SOIC Undergraduate Research Resource

By: Austin Graft, Veldez Joshua, and Kelsey Miller.

AI’s: Vaibhav Garg and Wyatt Clark

OverviewOur goal is to: Provide a website informing Undergraduates

and Incoming Freshmen about research opportunities

Assesse the various research opportunities already on campus that professors are currently seeking students’ assistance

Inform professors of students interests in different fields of research through student surveys

MethodologyProfessor survey

Professor interviews

Student surveys

Website Development (Dreamweaver)

Methodology - Professor Survey Compiled a listed of questions

What specific area of informatics are you in? What are your research interests (including current research)? Do you have opportunities for undergraduates (if so is funding available)? What skills would you require from undergraduates? What specific programming languages are required? What specific software is required? What kind of work could an undergraduate expect? How many hours are expected from undergraduates doing research?

Formatted questions into a professional-looking word document to be sent to Informatics and Computing faculty and professors

Distributed the Professor Surveys

Collected surveys, so that we could incorporate results into research descriptions and listings of available research positions

Methodology – Professor InterviewsEstablished a list of Informatics and Computing faculty

members/professors to contact, so as to schedule an interview

Met with faculty members/professors and interviewed with the Professor Survey document as a reference for questions

Took notes on interview responses

Used interview responses as tools for developing research descriptions and listings for available research opportunities

Methodology – Student SurveysCompiled a list of questions to be formatted into a survey that is

now available online: http://iu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_egQvrac3kpxBSzq&SVID=Prod

Gender/ethnicity Major/year in school Skills/interest in Web Development, Programming, & Data Analysis Familiarity/interest in various Informatics and Computing research fields Factors influencing willingness to obtain a research position (pay,

experience, etc.)

Made survey available online and sent out survey link to students in the School of Informatics and Computing

Gathered results and formatted data into graphs, so that the data could easily interpreted

Methodology – Website Development Created multiple mock-ups for the proposed design of

the website

Developed a functional version of the website based upon the best mock-up

Searched for and created content for the separate web pages

Utilized the data from the Professor Surveys to further develop the Research Fields content, as well as the Research Opportunities content

Created a facebook, twitter, and google group page, all which are linked from the website

Tested the website in different browsers and on different computers to ensure consistency in display

Professor Survey ResultsThere are many different fields in Informatics and

Computing that are conducting research

Programming skills are preferred in undergraduate researchers; but not always required

There are usually summer positions available

A genuine interest in research is desired

Candidates should be willing to dedicate a fair amount of time to their research positions

Professor Interview Results There is a lot of very interesting, and very exciting research going on in the

School of Informatics and Computing

Faculty members/professors are generally willing to create and offer undergraduate research positions

Research positions are based on the availability of funding

Most positions do not necessarily require extensive programming and software skills, most research facutly and professors believe that it is most important that you are willing and motivated to learn new programming languages and software

Research positions are not always explicity available; it is recommended that you contact a research faculty member or professor directly, and they can give you more information about a research position that would fit your skills

Student Survey Results

Survey was completed by 80+ students from various majors on IU’s campus.

0.750000000000001

0.25

Gender

MaleFemale

0.1125

0.7875

0.05

0.0125 0.0125 0.025

Race

Black/African Amer-icanWhite (Non-Hispanic)Asian or Pacific Is-landerAmerican Indian or Alaskan NativeHispanic/Latin Amer-icanOther Ethnicity

Student Survey Results (cont.)

Informatics Computer Science

Other0

0.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.8

Major

Series1

Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

Year In School

Series1

75% Informatics Majors15% Computer Science Majors10% Other:

Political ScienceBiologyChemistryMusic Education

5% Freshmen20% Sophomores41% Juniors31% Seniors

While the survey was evenly distributed among IU’s students, Juniors showed a greater interest in participating and general research.

Student Survey Results (cont.)

1 2 3 4 50

5

10

15

20

25

30

Skill Level of Programming Skills

Programming Skills

1 2 3 4 50

5

10

15

20

25

Skill Level of Web De-velopment Skills

Web Development Skills 1 2 3 4 5

05

10152025303540

Skill Level of Data-Analysis Skills

Data-Analysis Skills

Student Survey Results (cont.)

1.99

1.7

2.4

2.9

1.8

3.05

2.05

3.23

2.36

3.19

Familiarity with Informatics FieldsComplexity

Bio-informatics/Chemical In-formatics

Security

HCI/D

Music Informatics

Social Informatics

Cyberinfrastructure and High Performance Computing

Data, Databases and Search

Ubiquitous Computing

Computer Networking

Questions to ask:Why are students familiar with certain fields than others?Is there a trend between the familiar fields and the courses

taught at IU?

Student Survey Results (cont.)

Complexity5%

Bioinformatics/Chemical In-

formatics7%

Security7%

HCI/D21%

Music In-formatics

5%

Social Informatics13%

Cyberin-frastructure

and High Perfor-mance

Computing8%

Data, Databases, and Search

18%

Ubiquitous Computing

3%

Computer Networking12%

Fields Already Worked

Experience as an Un-dergraduate Researcher

HorribleBadIndifferentGoodExcellent

Student Survey Results (cont.)

0-5hrs. 6-10hrs. 10+ hrs.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Students vs. Hours Per Week

Seri...

1 2 3 4 505

1015202530

Students vs. Working for Pay

Pay

1 2 3 4 50

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Student vs. Experience

Experience

1 2 3 4 50

10

20

30

40

50

Students vs. Interest in Field/Post-Graduation

FoundationInterest in fieldSetting foundation for Post-Graduation Studies

Website ResultsSoIC Undergraduate Research

Resource is a fully functioning website: http://mypage.iu.edu/~km40/SoIC/index.html

Design is user friendly and allows for easy editing (in Dreamweaver)

Provides connections to popular social networks such as facebook, twitter, and google groups

Future Work Efforts needed from Professors, Site Managers, and Researchers to

constantly update SoIC Undergraduate Research Resource Site Insures information is up-to-date Provides students with factual information of research already completed or in

progress at Indiana University

Implement a login page, where faculty and professors can log in and automatically post research opportunity information to the website

Possibly improve aesthetic design to be more in keeping with the new Informatics and Computing web site

Conduct video interviews with faculty and professors to showcase on the website

Distribute Professor Surveys and Student Surveys more widely and collect the corresponding data for use in listing available research opportunities

Questions?