integrated research components: a practical and effective alternative to senior projects
DESCRIPTION
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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Integrated Research Integrated Research Components: Components:
A Practical and Effective A Practical and Effective Alternative to Senior ProjectsAlternative to Senior Projects
Ellen L. WalkerEllen L. Walker
Oberta A. SlotterbeckOberta A. Slotterbeck
Hiram CollegeHiram College
{walkerel, obie}@hiram.edu{walkerel, obie}@hiram.edu
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Models for Senior ProjectsModels 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
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Integrated Research Integrated Research Components (IRCs)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
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Student Requirements for IRCStudent 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.
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Integrated Research Integrated Research Components (IRCs)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
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Why Attached to CoursesWhy 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
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Adapting Courses for IRCAdapting 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
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Adapting Courses for IRC Adapting Courses for IRC (cont’d)(cont’d)
• Require students to read and present papers from the literature– Models of research– Models of writing– Practice presenting technical papers
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Project and Course in Same Project and Course in Same Semester?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
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Courses Offered with IRC’sCourses Offered with IRC’s• Artificial Intelligence• Bioinformatics• Computer Vision• Database• Graphics• Networks• Parallel and Distributed Systems • Simulation• Systems Administration
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Integrated Research Integrated Research Components (IRCs)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
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Why All Students?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
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Can All Students Do Research?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
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Example ProjectsExample 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)
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Example ProjectsExample Projects
• “r”esearch– A Walk Around Jacobs Field (Graphics)– Gin Rummy (Artificial Intelligence)– Using Shell Scripts to Back Up Various Unix
Systems (Systems Administration)
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Building CommunityBuilding 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
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Integrated Research Integrated Research ComponentsComponents
• Individual semester-long projects
• Attached to specific courses
• Required of all students
• Two IRC’s required to graduate– Generally, junior and senior year
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Why Senior Year is Too Late 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)
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Why 2 IRC’s? 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
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Grade Distribution 2000-2005Grade Distribution 2000-2005(N=42)(N=42)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
A+ A. A- B+ B. B- C+ C. C- D+ D. D- F.
IRC1
IRC2
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Grade Improvement Grade Improvement (2000-2005)(2000-2005)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Grade Difference
Count
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OutcomesOutcomes• 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
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Outcomes (cont’d)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
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Outcomes (cont’d)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
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Challenges That RemainChallenges 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
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Questions?Questions?
• Our website has additional information– http://cs.hiram.edu/~walkerel/IRC.html