The Amalthea Reu Program: Activities, Experiences, And Outcomes Of A Collaborative Summer Research Experience In Machine Learning

The AMALTHEA REU Program is a 10-week, summer research experience for science or engineering undergraduate students funded by the National Science Foundation since 2007 and featuring Machine Learning as its intellectual focus. Moreover, it is a joint effort of two collaborating universities in Central Florida, namely Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and University of Central Florida in Orlando. Organizing, implementing and directing REU Sites is typically perceived as a demanding effort; while offering unique advantages, operating collaborative sites may impose an additional layer of challenges. In this paper our intention is to present the objectives of our program, its unique characteristics, and the structure and organization of our collaborative site. Furthermore, we would like to give an informative account of our activities across the various aspects of the program, such as marketing of the experience, recruiting of student participants, the summer experience itself and our dissemination efforts. Finally, we report on our outcomes accomplished so far, which include research products and evaluation results. While our program is only entering into its third year of operation, we do hope that, by sharing our experiences and promising strategies to date, we will encourage and aid prospective REU Site directors to successfully plan for and operate collaborative sites.