The Research Experience for Undergraduates in UAV Technologies project is funded by the NSF’s EEC Program. The main goal of this project is to increase undergraduate students’ participation and interest in research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technologies. Undergraduate students from 2- and 4-year institutions are involved in a multidisciplinary research projects at the authors’ institution. The REU site supports 10 students for 10 weeks of summer research per year, with the projects focusing on research on the Dynamics and Control of UAVs, Obstacle & Collision Avoidance System for UAVs, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, and Flight Test experience. Another goal is to attract students from community colleges to STEM programs at 4-year institutions and encourage the participants to pursue their studies for graduate degrees.
This paper will discuss the assessment of the program and lessons learned after the second year of the program. The REU site has been successful in meeting its goals and objectives. Most of the participants are now pursuing their educational or professional career in the area of UAVs and other related areas. The program has also been successful in motivating the participants to graduate degrees in STEM. Some of the participants are already pursuing their studies for a Master’s degree or are planning to apply to Master’s/PhD programs. Most of the community college students have transferred to 4-year institutions for degrees in engineering. Also, all the participants have presented their work at student and/or professional conferences. This has helped the participants improve their written and oral communication skills. The paper will show the results of the assessment of the program.
Dr. Subodh Bhandari is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona and the Director of its Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Lab. His current research emphasis is on increased autonomy of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robust and intelligent control, collision and obstacle avoidance system for UAVs, and developing capabilities for widespread use of unmanned vehicles including precision agriculture and 3-D mapping. Dr. Bhandari leads a large multi-disciplinary team of faculty and students from several departments within the Colleges of Engineering and Science at Cal Poly Pomona for research on unmanned systems. He has obtained several external grants for research on UAVs including from National Science Foundation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, AERO Institute/NASA Armstrong, University Space Research Association, and CSU Agriculture Research Institute.
Dr. Amar Raheja is currently a professor of Computer Science at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Toledo, OH in 1999. and MS and BS from Indian Institute of Technology, India in 1992 and 1994 respectively. His research interests and publications are in the area of image processing, computer vision and machine learning. He is also a member of the IEEE and ACM.
Dr. Fang (Daisy) Tang is the Chair and Professor in the Computer Science Department at California State Polytechnic University - Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Dr. Tang received her Ph.D. degree in computer science in 2006 from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville (UTK), performing her research on multi-robot systems. She received her M.S. degree in computer science from UTK in 2003, and her B.S. degree in computer science from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, in 2000.
Dr. Zekeriya Aliyazicioglu received his M.S. degree in 1991 and Ph.D. degree in 1995, both in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas). He is currently a Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His research interests include Digital Signal Processing applications, Digital Image Processing, Communication Systems, and robotics. He is an author of numerous research papers and presentations in these areas. Dr. Aliyazicioglu is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi and ASEE.
Erika DeJonghe, Ph.D. received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Michigan State University in 2007. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology & Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She currently serves as the Interim Associate Dean for the College of Letters, Arts & Social Sciences. Dr. DeJonghe has two primary areas of scholarly focus, violence against women and the experiences of women who are under-represented in their academic disciplines. Dr. DeJonghe is also a licensed clinical psychologist. Her areas of clinical interest include family therapy, play therapy, and child group therapy, with a particular focus on work with children and families recovering from trauma.
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