Overview

The REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) Site is in the area of Consumer Networking Technologies and will investigate some important issues related to software-defined networking/virtualization, visual computing at the network edge, social virtual reality, mobile sensing & environment recognition. The REU Site is supported by NSF, MU Office of Research, MU Office of Undergraduate Research, the College of Engineering, and the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.

As broadband services and mobile devices proliferate, consumers are migrating towards advanced social, information-intensive, and personalized services. The fast pace of growth, improvement to quality of life, and significant economic contribution of networked consumer systems have been receiving increasing attention. Technical challenges in this field include quality of service, network and device heterogeneity, network performance, mobility, device intelligence, security and privacy, and user experience and knowledge, etc. In this REU Site, students will participate and develop new skills in ongoing funded research projects of the faculty mentors by investigating, implementing, and testing viable solutions to technical challenges in consumer networking technologies. This research activity will allow the students to obtain a better understanding of the technical issues, performance, and trade-offs in consumer networking. Exposing the students to collaborative research environments, fostering their enthusiasm for science and engineering, and developing skills needed for pursuing advanced degrees in research is a goal of this program.

The REU site will support typically 10 undergraduate students every summer. The participants will engage in a 10-week summer school at the University of Missouri (MU). The participants will take a 1-week short course, one to two lectures per week in the remaining weeks, work with other undergraduate and graduate students and a faculty mentor to carry out a research project, present their progress weekly throughout the summer, and write project reports and give final presentations. In addition, the undergraduate participants will present their work at their home institutions during the following semester.

The Program runs from May through July, see Important Dates. The undergraduate participants will get a stipend of $7,000, room (if needed) and meal allowance, plus support for travel to/from the Site, and potentially travel support to present their work at a conference.