(My ECE March 6th)A grass-roots initiative by ECE undergraduates, named PURE (Promoting Undergraduate Research in ECE), is gaining momentum. PURE aims to facilitate early research experience for freshmen and sophomores by pairing undergrads with interested graduate student mentors under the supervision of their graduate advisors in educational research projects. Recent meetings between PURE organizers and graduate students volunteering to participate in the program have generated excitement and enthusiasm for the prospects of the program.
To support the program, the Curriculum Committee has created a new 1-hr individual study course, ECE 297, restricted to freshmen and sophomores, which can be taken to earn technical elective credits for undergraduate research projects conducted under the supervision of grad students and their advisers. The course can be repeated for a maximum of two tech elective credits. Graduate student participation in PURE can be recognized by allowing the graduate student to earn one hour of ECE597 individual study credit per semester.
We encourage ECE faculty to support these new opportunities which have the potential to benefit our undergraduate and graduate programs and to provide mentoring experience to our graduate students. We also encourage faculty to update their Web pages to include information they would like to provide about their undergraduate research offerings.
Erhan Kudeki and Steve Franke
