and information literacy. Participants will be encouraged to attend regional conferences such as the IEEE Northeast Bioengineering Conference, a premier local venue for student research presentation and larger conferences such as the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting that features dedicated undergraduate summer research presentations. Finally, at the faculty mentors discretion, Publications will be targeted to scientific journals when projects excel to that level.

Broader Impacts
Recruitment efforts will target undergraduate students from colleges that are focused primarily in undergraduate education. Special emphasis will be placed on recruiting at least two students each year who are disabled. Students from institutions without Biomedical Engineering (BME) programs will be encouraged to apply as long as they have completed fundamental engineering coursework and express research interests relevant to the proposed projects. Relationships have been fostered with Primarily Undergraduate Institutions (PUIs) to facilitate recruitment of students with few research opportunities. In particular, the Principal Investigators have arranged to recruit from Rose-Hulman, Bucknell University, and the College of New Jersey.