PURE Semester-end Presentation & Report

Hi mentees,

I hope you are all enjoying the semester as well as your projects. As part of the requirements for the PURE Pilot program, each PURE mentee is required to:

1. Submit a report summarizing your program experience

The purpose of the report is to help you look at and find out what have been done and what could have been improved, while serving as an important source of feedback for the whole program to improve. This report may also serve as the basis of your presentation at the symposium. The report will be 2-page max with double spacing. Topics include but are not limited to:

- Project/Learning objective overview
- Your role in the project
- Key learning points
- General experience
- Other…

2. Present your learning experience / accomplishments in the PURE Pilot Symposium

The PURE Pilot Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 24, from 6-8 P.M. Presentations will be given on a team basis, i.e. if 3 mentees are advised by the same mentor, they will all present together. Each team will conduct a 10-minute presentation, plus a 2-minute Q&A at the end. The goal is to show the audience what you have experienced through the 2-month program. Topics include but are not limited to:

- What is the project?
- What is cool about it?
- What have you learned (this question focuses more on the technical aspect of the experience)?
- What is the most memorable part of your experience?
- Other…

The PowerPoint document of the presentation needs to be submitted to uiucpure [at] gmail [dot] com by 11:59 P.M., Tuesday, April 22 (2 days prior to the symposium), and the report is due by 11:59 P.M., Wednesday, April 30.

If you have any questions regarding the presentation or the report, please feel free to email us at uiucpure [at] gmail [dot] com. You have all done a great job and thank you for your efforts!
PURE Committee

ECE 297/ECE 597

(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

PURE Spring 2008 Kick-off

When: 7:00 P.M., Monday, February 18
Where: Room 163, Everitt Lab

Are you in a search for a challenging undergraduate research position?

Here it comes! The new initiative, Promoting Undergraduate Research in ECE (PURE) is now ready for the launch of our 2008 pilot program – “PURE Exploration”. You will get a chance to be guided by a PURE graduate mentor on a one-on-one basis, and become part of the cutting edge research culture here at the department of ECE.

We currently have the following ares available.
- Computer security
- Robotics / Control
- Digital Signal Processing
- Developing robust algorithms for various applications
- Electromagnetics

This sounds cool! How can I get involved?

The PURE Pilot Kick-off is scheduled for:
Monday, February 18, 7:00 P.M., Room 163, Everitt Lab

Come and join us for a comprehensive introduction to the PURE Pilot programs. You will also get the chance to talk to our graduate mentors to find out which projects excite you the most. Lastly, you will be able to sign-up for the Pilot Launch mailing list to receive further application instructions.

Who is eligible for the program?

The PURE program is tailored towards various levels of students, serving as a crucial preparation for more advanced research work, as well as a community for undergraduate researchers to social and build networks.

Since our main goal is to give motivated students an EARLY START on research, ALL juniors, sophomores AND freshmen are encouraged to apply! All we are looking for is your CURIOSITY and ENTHUSIASM for learning more about research.

PURE Graduate Student Info Session

You are invited to the first PURE (Promoting Undergraduate Research in ECE) Graduate Student Info Session.

When: 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, January 29
Where: Room 269, Everitt Lab (the lecture hall along the east hallway)

A brief presentation will be given on what PURE is and how you as an ECE graduate can help with undergraduate research. You are highly encouraged to come if the following sound interesting to you:

- Valuable teaching/mentoring experience
- Access to assistance for your own research
- A chance to make a positive impact on someone’s academic career and beyond

Food will be served! For more information regarding the event or the PURE program, please contact Kuang Xu at kuangxu2@uiuc.edu.

Thanks,

PURE Committee
HKN – Alpha Chapter