REU Site: Applied Research Experience in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ApREECE)

This three-year renewal REU Site: Applied Research Experience in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ApREECE) program is hosted by Oakland University. Ten undergraduate students each year will have opportunities to investigate selected cutting-edge areas of electrical and computer engineering research embedded in solving current real-world challenges. REU students will engage in projects in bioengineering, GPU computing, embedded computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, power systems, and controls. Students will work in groups of two on five separate projects, allowing for a close and personal interaction with the faculty for each project. Professional development activities and field trips are planned to a local conference, competition, and R&D facility. The SAE Young Automotive Professionals Conference and the annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) are expected to overlap the ApREECE program. Participants will learn about the possibilities and the impact of engineering on our lives through close interaction with faculty, research staff, and our industry collaborators in the Metro Detroit Area. Providing undergraduates with an opportunity to function as researchers on projects that are current, relevant, and interesting can have profound positive influences to pursue STEM careers. With close mentoring from faculty, the students will gain valuable skills in contributing to successful research, teamwork, communication, and dissemination of their work through technical conferences. Students will produce project write-ups and an “innovation plan” and present their work at two conferences. The plan will consist of a problem statement, research performed, preliminary results, and an outline of ways their discoveries can be used to innovate/enhance existing products or solve current problems. These plans will be presented for feedback to a review panel consisting of experts of various backgrounds. The first internal mini-conference is open to the public. The second conference is an annual undergraduate research conference held at Michigan State University. Finally, write-ups will be submitted to appropriate professional conferences and authors of accepted papers will be invited and funded to travel with their advisors to present their work. This Site is supported in part by funds provided to the National Science Foundation by the Semiconductor Research Corporation. 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.