Program Description
Program Goals
What is Undergraduate Research?
How LASURI Works
Important Dates
- improve undergraduates' awareness of research opportunities within LAS
- increase faculty members' willingness and ability to incorporate undergraduate research into their scholarly activities
- facilitate the establishment of mutually beneficial research partnerships between undergraduates and faculty members
- foster intellectual and social community among UIC undergraduates
- develop the research, communication, and leadership skills of undergraduate researchers
LASURI works by pairing Undergraduate Research Assistants with Faculty Mentors and providing these research teams with financial support for one to two semester-long undergraduate research projects. Eligible Undergraduate Research Assistants receive an award of $1250 per semester, for a total of $2500 award per academic year. Their Faculty Mentors receive a $1500 grant for project costs. Competition for program awards is open to any full-time LAS undergraduate who has earned at least 24 semester hours with a minimum 2.5 GPA. Faculty Mentors must be affiliated with a department in LAS, and may have clinical, emeritus or research associate appointments.
What is Undergraduate Research?
LAS defines undergraduate research as mentored, self-directed work through which students explore a topic of interest and share the results of their work in accordance with disciplinary standards; therefore research projects may include a wide range of activities, including systematic inquiry and creative activity.*
- Faculty members interested in working with an Undergraduate Research Assistant (URA) should go to the Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) website and create a research profile describing their work and what they expect from their URA.
- Students who are interested in serving as a URA should use the Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) website to find LAS faculty who are doing research that interests them, and contact that faculty member through that website.
- Faculty mentors and students meet, determine if they would like to work together, design a specific student project and establish the expectations for the project.
- Students can fill out an online application starting Monday January 9, 2012, to the LASURI program. The deadline for submitting applications is Monday March 5, 2012. Faculty mentors should help the student design the project and may help them prepare their application. Faculty mentors will be contacted once the application has been submitted to verify that they have agreed to work with the student and they will receive a copy of the student's application. If more than one student submits an application to work with a faculty mentor, the mentor will be asked to rank the applicants. Students whose research projects are selected will receive an award of up to $2500 (funds will be deposited directly into student accounts and applied to any outstanding balances on student accounts before being released to students). University and federal rules apply to the disbursement of funds. Students and their mentors will be notified of their award status by Monday April 16, 2012.
- Faculty Mentors will be awarded $1500 research grants to cover related project costs, including materials, travel, and equipment for student use. The funds will be submitted to the mentors' departments for disbursal to them.
- At the end of the academic year, students are expected to present their research projects at the UIC Student Research Forum and submit their abstracts to the LASURI Abstract Archive.
| FORM | SUBMITTED BY | DEADLINE |
|---|---|---|
| Faculty URE research Profile | Faculty Member | Rolling |
| Student Application | Undergraduate Student | Monday March 5, 2012 |
| Project Abstract | Undergraduate Student | Last day of spring semester |
Citations
* http://www.unc.edu/depts/our/