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Integrated Research Components: A Practical and Effective Alternative to Senior Projects

Integrated Research Components: A Practical and Effective Alternative to Senior Projects. Ellen L. Walker Oberta A. Slotterbeck Hiram College {walkerel, obie}@hiram.edu. Models for Senior Projects. Capstone Project (e.g CC2001) Team-based, software engineering

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Integrated Research Components: A Practical and Effective Alternative to Senior Projects

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  1. Integrated Research Components: A Practical and Effective Alternative to Senior Projects Ellen L. Walker Oberta A. Slotterbeck Hiram College {walkerel, obie}@hiram.edu

  2. Models for Senior Projects • Capstone Project (e.g CC2001) • Team-based, software engineering • Honors Research Project or Thesis • Only for the best students • Goal: publishable research • 2004 Model Curriculum for Liberal Arts Colleges includes either

  3. Integrated Research Components (IRCs) • Individual semester-long projects • Attached to specific courses • Separate 2-credit course with co-requisite • Required of all students • Two IRC’s required to graduate • Generally, junior and senior year

  4. Student Requirements for IRC • 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.

  5. Integrated Research Components (IRCs) • Individual semester-long projects • Attached to specific courses • Required of all students • Two IRC’s required to graduate • Generally, junior and senior year

  6. Why Attached 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

  7. Adapting Courses for IRC • Overview of Research Early • Both topics and methods • Also motivates non-IRC students • Refer to students’ projects as examples • Take advantage of students’ work • Provide “hints” when techniques are applicable • Students doing research ask deeper questions

  8. Adapting Courses for IRC (cont’d) • Require students to read and present papers from the literature • Models of research • Models of writing • Practice presenting technical papers

  9. Project and Course in Same Semester? • Rarely does a researcher know all that is needed before the project • Students’ research does double duty (helps in the course, also) • Projects tend to focus on topics covered early in the course • Not necessarily a good thing

  10. Courses Offered with IRC’s • Artificial Intelligence • Bioinformatics • Computer Vision • Database • Graphics • Networks • Parallel and Distributed Systems • Simulation • Systems Administration

  11. Integrated Research Components (IRCs) • Individual semester-long projects • Attached to specific courses • Required of all students • Two IRC’s required to graduate • Generally, junior and senior year

  12. Why All Students? • Meets college-wide “capstone experience” requirement • All students can benefit from this experience • Experience research process before deciding about their future • Practice project planning, time management, communication skills important to workplace

  13. 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

  14. Example Projects • “R”esearch • Locating, Tracking, and Interpreting Ean-13 Bar Code Waveforms in a Two-Dimensional 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)

  15. 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)

  16. 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

  17. Integrated Research Components • Individual semester-long projects • Attached to specific courses • Required of all students • Two IRC’s required to graduate • Generally, junior and senior year

  18. 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)

  19. Why 2 IRC’s? • 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

  20. Grade Distribution 2000-2005(N=42)

  21. Grade Improvement (2000-2005)

  22. Outcomes • Students apply to, and are accepted into, competitive summer research programs and graduate schools • Students in summer programs and graduate school report that they were well-prepared • Students report that IRC project information on their resume and/or web page got them their jobs in industry

  23. Outcomes (cont’d) • Students have presented their IRC projects externally • ACM Student Research Competition • Crown Gall Conference (Bioinformatics) • ECCC Student Research Conference • Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing

  24. Outcomes (cont’d) • Faculty report that the additional effort involved in supervising an IRC (even a large one) is reduced from the old “senior project” days • Because the IRC is a recognized course, it is counted in faculty load

  25. Challenges That Remain • Getting students to write early drafts of their papers (and giving them feedback) • Getting students to submit good work externally, especially when it requires rewriting • Too many students end the semester feeling that they’re “just now ready” to work on their projects

  26. Questions? • Our website has additional information • http://cs.hiram.edu/~walkerel/IRC.html

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