Research scheme that has helped create successful American entrepreneurs comes to University of CambridgeA highly successful scheme that has given thousands of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the chance to carry out and publish research while still undergraduates could soon be set up at the University of Cambridge. In one of several initiatives fostered by The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), the two institutions are looking to set up a joint MIT-Cambridge undergraduate research programme. In a shared exchange scheme, undergraduates from each institution would visit the other to participate in new research projects. This would further extend the transatlantic partnership at the core of CMI's remit. In the States, MIT is well known for the success of its Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP), which has helped many of its students subsequently to develop their own research and business careers. MIT's scheme particularly encourages student initiative by allowing undergraduates not just to assist, but also to carry out aspects of work on their own. In return, they can receive either pay, or a credit towards one of their courses. Professor Kim Vandiver, MIT's Dean of Undergraduate Research, says: "The scheme has many benefits. One is that students who need to earn money can do so by carrying out research which complements their studies - rather than doing casual work, which does not." One of UROP's recent success stories is Niel Robertson, a 1996 MIT graduate who used the skills he acquired as an undergraduate researcher in MIT's Lab for Computer Science to set up an internet company when he left. Seventeen months later he sold it for $280 million. In gratitude last year he endowed a new UROP fund $431,000 to help other would-be entrepreneurs learn vital business skills. David Good, programme director of Undergraduate Education says: "The good thing about UROP is that it puts the student in charge of activity, and requires them to take responsibility for their ideas and what they are doing. Elements of some courses allow this to happen, but UROP makes it more widely available to students throughout their undergraduate careers." Now, through CMI, the University of Cambridge is consulting Professor Kim Vandiver, MIT's Dean of Undergraduate Research, about setting up a shared UROP exchange scheme. This would complement the existing student exchange programme which has brought 27 third-year MIT students to Cambridge for this academic year, and taken 33 Cambridge undergraduates to MIT. Professor Vandiver visited Cambridge in October 2001, to talk to lecturers and heads of department about how a UROP-style scheme could be implemented at Cambridge. Currently, although there are many final-year courses at Cambridge which require students to take part in a research project, there are few opportunities for them to initiate research. At MIT, students who want a UROP place have to apply as they would for a job, by knocking on doors, finding which projects are taking place, and submitting CVs. In a pilot scheme last summer, four Cambridge undergraduates travelled to MIT to take part in UROP projects. Three of them are likely to see their names on published research papers as a result. Cambridge Materials Science undergraduate Huw Smithson participated in a research project studying new methods of storing hydrogen cheaply, safely and compactly. The research paper that he is writing is likely to be published in the journal Physical Review B next year. Medical student Christoph Zrenner spent his summer writing a new computer software programme in order to help research the technique the brain uses to recognise the human face. His report will be published internally by MIT. He says: "I was there to write software but also - dauntingly and exhilaratingly - to contribute ideas. I felt fully part of the research lab at the Center for Biological and Computational Learning because I was invited to contribute scientifically to possible theoretical explanations as well as solving software problems." Natural Sciences undergraduate Pam Taak worked on a project comparing two different types of hip implants - and the condition they were in after several years inside the human body. Her work will also be published in a research paper. She says: "We compared the condition of the implants after they had been inside the body for different time periods, examining their coatings, and the materials they were made from. I was also involved in the analysis of the statistics, using the database and producing figures to demonstrate different aspects of the research." Ms Taak says that one of the greatest benefits of the scheme is the boost it gives to students' confidence. "I was a bit worried beforehand about doing the research, but in fact I enjoyed it," she says. "Quite often as a student you are spoon-fed information, but in the lab I was often working independently, and deciding what I needed to do that day." For more information on this subject, please contact:
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