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FURI Honors Thesis Program

honors thesis program

Barrett, The Honors College students will receive a stipend while performing research leading to their thesis, relieving some of the financial burden, so that the student can make the most out of their studies. A fantastic opportunity for those who make the effort, the honors program is designed to further the quality of the student's education and enhance the overall experience of engineering. A great resume enhancer.

Getting Started

Students can have their own research idea or work with a faculty member on their research. It is up to the student to connect with a faculty member and then apply for the FURI program. If a student is looking for ideas or faculty members to work with, it is useful to view the finding a mentor page. This page advertises faculty or doctoral students looking for undergraduate engineering students to work with. After reading about the various research activities in the school, the student should knock on doors and see if there is any way to participate. The good news is that this program will pay the student to try the research area. The mentor, in turn, gets to try the student's talents.

Program Requirements

Students selected to participate in this program will be expected to:

1. Conduct their research on campus. FURI does not fund students to conduct research at off-campus locations.
2. Meet with the mentor regularly throughout the semester.
3. Maintain good academic standing.
4. Attend two workshops, one at the beginning of the semester as an introduction to the program and one at the end of the semester to obtain information about the abstract book and the symposium.
5. Submit a one-page summary of completed research and check in with the student initiatives coordinator.
6. Submit a 100-word abstract for the Abstract Book.
7. Participate in the annual Research Symposium by presenting a poster displaying the research achievements.
8. Submit a two-page summary of accomplishments on the respective semester Reading Day. Phase II students submit a copy of their thesis.
9. Attend events where FURI will be represented.
10. Failure to fulfill these expectations may result in the loss of funding.

Course Credit

Honors students working on theses have the opportunity to earn honor's credit, per Barrett, The Honors College guidelines.

Mentoring

  • A mentor is a faculty member or a doctoral student in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.
  • A mentor agrees to guide the student research by assisting in the proposal preparation, defining the timetable in the proposal and developing the supplies budget.
  • A mentor meets regularly during the semester with the student, averaging about one hour per week.
  • A mentor guides the design and production of the poster for the Research Symposium.
  • The mentor will receive a total of $500 at the end of the semester if the student meets all the requirments.

Duration

Honors students are eligible for five semesters of funding. FURI is during fall and spring semesters.

Financial Support

Phase I: Prior to working on the thesis, honors students will be paid an hourly rate of $8.50 for 10 hours weekly equaling a total of $1,360 per semester.

Phase II: Students working on the honors' thesis, the pay rises to $9.50/hour or $1,520 for the semester/session.

Students will be paid bi-weekly. The student must complete all the FURI requirements and perform to the mentor's satisfaction to receive the entire semester employment. (See program requirements listed above.) Students are eligible to apply for $400 in research supplies. Mentors will receive $500, pending the student's completion of all FURI requirements.

Important Dates

Application Deadline: Friday, May 15, 2009 by 12 p.m., ECG 102

Start of research: Monday, Aug. 24, 2009

Research Symposium: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 from 1 - 3 p.m.

Application

Applications are accepted in May for fall semester and in December for spring semester. Students applying in May are eligible to apply for fall and spring semesters or fall semester only. Students applying in December are only eligible to apply for spring semester.

Evaluation Criteria

Completed applications will be judged based on the following criteria:

  • Intellectual challenge being proposed.
  • Budget.
  • Leadership.
  • Feasibility of accomplishing the targeted objective for the semester.
  • Written quality of the proposal.
  • Academic standing.

See the evaluation sheet (PDF) the FURI committee uses to evaluate applications.