Undergraduate Research Projects As a Prelude to Graduate Research

Abstract

An undergraduate research experience might take the form of a summer project, a co-op term, a volunteer internship, or a credit course, such as a senior research thesis project. Designing a research project to be undertaken by an undergraduate student can pay off in numerous ways. Such a project can benefit the undergraduate student by offering valuable research experience and an opportunity for personal development, of course, but there could be many possible benefits to the research supervisor and the research group as well. The project could provide a low-risk means of exploring a potential new avenue of research that, if found to be promising, could then be followed up by a graduate research undertaking, either by that same student or by another graduate, or by a funding proposal if the supervisor seeks to open a new area of research. It might also serve as a recruiting tool to stir interest in an undergraduate student who might then consider returning to the same lab for graduate studies; conversely, it affords the supervisor a preview of student performance that may inform the decision to take that student on for a graduate degree. As undergraduates tend to be hard-working and relatively inexpensive, an undergraduate project could be a cost-effective means of accelerating research progress. Moreover, designing the undergraduate project to involve mentorship from a graduate student can provide an extra dimension of professional training for the graduate student, as he/she learns to take on responsibility for the training and direction of the undergraduate. To achieve these benefits through an undergraduate research experience requires that the project be thoughtfully designed to suit: 1) the education, experience, and abilities of the undergraduate, 2) the facilities, equipment, and other resources available, as well as the project duration, 3) the feasibility of the work, and 4) the ability and availability of the mentor (whether that is a graduate student, PDF, or the professor). In this presentation I discuss my efforts to strategically employ undergraduate projects in my own research group.