What have previous participants said about their experiences in DePauw's REU program?

At the end of each summer we ask program participants to fill out a survey about their experience. Here are some comments from recent surveys:

"This experience has been invaluable for me. I think all the professors were supportive of our work, and I liked the overall atmosphere of where we worked.", "...living with the rest of the group was a definite bonus to the program, although we had fun joking around and hanging out with each other, I know I also learned a lot from them..." "All in all this program has been one of the most influential experiences that I have had involving computer science...", "I enjoyed the REU program this summer very much. I enjoyed working with a group of people that share my own interests and living with them as well." "[This was an] excellent program, I found this [to be] one of the best academic experiences that I have ever had. The trip to Michigan [to visit a graduate school] and the talks with graduate students made a significant impact on my decision to attend graduate school."

Do students have to work set hours each day? How many hours do they work each week? What is a typical day like?

This is a tricky question to answer. We expect students in the REU program to be working full time on their research projects. This equates to a forty-hour work week. In practice we find that students really "get into their projects" and often work more than the forty required hours each week. If things go well there should be no need to "count hours" because it should be clear to everyone that sufficient hours are being worked. On a day to day basis there is some flexibility in your work schedule. We do not require that every student works precisely from 9am to 5pm on a daily basis. On the other hand, there will be times when your team will set up meetings, and you will need to be at work at these specific times. Similarly there will be times when the entire REU program has a meeting that you will need to attend. Since you will be working on a team, it will not work well if one team member works from midnight till 8am and another works from 8am till 5pm. Instead, there must be significant time periods when everyone on the team (faculty and students) are in the building at the same time. So the answer to this question is that there is some flexibility with respect to the hours each student works, but as a general rule students will be expected to be around the building for a good part of each workday. One student might decide to come in a little late and to make up some time after dinner. A second student might decide to come in early and leave a little early. As long as everyone on the team is satisfied with the arrangement (including the faculty sponsor) this is ok.

Why do the faculty members want students to help with the research projects? Why don't the faculty members just work on the projects themselves?

There are several answers to this question. The first answer is that it is always good to get multiple viewpoints when working on a difficult problem. In fact one of the things we will discuss during our orientation program deals with how the synergy generated by teamwork can lead to a result which is better than any individual on the team could have produced alone. In other words, when a single person works on a project it is almost certain that some good options will be overlooked! So bringing student researchers on board as collaborators is almost certain to improve the quality of the resulting work, and this is important to the faculty sponsors. It is also true that faculty, by their very nature, enjoying sharing the learning process with others (that is why we like to teach!) So given the choice of working alone on a project, or sharing their enthusiasm for a topic with others, most faculty members will choose the latter approach. Another reason that we are inviting undergraduates to share in our work is because we believe it will help show the undergraduates how exciting a research career can be. Our REU program is funded by the National Science Foundation, and the Foundation's goal is to increase the number of outstanding undergraduates who pursue graduate study in computer science. A large part of the "graduate school experience" revolves around working on a research project. So our hope is that if we can show undergraduates the excitement that goes along with working on a research project, then perhaps more undergraduates will consider going to graduate school.

If I participate in the REU program where will I live?

Everyone who participates in the REU program will live together in one of DePauw's duplexes which are located 2 to 3 blocks from the science center where you will be working.  Since all of the REU students will live together, they will have the chance to interact informally. We have found that this enhances the overall learning experience. The housing will be provided at a highly subsidized rate.

Some more detailed information about the housing follows:  Each duplex consists of two apartments.  Each apartment houses four students and is comprised of four single bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room.  The apartments are centrally air-conditioned and are furnished including beds, desks, chairs, and living room furniture. Blankets, pillows, and sheets are not provided.  The apartments have DePauw computer network connectivity.  There is also connectivity to the campus TV cable system. However, TVs and computers are not supplied.  There are live phone jacks, however phones are not supplied.  Each apartment contains a kitchen with an oven, range, full size refrigerator, microwave, and dishwasher.  However, no cooking supplies (pots and pans), eating utensils (plates and silverware), or cleaning supplies (paper towels, etc.) are supplied.  A vacuum cleaner can be borrowed for use as needed.  You will be given access to laundry facilities in a nearby dorm -- there is a charge to use these facilities.  Pets are not permitted.

How big will each research team be? How many students and faculty will be involved?

To some extent this depends on the interest expressed by the applicants in the various projects which we are sponsoring this summer. We anticipate that each "team" will consist of one faculty member and two students. It is possible that a few of the teams may have a total of three students working with a single faculty member however.