Michigan Technological University - Michigan Tech is a public university founded in 1885 to serve the mining industry in the region. Michigan Tech currently has over 6,600 students (12% graduate students, one half PhD) and over 400 faculty members with annual research expenditures of more than $30 million.

Michigan Tech was named as one of the top 10 technological universities by Money Magazine and was again named one of the top 50 public national universities by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

Michigan Tech has one of the largest colleges of engineering in the country, with Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering each among the top ten in the country in terms of enrollment. The Graduate programs in Civil, Environmental, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering are nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

At Michigan Tech, the REU Program will be centered in the new $40-million, 80,000 square foot Dow Environmental Science and Engineering Building. This building houses some of the most sophisticated instrumentation in the Great Lakes region and nation. In addition, the Chemical Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering Departments have newly renovated laboratories. Aided by a $3.2 million campaign, Mechanical Engineering was able to add to new learning environments, including a new Student Innovation Complex.

Michigan Tech's Van Pelt library is centrally located on campus and has a collection that totals 815,630 volumes, and it receives 3,986 serials and periodicals. The Library is also an official government depository. It is particularly strong in the fields of physical and natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

The Library participates in an inter-library loan program, and can obtain documents, usually within 1 or 2 days of the request. Departments and Programs can request purchase of specific books related to instruction or research. The Center for Integrated Learning and Information Technology is a 100,000 square foot expansion of the Library that will be completed in 2005 and will be available to the REU students.

Michigan Tech is:

• Ranked one of the top 10 technological universities (Money Magazine)
  
• Ranked one of the 50 best public universities (U.S. News and World Report)
  
• Nationally ranked engineering graduate programs (U.S. News and World Report): e.g., Environmental Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Materials Engineering; and Civil Engineering
  
• Houghton is rated the safest college town in Michigan and the eighth-safest in the nation (Crime at College: The Student Guide to Personal Safety)
  
• Ranked one of the nation’s top-ten summer sports meccas (National Geographic Adventure Magazine) and one of the top-ten best places in the country to live (Men’s Magazine)

Southern University and A&M College – Southern University was founded in 1890 as a land-grant institution. Today, it is comprised of 3 campuses that make up the nation's only historically black university system.

Southern University was founded in 1890 as a land-grant institution. Today, it is comprised of 3 campuses that make up the nation's only historically black university system. Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge (SUBR) is a HBCU with 9 colleges and schools, including the Colleges of Science, Engineering, and Agriculture.

The College of Engineering has 3 departments - Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. SUBR established the well-known Timbuktu Academy to mentor middle and high school students and undergraduate science/engineering/math majors.

>The Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs provides programs for undergraduate and graduate students to study major social, political, and economic developments in society.

The Center for Energy and Environmental Studies (CEES) promotes interdisciplinary research in public policy dealing with environmental and energy curricula development. SUBR adds expertise in Sustainable Development, Environmental Policy and Ethics, Environmental Assessment, Risk Assessment, and Reliability Engineering to the Sustainable Futures team.

SUBR has outstanding instructional and research laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation. Laboratories are available for materials testing, environmental analysis, manufacturing, image processing, robotics, metallography, chromatography, and total organic carbon analysis. It offers modern computer and library facilities.

The Center for Coastal Zone Assessment and Remote Sensing Lab is one of the most sophisticated and top of the line labs at Southern University and A & M College of Baton Rouge Louisiana. CCZARS GIS & RS lab is one of CEES (Center of Energy and Environmental Studies) projects funded by NASA.
This lab considered as one of the best educational labs at Southern University where the professors from different departments can teach GIS and Remote Sensing courses and applications, as well as the main site where students can come and do there project and assignments.

The lab consists of 20 powerful workstations, Dell Precision 450 which they are designed for professional users who demand exceptional performance and scalability for workstation class applications including digital content creation (DCC), computer-aided design (CAD), geographic information systems (GIS), software development and financial analysis. The systems support dual Intel®XeonTM processors with Hyper-Threading Technology, dual-channel ECC DDR266 system memory, workstation-tuned Intel E7505 chipset with AGP 8x Pro support and 64-bit PCIx for improved throughput from key subsystems integrated Gigabit1 Ethernet, Ultra 320 SCSI with integrated high-performance RAID-0. The GIS software’s used in this lab is the product of ESRI (Environmental Systems and Research Institute)