The 2023 Physics and JILA REU participants with the REU Leadership Team. Image Credit: Keith Hedlund
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Hailing from across the country, 10 exceptional undergraduates joined this summer鈥檚 Physics and JILA Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at CU Boulder. The REU Program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and students are matched with outstanding CU Boulder faculty to conduct innovative research in all areas of physics. CU Boulder Physics Assistant Professor Mike Litos is the Principal Investigator, and Professor Dan Dessau and Christine Morrow serve as Co-Principal Investigators.听
Throughout the summer, REU students participated in professional development and skill-building activities including machining and electronics courses, lab tours, and weekly seminars. Highlighting the benefit of the program, one student commented, 鈥淚 thought this summer experience was a good trial in seeing how graduate school would be like without having the financial and class responsibilities, it was a life changing experience.鈥� The program concluded with each student giving a presentation on their summer research.
"Our main goal is to educate our students by immersing them in an active research environment, which we believe is one of the most effective ways to attract and retain talented undergrads into careers in science and engineering. We put emphasis on selecting students who will be most impacted by participating in our program, such as students from non-R1 universities with limited research opportunities at their home institutions.听Our program has been doing an excellent job in achieving our goals, as nearly听all of our students go on to top graduate schools and other important technical or research-oriented positions in industry.听We look forward to seeing these students听make their own impacts on education, science, and society."
Physics and听JILA REU Leadership Team: 听Mike Litos, Dan Dessau, and Christine Morrow
A selection of this year鈥檚 REU projects included
- Investigating scaling of forces and length scales in rotating spherical dynamos
- Optimizing CMB Detectors with Microwave Loss Measurements Electron Trajectories in Static Electric Fields
- Characterizing Collisions听Between Ultracold Rb and Cold听OH in Dual Electromagnetic听Trap
- The Use of Autoencoders for听Anomaly Detection at CMS
Applications for the听2024 Physics and JILA REU Program听will open in mid-fall and are due by January 31, 2024.