A limited number of summer research awards will be available to qualified COS students. Application, Research Proposal, and Faculty letter of support are required by Monday, February 9, 2009. The student award amount is $3000. Please be aware that this would be an award to cover a fulltime effort by the student for a period of ten weeks during summer 2009. RIT housing will be available at no cost for some students. The exact start and stop date will be established later. Participation in the RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium is expected. Faculty mentors are expected to write a letter of support.
NOTE FOR FACULTY: In your letter of support you must describe your opinion of the student as well as place the research project in the context of any ongoing research. Is this a new project or part of an ongoing investigation? Will this project spawn additional work that outlives this summer? What are the primary benefits this project will have both for the student and yourself?
RESEARCH PROPOSAL GUIDELINES: Please adhere to the following organizational guidelines when writing your research proposal. Keep in mind that the members of the review committee are not necessarily experts in your field. Research proposals are expected to be joint efforts between the student and their intended mentor.
In particular, any successful proposal must address the following key issues:
- Statement of problem
- Reviewers will not be experts in this discipline. Clearly and logically lay out the problem or question that you will attempt to answer.
- Provide sufficient background to help the general reader understand your project. You must describe your project in language accessible to the general audience.
- Project significance
- You should explicitly and clearly explain why this problem is important. To whom is this work interesting (industry? other researchers?)
- How important would the solution to this problem be?
- What makes this project novel?
- Project Design
- Set specific project goals that you hope to accomplish. It is better to set reasonable goals attainable in 10 weeks than pie-in-the-sky goals unlikely to be met.
- Project methodology. As specifically as possible describe how you will attack your problem.
While the specific layout is up to you, (EXCEPTION: ALL PROPOSALS MUST BEGIN WITH AN ABSTRACT OF 200 WORDS OR LESS), we suggest the following as a rough guideline. It is expected that the total length of the application will be of the order of 1-3 pages.
Abstract (200 words or less). Concisely state the aims of your project. What are the specific questions you seek to answer? What are your specific goals and objectives for the summer?
Background and Significance What is known and not known in this area of inquiry? Provide citations from the relevant literature. Keep in mind that your readers will very likely know little about your subject. Why this problem is important?
Significance Explicitly and clearly explain why this problem is important. To whom is this work interesting? How important would the solution to this problem be? What makes this project novel?
Project Goals and Design As specifically as possible, describe how you will attack your problem using language accessible to the general audience. While it is true that research often goes in unforeseen directions, success in a 10-week summer project requires a very high level of focus. The clearer your goals, the more likely you are to have a successful experience (even if you don't end up where you thought you would).
It is important that you indicate the ways in which you as a student will make an independent or creative contribution. While professorial oversight and support are essential in most cases, the Summer Research Awards are not awarded to students who will be merely faculty research assistants. If your work requires compliance with published university research policies e.g., work with human subjects, animals, hazardous material, etc., please explain what steps you will take to receive the required approval.
