Summer REU
VCU College of Engineering is proud to offer three NSF Summer REU programs in three areas: Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering. The 10-week program begins in mid- to late May and culminate in a Symposium in August where students present their research to the College and University administration. Students stay on-campus with parking and access to the gym provided.
Biomedical Engineering: Mechanobiology
Students will work on biomedical engineering research projects under the supervision of faculty. Research projects will involve experimental and computational approaches to mechanobiology. Students will participate in a weekly meeting during which research ethics and mechanobiology techniques will be presented. Students will participate in one K-12 outreach activity. Students will also present their own research findings at the end of the summer. This program is sponsored by the VCU College of Engineering and the National Science Foundation. Competitive stipends will be offered and on-campus housing will be covered if needed.
Computer Science
Research will be conducted under the supervision of faculty in the Department of Computer Science. Topics include robotics, industrial machines, program analysis and natural language processing. Research will be conducted primarily in the new Engineering Research Building, where students will have their own workstations with electric standing desks, breakout areas with whiteboards and access to conference rooms. Examples of previous projects include robotics, teaching middle schoolers to code via hip hop beats, and mining stackoverflow posts.
Pharmaceutical Engineering
Students admitted to the program will work on projects related to the development of complex and novel pharmaceutical products, in areas including drug delivery, inhaled therapeutics, continuous manufacturing and nanomaterials in medicine. Students will be mentored jointly by faculty in the College of Engineering and in the School of Pharmacy at VCU, with the participation of faculty from Virginia State University. Students will work alongside and have support from graduate students who are currently developing their dissertation work.
The REU in Pharmaceutical Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University will conduct research in three fundamental areas: i) the engineering of pharmaceutical materials; ii) the engineering of complex formulations and iii) the generation and control of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Students will be involved in experimental work and learning theoretical concepts of pharmaceutical engineering that address interdisciplinary challenges related to the design and development of pharmaceutical products. Students also will participate in co-curricular activities comprising seminars, workshops, field trips and social activities. Students will gain skills in research, product innovation, poster development/publication writing, teamwork and grant writing.