Category Archives: Services

09/10/12

Welcome Back Students!

This is always an exciting time of year for the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs staff, as we get to meet new students and welcome back those of you who are returning. And now that the semester is settling in, I would like to share information about several terrific student research opportunities available.

Why do research?

Many of our student researchers have directly attributed their academic achievement and career development to their participation in research. Particularly, some benefits of participating in research include:

  • The opportunity to stand out from students without research experience, especially when applying for jobs, graduate schools, professional schools, etc.
  • The chance to engage in “hands on” projects that often go beyond what is learned in the classroom
  • Building close relationships with faculty (especially helpful when students need letters of recommendation, references, etc.)
  • The opportunity to earn wages, class credit, or service hours.

How can you participate in research?

Work as a research assistant: Undergraduates, if you are interested in working on a faculty project, you are invited to join the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). UROP offers opportunities for students to earn wages, use their work study, or earn service hours working directly with faculty researchers. For more information, visit www.umflint.edu/research/UROP under “Student Corner.”

Graduate students can conduct research through the Graduate Student Research Assistantship program, managed by the Office of Graduate Programs. Information for this program is available at: http://www.umflint.edu/graduateprograms/tuition-financial-aid/research-assistantships.page

Present your research: Mark your calendars for several conferences where students can showcase their work:

  •  The 21st annual Meeting of Minds Undergraduate Research Conference (MOM): A conference which provides students from UM-Flint, UM-Dearborn, and Oakland University an opportunity to share their research with through poster, oral, or performance-based presentations. This event is open to students from all majors. If you are interested in presenting your research, getting published in the annual journal, boosting your resume for jobs/grad school, and are interested in learning about other students’ research, Meeting of Minds is for you! The next MOM will take place on Friday, May 10, 2013, right here on campus! Registration will open in early January. For more information, visit www.umflint.edu/research/MOM.
  • The 3rd annual University of Michigan-Flint Student Research Conference (SRC): This campus-wide research conference showcases the efforts of UM-Flint students. Both undergraduate and graduate students of all majors will have the opportunity to present their work at this conference, as well as to get published in the conference proceedings. This year’s SRC will also take place on campus on Friday, April 5, 2013. Registration for this event will also open in early January. For more information, visit www.umflint.edu/research/SRC.

While these events aren’t taking place until next semester, we encourage you to start thinking about presenting now!

Develop your skills: Office of Research and Sponsored Programs will be hosting a variety of skill-building workshops throughout the year. To see our full lineup, please visit: http://www.umflint.edu/research/workshop_schedule.htm.

Stay connected: There will be many more developments in the upcoming months. Stay connected with the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs by joining us on Facebook (under UM-Flint Office of Research and Sponsored Programs), following us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/UMFlintResearch) or visiting our blog at: /research/.

As always, you can learn more about our programs and opportunities by visiting our website, www.umflint.edu/research, under “Student Resources.”

We hope you take advantage of the support services in place for you. We’re here to serve you. Have a great year!

02/11/12

New Statistical Consultant

The Office of Research is pleased to announce that Mr. Dave Childers will be on the U of M Flint campus to provide statistics support to faculty, staff, and students working on research projects.  Dave is a part of the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research (CSCAR) team in Ann Arbor, and will be available for appointments on our campus the SECOND WEDNESDAY of each month.  To schedule an appointment to see Dave, please contact our office at 810.762.3383 or at [email protected]

12/8/10

Grant Writing Workshop at UM-Flint

The Office of Research is once again bringing Christine Black to our campus for a half-day Grant Writing Workshop, Friday, January 28, 2011 from 12:30 – 4 pm.  This will be held in 4103 WSW.  An experienced grant writer, Christine serves as the Assistant Director of Research Services for the University of Michigan Medical School.  She has developed a wonderful workshop, and authored the Grant Writing Tutorial on the Office of Research Blackboard site.

To register for this or any other workshops we offer, please visit our Workshop Schedule website:

07/22/10

PASW 18 (formerly known as SPSS) upgrade

Attention PASW/SPSS Users (faculty and staff):

PASW 18  is now available. All ITS computer labs will be upgraded to PASW 18 by July 31st, 2010.  SPSS 17 will be discontinued on July 31, 2010.  You may install PASW 18 at any time.  To install PASW 18 on your campus computer please follow the steps below:

Double Click My Computer
Double Click L: drive
Double Click the Secure Software folder.
Double Click PASW18 folder.
Double Click Install PASW18.cmd.
When the black box closes on its own PASW 18 is installed.

Please note you do not have to uninstall SPSS 17 to begin using PASW 18.  The SPSS 17 license will expire on July 31st, 2010 and the program will no longer work.

For questions or concerns please contact the ITS Helpdesk by phone at 810-766-6804 or by e-mail at [email protected].

03/1/10

NSF Issues Urgent Request for Chemistry Peer Reviewers

The National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry has issued an urgent request for peer reviewers. Division director Luis Echegoyen ([email protected]) writes, “Unfortunately, there is now a very low response rate to Division of Chemistry proposal review requests. If we are to maintain the effectiveness of the peer review process, the Division of Chemistry needs your active participation in the process.”

Participation in the competitive peer review process not only contributes to the funding of high-quality research and sponsored programs, but also gives important insight into the characteristics of excellent proposals. GRC members are encouraged to consider serving as reviewers and panelists themselves, and to forward Echegoyen’s request to faculty in chemistry and related departments.

01/22/10

Online Writing Tutoring

From the desk of Jacob Blumner, Director of the Marian E. Wright Writing Center:

This message is for faculty teaching fully-online courses.

Colleagues,

The Marian E. Wright Writing Center is now offering online tutoring for students in fully online courses. We are trying to meet the needs of our students and we are proud to roll out this new service. Students will need to submit papers in Microsoft Word format and will receive feedback using the Comment and Track Changes features of Word. Students are also encouraged to attach an assignment sheet if you have one.

The form students fill out is available on our website, www.umflint.edu/writingcenter. Here is the direct link to the online tutoring form for paper submission: https://www.umflint.edu/formassembly/forms/view/562.

We try to respond to papers within 3 business days, and often it is quicker. Students can also request you be notified via email.

If you have any questions, please email me or call me at 762-0655.

10/22/09

Introduction to SPSS workshop

spss1The Office of Research is hosting a multi-session workshop designed to introduce users to SPSS, a powerful software tool used for statistical analysis.  The session will be facilitated by Joe Kazemi from the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research (CSCAR). This series is being offered on two different occassions, with four session in the first series and five sessions in the next.  Participation in all sessions is required for each series.

The most upcoming session starts next week, October 29. Sign up today!

To register for the workshop series or for more information about the other workshops available, please visit our Workshop Schedule.

10/19/09

Faculty Presenters Needed!

Earlier this year,  a brief study was conducted examining faculty perceptions of undergraduate research at UM-Flint. A central theme pointed out by many of you was the general lack of research skills students possessed. Even if students had an interest in doing research, they did not always have the requisite skills; thus calling for you to devote even more time preparing and training students. In response to your comments and suggestions, the Office of Research plans to launch a series of workshops next semester; designed to improve general research skills of our students. Tentatively, here are the following topic areas:

  • Getting started (identifying research interests, forming research questions, finding a faculty mentor)
  • Conducting literature reviews
  • Library Research
  • Research Design
  • Statistical Analysis and Interpretation
  • Writing Research Papers
  • Creating a Research Presentation
  • Submitting a Paper for Publication
  • Research Opportunities on Campus
  • Panel Discussion: “From the Students’ Mouths: Perspectives from Research Students” (I plan to recruit some of my UROP students for this panel, but I’d love your suggestions for student researchers)

We plan to host these 1-hour sessions in the winter semester, leading up to Meeting of Minds (which, by the way, will be hosted by UM-Flint this year. More on that in the upcoming months). But before we can start publicizing, we need faculty willing to facilitate any of the workshops above. Also, if you have any other research topic areas you would like to cover (ideally, of a general nature), your suggestions are welcomed!

If you’re interested in presenting on any of these areas, please contact Andre Louis. We would like to have a roster in place by December 1st.

Thanks for all you do in support of undergraduate research on our campus!

10/14/08

Remote Consulting for NVivo

Through the Office of Research’s partnership with the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research in Ann Arbor, UM-Flint faculty and students engaged in qualitative research can receive free remote consultation in NVivo. Representatives from CSCAR use a remote software called Centra which allows them to view clients’ computer screens and provide input on software problems and questions.  For more information, please contact the Office of Research at 762-3383.