The benefits of undergraduate research include gains in research and communication skills, increased interest in graduate studies, and improvement in student persistence. Undergraduate research can promote career pathways into engineering by increasing enrollment and retention rates. Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) offer undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in graduate level research during the summer for 6-9 weeks. The REU program at the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Nanomanufacturing Systems for Mobile Computing and Mobile Energy Technologies (NASCENT) at University of Texas, Austin, described and evaluated in this paper aims to achieve the following goals: providing students with basic research and professional skills to succeed in graduate school and beyond and increasing students' awareness of career opportunities in science and engineering fields. These goals are fulfilled by engaging undergraduate science and engineering majors in cutting-edge nanotechnology and engineering research projects, allowing participants to experience graduate level research. Moreover, the program offers research opportunities to students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in STEM (women and minorities), and students who might not otherwise have similar research opportunities. In the seven years from 2013 to 2019 that NASCENT has ran the program, it welcomed 62 students, 46% women, and 29% students from minoritized groups. Program evaluation has been performed by analyzing responses from pre- and post-surveys of the 2016 to 2019 cohorts. The main focus of this analysis is investigating the impact of the program in increasing participants' confidence and awareness of opportunities in STEM careers and graduate studies. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data shows gains in scientific self-reported skills and a positive impact on promoting graduate school and STEM careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]