COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & SCIENCE
Apply to become a FUTURE Sensors REU Member
The Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates is a National Science Foundation-funded program through the “Future Sensors” project (NSF Grant 2217824). The goal of the program is to provide an eight-week long multi-disciplinary research training to undergraduates toward the development of sensors to detect environmental and a greater understanding of the impact of environmental chemical pollutants. The selected students will be mentored by faculty from several areas such as engineering, sociology, business, applied mathematics, and biology. Participants will gain hands-on experience in using cutting-edge equipment and research activities and interact with students from several other institutions. Overall, this program will help the undergraduate participants to broaden their understanding of research and society and to learn technical and/or communication skills.
The FUTURE Sensors mentors comprise a variety of engineers and scientists, a sociologist, an economist, and a mathematician. This allows us to provide a diversity of projects for our summer program ranging from working in a lab testing chemical sensors to working with an economist, a sociologist, or a mathematician to study the impacts of environmental toxins and present and future efforts to minimize their effects.
This is part of a four-year project that will create chemical sensors to identify toxic heavy metals and pesticide pollution in reservoirs and other surface water and that can determine if people in communities at risk have high levels of toxic metals in their bodies. We will also evaluate the impact of heavy metals and pesticide pollution and the potential value of providing sensors to detect these chemicals, especially for disadvantaged communities. Ten undergraduates will be chosen for a summer research experience from June 3 to July 31, 2025 at one of our four participating universities. REU students will also participate in our Annual Meeting, July 30-31, at Louisiana Tech University. Project descriptions and locations are listed below.
Eligibility
If you meet the criteria, we encourage you to apply. We accept students from colleges and community colleges that are not designated as high-research activity universities as well as those that are designated high-research activity universities. To be eligible you must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident,
- Be enrolled in a school in an EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) state/territory, and
- Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
EPSCoR States
Application Instructions
You must complete all six steps for us to consider your application. Essay and letters of recommendation instructions are included below.
- Your contact information
- Information about your academic program and your college or university
- Demographic information
- Select your first choice of projects (required). Select your second and third choices, or leave one or both blank if you do not have a second or third choice
- Personal statement (See Step 5 for essay instructions.)
- Two recommendation letters (See Step 6 for full instructions).
Deadline: Application deadline is March 1, 2025.
Steps 1 – 3. Use the Application Form to Submit Information
You’ll input contact, academic, and demographic information directly into the form at the 2025 Summer REU Application linked in the button below. This section of the application is two pages long. You must answer all of the questions with red asterisks next to them to move on to Step 4.
Step 4. Choose Projects
Once you’ve completed the first two pages of the application, you’ll have the opportunity to select the project you’d most like to work on. You must select at least one project, and you can select up to three choices. (You can familiarize yourself with the projects by clicking the “+” to expand the project title.
Development of a nanocomposite-coated nanocarbon-printed electrode for ultra-sensitive detection of pesticides, Mentors: Dr. Prabhu Arumugam
Development of a nanocomposite-coated nanocarbon-printed electrode for ultra-sensitive detection of pesticides
Mentors: Dr. Prabhu Arumugam Location: Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana
Learn and apply various characterization tools to study custom-developed nanocomposite-coated nanocarbon electrodes for high-sensitivity, high-selectivity pesticide detection. In this project, we will perform various studies to develop novel square wave voltammetry (SWV) waveforms with optimized operating parameters (e.g., pulse height, pulse width, pulse frequency, scan rate, initial/final potential) and pre-concentration voltage/time. We will utilize the data obtained from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for nano-carbon electrodes to estimate the frequency of the square waveforms. We will determine the frequencies at which impedance is minimum (i.e., a high detection current signal) and apply them to determine the operational frequency of the pulses for which we can obtain the highest sensitivity for each pesticide.
Carbon Quantum Dots Synthesis and Sensor Testing, Mentors: Dr. Shengnian Wang and Dr. Teresa Murray
Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are nanomaterials that are smaller than 5 nanometers that can emit light. They are the next generation of optical probes for imaging and sensing applications because of their superior photostability, no known chemical toxicity, and excellent environmental sustainability. With tunable surface functionalization, CQDs have shown promise in sensing heavy metal ions from environmental and biological samples. The summer student will learn how to synthesize CQDs and tune their photoluminescence color by varying the synthesis methods or solvents and coating materials. The student will also learn how to assemble CQDs into strip sensors for use in detecting heavy metal ions, measure colors of light emission from tests, and learn how to create calibration curves to correlate the emitted light to the concentration of heavy metal ions in solutions.
Importance of Macroeconomic Aggregates, Mentor: Dr. Ghislain “Nono” Gueye
Students will develop practical skills in economic analysis with data. We will learn about key macroeconomic aggregates and their importance. Once we establish the theoretical foundation, we will analyze data and draw economic insights from our analyses. At the end of the program, each student will have written a basic economic report on a specific macroeconomic topic.
Literature Review: Social Impacts of Environmental Pollution, Mentor: Dr. Christobel Asiedu
The literature review will examine the social dimensions and impact of environmental threats. It will examine how environmental pollution affects us on micro and macro levels. The review will particularly focus on the disproportionate burden of pollution placed on disadvantaged communities, including communities of color. The review will also examine the environmental justice movement aimed at addressing practices that unfairly burden low-income people and racial minorities with disproportionate exposure to environmental hazards.
Data analysis and math models, Mentor: Dr. Xiyuan Liu
We will develop some theoretical backgrounds in data analysis, including the definition of population, sample, random variables, and their distributions. Furthermore, we will introduce some classical statistical methods with R language (a basic statistical program), including hypothesis testing, confidence interval, and linear regression modeling.
Water Quality Monitoring and Identification of Potential Pollution Sources, Mentors: Dr. Wesley Zech.
Mentors: Dr. Wesley Zech. Location: The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama
The goal is to select sites from impaired waterbody lists and to perform water quality assessments in regular intervals. This includes multiple visits to the 3‒4 selected sites to achieve the goal of acquiring proper samples to be tested for pH, turbidity, and salinity testing before conducting measurements for other analytes.
Flexible electrochemical sensors with printable inks to detect toxic heavy metals, Mentors: Dr. David Estrada and Dr. Harish Subbaraman
Trace analysis of heavy metals and toxic chemicals is generally performed using bulky, sophisticated, and expensive lab-based techniques with complex analytical procedures. This is impractical for large-scale, real-time in situ environmental monitoring. One of the purposes of this summer project is to test the printability of flexible electrochemical sensors to detect toxic heavy metals in real samples reliably and repeatably using low-cost, scalable additive electronics manufacturing processes (e.g., ink-jet and aerosol-jet printing). The student will establish the structure-property-processing correlations for graphene-based electrode materials by investigating the connections between ink rheology and printed device microstructure. The student will characterize the structural defects (e.g., edge defects) present in exfoliated graphene nanosheets, perform cyclic voltammetry (CV) of the electrodes, and integrate them into packages for advanced electrochemical testing with the FUTURE Sensors team.
Heavy metal exposure and reproductive health, Mentors: Dr. Ricky Leung and Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho
Mentors: Dr. Ricky Leung and Dr. Shuk-Mei Ho. Location: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas
Learn and apply various biochemical and molecular biology skills to study the impact of metal exposure (e.g., arsenic) on the male reproductive system. Target organs, including the prostate, sperm, and testis, will be investigated. The research goal is to understand the mechanisms of how metal exposure affects the physiological functions of the target organ and predisposes to the risk of cancer development, as well as to discover sensitive surrogate biomarkers for exposure. We will also extend our investigation to study the outcomes across multiple generations.
Step 5. Upload an Essay
You’ll upload an essay that describes your career goals, training, and why you want to participate in a summer research experience for undergraduates (REU).
Size limit and format. Write FUTURE Sensors REU 2025 and your first and last name at the top of the page. The maximum length is one page using 11-point Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman font with 1 inch or more for all margins. Save your document as a PDF. (You can select print as a PDF and save the file if you do not have a PDF program.) Your file name must begin with FUTURES Essay followed by your first and last name.
Tell us about your career goals, your training (jobs, school, etc.), and why you want to participate in a summer research experience for undergraduates (EU). Describe what you can gain from this REU. Include your career goals and what you hope to accomplish throughout your career. If graduate or professional school is part of your plan, mention this.
You should also tell us about college courses, internships, jobs, and/or any other relevant training that has sparked your interest in one or more of the REU projects. You can also explain how these training experiences have prepared you for this REU and/or for your career. Also, write about one or more of your strengths (grades or rank, projects completed, inventions, presentations made, etc.).
Upload your essay as a PDF. Use the link below. You will be directed to sign into Google. If you cannot sign in or otherwise upload a file then send your PDF to Dr. Teresa Murray at tmurray@latech.edu. You must have this subject line: FUTURE REU Essay and your first and last name.
Step 6. Request Two Recommendation Letters be Sent to Dr. Teresa Murray
Find two faculty members to write a letter of recommendation for you (two pages maximum). You have the option to have one faculty member and one work supervisor write letters. The subject line must read FUTURE Sensors LoR followed by your first and last name. Have them save their Word file or PDF with a file name that begins with your last name, then your first name, followed by 2025 FUTURE REU. They must submit their letter to Dr. Teresa Murray at tmurray@latech.edu. Dr. Murray must receive both letters by March 14, 2025. We suggest that you give your writers at least three weeks’ notice before the deadline.
If selected for the summer program, the REU program will provide on-campus housing (except for Project 8 at UAMS in Hot Springs, AR), a food plan for students that are housed on campus, and travel. Travel includes domestic transportation to the project’s campus, to the Annual Meeting in Ruston, Louisiana, and from the Annual Meeting to the student’s home. REU students will also receive $4,500 for full 8-week participation. REU students will also participate in our annual summer conference at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA (July 30-31, 2025) and will present their project’s results with fellow summer REU students. (The REU program will pay for travel to the Annual meeting or reimburse students for travel).
What to do if you have problems submitting your application.
If the button below does not work, contact Dr. Murray at tmurray@latech.edu.