REU Site: Injury Science Research Experience for Undergraduates

This three-year REU Site: Injury Science Research Experiences for Undergraduates offers REU students unique internship experiences aimed at inspiring careers in science and engineering. The focus of this program is designing and using innovative technologies to address the leading injury risks to children (i.e., sports-related injury, traffic crashes, and violence). The 10-week immersive program includes mentored scholarly research, professional development, graduate school preparation, and broadened awareness of STEM career opportunities. The goal is to provide foundational research experiences designed to encourage and enable students from a broad collections of backgrounds to pursue advanced degrees, and ultimately, careers in science and engineering. REU participants will increase their knowledge about science and engineering, develop professional skills, learn how to solve real-world problems, and prepare to design safety solutions with innovative technologies. Faculty mentors will offer participants opportunities to engage in cutting-edge research projects that reduce these injuries through innovative technologies. Participants will engage in projects featuring predictive models capable of identifying patient characteristics and future injury risk, precision medicine, and 3D printing technologies used to develop 3D-printed models of pediatric-specific injuries to augment medical training and improve treatment. The programmatic goals of this REU Site are to: prepare REU students to solve real-world challenges through immersion in emerging fields in injury science; increase participants’ knowledge and interest in pediatric injury science; recruit students from a broad set of backgrounds; and provide professional development during and after the program to inspire undergraduates to consider a life-long career interest in injury science. Participants will develop adaptable skills and knowledge through multidisciplinary, industry- relevant research projects conducted in both traditional laboratory and “real-world” settings. 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.