70% of MRADS students do not have prior research experience before participating in our program. MRADS provides the support needed for students to apply to research projects and transition to this academic setting.
What does undergraduate research look like?
Students in MRADS participate in year-long faculty sponsored research experiences through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP).
Research opportunities exist across the University including:
- Social Sciences (Business, Political Science, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.)
- Humanities (History, Art, Music, English, American Culture, Architecture, etc.)
- Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical, Computer, etc.)
- Physical Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Math, etc.)
- Biomedical Sciences (Biology, Public Health, Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Genetics, etc.)
- Natural Sciences (Environmental Science, Natural Resources, Animal Behavior, etc.)
In the last few years, our students have done things like…
- Attend the United Nations to hear their research sponsor give a talk about Indigenous Issues
- Construct a game to study the psychological effects of sabotage
- Pitch the usefulness of community-based courses to an academic department
- Explore the benefits of 3D printing
- Compile information on hate crimes in the contemporary US
- Use 3D printing to produce a laryngeal cleft model
- Create a digital model of an ancient manuscript
- Help create a ceramic water filtration system
- Investigate the roles of flowers and bee visitation behavior in the transmission of bee diseases
- Observe driver behaviors with advanced driver assist systems
- Learning about the creative publishing process
- Review school shootings and their effects on the gun lobby
- Measure the effects of soil quality on crop nutrients
- Synthesizing data on domesticated animals in medieval Europe
- Compile a list of financing ventures that have a goal of positive social impact
- Create a blood flow restriction training to improve muscle function in ACL patients
- Develop a toolkit of social justice resources for educators
- Observe bilingual literacy development in the brain
- Determine the post-operative relapse risk in multiple sclerosis patients
- Use mice to study neurological disorders
- Use stem cells to study glioblastoma cancer
- Study drugs to treat addictions
- Try to understand and prevent drug-induced hearing loss
- Develop a website for cutaneous (skin) bioinformatics research
- Optimize a fluorescence-based test to study human DNA ligases
Support includes…
- Being assigned a sophomore peer advisor who checks in with you monthly (or more!) to provide guidance
- Assistance creating a resume and cover letters to apply to research projects
- ALA 104: Introduction to Research. This is a community membership course where you learn about research, discuss research ethics using articles and case studies, complete workshops on common research tools (including library resources, Excel, and Powerpoint), and practice communicating about your own research project.
- Networking with MRADS upperclassmen alumni who can provide advice and tips on how to navigate your research experience (and how to find research projects for the future)
- Meeting in small seminars with faculty, research scientists/scholars, and graduate students to learn about their career paths and research projects
- And more!
Sound like something that fits your interests? Learn how to apply.
