How to find research students from your own department
- Ideally, undergraduate research opportunities are coordinated and disseminated to students by the department. This makes it easier for students to find research opportunities and is more likely to attract students who might not know how to seek out opportunities on their own. A research opportunity info session and/or a website listing all of the opportunities is generally more effective than each faculty member operating independently.
- Courses can also be an effective way of finding undergraduate research students. Identify and contact students who are doing well in classes and/or exhibit enthusiasm and motivation.
- It can be helpful to ask colleagues, undergraduate advising staff, and TAs about prospective students.
How to find summer research students from other schools
We provide a free listing service where research mentors can list positions, and students can find them. This service is primarily for summer research experiences.
Consider applying to be a CRA-W/CDC DREU mentor. The Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) program was known as the Distributed Mentor Project (DMP) prior to 2009. The objective of the DREU is to increase the number of women and underrepresented groups entering graduate studies in the fields of computer science and engineering.
Writing a description of your research
When describing your research for prospective undergraduate researchers, pitch the research both with respect to its significance to you and the potential significance and value to the student. Be specific in what you are seeking. Describe expectations, hours, wages or academic credit, and potential outcomes.
Some useful interview questions for prospective research students
- What appeals to you about doing research and what do you hope to gain?
- What are your aspirations after college?
- What CS courses have you particularly enjoyed and what aspects of those courses did you especially like?
- Have you been involved in any group projects in any of your courses? If so, describe the projects, your role, and a bit about how the group interacted.
- What are your extra-curricular interests?
- What are your competing commitments and how much time can you realistically allocate to research?
- How long would you like to participate in this project (e.g., one summer, one semester, multiple years)?
