The “Muddiest Point” in Undergraduate Research: A Survey on Students and Faculty about Existing Challenges

This work-in-progress (WIP) research paper presents a plan and discusses some preliminary efforts to study the existing challenges of STEM undergraduate research (UR) from both faculty mentors' and students' perspectives. The benefits for undergraduate students to conduct research activities are well recognized by engineering educators. However, challenges to engage more novice researchers and to create values still exist, especially in primarily undergraduate institutes (PUI) where research resources may be limited. Other possible difficulties include misconception of research, time commitment, disengagement with mentors and lack of technical preparation. The goal of this project is to further investigate and identify these issues by a direct interaction with participants at multiple PUIs. Through one-on-one interviews, we will hear the voices from student participants regarding their experience in UR, such as common misunderstandings, motivation, typical learning curves and impact on the careers. For faculty mentors, the focus is their reflections on the recruitment process and mentoring experiences. Using snowball recruitment that starts from the authors' own institution, we will reach out to participants at other PUIs based on our professional contacts, as well as local and national research conferences (e.g., Undergraduate Research Symposium and National Conference on Undergraduate Research). The firsthand information will ultimately help us address these potential challenges by developing a more personalized training program that aims to enhance students' preparedness and performance in research. We also envision the project itself will facilitate more productive conversations between faculty mentors and students.