The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) is an annual program hosted by the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP), and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The REU is an opportunity for a group of full time undergraduate physics students to come to Santa Cruz during the summer between their Junior and Senior years, to research and learn as a group. The program integrates undergraduates into the existing research teams of graduate students, staff, and faculty for hands-on research in the laboratories of SCIPP and the Condensed Matter division of the Physics Department.
In addition to working in the labs, the students attend weekly
lectures and discussion sessions on diverse topics of physics research,
presented by the staff and faculty they work with. The lectures are followed
by the students' own talks, in which they present their work to their peers
in an open forum.