 |
|
||||||
|
|
UR-CSEUndergraduate Research Case School of Engineering
For Students
What is Research?"Careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to discover or establish facts or principles." (Webster) "Undergraduate research is a student-faculty collaboration to examine, create and share new knowledge or works in ways commensurate with practice in the discipline." (Hakim, 2000) Labs are designed to go right. In research, right rarely happens. Most things fail. You're looking for the right. You learn from both. (Not an exact quote, but something close to what a Case professor said) Helpful to think of components of research:
Why should I become involved in research?Faculty Connection: Case is one of the top research universities in the country. The CSE is one of the top SE in the country. Working with the faculty here in research exposes you to the best of the university's resources: its research faculty. You may become involved in cutting edge research projects. Some of these projects may be interdisciplinary. Career Development and Clarification: Participating in an undergraduate research project provides you with firsthand knowledge of the life of a research engineer. This experience may help you in deciding if you are interested in pursuing graduate studies and having a professional career in research. Corporate Exposure to R&D in a corporate environment: Again, this may help you as you make decisions about your career. Do you have your own idea? An independent research project allows you to take your own idea and explore it. What qualities do I need to become involved in research?
"UR is more than a job" (A CSE Professor) When can I become involved in research?There are opportunities to participate in research here in the CSE beginning with your freshman year. Some corporations especially desire upcoming sophomores and juniors to become involved in research internships during the summer. Most summer sites for NSF REUs want students to be upcoming juniors or seniors. Some considerations for you:
Can I be paid for participating in undergraduate research?
Getting StartedThe process of finding an UR position may seem daunting at first. However, as you become familiar with the resources and possibilities for UR, it will become easier for you to find a position that is right for you. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE INTERESTED IN: Prepare yourself so that you will be able to discuss your research interests. Think about what kind of engineering research you're interested in. Write it down. What experience have you had in the laboratory? Identify the laboratory equipment with which you are familiar. WHO TO TALK TO: The UR office in Nord 304D is a good place to start. Complete an UR interest form and you will be placed on an email update list to hear about positions. Your faculty advisor Faculty members with whom you have classes who have research interests similar to yours Upper class students who have participated in research projects WHERE TO GO: Check the UR web page for on campus positions. It is new but it is a growing and ever changing resource Faculty members have research profiles posted on the department's web page. It is an excellent place to begin to learn about the research interests of the faculty Your department's web page. However, do not limit yourself to your department's web page. Many faculty research projects are interdisciplinary. Do not omit reviewing the web pages of other engineering departments and the sciences The many research centers on campus. Explore their web sites to learn who the faculty are who are involved and the area of research. Once you learn of faculty or campus research centers that share research interest with you, contact them. Email faculty and centers about possible positions. Share your interest in participating in a research project. Do not become discourage if you are turned-down. You always can check back at another time, and the answer may be different. Faculty members may also be able to refer to another professor who can assist you. If this is your first experience in research, consider offering to volunteer to be part of a project. Off Campus Positions: Stay informed about companies who are visiting campus and who have hired research internships. The Fall Career Fair is a first start. Stay connected with the CSE UR office and the Career Center. This web page lists many off campus resources for undergraduate research. Explore, explore, explore! Student To Student Advice"As a freshman, one of the reasons that I chose Case was because of the many opportunities for research here. So I was interested in starting research as soon as possible. I heard about EMAC 125 from one of my professors, and so I contacted another professor, and he set me up with the research that I'm doing now. Currently, I am studying the rheological properties of a certain gel using both controlled stress and controlled strain rheometers. Even though I am planning on majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and the research that I am doing right now isn't the field that I plan on making a career out of, I am still highly enjoying the research that I am doing now, both as an introduction to research, and as a means of broadening my education by branching into other fields. Thus, I highly recommend getting involved in research as early as possible, and specifically the EMAC 125 course as one possibility to do this."
- Steve Hudelson "I feel that getting involved with this research opportunity has been a good experience for me. The main goal of the area I'm working in is producing thin eye-glass lenses from polycarbonate films using a gradient of refractive indices. Upon hearing about this my first day, my initial thought was "Wow--that seems too high-tech for my understanding!". Yet being able to work directly with the polymers and the analyzing equipment has enabled me to get a greater sense of what actually goes into such projects as the thin lens. This research opportunity would be a good stepping stone for any student who is even remotely interested in research down the road, or who just wants to see what polymer research is all about."
-Greg Wile 
"While doing undergraduate research, technically, I got to actually participate in the gathering of data and the analyzation of data according to hypotheses, but on a personal level, I got to experience the sense of accomplishment for completing an experiment that contributed notably to the big picture and the sense of disappointment when an experiment did not produce useable results or did not produce any results at all. What gets me most of all is that I got to dabble my feet in the great ocean that is research as a freshman! I could not believe they trusted the freshman so much so as to allow them to get lab and research experience. What a wonderful opportunity!"
-Jessica Chen Sample of CSE undergraduates who have co-authored articles for publication**Michael S. Branicky, Associate Professor, Computer Science** Michael S. Branicky, Michael M. Curtiss, Joshua Levine, and Stuart Morgan.Michael S. Branicky, Michael M. Curtiss, Joshua Levine, and Stuart Morgan. RRTs for Nonlinear, Discrete, and Hybrid Planning and Control. Proc. IEEE Conf. on Decision and Control, Maui, December 9-12, 2003. To appear. Michael S. Branicky, Michael M. Curtiss, Joshua Levine, and Stuart Morgan. Sampling-based planning and control. Proc. Twelfth Yale Workshop on Adaptive and Learning Systems, New Haven, CT, May 28-30, 2003. M.S. Branicky and M.M. Curtiss. Nonlinear and hybrid control via RRTs. Proc. Intl. Symp. on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, South Bend, IN, August 2002. M.S. Branicky, S.M. LaValle, K. Olson, and L. Yang. Quasi-randomized path planning. Proc. IEEE International Conf. Robotics and Automation, pp. 1481-1487, Seoul, KOREA, May 2001. **Christoph Weder, Associate Professor, Macromolecular Science and Engineering** Huber, C.; Bangerter, F.; Caseri, W.; Weder, C.;Complexation of Unsaturated Carbon-Carbon Bonds in Pi-Conjugated Polymers with Transition Metals; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 3857-3863. (UG Student: Christian Huber) Beekman, E.; Kocher, C.; Kokil, A.; Zimmermann, S.; Weder, C.; UV Polarizers Based On Oriented Poly(vinyl alcohol) - Chrysophenine - Congo Red Blend Films; J. Appl. Poly. Sci. 2002, 86, 1235-1239. (UG Student:Elissa Beekman) Huber, C.; Kokil, A.; Caseri, W.; Weder, C.; Two alternative, convenient routes to bis(diphenylacetylene)platinum(0); Organometallics 2002, 21,3817-3818. (UG Student: Christian Huber) Kokil, A.; Huber, C.; Shiyanovskaya, I.; Caseri, W.R.; Singer, K.D.; Weder, C.; Synthesis And Properties Of Conjugated Polymer Networks Formed By Non-Covalent Interactions; Polym. Prepr. (Am. Chem. Soc., Div.Polym. Chem.) 2003, 44(1), 665-666. (UG Student: Christian Huber) Kokil, A.; Yao, P.; Weder, C.; 2,2'-Bipyridine-Containing Poly(p-phenylene ethynylenes) - Synthesis and Characterization, and Complexation with Transition Metals; Macromolecules In preparation. (UG Student: Peter Yao) Comments from professors about Undergraduate Research."I am very excited about having freshman in the lab doing real research.Science and Engineering are very much experimental disciplines and I think a large part of their appeal and excitement comes from actually doing the experiments yourself. In my opinion the sooner you get a chance to do this the better. Both my freshman are doing really well and are currently producing great publishable results after only half a semester!"
- Stuart Rowan, Ph.D. "I've been most impressed with the quality of research conducted by the undergraduate students working with me. In some cases, it really has been only a relatively short period that it took us (me + graduate students) to train someone up to become quite independent."
-Christoph Weder | ||||||
