REU Site: RE@CSU Rehabilitation Engineering

This three-year REU Site: Rehabilitation Engineering offers ten undergraduates each year immersive experience in rehabilitation engineering research to develop technologies that address the challenges facing people with a variety of disabilities. The number of people with disabilities will increase in the United States in the coming decades due to an aging population and advances in medicine that extend the lives of people with long-term diseases (e.g., diabetes) and victims of traumatic accidents (e.g., car crashes that result in spinal injury). The objectives of this project are to immerse a diverse group of undergraduate students in the challenges of developing technology to restore function to people with limited ability to participate in life and activities, motivate undergraduates to pursue future opportunities in rehabilitation and assistive technology, and empower students to succeed in careers in rehabilitation and assistive technology. The project has a special emphasis on recruiting and accommodating students with physical disabilities. Over a 10-week REU summer program, students will engage in intensive, original and creative hands-on summer research and professional development/training experience. Participants will model, design, and build human-machine systems, develop intelligent control systems, track human motion with various sensors, and interact with faculty, clinicians and patients. Featured projects in engineering include neuroprostheses, regenerative medicine, assistive robotics, and biomechanics. REU students will work directly with the disability community and clinics in co-developing adaptive solutions. Participants will address the challenges that people with disabilities encounter and how science and engineering can reach a solution. 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.