A grant program to stimulate undergraduate research at the nine primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) and five tribal colleges and universities (TCU) in North Dakota is being piloted for 2024-2025 in a partnership with the North Dakota EPSCoR office at NDSU in Fargo and in Valley City at Valley City State University (VCSU).
Engaging undergraduates in the solutions of hard problems in the STEM disciplines is one of two tracks offered by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).
In the first track, students are invited to identify challenging problems that capture their imagination, and to solicit faculty for mentorship. Together the student and mentor develop a short proposal for submission to the UROP offices for consideration, in a process that follows competitive grant writing protocols. Typically, projects are designed for one semester, or might extend over a summer. Reporting and dissemination follow.
The second track is to provide research grade equipment to the PUI and TCU campuses that can be used to sustain undergraduate research activities for years to come. Faculty are invited to solicit UROP with proposals that stimulate multiple student impact.
Prompting students to practice thinking like a researcher is a motivation for UROP. Critical thinking, analysis, problem solving, and data management are prevalent research skills, but so are communication, collaboration, time management, planning and budgeting.
“These skills are invaluable for so many careers, and in their development, we hope to service the growing demand for STEM workers in North Dakota,” suggests project director, David DeMuth, Jr., a long-time VCSU Professor of Physics, “and to hone the students abilities for graduate study at NDSU and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks (UND).”
DeMuth noted that faculty at PUI and TCU campuses tend to be more focused on teaching and less so on research, at least in a comparison to colleagues at NDSU and UND.
“And that might be okay,” he suggested, “but when joining a campus as a freshly minted Ph.D, faculty are distinguished experts and offer unique research capacities that can be tuned for undergraduate participation.” The UROP provides a mechanism for high level engagement, a “different kind of classroom.”
UROP participation is a student’s ticket to discovery: in innovating solutions to challenging problems, and for their self-discovery and validation as being a researcher.
The deadline for proposals for work during the Summer and Fall of 2024 is March 15, 2024.
