2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

In 2024, REDACTED launched a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site in autonomous vehicles, with the first cohort of ten students arriving on campus in June of 2025. This site features several distinctive elements that stem from the host university’s strengths and unusual academic calendar. In particular, the program is shaped by REDACTED’s deep automotive culture, its co-op-driven schedule, and its compressed academic terms. These characteristics strongly influence the cohort’s culture, mentorship practices, and student research productivity. Beyond the local context, the site illustrates how institutions can leverage their unique strengths to broaden participation, integrate real-world industry connections, and prepare students for advanced study and professional careers. In this paper, we examine how these features shaped program design and outcomes and contributed to the overall student experience. This can be instructive to other institutions planning and/or executing an REU site, as they draw upon their own institutions’ unique characteristics.