URCO grants drive student research across the country
Hands-on learning is a hallmark of Utah State University.
Joyce Kinkead, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies and Research, said every year the university sets aside $10,000 to fund undergraduate research, and all of it gets used.
Last year around 45 to 50 students were helped through Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities (URCO), she said. URCO grants may be as much as $500 but sponsoring academic departments must match 50 percent of the total project.
“When we say ‘research,’ that’s really a broad-based word for lab research, scholarly work or creative activity,” Kinkead said.
She wants students to be aware of the grants so that they can apply for them, she said.
Student research proposals for this year are due Oct. 11.
According to the URCO Web page, www.usu.edu/vpr/funding/urco, students who wish to receive funding must submit a proposal to a faculty review panel and demonstrate “evidence of research or creativity in a project design and the promise that the project will be a significant learning experience for the student.”
Student research is published in a research “poster” that explains what the student did and learned.
“Research posters are how students present their research results to disseminate it to the scientific community,” Kinkead said.
Posters are shown at the State Capitol and at other conventions. One of the requirements in the grant application is to propose a possible venue where the research may be published, such as the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in March 2003 at the University of Utah.
The Office of the Vice President for Research published a pamphlet called “Posters on the Hill,” showing research done by USU students over the last year.
Kinkead said “the Hill” is Congress.
“We are demonstrating for our legislators what a research university does,” she said.
Research has been done in a wide variety of disciplines, such as art, biology, chemistry, geology, psychology and zoology. The Wright Flyer Project, which built a replica of the Wright Brothers’ plane using modern materials, also participated in URCO.
Matt Spencer, the Undergraduate Research fellow working with Kinkead to coordinate activities, said, “‘Posters on the Hill’ is kind of a lobbying effort. They’re trying to get legislators to continue funding undergraduate research.
Spencer will be holding two workshops to answer questions and help students.
The workshops will be held Monday, Sept. 24 and Tuesday, Sept. 25 in the Merrill Library Honors Lounge, Room 372 at 4 p.m.
According to the URCO Web page, “Any properly registered undergraduate student in good academic standing may apply. Faculty may identify promising students, but the student is responsible for the application. The application must designate a faculty adviser.”
Kinkead said the faculty panel will be looking for well-prepared, professional proposals that don’t look like they were thrown together at midnight the night before.
“It’s nice when a student can take a faculty member by surprise, and make them say, ‘I can get behind supporting that,'” she said.
Spencer said, “I personally think they want to know how the grant is going to benefit the student.”
Spencer was awarded URCO funding last year for his bacterial research.
“I’m studying a bacteria that protects plants against disease, the mechanisms that protect the plant,” he said.
The problem-solving skills he learned from doing the research and presenting his work were the greatest benefit to him, he said.
He has shown his work at four different meetings this year, including a national meeting in Wisconsin.
Kyle Tubbs, a junior in chemistry, received grants that allowed him to research enzymes and present his findings at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
“I worked with developing new copper complexes,” he said. “They are relevant in that we are attempting to model an enzyme in the body. That allows us to test the reactivity and look at their structure, and that gives us good insight how enzymes work in the body.”
Tubbs also received money from the vice president for Academics’ committee, he said.
“I was very appreciative of both of those funding sources,” he said. “It really opened up a lot of avenues for me.”
-royburton@cc.usu.edu