You Had Me at “Undergraduate Research”: How One Institution Achieved Incredible Results in the First Year of a Formal Program to Place Freshmen (and Sophomores) in Research Labs, While Helping Students Chip Away at the Cost of College

Susan Elaine Benzel

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: First-year Programs: Research and Spatial Skills
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35716
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/35716
Download Count: 434

Paper Authors

biography

Susan Elaine Benzel Colorado State University

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Susan E. Benzel, PMP
Scott Scholars Program Coordinator
Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
Colorado State University

Susan earned her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University, and after a 30-year career in high-tech working for Hewlett Packard (HP)/Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), she returned to CSU in the fall of 2018 to work with both the Scott Scholars as well as the first generation engineering students. Her role includes mentoring, teaching leadership skills, connecting students with research opportunities, and many other activities to help ensure student success. Through this role, Susan assists students in engaging fully with the college of engineering, guides students in understanding their career options, helps place students in the best position possible to participate in the wide range of options available to them after they acquire their degree, and encourages students to use their powers for good by contributing to their communities and society in general.

Susan’s 30 years at HP/HPE spanned many areas of high tech culminating in a final role working with Hewlett Packard Labs as the Execution Program Manager for The Machine, and helping HPE develop their artificial intelligence strategy. The Machine – the world’s largest single-memory computer, located right here in Fort Collins – is reinventing the fundamental architecture of computers to enable a quantum leap in performance and efficiency, lowered costs over the long term and improved security. Over her 30 years, Susan also had the unique opportunity to work in almost every aspect of product development including marketing, support, training, certification, documentation, business development, and research and development program management. She had the privilege of working with HPE’s top customers, and helped many business units develop their value proposition and future direction.

In December 2016, Susan gave the commencement address for the Colorado State University College of Engineering Fall commencement ceremony. She lives in Fort Collins with her wonderful husband of 30 years, Randy, and they have two incredible children, Miranda and Marcus. All four, and even her son-in-law John, are proud Colorado State University graduates. Go Rams!

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Abstract

This evidence-based practice paper will explore how a freshmen and sophomore focused research program has produced stellar results in terms of student engagement and student desire to pursue an engineering degree – while also addressing the hot topic of paying for college.

Institutions work hard to recruit and attract students to their engineering programs, and want to do everything they can to engage and retain those students. We know first-year experiences and undergraduate research are both high impact practices (HIPs) that are beneficial to students from almost all backgrounds; AACU coined this term, and several other organizations have also discussed and documented these practices for many years. Actually implementing such practices can be quite daunting. This paper will provide clear, concise information on how one institution not only created a very successful first-year (and sophomore) engagement experience that involved undergraduate research, but also paid students for their time in research labs, thus addressing two of the hottest topics today for students – the rising cost of obtaining a college degree and the astronomical level of student loan debt many students need to incur in order to earn a degree.

This paper will detail the process used by one institution to create, fund and implement a first-year/freshman (and sophomore) research program. The paper will start with the task of matching research faculty to qualified students; many research faculty want to employee undergraduate students in their labs and many undergraduate students want to work in labs, so the real issue is one of matching. Next, the topic of funding will be covered. While many students are willing to volunteer in research labs in order to get experience, by paying the students for their research hours, institutions can start to chip away at the high cost of college and incredible level of debt students are incurring in order to earn a degree. The logistics of running an undergraduate research program will be covered, as will the benefits of holding a “closing event” where students can showcase their work. Such an event allows students to summarize their learning, practice their written and verbal communication skills, and reflect on the many benefits of participating in a research program. At the same time, the closing event provides an opportunity for donors to get a detailed view of the benefits to the students, faculty and institution as a whole of sponsoring undergraduate research.

Of course, an undergraduate research program is only valuable if the end result is positive for both the students and faculty, and this paper will clearly show the benefits obtained by running just such a program in the spring of 2019. A survey conducted with the students at the end of the program showed that 85% of the students will be more likely to reach out to their faculty sponsor for mentoring in the future, 71% clarified what they want to do after graduation, and 95% feel more connected to their engineering department. In addition, a survey conducted with the research faculty involved in the program showed 81% plan to continue working with their assigned research undergraduate student, and 100% are interested in participating in the program in the spring of 2020. These, and many more detailed results will be presented, along with information on how to improve future research programs.

Attendees will leave with very detailed information about a successful research program that was just run in the spring of 2019 at large R1 university, many tangible ideas around how they could start and run a research program at their institution, and the key areas they need to explore - and staff - as they start a research program for undergraduates. In addition, by the time the paper is submitted, the spring 2020 version of this undergraduate program will be close to completing, and details around changes/improvements made over the first year will be shared.

Citation
Format

Benzel, S. E. (2020, June), You Had Me at “Undergraduate Research”: How One Institution Achieved Incredible Results in the First Year of a Formal Program to Place Freshmen (and Sophomores) in Research Labs, While Helping Students Chip Away at the Cost of College Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35716

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This evidence-based practice paper will explore how a freshmen and sophomore focused research program has produced stellar results in terms of student engagement and student desire to pursue an engineering degree – while also addressing the hot topic of paying for college.  

Institutions work hard to recruit and attract students to their engineering programs, and want to do everything they can to engage and retain those students.  We know first-year experiences and undergraduate research are both high impact practices (HIPs) that are beneficial to students from almost all backgrounds; AACU coined this term, and several other organizations have also discussed and documented these practices for many years.  Actually implementing such practices can be quite daunting.  This paper will provide clear, concise information on how one institution not only created a very successful first-year (and sophomore) engagement experience that involved undergraduate research, but also paid students for their time in research labs, thus addressing two of the hottest topics today for students – the rising cost of obtaining a college degree and the astronomical level of student loan debt many students need to incur in order to earn a degree.

This paper will detail the process used by one institution to create, fund and implement a first-year/freshman (and sophomore) research program.  The paper will start with the task of matching research faculty to qualified students; many research faculty want to employee undergraduate students in their labs and many undergraduate students want to work in labs, so the real issue is one of matching.  Next, the topic of funding will be covered. While many students are willing to volunteer in research labs in order to get experience, by paying the students for their research hours, institutions can start to chip away at the high cost of college and incredible level of debt students are incurring in order to earn a degree.  The logistics of running an undergraduate research program will be covered, as will the benefits of holding a “closing event” where students can showcase their work.  Such an event allows students to summarize their learning, practice their written and verbal communication skills, and reflect on the many benefits of participating in a research program.  At the same time, the closing event provides an opportunity for donors to get a detailed view of the benefits to the students, faculty and institution as a whole of sponsoring undergraduate research.

Of course, an undergraduate research program is only valuable if the end result is positive for both the students and faculty, and this paper will clearly show the benefits obtained by running just such a program in the spring of 2019.  A survey conducted with the students at the end of the program showed that 85% of the students will be more likely to reach out to their faculty sponsor for mentoring in the future, 71% clarified what they want to do after graduation, and 95% feel more connected to their engineering department.  In addition, a survey conducted with the research faculty involved in the program showed 81% plan to continue working with their assigned research undergraduate student, and 100% are interested in participating in the program in the spring of 2020.  These, and many more detailed results will be presented, along with information on how to improve future research programs.

Attendees will leave with very detailed information about a successful research program that was just run in the spring of 2019 at large R1 university, many tangible ideas around how they could start and run a research program at their institution, and the key areas they need to explore - and staff - as they start a research program for undergraduates.  In addition, by the time the paper is submitted, the spring 2020 version of this undergraduate program will be close to completing, and details around changes/improvements made over the first year will be shared.

AU  - Susan Elaine Benzel
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - You Had Me at “Undergraduate Research”: How One Institution Achieved Incredible Results in the First Year of a Formal Program to Place Freshmen (and Sophomores) in Research Labs, While Helping Students Chip Away at the Cost of College
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/35716
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--35716
ER  -