FAQ: (Previously Asked Questions)

Your worry might be warranted. You taking 36 credits in a school year could be daunting alone, but of course it depends on many factors. Something tells me that you are a high achiever. UROP projects are considered to be a significant effort, for example 100 hours, and your effort can be modulated.

For example, during the beginning of the semester, you might find a capacity to sit with your faculty mentor to plan out some work, and commit to, say 4 hours per week. While later on, say around Thanksgiving, or during the Christmas holiday find yourself investing 10 or more hours each week.

The point is we strive to be flexible, and when students find themselves in a bind (after all research work is filled with unanticipated roadblocks) checking in with your mentor is a good strategy. Moreover, extending a timeline is not the worst thing that can happen, and the UROP program strives to be flexible for each student researcher.

Travel costs to conduct research are acceptable expenses. You might check with your faculty mentor to verify that some of their department funds can be allocated. It might be the case that your student government association would consider supported your research travel.

Yes, a STEM focus is essential, and what we look for is an application of the scientific method or an engineering design process.

But consider this. Water quality and preserving access can be cast in a context of science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics. A choreographed dance, that followed a studied mathematical cadence such as a Fibonacci sequence , for example, might be a way to connect to STEM. Moreover, performances are often steeped in technology, for example, video editing techniques could evolve from your work. These ideas might seem reaching, but think hard about justifying your work as STEM, and I bet you can author a convincing argument on your project that you are most passionate.

Your research work might include surveying a group of students, hosting a focus group, or experimenting with small animals.

To ensure good ethical practices in your research, an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is composed of academic and legal scholars, will provide guidance on the protocols you anticipate employing in your study.

Each campus may have an IRB office and your Vice President of Academic and/or faculty mentor should be helpful at identifying that office. If no IRB office exists on our campus, “borrowing” one from a similarly focused campus is acceptable.

A responsibility of accepting the award is that student’s will present the results of their research at a local conference. This can include research celebrations at your campus. For longer distance travel, your mentor might elect to join, when department and campus funds should be solicited.

Project work may vary, but is capped at $2,000 per student researcher. UROP encourages extensive research at a scale of 100-120 hours for projects, which would translate to $20.00-$16.67 per hour for the student. The pay rate is left for the mentor and student to decide on, and should be in consultation with the campus business office. Payment rates should be included in the budget section of the proposal. Students are encouraged to maintain accurate logs of their daily effort.

Some campuses may elect to administer the UROP projects as stipends for as much as $2,000 each, when faculty mentors would sign off payments tp stidents when certain milestones are achieved. For example, four milestones, each equivalent to $500 payments could be established. Some suggest holding back the final $250 until reporting dissemination of the project is completed. It it up to the mentor and student, and ultimately what is permissible by the campus business office to decide. Students are encouraged to maintain accurate logs of their daily effort.

Proposals for equipment are submitted separately from student research proposals, each of the two being scored using scoring rubrics. Requests to fund equipment will be based on this scoring rubric.

The equipment that we seek to fund by the UROP is research-grade instrumentation that could be used by students as a part of their own UROP funded research; that type of research is envisioned as a 100-120 hour effort by the student.

An aim of the UROP is to stimulate research activities by students and their faculty mentors. The equipment track is designed with a single high-grade instrument purchase in mind, and outfitting courses or labs with gear is not the intent.

As the program evolves we hope to consider initiatives that purposefully integrate research into the classroom (CUR reference), when the support you seek might be considered.

Research work can be challenging, with unforseen roadblocks. A one-time extension of the project completion date will be considered for students completing the UROP student project extension form.