A summer research experience in robotics

Abstract

The Robotics Program at Oregon State University has been running an NSF-funded summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site since 2014. Over twenty students per year (on average) have participated in the site, spending ten weeks embedded in the OSU Robotics Program. Our main focus with this REU Site is to give the participants a complete research experience, from problem definition to the final presentation of results, "in miniature". Our secondary educational objectives are: 1) Teach basic non-technical skills needed for graduate work, such as time management and literature review, 2) Provide details on how to apply to graduate school and for funding, 3) Clarify what we look for in a graduate student, and 4) Detail what to expect from the graduate student experience. In this paper, we describe the overall structure of the participants' summer experience, outline some of the training materials that we use, describe the motivations for our approach, and discuss the lessons that we have learned after running the program for a number of years.