Enhancing undergraduate education: a REU model for interdisciplinary research

This paper presents a successful model for undergraduate research where student participants work on interdisciplinary research projects; in our case, at the frontier between computer science and medicine. Students are part of research teams comprised of other undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and medical experts, participate in professional development and training activities within the larger group, and disseminate their results at the host institutions or conferences specific to the interdisciplinary focus. The model outcomes at the end of the first three years (20052007) indicate that the interdisciplinary model successfully 1) expanded the student participation in research by recruiting students who might not otherwise have research opportunities, 2) attracted a diversified pool of talented students into science, 3) promoted interdisciplinary undergraduate studies in computer science and medical informatics as well as in future graduate studies; and 4) trained students i...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Daniela Stan Raicu, Jacob D. Furst
• Keywords: Computer Science, Education, Interdisciplinary Research, Interdisciplinary Research Projects, SIGCSE 2009