Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the undergraduate students of today…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the undergraduate students of today must be actively involved in research to meet future demands of industry and academia. Active participation in research, outreach, and extension have demonstrated to help undergraduate students to think deeply about the subject as well as develop critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, digital competency, and communication skills to be work-force ready. This project will support fifty (50) undergraduate researchers (ugrs) over 5 years (10/year) for unique research and extension experiences, for a 12-week period. The goal of this proposed reeu project is to provide increased research and extension experiences to undergraduates to make them ready for the next step in their respective careers. The success of this project will enhance the capacity of oregon state university (OSU) to produce graduates with skills needed to successfully fulfill future work-force demands and produce next generation of research scientists. Sustainability concerns are leading to increased use of wood in tall buildings (mass-timber), which relies heavily on digital manufacturing. Therefore, the experiences will focus on digital manufacturing and understanding of wood and instill in ugrs the unique knowledge and skills needed by this economically critical sector. This will be achieved by recruiting, selecting, and matching students with potential mentors to work on projects that are designed to provide hands-on experiences, immersion in research environments and projects, encouraging extension and outreach experiences, and strong mentorship through daily brief meetings and scheduled one-on-one and group meetings. Opportunities will be provided to ugrs to present a poster at a regional meeting and further pursue their work towards a peer-reviewed manuscript. Success will be evaluated on a short and long-term basis and measured against student-centered learning outcomes.