By conducting hands-on experiments, students learn about cutting-edge engineering and technologies relevant to medical problems and the development of medical devices. They are exposed to multidisciplinary research, how it is structured and implemented, and how to work and communicate within a team with very diverse backgrounds. Students also learn to think about problems creatively and actively pursue their research objectives by seeking input from experts, trying out new approaches, and developing skills to delve deeper into their problems. Students will document their efforts, writing up the outcomes for conference abstracts and papers, among others.
The REU thematic elements of this program are inclusion, innovation, and medical devices. The research project offerings go beyond medical devices because it is important to understand physiological environments to innovate solutions, and the solutions should not be constrained by the method. In line with our four intellectual foci — learning, innovating, exploring, and applying — we offer various research projects that the students can choose from.