URA Application Update

There are many changes happening to student research as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and campus closure. The URA selection committee has some advice to encourage you to apply for a URA and start to plan your research, even if there are some unknowns for the summer and fall semesters.

1. We have moved the application deadline back to May 15, 2020 in order to give students some extra time to prepare their research proposals.
2. Some research that was scheduled to start this summer may be delayed until the fall or spring semester- that’s ok! The URA is good for the entire year, June 1, 2020 to May 31, 2121. You can complete the research at any point during that time frame.
3. Our expectations for a final product are fluid and relaxed. If the research plan doesn’t work out exactly as you proposed, that’s ok- it’s the nature of doing research.
4. Be creative in the ways you think about your project. You may have to focus instead on doing a thorough literature review, using a pre-formed data set to analyze, or looking at case studies, rather than collecting in-person data, or conducting research in a lab.
5. Methods such as lab benchwork, participant observations, focus groups, travel-related, in-person interviews, or other real-time collection methods may need some re-thinking. How can you collect data via online interviews, the internet, or other technological interventions?
6. Creative arts projects may incorporate some kind of online delivery method. We are hoping to be back on campus for URCAD 2021, but consider how VoiceThread might be used to display your creative work.

Remember:
URAs provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research, scholarship, or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work.

Deadline: May 15, 2020

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