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"The research university must
facilitate inquiry in such contexts as the library, the laboratory,
the computer, and the studio, with the expectation that senior
learners, that is, professors, will be students’ companions and
guides."
"The basic idea of learning as inquiry
is the same as the idea of research; even though advanced research
occurs at advanced levels, undergraduates beginning in the freshman
year can learn through research. In the sciences and social
sciences, undergraduates can become junior members of the research
teams that now engage professors and graduate students. In the
humanities, undergraduates should have the opportunity to work in
primary materials, perhaps linked to their professors’ research
project."
--The Boyer Commission on Educating
Undergraduates. REINVENTING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION: A Blueprint for
America’s Research Universities. 1998.
http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/ .
The University of Central Florida
offers numerous opportunities for undergraduates to pursue research
in various disciplines under the direction of a faculty member. This
intensive research opportunity enhances the academic experience and
challenges students to strengthen their critical, analytical, and
writing skills.
Initiated in 2002, the RAMP program is
designed to provide a research experience working closely with a
faculty mentor for students who may be interested in pursuing
graduate education. In addition, the students participate in a
variety of workshops designed to increase their awareness and
knowledge of graduate school education. The aim of this program is
to encourage more students from those populations that are
traditionally under-represented in graduate education to attend
graduate school. Undergraduate students participating in this
program receive financial support.
The program is a four-year opportunity
for a student to become progressively more involved in a faculty
member’s research agenda. Students in their junior year learn about
the faculty member’s research project (observe, take notes, perform
library research, assist graduate research assistants, if
available), attend workshops explaining the value of graduate
education, and engage in mentoring sessions. During the second year
of the program, the student (now a senior) takes on greater
responsibility in the faculty member’s research project and may
co-present at a national conference. The third year, the student
(now a first-year graduate student) takes the lead in support of the
faculty member’s research and begins a publishable research paper.
The fourth and final year, the student is significantly involved in
the faculty member’s research project and is required to complete a
publishable article, co-present at a national conference, and mentor
a new junior-year undergraduate program participant.
Students must apply with a faculty mentor and be of junior-standing at
the time of application (have successfully completed no less than 60
hours and no more than 90 hours) with a 3.0 GPA. Preference may be given
to students who demonstrate one or more criteria of populations
traditionally under-represented in graduate school: financial need,
first in their family to attend college, minority racial status.
Currently the RAMP program has 20
junior students and 10 veteran students from 21 departments,
including Biology, Chemistry, Communicative Disorders, Computer
Science, Counselor Education, Criminal Justice, Digital Media,
Educational Studies, Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Engineering Technology, English, Hospitality, Management,
Mathematics, Mechanical Materials and Aerospace Engineering,
Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Political Science, Psychology,
Social Work, Sociology and Anthropology, and Sports Business
Management.
The Office of Research budgets
$100,000 annually to match contract and grant dollars for principle
investigators who hire undergraduates to assist in sponsored
research.
The Office of Research promotes,
fosters, facilitates and supports research, scholarship, creative
works and discovery across a wide spectrum of disciplines for the
University of Central Florida. With a commitment to service, the
office strives to provide enabling infrastructure and support to
faculty, researchers, and students in the pursuit of research and
other sponsored activities. The goals of the Office of Research are
to develop needed facilities and infrastructure to support research
and other creative activities; secure needed resources to sustain
leading-edge scholarship; provide opportunity to fully engage
faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students in the
development and creation of new knowledge; apply faculty and student
scholarship for the economic, humanitarian, and cultural benefit of
our region, our nation, and the international community; enhance
visibility and recognition of research and scholarship within the
university, the region, and nationally; identify, develop, and
foster research centers and interdisciplinary research throughout
the university.
The SMART Program is designed to help
students identify and work with faculty mentors in a research area
of shared interest. Students do not have to be Honors students to
take advantage of the SMART program; it is available to all
qualified UCF students. SMART students are typically sophomores or
first-semester juniors who assist faculty on lab projects.
Frequently, SMART students work as lab assistants on ongoing faculty
projects; however some students develop their own independent
research projects under the supervision of their faculty mentor. The
Burnett Honors College has an online directory of faculty and their
undergraduate research program. This faculty list is updated
frequently and each of the faculty listed have indicated a
willingness to take a SMART student during the current academic
year. The Burnett Honors College partners with UCF's Office of
Research in sponsoring up to ten SMART Awards. These are distributed
on a competitive basis and each carries a $1,000 award given to the
student as well as $1,000 given to the faculty mentor. The deadline
for SMART Awards is mid-October of each academic year.
Many students who complete a year in
SMART become so interested in their research that they look for more
advanced opportunities and challenges. Honors in the Major can
fulfill the intellectual and scholarly needs of these advanced
students.
Honors in the Major is UCF's most
advanced undergraduate research program. It is designed to assist
juniors and seniors who are intent on developing their own
independent research project. Students do not have to be Honors
students to take advantage of the HIM program; it is available to
all qualified UCF students. After a two semester sequence (i.e.,
readings and thesis hours), this project culminates in a successful
oral defense and binding of the HIM thesis which is then catalogued
and archived in UCF's library. HIM students work closely with a
thesis advisor and a faculty thesis committee.
The Burnett Honors College partners
with the five other colleges and two area campuses (Cocoa and
Daytona) in sponsoring HIM Scholarships. These $1,000 scholarships
are awarded on a competitive basis within each college/campus and
are available to all students who are enrolled in HIM credit hours
(either readings or thesis hours).
UCF has National Science Foundation
grants to support Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU).
In 1987, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) started a new program, Research Experience for
Undergraduates (REU). The NSF annually supports over 400 sites
nationwide in a range of technical areas to offer undergraduates an
opportunity to "experience" the research environment with the goal
of increasing future participation in graduate school programs.
During the last fifteen years
approximately one hundred forty undergraduate students from
different schools at UCF have participated in this program. The REU
participants have co-authored fifty research papers, approximately
half of these participants have gone to graduate schools, five
students have written Honors in the Major Theses, three participants
are now faculty members at different Universities, and three
participants have started their own companies.
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
has designated the UCF Computer Vision Lab, School of Computer
Science, as a site for Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
in the area of Computer Vision for 2001-2005. Currently 10 students
from the School of Computer Science are involved in the REU program.
The School of Optics and NSF have sponsored twelve REU programs, and
2003 was the fifth year they simultaneously ran an international REU.
Twenty-three faculty members sponsored mentoring research projects
for 21 students in the 2003 REU program.
UCF will send a
selected number of undergraduates to present their research papers
at the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research
(NCUR) at Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University, in
Lexington, Virginia, April 20-23, 2005. Further information
about the 2005 NCUR can be found at
http://ncur.wlu.edu/.
The National Conferences on
Undergraduate Research (NCUR) promotes undergraduate research,
scholarship, and creative activity done in partnership with faculty
or other mentors as a vital component of higher education.
Established in 1987, NCUR encourages awareness of undergraduate
research, scholarship, and creative opportunities as they exist in
various disciplines and types of institutions; promotes appreciation
of the valuable role these components play in complementing the
other aspects of undergraduate education and in encouraging the
pursuit of advanced study and academic careers; communicates and
celebrates the results of such student-mentor collaborations;
fosters a multidisciplinary and multicultural community of
researchers, scholars, and artists linked by a common enthusiasm for
learning.
The most visible element of NCUR's
programmatic activities is its three-day annual conference. Through
this annual conference, NCUR celebrates and promotes undergraduate
student achievement, provides models of exemplary research and
scholarship, and helps to improve the state of undergraduate
education. NCUR has an abiding commitment to provide access to the
conference to under-represented students and to assist in the
development of networks and support structures among those students.
On Thursday, March 30, 2006, UCF will sponsor the third annual
Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence in the Pegasus
Ballroom of the Student Union.
The purpose of the Showcase is to give UCF undergraduates who have
completed significant research and creative projects an opportunity
to show the UCF community and the public the results of their
research and creative activities, gain experience in public
presentation skills, and appear with their UCF faculty mentors at
this forum. During the Showcase, scholarships are awarded to
students whose projects are judged exemplary by faculty review
panels, and all student presenters receive a certificate of merit
and participation.
Presenters include UCF students in the Research Experience for
Undergraduates (REU) programs sponsored by the National Science
Foundation, Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP) students, Honors
in the Major (HIM) students, students supported by the Office of
Research and Commercialization, students working independently with
faculty on research projects, and any undergraduate UCF student who
meets the Showcase criteria.
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