The program is open to students with or without prior research experience. UPRM students can only participate in the program for a maximum of two semesters and one summer. The minimum recommended is two semesters or one semester plus summer. Their options depend of the faculty advisor of the project they are assigned and their own availability. Students coming from the US mainland can only participate once in summer.

Other requirements include:

• Students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents to participate. International students are not eligible for this program.

• The program prefers students who have completed some upper division course work in one of the following academic disciplines: Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Operations Research, Mathematics, Statistics, Operations Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering or related engineering disciplines.

• Basic coursework in probability and/or statistics is desirable for all participants and some projects in particular might have special requirements to participate.

• This REU’s objective is to educate a culturally-sensitive IE who is likely –due to globalization and outsourcing trends-- to work and team with, supervise and be supervised by colleagues from cultures other than their own. US-mainland students must have basic Spanish coursework or a genuine interest in learning Spanish and be immersed in the Puerto Rican/Caribbean culture for 6 weeks as expressed in their statement of purpose. Puerto Rican students must be willing to improve their presentation skills in English, team with students from other cultures and provided that their research papers are accepted in an international conference, be willing to travel to present. All these must be clear in the statement of purpose

• UPRM students enrolled for summer cannot be enrolled in summer semester classes during the period covered by the REU-program if selected for the 6-week summer program.