Transcript Ellen Walker, Hiram College, OH

Integrated Research
Components:
Undergraduate Research for All
Ellen Walker
Hiram College
Institutionalized
Undergraduate Research
• Integrated Research Components (IRCs)
– Individual semester-long projects
• Attached to specific courses
– Separate 2-credit course with co-requisite
• Required of all computer science majors
– Meets college-wide “capstone experience”
requirement
• Two IRC’s required to graduate
– Generally, junior and senior year
Why Attach to Courses?
• Reduced intellectual load for faculty advisor
(who is also teaching the course)
• “Research group” experience for students
• Synergy between course and research
experiences
• Interactions among pre-IRC and current-IRC
students
Courses Offered with IRC’s
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Artificial Intelligence
Bioinformatics
Computer Vision
Database
Graphics
Networks
Parallel and Distributed Systems
Simulation
Systems Administration
Formal Structure Helps
• Proposal - within first two weeks
– Sets scope and evaluation criteria for the project;
negotiated with faculty member
• Implementation - semester-long
– Must include significant original code
• Poster - 1 week before presentation
• Presentation and Paper (as for a research
conference) - end of semester
– 20 minute oral presentations grouped into
sessions on the last 1-3 evenings of the semester.
Can All Students do
Research?
• Projects tailored to students’ abilities
– “R”esearch vs. “r”esearch
• Projects are staged
– Develop complete simple version before
adding complexity (list versions in
proposal)
– When time is up, submit latest complete
version -- not necessarily the final version
listed in the proposal
Example Projects
• “R”esearch
– Locating, Tracking, and Interpreting Ean-13
Bar Code Waveforms in a TwoDimensional Video Stream, Jeffrey Adair
(2006 SRC Grand Finals 3rd place)
– BLAST Organism Cross-Comparison as a
Tool for Genomic Sequencing, Luke
Chaney (poster at 25th annual Crown Gall
Conference)
Example Projects
• “r”esearch
– A Walk Around Jacobs Field (Graphics)
– Gin Rummy (Artificial Intelligence)
– Using Shell Scripts to Back Up Various
Unix Systems (Systems Administration)
Building Community
• Semi-annual research conference
– Open to all; highly encouraged for CS
students, especially in early courses
– Generates excitement about the field
• Posters decorate our hall
– Sense of “CS Pride”
– Conversation-starters with prospective
students
Why Senior Year is Too
Late
• If the project is poor…
– Pressure on faculty to pass vs. prevent graduation
– No opportunity to learn from mistakes
• If the project is wonderful…
– No chance to present externally (e.g. SRC)
– Too late to apply for fall admission to graduate
school (if newly excited about research)
Advantage of a Second
Project
• Feedback from first IRC applied to the
second one, so more students end with
a positive experience
– Grades support this (next 2 slides)
• “Second-IRC” students help “First-IRC”
students, so quality improves overall
Questions?
• Our website has additional information
– http://cs.hiram.edu/~walkerel/IRC.html