A model for summer undergraduate research experiences in emerging technologies

Abstract

Integrating emerging technologies into the curriculum is expected in our evolving discipline, although finding the time to master these can prove difficult. Institutional expectations for scholarly achievement need not take precedence; the use of an overarching theme for a summer research experience is presented as one approach to join a group of people with a unifying topic for study and discussion leading to the natural incorporation of the emergent technology into the curriculum.This paper presents a successful model for undergraduate summer research where participants, both faculty and students, investigated information security (IS) topics and learned from IS professionals. This was applied to individual research projects in disconnected areas in computing. The unifying experiences encouraged a collegial and supportive environment, firmly establishing peer and faculty / student collaboration. Student perceptions about the field and career options were positively effected, leading to increased interest in the emergent area as well as in future graduate studies.