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Article
Starting and Maintaining an Academic Year Undergraduate Research Program
Resources for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (2009)
  • Sarah Spence Adams
Abstract

Undergraduate research experiences often take place in the summer when students and their mentors can focus intensely on the research experience, for example in programs such as NSF-sponsored REUs (Research Experience for Undergraduates). As undergraduate research becomes an increasingly important part of the undergraduate experience, many departments or individual faculty members have started to implement academic year research programs as well. Mentoring research projects during the academic year brings unique rewards as well as certain challenges. In assembling the panel on “Starting and Maintaining an Academic Year Undergraduate Research Program,” Michael Dorff and Zsuzsanna Szaniszlo asked the panelists to focus on the following topics: (1) Purposes for doing undergraduate research; (2) Finding students to do undergraduate research; (3) Characteristics of good undergraduate research problems and how to find them; (4) Logistics of an academic year undergraduate research program; and (5) Student presentations and written reports/papers.
The panelists represented a diverse set of experiences and institutions: Rebecca Garcia of Sam Houston State University, Rick Gillman of Valparaiso University, Darren Narayan of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Daniel Schaal of South Dakota State University, and this author Sarah Spence Adams of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. A theme throughout the discussion was that the goals of a research experience can vary widely, and these varied experiences are all valid and important. Recruiting students, choosing problems, and deciding on presentation/publication venues will vary widely from institution to institution, from mentor to mentor, and from student to student. This article is based on the comments of the panelists; their full presentations or presentation notes are included at the end of this article. It is not necessarily the case that all panelists agree with all statements in this article.

Keywords
  • REU,
  • education
Publication Date
2009
Publisher Statement

©2009 The Mathematical Association of America. This article was published in Resources for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics iss. 4 and may be found here.

Citation Information
Sarah Spence Adams. "Starting and Maintaining an Academic Year Undergraduate Research Program" Resources for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics Iss. 4 (2009)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sarah_spence_adams/23/