Research

Research Experience for Undergraduates Program (REU)

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the College of Engineering was established in 2002 in response to nationwide trends regarding declining enrollment in engineering, undergraduate graduation rates, and enrollment in graduate programs. Currently, the program has a continuous enrollment of approximately 100 students in the College.

Program Description

Under the REU program, undergraduate students work very closely with a faculty mentor in a very well-defined research problem for up to three consecutive semesters. Students are required to work 10 hours per week and receive a small stipend in return.

REU students have been involved in many different types of research endeavors. In the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, students have worked in several areas, including:

  • Computer vision, digital image processing, and pattern recognition
  • Robotics
  • Location-based services, participatory sensing, and human-centric sensing
  • Energy-efficient networking
  • Wireless sensor networks and mobile ad hoc networks
  • Bioinformatics
  • Software security
  • Databases
  • Data mining
  • VLSI and hardware design

These and many other projects have challenged our undergraduate students and kept them motivated to continue working toward their degrees and joining graduate school. University-wide, the newly created Office of Undergraduate Research runs an annual REU Symposium, publishes the Journal of Undergraduate Research and provides grant opportunities for faculty and students involved in undergraduate research.

Please go to to search for opportunities, or email CSE-REU@usf.edu.

Additional information about the program and how to apply can be found here.