June 25, 2010 –
Ross shared the rules of research conduct.
If the nine undergraduates who attended this week’s SURF-IT orientation came away with one thing, it’s the knowledge that large doses of commitment and communication are the necessary ingredients for success in the 10-week summer research program.
That theme was echoed by SURF-IT co-directors Stuart Ross and Said Shokair, and several faculty and graduate-student mentors.
The students, whose majors run the gamut from informatics and computer science to engineering and psychology, were given a lengthy list of expectations as they begin their hands-on research projects. Ross, CALIT2 assistant director of research administration, emphasized the 40-hour-a-week commitment as well as the program’s other requirements, including attendance at weekly seminars, and oral and written presentations of research results.
He also discussed appropriate research conduct: the need to obtain mentor permission before publishing, remembering to credit sources and the necessity of understanding review board safety mechanisms. “Your goal for the summer is to start to feel comfortable discussing these issues,” he said.
Shokair stressed commitment and communication.
Student Johnway Yih talks about his research.
Shokair, director of UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, advised the students to “go over and beyond” what they think is expected of them. “This is a serious commitment,” he said. “Doing research is about taking the initiative. It’s not a robotic process.”
He urged them to maintain written accounts of their work, the responsibility for communicating with their mentors and an awareness of the host of issues inherent in the research they are undertaking. “Much of the research you’re working on is considered ‘frontier.’ It hasn’t been published or it may be patent-pending.”
Students’ majors include informatics, engineering and psychology.
“If I were you,” he counseled, “I would say, ‘Mentor, I’m here; tell me what’s expected. I will work very hard. I know I might fail but I’m going to give you my best effort.’”
Informatics professor Bill Tomlinson advised the students to maintain open channels of communication with their mentors and discuss with them regularly how the project is going. He related a past SURF-IT experience during which, a few weeks into the program, he and his student realized that the project wasn’t utilizing her skill set effectively. “We renegotiated and she spent the last six weeks of the program writing a paper that she was first author on, and it was published in a major international research journal,” he said. “By having that channel [open] we were able to come up with a different approach that worked out really well.”
In his closing remarks, Shokair asked the students if they knew the proper angle for launching a rocket. “If you launch it at 0 degrees, it will blow your foot off. If you launch it at 90 degrees, it will come down on your head,” he said to peals of laughter. “The optimum angle is 45 degrees.”
He correlated that to his students’ futures. “Your job is to set up the optimum launching angle for your career. If you haven’t done that already, start now.”
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
