Student Research: Learning By Doing

Student research at Texas A&M University can take many forms – from caring for sick cats, learning new business models, designing internal medical devices or caring for stranded dolphins. It shows that students are capable of some impressive research projects and they follow the researcher’s golden rule: “learning by doing.”

As one of the country’s largest research universities, with research expenditures of approximately $820 million each year, Texas A&M offers undergraduate students a pathway for their research endeavors. And because Texas A&M offers 120 undergraduate degrees and 240 graduate degrees, there are plenty of opportunities for students interested in research.

It allows Texas A&M to offer educational experiences that only a Tier One university can provide.

As H. Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science points out, “A century and a half after being founded as the land-grant institution of Texas, Texas A&M considers it an honor to provide access to affordable education and unbridled opportunity for anyone. Our ingenuity feeds a global appetite for innovation, resulting in research projects that create new knowledge and drive economics worldwide. Each year, out students walk off our stage and into positions of leadership in industry, academia, the health care business and government, examples of our university’s mission of teaching, research and service.”

“Undergraduates play a vital role in that mission, not just in the classroom but also in laboratories that once were the sole domain of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Our undergraduates are exposed to challenging research opportunities designed to enhance their academic experiences and prepare them for better careers or advanced studies. While exploring research first-hand, they also experience the exhilaration of discovery, often side-by-side with renowned faculty who are as dedicated to their students as they are their own research.”

Undergraduate research at Texas A&M has been a goal of administrators for more than two decades. Formed in 1994 as a one-day poster event, Student Research Week celebrates work by students each spring. Hundreds of students present their research in the form of oral or poster presentations, allowing student research to be showcased. It also gives a big boost to a student’s confidence and career as a future researcher.

Student Research Week is held in conjunction with the Office of Graduate Studies, Vice President for Research, Department of Student Life and Undergraduate Programs and Academic Services and is planned and organized by students, making it a truly student-oriented event.

The next Student Research Week will be held March 21-27 in 2015.

Held in October, the Undergraduate Research Expo is a way of getting students interested and involved in research. Dozens of students create poster displays explaining their research projects, which represent every college on campus.

The event is sponsored by the Honors and Undergraduate Research Office and Sigma Xi, a science research society.

Some examples: “Genetics of the Environment” from the Health Science Center; “Using Math as a Veterinarian” from the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Science; “A Bat’s Social Network” from the Department of Biology; “A Method of Placement for Nuclear Spent Fuel Rods” from the Department of Mathematics; “Red Tide” from the College of Geosciences; and “Multi-Scale Computational Materials and Modeling Design” from the College of Engineering.

Duncan MacKenzie, associate professor of biology who also serves as associate director for Undergraduate Research Honors, says the Research Expo is “very much a first step.”

“We get many students who are interested in doing research, but they don’t know where to start,” he explains. “This is sort of the first step they take. From here, they can pursue their projects and enter them into competition during Student Research Week in the spring.”

“One of the biggest things we do is to help line them up with a faculty member who helps guide them with their research efforts.”

In addition, there is a publication devoted directly to undergraduate research titled Explorations. It’s a student-run journal guided by faculty and administrators that selects and publishes student-authored articles of general interest in any area. Articles are submitted in a two-stage process: first, proposals for articles are reviewed by faculty-student teams; secondly, the resulting full-length articles undergo a second round of peer review. Acceptance to the journal is competitive—less than 20 percent of submitted proposals are accepted.

Recently published articles have been from a wide range of academic fields: music, creative poetry, forensics, cancer biology, astrophysics, nanomedicine, computer algorithms, business, geosciences, sociology, aerospace engineering and cultural anthropology.