Mason Engineering Senior Associate Dean Stephen Nash says undergraduate engineering students participate in year-long senior projects, working on research projects that often are externally sponsored.
This afternoon Mason Engineering is hosting its annual Undergraduate Research Celebration. It will be at 5:30 p.m. in Dewberry Hall in the Johnson Center.
When thinking about research in our school it’s easy to slip into an old-fashioned view that focuses on faculty and PhD students. That’s out of date now and may never have been accurate.
Let me give some examples. Many of our undergraduates participate in year-long senior projects, working on research projects that often are externally sponsored. In the next few weeks they will be making their final presentations, and some of these projects will be featured at today’s Research Celebration.
It is also common for our MS students to participate in capstone projects, typically in the final semester of their degrees. They too will be making final presentations in the next few weeks.
Many of the major funding agencies encourage undergraduate research. At the National Science Foundation, for example, there is a program called Research Experiences for Undergraduates. This program provides easy-to-obtain supplements for existing grants as well as more significant “site” awards. On March 19, I reported that Huzefa Rangwala and colleagues received one of these site awards for a project focused on educational data mining.
At Mason there is an office dedicated to student research at all levels, called OSCAR: The Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research. For example, OSCAR has internal funding programs for research and research-related travel.
Finally I’ll mention the MIX, i.e., the Mason Innovation Exchange. Its goal is to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. The university has created two maker spaces, the first was in Innovation Hall, and now there is a much larger one in part of the Fenwick Library.
These are some of the examples of student research at Mason, examples that go far beyond the world of PhD research. Be sure and check our Undergraduate Research Celebration later today.