REU Site: Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Science (SURE) program, initiated in 1992, is a ten-week summer program for junior and senior level undergraduates from U. S. institutions. The overall goal of the program is to expose underrepresented students to engineering research, and as a direct consequence, interest them in opportunities available through graduate study. Participating students are paired with faculty and graduate student social mentors. During their stay, students attend weekly seminars on emerging research in engineering fields, enrichment and academic development activities, and social events. Students conclude the program with research presentations to their peers and faculty and graduate student mentors. During the past twenty years, 502 students participated in the program. These students were selected from a pool of 2,554 applicants. A comprehensive assessment program for SURE has been developed and implemented. The assessment process is driven by the overall program objective to provide participants a meaningful research experience and to increase the likelihood that participants will attend graduate school in engineering. This model identifies three cohorts from which data is collected. Each data source provides unique information that contributes to a comprehensive analysis of the impact and experiences of program participants and to an understanding of the academic trends of all SURE program applicants. The pre-and postprogram surveys include a series of questions about participants' perceived impact of SURE on planned graduate school attendance and research interests. The faculty advisor survey includes questions about the contribution the students made to their research programs, whether or not their student would succeed in graduate school, the quality of the students' oral and written project presentations, and how the program could be improved in future years. The Longitudinal Survey of Former SURE Participants addresses the primary objective of the SURE program to motivate participating students to attend graduate school in engineering. Respondents were asked a variety of questions about their academic decisions after participating in the SURE program. Detailed data about graduate school attendance, degree attainment, and major was collected. Questions were included to obtain feedback about their co-curricular activities and the environment of their undergraduate institutions. Another set of questions referred to sources of encouragement that students might have had when deciding to attend graduate school. Thus far, the program has been tremendously successful in attaining its objectives. It is shown that about 75% of the students who participate in the program attend graduate school after receiving their B.S. degrees.